Chapter 2

The Sheikah had built a secret entrance to the Great Plateau, Link soon learned: a cleverly constructed lift inside a dark vertical shaft that had been carved into the cliff side, with its entrance carefully hidden. Once the six of them were standing on the platform, Cado and Dorian hauled on the ropes and the pulleys rattled to life, slowly lifting them higher and higher.

He should have realized something like that existed. How else would the Royal Family have traveled to the plateau over the centuries? How else would the Sheikah have transported Link himself here after his death?

His mind went oddly blank at the thought. He didn't like to think of that time. Only a few weeks ago, he had recovered the memory of his own death, and it had been the most uncomfortable one yet. At his age, he hadn't even thought about the possibility of his own death. He'd been confident he would face Ganon and win, just as all the other chosen heroes of the Goddess throughout Hyrule's history had done.

He had been badly mistaken. He had died before even facing Ganon, trying to defend Zelda from a pod of corrupted Guardian Stalkers. He still felt a lingering shame over his failure. If Zelda hadn't finally mastered her control over the powers of the Goddess at that moment, she would have fallen too, and then where would they be?

Oddly, that memory hadn't stopped at the moment of Link's death. He remembered watching Zelda grieve over his body. Then she had appeared to commune somehow with the Master Sword itself, and ordered a pair of Sheikah warriors to take Link to the Shrine of Resurrection. Link still wasn't sure how he had remembered that. He had been beyond seeing or hearing at that point.

He supposed his spirit must have been present still. The thought made him shudder, and he forcefully pushed it away.

Finally, the lift reached the top of the shaft and Dorian and Cado helped Impa step off the platform and onto the grass. Following behind them, flanked by Zelda and Paya, Link looked around the plateau where he had lived for the first few weeks after his revival, learning to adjust to his new life. It looked deserted as always, with rolling grassy hills dotted with trees, and the towering edifice of the crumbling Temple of Time in the distance.

He kept up his guard, though, as they walked slowly to accommodate Impa; there were probably still monsters camping up here. At least he had two other warriors with him this time, to help him protect the others.

When they neared the underground entrance to the Shrine of Resurrection, they heard flute music, played inartfully but with great enthusiasm. They came around an apple tree to find the Sheikah researcher Robbie sitting on the ground, his white hair sticking out past his shoulders stiff as a brush, glaring from behind his goggles at a small girl who was capering around on the grass tooting on the flute with little regard for melody or rhythm.

The girl stopped playing the moment she saw the newcomers and squealed: "Zeldy! Linky! I've been waiting forever! Well, I've only been waiting here an hour for you, Linky, but princess! It's been a hundred years!"

Zelda was staring at the girl with a complete lack of recognition.

"Purah," Link explained to her in a hasty undertone. How had they forgotten to warn her? "Anti-aging rune."

"Oh," Zelda said. "Oh, dear."

"Check it!" Purah squealed, shoving the flute back in her pack and striking an adorable pose. "Don't worry about my size, Zeldy! I can still run the shrine! And I don't need my assistant to help." She wrinkled her nose - not at Symin, her lab assistant who was currently leaning against a rock wall some distance away, his nose buried in a book - but at Robbie, the elderly researcher who was still looking at Purah with visible contempt.

"I haven't been your assistant for a hundred years!" he growled, pushing up onto his feet before turning toward Zelda and striking a dramatic pose of his own. "At your service, Princess Zelda!" he declared. "Your wish is my command... and I don't need a babysitter to help me get the job done!" He stared significantly in Symin's direction, but the insult was clearly lost on him as he still hadn't looked up from his book.

Purah pouted at the implication, but she turned toward Impa. "Hiya sis!" she said brightly. "You're looking... even shorter than me! And my dearest great-niece!" Her eyes went up and up until she finally managed to make eye contact with Paya. "Do you still have that cute little birthmark? I wish I had one that cute!"

Paya let out a short wail and buried her blushing face in her hands.

Robbie growled in annoyance and then turned toward Impa. "Your ladyship, I have constructed steps to help you descend into the shrine," he said gruffly. "Follow me!"

He led the way down into the dark entrance of the Shrine of Resurrection, and Dorian and Cado followed him, each holding one of Impa's elbows to steady her. She seemed impatient with their solicitousness, occasionally shaking off one of their helping hands. Maybe she wasn't as frail as Link had assumed. The journey seemed to have invigorated her, rather than tiring her.

Zelda and Paya went down the steps next. Purah just stood there with her hands on her hips and her lower lip sticking out.

"You know, I am getting really sick of being treated like a child!" she burst out. "I am 124 years old, and a genius, and I feel like I deserve a little more respect!"

"What if you reversed the rune?" Link asked.

Her frown deepened. "I don't want to be old, like them! I like moving faster than a dumb old Chuchu!"

"It's like I keep saying, director. You should reverse it a little ways and then stop," Symin said distractedly without looking up from his book. "Being in your twenties or thirties again would be nice."

"Oooh! Who asked you?" Purah stomped her foot and then stalked down into the shrine entrance, but not before Link saw the flash of panic on her face. She was worried she didn't know how to do it right, he realized.

Symin was showing no signs of wanting to enter the shrine or even speak to Link; he was absorbed in his book. Link stared down at the dark entrance for a long moment before accepting the fact that there was nothing for it; he needed to join the others inside. Whatever the Goddess wanted them to do here, she would let them know somehow.

Link descended into the cool stone passageway. He passed a few rotting crates and barrels, and then a pair of treasure chests where he had found some too-small clothing to wear after waking up in the chamber wearing nothing but his underthings. Where had that clothing come from? he wondered now. He had been too confused upon awakening to wonder much about that.

He walked through the doorway and found the others milling around, explaining the equipment to Cado and Dorian, who were the only ones who had not been here before. With eight of them in here, it felt crowded, the silent sacred solitude Link remembered from the moment of his awakening shattered into banality. Purah was fiddling with the pedestal that had once contained the Sheikah slate, flipping it open and closed and giggling with delight at the rapid motion of the machinery.

Link walked slowly toward the chamber where he had slept for a century: a wide basin that had been filled with water, although it was dry now. It was a strange place to lie in death. Not a true grave at all. No place to inscribe his name. No place for his family to place offerings or remembrances.

Had his family ever come here? Not his father, of course. He had fallen at the same time. But his mother Lanna... maybe. If she had survived Vah Naboris's attack on Lon Lon Ranch like Zelda had said, maybe the Sheikah had informed her of his death and brought her here. Impa would know. Link ached to ask her, but with so many people around it didn't seem like the right moment.

He reached out and touched the edge of the basin where he had lain. The fabricated material was rough against his hand. There was a hint of a smell here, something medicinal. Maybe it hadn't been just water he had floated in. Maybe there was something added to it to help him heal from his injuries.

The smell reminded him of something, and suddenly Link's heart started beating faster. The sensation was growing familiar; there was something about this place that was pushing on his memory. Why? He clearly remembered everything from the moment of his awakening. There was nothing here to recover.

In his mind he could still feel the water lapping against his skin, and he could still smell that medicinal smell, and he could still see the lights of ancient machinery blinking overhead, and then it came over him in a massive rush, far more powerful than any of his previous memories.

Link narrowed his eyes, fighting to bring into focus the images that were beginning to flash before him, and then widening them as clarity came at last.

"What's the matter with him?" he heard Paya's concerned voice ask as if from a great distance away, and Link heard Zelda answer faintly: "He's remembered something."

He gave in to the memory, and was instantly lost in it.

A middle-aged woman entered the Shrine of Resurrection. She was short and slender, with curly blond hair and dark shadows under her blue eyes: Lanna, Link's mother. She walked slowly, supported by a white-haired Sheikah warrior Link recognized in a flash: Zenno, the man Zelda had ordered to take Link's body to the shrine.

Others followed them into the shrine. Impa and Purah, both of them around 20 years old and looking every inch the sisters they were. Another Sheikah warrior named Goji. He had been on Blatchery Plains, too. And finally Robbie, barely a teenager, looking tall and gangly and awkward. He followed Purah deferentially and together they hunched over the pedestal with the Sheikah slate, fiddling with the controls.

Zenno was gentle, leading Link's mother forward. He brought her deeper inside the room until her gaze fell on a still form lying on the floor, covered with a blanket. Her face crumpled and her knees began to give out from underneath her. Zenno held her tightly and managed to get her a few more steps before she fell to her knees.

"Oh, Link!" she cried out, tears running freely down her face. "Oh, please... please... dear Goddess, let it be a dream!"

Purah and Robbie looked back at her, both of them startled by the outburst and unsure how to react. But Impa was already hurrying forward, falling down on her knees by Lanna's side and putting her arms around her comfortingly. Despite her youth, Impa seemed to understand there wasn't much point in saying empty words at a time like this. She merely held Mother and let her sob, tears glittering in her own eyes.

Finally, Mother calmed herself enough to ask Zenno in a broken voice if she could see her son. He nodded soberly and carefully pulled the blanket down. She took one look at Link's still face, and lost what little control she had left.

"My only one!" she managed to gasp in between sobs as Impa held her tightly. "Why? In the name of the Goddess, why?" She made a strangled sound in her throat. "He was my only one!"

After that, she didn't try to talk anymore. Purah and Robbie grimly worked the controls as fast as they could without looking back at her, and finally the machinery powered up and the basin began to fill with water.

It took only a few minutes, and then the water turned off and they nodded to Impa soberly.

"All is ready," Impa told Mother.

She wiped her face with her sleeves and composed herself with an effort.

"I want to prepare him myself," she told the Sheikah, her voice sounding raw.

There was an odd break in the memory, and then suddenly the Sheikah were gently lowering Link's body into the water while Mother watched from the foot of the basin, holding his neatly folded clothing. She came to bend over him, and in a low voice she told him a bedtime story, one he had loved as a boy and demanded to hear over and over again. Finally, she pressed a kiss to his wet cheek.

"Good night, son," she whispered. "Sleep well. Morning will come, and the sun will shine down on you once more."

Her voice broke on the last few words. She squeezed his hand and stepped back.

Purah activated the mechanism, and then Link saw something he was certain no one else in the room saw: his own spirit, haloed by blue light and surrounded as if by the flames of candles. His spirit drifted silently overhead and came to settle down inside his body, drawn there by the now-humming machinery. He understood instinctively that his body and spirit would remain there in the silence of the shrine, knitting back together over the long slow century as his body healed from its injuries.

One by one the Sheikah left the room, and Mother left last of all. Link's spirit settled down more comfortably in its place, and he drifted off peacefully into the Slumber of Restoration.

Link expected the memory to stop there, bringing his awareness back to the here and now.

But it didn't.

He awoke.

Not all the way. It wasn't time. It felt as though Mother and the Sheikah had only just left. But suddenly, Purah was back. Alone. Wearing different clothes. She bustled into the shrine, checked on the equipment in a business-like way, paused to look uneasily at Link where he lay motionless in the water with his eyes closed, and hurried back out again. The moment she was gone, Link drifted back into a deeper sleep.

Again, it felt as though no time had passed, and now it was Robbie coming into the shrine, rousing Link partially from his slumber. Robbie, too, checked on the equipment and promptly left. He looked as uneasy as Purah had each time he glanced in the direction of Link's still body. Neither one of them tried to talk to him. They seemed unaware that his spirit grew wakeful each time they entered. Or maybe they did sense it, and that was what made them uneasy. But neither one of them had known him well in life. They had little to say to him.

He faded out again, only to wake when there were footsteps in the shrine once more.

It wasn't Purah or Robbie this time. It was Mother and Kester.

Mother looked well, or at least better than she had been when she had said goodbye to him. Her wild grief had been replaced with a quieter sadness. Her curly hair was now neatly tied back by a ribbon, the way she usually wore it to keep it out of her face while she cooked.

And Kester! Link's best friend, a fellow squire his own age who had served one of the other Royal Guards who worked alongside Father. Link was beyond glad to see him again. He remembered in a flash that he had not seen Kester since the night the Guardians had turned on them. He hadn't known whether his friend had survived the attack at all. Now here he was, and best of all, he had found Mother!

With so many monsters and Guardians overrunning Hyrule Field, Link hadn't been certain Mother would be able to return to the Great Plateau. But with Kester to accompany her, she had gotten here safely.

Their visit was nothing like Purah and Robbie's hasty checkups. The two of them came straight over to Link's side and gazed down on his sleeping form. Kester put a comforting arm around Mother's shoulders, his knight's armor clinking with the motion.

And they spoke to him, even though his body lay motionless and they could not know how intently his spirit was listening. They told him all the news: how Hyrule was suffering from the destruction the Divine Beasts and the Guardians had wreaked, and the continual presence of Calamity Ganon over Hyrule Castle, and the unexplained absence of Princess Zelda. Bands of monsters freely roamed Hyrule Field and beyond. Mother told him how she had moved in with Link's grandparents at their farmhouse in Hateno Village, after the destruction of her home at Lon Lon Ranch. Kester was stationed at nearby Fort Hateno, with half of what remained of Hyrule's army.

They spoke warmly of Link himself, of how much they missed him, and tearfully shared a few memories they had of him. Finally, they left, and his spirit dozed off once more.

Mother and Kester returned. And again. And again. Each time it felt as though no time had passed, but it quickly became clear they were coming to see him once a year. Each time, they shared news of the kingdom, gave updates on their own lives, and shared their memories of him. In almost no time at all, Link had collected an incredible amount of information about his own life that he had lost. Mother told him a great deal about his childhood, each story jogging his memories about the ranch hands and stable boys at Lon Lon Ranch he had grown up with and the pleasant way of life they had all enjoyed in the countryside, training horses and raising cuccos and cattle.

And Mother was giving him so much about Father. About Link's earliest training sessions with him, swinging a wooden sword with more gusto than precision, using a battered pot lid for a shield. She reminded him of the first few journeys he had taken with Father, taking in the grandeur of greater Hyrule for the first time in his life. And then Link had left the ranch for good, and become a squire for Father, and Mother had been so proud of him for how quickly he learned and how earnestly he had tried to be of service to the kingdom and the Goddess herself.

Kester's memories were invaluable for the last year of Link's service as squire, when Link's father had finally achieved his goal of being a Royal Guard and Link and Kester had met for the first time. Once Kester even recounted for Link the day he had first drawn the Master Sword and been knighted on the spot, a memory he had not yet been able to recover for himself.

Year after year went by in a blur. Locked in this massive, sprawling memory, Link could only watch helplessly as Mother and Kester grew older and older with each successive visit. One year Kester told Link about his new wife, and after that he could hardly talk about anything but her and the two beautiful children they were soon raising. Link's grandparents died, and Mother left their farmhouse in Hateno and moved to Shadow Hamlet. She wore her hair up, now threaded with gray. She was lonely without her husband and without Link, but she never married again, and now she was too old for any more children. Link saw her sorrow over it and could do nothing to help. It was all happening so quickly. He was missing it... he was missing it! All he could do was lie there passively, watching their lives flit away without him.

Mother was growing bent with age. She lost her home to monsters for a second time. Kester took her in with his family, who were now running East Akkala Stable; the last of Hyrule's knights had all died or retired, and there were simply too few of them to make a difference anymore. Kester's children were having children. His grandchildren couldn't remember a time when Calamity Ganon hadn't been there. They couldn't remember a time when travel had been safe. They couldn't remember ever having the protection of the Royal Family and the knights they provided.

The next time they came, Kester had to carry Mother into the Shrine of Resurrection. She was old and ill and weak. Breathlessly she told Link she had brought some of his old clothes so he would have something to wear when he awoke. She told him with tears in her eyes how much she longed to see his father again.

"You will... be lost... when you wake," Mother said, concentrating intensely to get the words out. "I can't... care for you. The Goddess... she will. Everything... you need. You will... defeat the darkness... my son."

"We all believe that," Kester said firmly. "Next time, things will be different."

"Link..." Mother whispered. "You are... my light. You will shine... upon Hyrule... once again."

With difficulty, she leaned over to press one last kiss against Link's damp cheek. She whispered her love into his ear, and then gave Kester a weary nod, and he lifted her up into his arms once more and carried her away.

The next year, and every year after that, Kester came alone. Mother was with Father at last.

And after another couple dozen visits from him, Kester stopped coming too, and his grown children came to tell Link tearfully that he, too, had passed into the Spirit Realm.

The two of them did their best in their father's place, faithfully coming each year just as Kester had. But it wasn't the same. They had never known Link in life. Even in their presence, Link felt the loneliness threatening to swamp him each time his spirit roused to find that Mother and Kester were still gone.

They always would be.

At last, Link heard Zelda's voice murmuring his name as if from a great distance, calling for him to open his eyes: it seemed his century-long sentence had finally ended.

The last thing Link saw was the machinery above him shutting down, and the last thing he felt was the water lapping against his bare skin as it began to drain away.

Link opened his eyes, the memory fading away at long last.

He was still standing beside the dry basin in the Shrine of Resurrection. All the Sheikah were looking at him. Paya and Purah and Impa, and Robbie and Cado and Dorian. Even Symin was down here now, staring at Link just like the rest of them.

"Link!" Zelda was right beside him, reaching for his hand, looking nearly frantic. "Are you all right? You were out of it for so long! More than an hour."

He reached up and touched his face, realizing there was a tear track there.

Suddenly, he was desperate to get out of there. To escape all the eyes upon him. To have a moment of privacy so that he could get a handle on everything he had just seen.

Shaking Zelda's hand free from his, Link turned and pushed past Cado and Dorian in his rush to escape the shrine. In moments he had charged up the steps and out into the sunshine, breathing hard, more from distress than from exertion. Stumbling half-blind from the tears, he managed to make it to a nearby apple tree and threw himself down at its roots, trying and mostly failing to get himself under control. His hands pressed against the tree trunk with a desperate longing. His mother had planted this tree. He remembered that now. She and Kester had brought saplings to the plateau many years ago, wanting to make sure Link had something to eat when he awoke. They knew how much he loved good food.

He remembered so much now. His mind raced frantically, trying to see that sprawling memory again, wanting to cement it all in his mind before it slipped away from him again. But there was so much. A hundred years' worth. He couldn't get his hands around it.

And another part of him hated what he now knew. It was too painful. He wanted to forget. He and his mother and his father had been happy, and the day Ganon returned that happiness had been shattered like a vase dropped onto a stone. Link's mother had never gotten over his death. And he would never get over missing her life. There were things that had been lost that could never be recovered. And he hated it. He hated it.

Link pulled his knees up against his chest, buried his face in his arms, and succumbed to a grief so heavy it made him dizzy.

He didn't know how long he had been there before he felt Zelda's hand on his shoulder. She wasn't saying anything. Just kneeling beside him, touching him. After a minute, he put one hand over hers in wordless gratitude.

"Do you want to tell me?" she asked softly.

It was hard to do. But Zelda, he thought, would understand better than anyone else in Hyrule could, and so he hastily wiped his eyes, cleared his throat, and told her in as few words as possible what had just happened.

Zelda thought it over for a long moment, and then said slowly, "I suppose this is why the Goddess brought us here. So you could get all those memories back."

Link turned away from her, scowling. "It was better when I didn't know," he said shortly.

She didn't try to argue with him, just squeezed his shoulder again.

A twig nearby snapped under a boot, and Zelda stirred beside him. Link didn't bother to look up; it was probably one of the Sheikah, coming out to see what was going on, but he didn't want to see anyone other than Zelda right now.

"Who are you?" Zelda said in an unexpectedly hard voice, and abruptly she stood up.

Link looked up, and was startled to see a strange man, a Hylian, standing close by, looking at them with open curiosity.

"This plateau is sacred ground," Zelda said sternly, her hands clenching into fists by her sides. "No one should be here except with my permission. Who told you you could be here?"

The man stared at Zelda, confused by her words. Then he looked at Link and stiffened. His eyes had fixed on the hilt of the Master Sword, sticking up over his right shoulder.

"You!" he growled, and there was a world of meaning in his tone. "Link." His face twisted into an expression of rage.

"Vengeance!" he screamed, and a flock of birds rose from the apple tree, squawking with fear. "Vengeance for Master Kohga!"

A puff of smoke exploded from him, and suddenly he was wearing a form-fitting Yiga uniform, his face hidden behind a mask bearing the inverted Sheikah eye. He leaped up to hover several feet in the air, brandishing a duplex bow. Trembling with fury, he took aim at them.

Link sat frozen on the ground. He knew he should act somehow, but his mind was a muddle and for a split second he simply couldn't think what to do.

The man fired an arrow at him.

It bounced off a golden shimmer in the air.

Link looked up at Princess Zelda. She was holding out her right hand, a golden haze extending from it that spread out in front of both of them like a glittering shield. The expression on her face was unearthly: utterly calm and implacably certain. The whole forest around them had abruptly gone silent as if in response to the unveiling of her power.

The Yiga soldier hovered in mid-air, staring in Zelda's direction. Although the mask hid his expression, there was a palpable aura of shock in his body language.

Then rage seemed to consume him once more, and he lifted his bow to fire off another shot.

He never loosed the string. With a shocking abruptness, an arrow flew into him, embedding its point into his shoulder. The man cried out in pain and tumbled to the ground. Link turned to see Cado standing several places away, the Sheikah guard already working to fit a second arrow to his phrenic bow.

The Yiga soldier leaped into mid-air once more, readying himself for a fight, but neither he nor Cado got a chance to fire their bows again, because just then Dorian came tearing into the clearing, eightfold blade in hand, and shouted at the Yiga soldier in a strangled voice: "This is for my wife!"

Dorian slashed with his blade, and the Yiga soldier grunted from the impact, falling once more and landing across Link's legs. It was just the push he needed to recover from his shock. Instinctively Link shoved him off and got back on his feet, pulling the Master Sword from its sheath in one swift motion.

Their foe scrambled back onto his feet, a viciously sharp sickle now in his hand, but he was hurt and didn't dare leap into the air again. He crouched among the grasses, staring warily at the four of them: Link, Zelda, Cado and Dorian, all facing him with their weapons at the ready.

After a brief hesitation, he snarled at them like a beast and then vanished in a puff of smoke. Zelda and the Sheikah guards continued to stand at the ready, but Link merely sheathed his weapon; the Yiga had attacked him this way so often that he knew with a certainty that once they ran away like that, they never returned to resume the fight. The soldier had retreated somewhere to nurse his wounds and, more than likely, warn his compatriots about the situation.

Link sighed heavily. The Yiga Clan would know for certain now that Zelda was back. They would no doubt be furious with both her and Link, not only for Master Kohga's humiliation but also Ganon's defeat. For the Yiga, the fight wasn't over yet. Not by a long shot.

Zelda lowered her hand at last, her golden power misting away. Behind her, the other Sheikah slowly crept out of the entrance to the Shrine of Resurrection from where they had been watching. Most of them looked concerned or even frightened, but Link caught Paya staring at him in near-raptures, her hands clasped over her heart. She saw him looking at her and instantly blushed scarlet, burying her face in her hands.

"We should be sure to seal the Shrine of Resurrection behind us when we leave," Zelda said briskly. The others looked at her in puzzlement, and she began to explain: "We don't want the Yiga fiddling with-"

She broke off when the ground suddenly shook beneath them.

Everyone cried out, and several of them stumbled down onto one knee. There was a sound like an avalanche behind them, and great clouds of dust flew into the air. Coughing and gasping, they hung onto to each other and covered their heads as apples rained down around them, shaken loose from the tree Link's mother had planted.

Finally, the earthquake ended, and silence fell.

Cado and Dorian helped Impa back up, and to Link's surprise he saw petite Purah straining to give Robbie a hand up as well. Maybe she didn't dislike him as much as she pretended.

"What was that?" Symin blurted out. His spectacles were covered with a fine layer of dust, and he took them off with shaking hands and rubbed them with the hem of his shirt.

"Oh, no!" Zelda rushed over to the entrance to the Shrine of Resurrection. It took a bit for the dust to clear, but soon the situation was unmistakable. "The cave collapsed!"

"You were just saying," Impa said slowly in her cracked voice, "that it should be sealed."

"Yes, but I meant-" Zelda broke off. She thought a moment. "Well, I suppose that's effective enough. The shrine fulfilled its purpose. Perhaps the Goddess took it back."

The dust cleared a little more. The shrine certainly had been thoroughly blocked. In fact, that spot on the ground was little more than a debris-strewn depression. It was almost as though the shrine itself had sunk deep down into the ground, causing the earthquake, rather than the other way around.

They all took a moment to check with each other that no one was hurt, and then they agreed to make their way off the plateau. There was nothing more to be done here.

It seemed to Link as he walked that this must have been the plan of the Goddess all along. Bring him back here, where he could recover a lot of memories all at once, and then close the shrine for good.

He knew he should feel grateful, but the avalanche of memory had shaken him in a way he wasn't prepared for. He thought back to how he had felt this morning, confused by the gaps in his memory but totally unaware of the depths of his mother's grief for him, and his grief for her. Even the happy childhood memories she had recounted for him had left an ache in his heart. This morning, he hadn't know how much he had lost when Ganon first attacked. Now he did.

The nine of them walked to the edge of the plateau... where a new surprise awaited them.

"Where... where is our Sheikah tower?" Paya asked blankly, looking across the vista toward Dueling Peaks. "Wasn't it over there?" There was, in fact, an odd blankness to the landscape in that direction.

Zelda looked south and gasped. "The Lake Tower is also gone!"

Impa turned around and pushed her hat back so she could see better. "The tower here on the plateau has vanished," she said solemnly.

"That earthquake... it took more than just the Shrine of Resurrection!" Zelda excitedly pulled the Sheikah slate off Link's belt and belatedly asked, "May I?"

Link nodded, and she turned on the scope and began to slowly scan the horizon.

"I can't see any towers!" she exclaimed. "Or any shrines, either! I think... I think the Goddess took them all back!"

They stood there for a while looking in every direction, overwhelmed by the possibility, but it seemed to be true.

Purah didn't look happy. "Those towers were so handy!" she pouted. "Linky traveled so fast with them. I thought we'd get to keep them! I was going to figure out how to let anyone use them!"

"I suppose they fulfilled their purpose as well," Zelda said thoughtfully. Link leaned over her shoulder, and saw at a glance that all the fast-travel points once marked on the map had vanished. He sighed. He would have to go back to walking or riding a horse to get everywhere. Or gliding, he supposed, but that would require him to climb to a height to jump off. For a moment he felt as annoyed as Purah did.

And then he remembered his mother, and hated himself for caring about something as meaningless as that.

Purah snatched the Sheikah slate from Zelda's hand and scrolled through the controls.

"The runes!" she wailed. "They're gone! Look, Linky! Stasis... cryonis... magnesis... even the bombs!"

"If the shrines I got them from disappeared, then the runes did too," Link said shortly.

Zelda and Impa put their heads close together and began to discuss what they should do next. Link wandered a short distance away, wishing he were alone. He dreaded being pulled into the discussion as the two of them usually insisted on doing, but for once they left him alone. Finally, Zelda walked over to Link, while the other Sheikah crowded around Impa to get their instructions.

"We've decided I'll simply embark on my journey to tour the kingdom now," Zelda told Link. "I know we left in a hurry, but there isn't much need for me to return to Kakariko Village; Impa can write the letters to send to the other regions, letting them know I will visit soon. We've decided I'll go west first, and visit Gerudo Town. I'll stop at the Outskirt and Gerudo Canyon stables on the way. Are you... are you still determined to come with me?"

Link nodded.

"Because I... I know you aren't feeling well now. If you need to return to Kakariko Village, perhaps take a few days to rest, I am sure that Dorian or Cado could accompany me-"

Link quickly shook his head. Inactivity would be the worst thing that could happen to him now. He knew that. He needed something useful to do, something to get his mind off the blow he had just taken.

"All right then. If you're sure."

They rejoined the Sheikah, and the nine of them crowded onto the platform. Cado and Dorian pulled on the ropes that slowly lowered them down the shaft. As soon as they were off the Great Plateau, they said their farewells, and Link and Zelda mounted their horses and rode toward Outskirt Stable, while the Sheikah headed toward Dueling Peaks and home.

Their arrival at Outskirt Stable caused the same flurry of excitement as their stops at the Riverside and Dueling Peaks stables. Everyone was eager to meet the princess, and they clustered around her, nearly elbowing each other in their haste to be the first to tell her their names and share what they had on their minds.

Link hovered close by, ready to nudge away anyone who got into Zelda's space, but luckily they were respectful enough to keep their distance from the princess. In fact, Link noticed that there was a middle-aged woman watching the excitement with great interest but hanging back to wait her turn. She was the only one with such patience. Finally, Zelda had greeted everyone else, and she turned to face the woman.

"Princess," the woman said, not merely bowing her head but performing a short but pretty curtsy. "It is my privilege to present to you your humble servant Flor. May the light of the Goddess shine upon you, and upon all the lands of Hyrule."

Zelda stood stock-still, looking at her in astonishment. "The formal greeting of my father's court!" she exclaimed in surprise. "I didn't think I would ever see that again! Where did you learn that?"

Flor bobbed her head respectfully again. "From my ancestor's journal, princess. She was a member of the royal staff at Hyrule Castle during your time."

"My staff?" Zelda repeated. "Wait. Would I remember her? What was her name?"

"Fanna, princess."

Zelda's eyes went wide. "Fanna? My old nurse? Not that Fanna?"

"Yes, princess. She mentions you in her journal, as a matter of fact."

Zelda was staring at Flor as if with new eyes. "And you must be Fanna's... granddaughter?"

"Great-great-granddaughter. I'm afraid she died before I could meet her."

Zelda's green eyes were moistening as she studied Flor's face with great attention.

"Why... why, you have her cheekbones!" she blurted out.

And with the abruptness of a thunderclap, Zelda's face crumpled, and she started to cry.

She instantly looked embarrassed, even through her tears, but Flor merely crooned, "Oh, you poor lamb!" and folded Zelda into her arms in the most natural way imaginable. "Oh, you must miss her very much."

Link couldn't believe it, but Zelda actually hugged her back, a complete stranger, and let herself cry on the woman's shoulder. After a beat, he realized that all the other stable guests were still hanging around watching this, and quickly but quietly he shooed them away.

Before long Zelda had wiped away her sudden storm of tears and Flor led her inside the stable, where she apparently had Fanna's journal stored inside her pack. Zelda was excited to read it. The two of them spent the rest of the night sitting at the little round table with their heads close together, reading the journal by lamplight and talking over every detail of it. Link lay on his back on one of the stable beds, staring up at the ceiling. He didn't have much to do tonight: they were well-supplied this early in their journey, and the horses were already taken care of.

Instead, his mind went over and over everything he had remembered in the Shrine of Resurrection until he started to feel crazy from the repetition of images. Mother weeping over his body. His best friend growing old without him. Mother weeping. Kester growing old. Mother weeping. Kester growing old. Over and over and over...

He didn't remember ever falling asleep, but he must have, because the next thing he knew it was morning, and he was lying on the bed with his boots still on. Grimacing, he sat up and went outside to make breakfast.

Flor and Zelda were already there by the fire despite having stayed up late the night before, eagerly chattering away as if they were old friends. Zelda announced cheerily that Flor would be accompanying them on their journey, at least for a time. Zelda wanted her to make a copy of Fanna's journal for her own use, and Flor wanted to hear everything Zelda remembered of her great-great grandmother so she could write it down for her own family's records. They both seemed well-satisfied with this arrangement.

Soon, the three of them set off together. Link listened to them talk with half an ear as the morning passed. He would rather think about what they were talking about - even though they were talking about Zelda's old nurse who he had never even met - than think any more about all the horrible things he had remembered yesterday. His mind kept trying to jump back to all of that anyway, and then he would find his eyes growing moist and have to turn his head, hoping the others wouldn't see.

He couldn't really focus on the conversation, not enough to join in, but he gritted his teeth and kept trying.

After a few hours of this torture, Zelda broke off her conversation with Flor and spurred Renatus to pull even with Link on Lucky. Quickly he tried to settle his expression into an impassive one.

"Link, I nearly forgot to mention," she said. "We had talked about recruiting volunteers for a fighting force as we traveled."

Link nodded, embarrassed that he had forgotten to ask around about that at the last stable. He had had his mind on other things.

"Well, it occurred to me," Zelda said, "that you are much more qualified than I am to decide who is a good fighter, or could be trained to become one. And if you are to do the recruiting, you really ought to be given the proper authority to do it. I would like to name you the head of my Royal Guard."

Link frowned. "What Royal Guard?"

"Well, at the moment you're it," Zelda admitted. "Which makes the decision rather easy, actually."

"You should wait until you see if you can find anyone better."

Zelda looked at him incredulously. "How could I possibly find someone better than you?"

"That job isn't about swinging a sword," Link said. "It has to be someone good at leading. Talking to the soldiers, pushing them to do their best, making sure they're not unhappy so they don't quit. I've never done anything like that. I've never even trained a squire. I... I've been a knight for just a year."

"Yes, and I've been running a kingdom for less than two weeks!" Zelda said with a sudden tartness. She pursed her lips and visibly quashed the emotion. "I'm sorry, Link. That doesn't have anything to do with it. It's just that... well, since there really isn't a Royal Guard to speak of right now, I think your inexperience in that area doesn't matter much. Later, when we have some recruits... well, I think you will learn as you go. You'll do fine. For right now, I think you need to have some sort of title that indicates that you are acting on my behalf when you are recruiting volunteers. You should be more than just a bodyguard. You have more to offer than that."

Link could tell Zelda knew that she didn't have him convinced. But after a minute, he silently nodded. What did it matter? He would do the best he could for now, and when the princess found someone better he'd turn the title over to them. Simple.

Finally, they reached Gerudo Canyon Stable, near the entrance to the Gerudo Desert, and Link once more stood watch over Zelda as the stable guests made a fuss over her. He looked around at the people gathering around her and realized he knew one of them. That young woman there, with shoulder-length brown hair that flipped outward at a sassy angle. Her name was Flaxel, he remembered. She had been traveling in this area with a group of friends when they had been attacked by monsters. Her friend Sesami had run away in terror, and when he ran into Link he enlisted him to go back and rescue his friends.

Flaxel had shared some choice words about her friend's cowardice once Link had chased off the Bokoblin attacking her, and it was obvious she was a bit of a hothead. But she hadn't been doing too badly at defending herself when Link found her. Despite her inferior equipment - only a traveler's sword and a wooden hunter's shield - she hadn't flinched when the Bokoblin took a swing at her. She had courage at least, and that couldn't be taught. Maybe she would be a good candidate.

When the hubbub around Zelda finally died down, he went straight over to Flaxel and said hello.

"You came back," he said. The last he'd seen of her, she and her friends had all left Gerudo Canyon Stable, going their separate ways.

"I've been all over the Tabantha region," Flaxel said with great satisfaction. "I got so mad at Sesami for leaving me to die, but then I got to thinking, he really did me a favor. Fighting the monsters... it was fun. I thought I'd do it some more." She shrugged. "So I've been going wherever the rumors point me. Anywhere monsters have been seen. I've killed whole flocks of Keese and sold their wings and stuff at Tabantha Stable. Not a bad way to make some money, eh? And once I cleared out a whole nest of electric Chuchus!" Her pride was obvious. "They zapped me a bunch of times and I got so mad, but don't worry, I made 'em all pay. Look how much jelly I got from them! I'm gonna sell that so I can resupply here."

"Anyway, that isn't the best part," she went on. "One of the Rito saw me fighting a Bokoblin for the sheer joy of it, and they said they would pay me to clear all the monsters off the road to their village! They paid me a whole golden rupee when I was done! I mean, I'm covered head to toe in bruises - just look at this one, isn't that a beautiful color? - but that was a good day's pay." She crinkled her nose, looking suddenly disappointed. "I wish I could've gotten a steady job from the Rito, but once the monsters were gone they didn't come back. Doesn't it seem like there hasn't been a blood moon in a while? That's not very good for business."

"You want a steady job fighting monsters?" Link blurted out, managing to break into Flaxel's wall of words for the first time.

"Well, obviously. I have to eat somehow. Why, do you know someone who's hiring?"

Link took a deep breath. "I am."

She stared at him. "You?" She was confused. "Don't you just fight them yourself? You're all right with a sword."

For some reason, the phrasing of her compliment annoyed Link. He took a moment to compose himself. "It's not for me. It's for the princess. We're looking for volunteers to reform Hyrule's army."

"Volunteers?" Flaxel frowned. "That makes it sound like there isn't any pay."

Link froze. Pay? His father and all the other knights had been paid out of Hyrule's treasury. But Zelda didn't have a treasury at the moment. He doubted she had a single rupee in her possession, actually. How were they going to pay their recruits? Zelda hadn't said a word about that.

He had some money of his own, mostly from doing a little mining in the Eldin region and getting paid for doing various favors for people he had encountered in his travels. But he would need that money to keep himself and Zelda supplied for their long journey. They would be wandering the wilds of Hyrule for months. He would need to be careful with what he had.

"There isn't any pay, is there?" Flaxel said, looking crestfallen.

"All living expenses will be covered," Link said quickly, panicking that he was about to lose his first and only recruit. "I do all the cooking." That was easy enough to promise, as it wouldn't be hard to do some hunting and gathering on the road if the rupees ran low. "And I have extra equipment. Swords and shields and bows. Better than the ones you have. You can have them to keep, and I'll give you lessons after we camp every night. I'll help you with your fighting technique."

"What's wrong with my fighting technique?" Flaxel demanded, hands going up to hips.

Link hesitated, unsure how to answer. From what he saw when he first came upon her fighting that Bokoblin in Gerudo Canyon, Flaxel didn't really have a fighting technique. It was pretty obvious no one had ever formally instructed her in swordplay. She had swung her sword around with plenty of gusto, which worked all right against lesser monsters, but if she ever faced something smarter or quicker than Bokoblins or Chuchus, she would get into trouble.

"You... you can keep the monster parts from anything we fight," he pushed on, avoiding the question. "You can still sell them and make your money that way."

Flaxel stood there for a long moment, lips pursed.

"Who have you recruited so far?" she asked at last. "I want to talk to them and see if the job is any good."

Link didn't answer.

Flaxel sighed. "You don't have any recruits, do you? Are you recruiting me for an army that doesn't actually exist? Is there even a commander for this army?"

He straightened his posture as best as he could and tried to imitate Zelda's formal way of speaking, although he instantly felt that he was failing miserably. "Hyrule's fighting forces will be under the supervision of the head of the Royal Guard until a field commander is promoted."

Flaxel looked around the stable pointedly, where there was no one in uniform within sight. "What Royal Guard?"

Link shifted on his feet before silently gesturing to himself.

"You."

Link nodded.

"You're the whole Royal Guard."

Link nodded.

"You're the head of the Royal Guard, which consists solely of yourself."

Link nodded.

One of Flaxel's eyebrows was slowly going up. "How old are you?"

"I'm of age," Link said defensively.

"How old are you?" she repeated.

"Seventeen."

Flaxel smiled in a way he didn't like.

"Thanks, kid, but I think I'll keep fighting monsters on my own," she said archly, and then sauntered away.

It was one thing to be called "kid" in an affectionate way by a village elder, but being called "kid" by someone only a few years older stung quite a bit more. Link stalked away in the other direction, fuming.

He paced around for a few minutes until he had cooled down. After that, he couldn't think "good riddance" anymore. It was all right that Flaxel was a hothead - half the knights in the army had been like that, in his own time - but there had always been experienced commanders who knew how to point their energy in the right direction. She would have been a good recruit, if only there had been a decent leader around to inspire her. Link just wasn't it. He'd tried to tell Zelda that, but she hadn't listened.

He knew he should probably go back and try again, but instead he leaned against the cliff side with arms folded and let the black cloud of misery hanging over his head envelop him. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. None of it. If he hadn't just lost 100 years of time, he would be back home basking in the glory of a defeated Calamity Ganon. He'd be a retired chosen hero, allowed to go back to being a knight, running around fighting monsters with more experienced commanders above him making the hard decisions. Eventually he probably would have worked his way up to that level, but by then he would have been ready for it. By then people would have taken him seriously.

It was too late now. He had promised Zelda he would do as she asked, so he had to keep going. He'd lost Flaxel as a recruit, but maybe someone else here would do. He had to try.

He went back into the stable and stood there uncertainly, looking over the stable guests inside. He didn't know these people, and therefore couldn't know who might be able to handle fighting. Finally, he realized what he needed to do.

Clearing his throat loudly, he tried not to squirm in discomfort when all the eyes turned toward him expectantly.

"Free fighting lessons," he announced. "Outside. Right now."

There was a short silence, and then suddenly a mad scramble to rush outside. Sitting at the small table in the back of the stable with Flor, Zelda looked on in bemusement as travelers nearly trampled each other in their haste to collect whatever weapon they owned and cluster around Link excitedly. He found himself forced to gently push his way through them to get a short distance away from the stable, and then it took several minutes of giving directions before finally everyone was spaced apart enough that they wouldn't hit each other once they started swinging.

Link stood in front of them, sweating profusely under the weight of their gazes. He realized he had no idea how to do this.

There had probably been plenty of times during his years as a squire when he and the other boys had eagerly gathered around an older soldier to learn fighting techniques from him. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember any of that. After awakening from the Slumber of Restoration he'd had to relearn how to fight from Guardian Scouts in the ancient shrines scattered across the land, and with their help his muscles had often remembered the correct way to move against an opponent, even if his mind didn't. But he didn't have any idea how to explain those things to someone else.

He was going to have to talk to these people. He was going to have to talk loud while they all looked at him in silent expectation. Judging everything he said and did. What if they all reacted the way Flaxel had? What if they all thought he was too young for this? What if they got bored and wandered away?

And where to start?

Link couldn't seem to get his mind to work properly, not standing in the spotlight like this, but finally he decided that he should start at the beginning and simply show them how to stand with their weapons when a monster approached. Maybe some of them already knew that, but then again they might be like Flaxel, possessing more courage than knowledge.

Speaking of Flaxel, she was here. Not joining in with the lesson, but leaning against the wall of the stable with her arms folded, watching him flounder with a faint twist of amusement on her lips. Link pointedly refused to look in her direction so that she wouldn't distract him.

Hesitantly, he began to speak to the group, explaining the importance of never taking your eyes off an opponent, of keeping your feet apart and your knees bent so as not to lose your balance, of keeping your weapon close to your body so you could always block a blow in time. The travelers listened intently, shifting their positions and trying to imitate what he was showing them. Link's panic subsided somewhat. That had gone all right.

But it had taken up only a few minutes of time. Now what?

He looked around and realized more than half of his students were holding their weapons badly. Their hands were too high on the hilt, or too low. Some of them had white-knuckled death-grips and others looked like you could knock the sword out of their hand with a stick. He started walking from person to person, helping them adjust their grips. Several of them exclaimed with satisfaction upon discovering how much better it felt now.

Once everyone had it right, Link found himself standing in front of them once more, mind racing to work out what to do now. Some of them were starting to look impatient. He knew they wanted to start swinging at each other, but it wasn't time for that yet.

Guard positions. They needed to know guard positions.

He drew the Master Sword from his back and held it in front of him, both hands on the hilt, the blade pointing at an angle down and to the right. Instantly there was a murmur of awe as everyone's eyes went straight to the Sword.

"Hold your weapon like this," he told them, and eagerly they moved to obey. "This is a good guard position for beginners. It's called the-"

He hesitated. He didn't know what this guard position was called. He had known once, but now he was pulling a blank.

Embarrassed, he looked down at his hands gripping the Master Sword. He knew he had it right, but how to explain?

A slow tingle moved through his body. The way the hilt felt in his hands, the heft of the blade, the balance he had mastered... it was hauntingly familiar.

And right then and there, as he stood in front of a crowd of people, a memory rushed over him, and all he could do was widen his eyes and let it come.

"This is called the iron gate," Father said.

He was looking down at Link, reaching down to readjust the grip of his small hands on the hilt of his wooden sword. Ranulf's hands were calloused and much larger than Link's. In the distance, horses whinnied and cattle lowed. Cuccos scratched the ground for insects. The two of them were standing outside one of the pastures at Lon Lon Ranch in the warm sunshine, a brilliant blue sky overhead. A delicious smell wafted through the air: Mother was in the bunkhouse, making lunch for the ranch hands.

"It's one of the best guards to use, and one of the easiest to master," Father continued. "An iron gate stands in great strength. If any enemy tries to approach, they will find themselves rebuffed with ease. Look here. No matter what angle I come in-" He jabbed in Link's direction with the tree branch he held, and Link automatically batted it away, smacking the stick into the dirt. "-it's easy to block blows. And you can get back into position quickly."

"This one's boring," Link said with dissatisfaction.

"All the beginners say that," Father said with gentle amusement. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he looked down at Link. "But the iron gate is useful. The point of fighting isn't to look good, son. It's to walk away in one piece."

Abruptly, Link snapped out of the memory to find everyone staring at him, looking confused. Even Zelda was now standing at the entrance to the stable behind everyone else, eyes wide and fingertips pressed to her lips in subtle concern. Instantly he flushed. He must have been standing there frozen like a statue, for who knows how long.

"This is called the iron gate," Link said after a beat, and everyone shifted on their feet, looking relieved. "An iron gate stands in great strength. Any enemy that approaches can be rebuffed with ease." He cleared his throat and then quickly assigned half of them to slowly swing their weapons at the other half, giving them a chance to bat away the attack from the iron gate position.

They all seemed to enjoy it immensely. Suddenly there was a murmur of chatter and plenty of self-deprecating laughs as the travelers made clumsy mistakes at first. After a while, Link had the attackers and defenders switch places. He walked among them, correcting footwork and hilt grips here and there.

"This is boring," Flaxel said.

Link turned with surprise; he hadn't realized that Flaxel had left her spot leaning against the wall and was now facing off against an elderly Hylian who seemed to be having the time of his life, swinging a long soup ladle against Flaxel's traveler's sword. She was deflecting his blows with a palpable aura of tedium.

"Hey!" Flaxel suddenly barked at the pair sparring next to them. "Stop hooking your finger around the cross guard! Link told you three times already! Do you want to lose a digit?"

Link blinked in mild astonishment. The first thing he'd noticed about Flaxel the day he'd rescued her from the Bokoblin was that she had a bad habit of hooking a finger around the cross guard of her sword. He looked down at her hand. Her grip was now perfect.

"Brains of a Chuchu," Flaxel muttered, and she batted the soup ladle away from her with ease.

Shaking his head slightly, Link went back to the front and got everyone's attention to show them the next guard. As he'd feared, the moment he showed them the new position his mind pulled a blank and he couldn't think what it was called.

And then the memory flashed briefly before his eyes.

"-window guard," Father explained, moving Link's boyish arms into the correct position. "Good for breaking thrusts."

"The window guard," Link said quickly, and the travelers shifted around to imitate his pose. "You use it to break thrusts."

The lesson went on much like this until he had gone through all the basic guards and everyone had gotten a chance to try them. Finally, the gathering broke up and everyone back headed to their own business, chattering to each other animatedly and thanking Link over their shoulders for the lesson.

Drained from the effort it had been and distracted by the new memories of his father swirling around in his head, Link nevertheless scraped up enough energy to make dinner for himself, Zelda and Flor. The three of them were sitting by the fire eating when a rider came galloping down the road from the direction of Gerudo Canyon.

"He's Sheikah!" Zelda said, standing up eagerly.

The man pulled on the reins and came to a stop before her.

"Princess," he said with a nod, and handed her a letter. "From Director Purah."

Zelda read the letter and then smiled widely.

"Given that all the Sheikah towers have now returned to the ground," she told Link and Flor, "Purah would like to try building a new one herself! She's asking permission to locate it near Hyrule Castle. It would be invaluable for mapping the region and creating a method for fast travel, she thinks." She looked excited at the thought. "Oh, it's a wonderful idea!" She hastily stood up and faced the messenger. "I shall compose a reply at once. Would you like something to eat while you wait? Link just made a very nice apple pie."

It didn't take long for Zelda to send her reply off to Purah, and as soon as the messenger rode off again, Zelda showed Purah's letter to Link, tapping a postscript at the bottom of the page with a faint smile. Link looked down and read the sentence, which was in a different handwriting from the rest of the page.

"P.S. The director intends to attempt reversing the anti-aging rune she used on herself. She is concerned the workers building the new tower will not take her seriously as a child. Please do not be alarmed if future correspondence appears to be from someone much older or younger. -Symin"

"Oh, dear," Zelda said with quiet amusement. "I do hope she gets it right this time."

TO BE CONTINUED