It looked like a mansion or a palace. In any case Sir Link Outset had seen it from above before, so he knew where to look for it. Finding the pool to Rewind was actually the hardest part as the geoglyph was on a mountainside, and Link had to climb around to find it.
When he did, the back of his Zonai hand blinked, and the pool Rewound. Once again, Link was thrust into a vision.
Princess Zelda Hyrule stood on the Great Plateau, overlooking a different yet hauntingly familiar Hyrule. Death Mountain had rings of smoke around it, like the volcano was active. There was no Hyrule Castle in the middle of Hyrule field, and the Dueling Peaks were one mountain.
"As I thought." Zelda spoke to Rauru and Sonia, who were standing behind her. "This is not the world I know. A time so far back in the past, that it has become legend…" Zelda turned to face the first King and Queen of Hyrule, "So it's true, this is really the era of Hyrule's founding?" Zelda couldn't help feeling a little thrill at the prospect. As a historian, this was her dream come true.
"Your presence here is just as strange to us, Zelda." Rauru confirmed. "But if you, like Sonia, have a secret stone, and are able to manipulate time, then your story makes sense." Zelda looked down for a moment. A power over time. That would explain how she had managed to stay alive for one hundred years to fight Calamity Gannon in Hyrule, and also not appear to have aged. In both cases of her time power activating, she hadn't done it on purpose, only when her life was in danger and she hadn't affected anything or anyone else. Zelda looked at the Secret Stone in her hand. This second time of using her Time power was much more powerful, it only proves Rauru's point about how she could only have done this because of the stone. But that fact made Zelda feel afraid. She had so little control of her time power, if she lost control again, with the Secret Stone in hand, would she accidentally send herself farther into the past? Sonia's voice broke through Zelda's thoughts.
"Oh? I believed her right away. You needed a Secret Stone as proof, Rauru?" Sonia's voice was laced with her tease, and Rauru seemed to shrug a little under her eyes. Sonia then turned to Zelda. "I can feel your Light power within her. As well as my Time power. Additionally, I sense that we share a blood connection." Zelda gasped. Of course! Rauru and Sonia were the first of Hyrule's royal family, she must have inherited both powers from them!
"Ah, I see." Rauru said, "In any case, Zelda, you had said that you needed to return to your era as soon as you possibly could…"
"Yes." Zelda looked down again, thinking of Link. How was he, was he still below Hyrule castle, trapped in that crumbling room with that horrible corpse? Wounded and alone, without the Master Sword? She turned away from the King and Queen, so that they wouldn't see her fear. Her worry.
"In my time, something terrible is happening. I need to get back there. But how do I do that? I don't even know how I got here in the first place." Great Hylia, a historian's dream this might be, but she needed to get back to Link, Riju, and the rest of Hyrule. She heard footsteps behind her.
"Now, Zelda dear…" Sonia said and Zelda turned to her, "You don't need to solve all your problems all at once. Why not come back with us to the castle?"
"No, I-'' Zelda tried to protest, but Sonia took Zelda's hands in hers. Zelda stopped, Sonia's tattooed hands felt soft… like… Like her mother's. Sonia's green eyes looked steadily into Zelda's.
"We'll tell everyone that you're… a distant relative of ours." Sonia giggled, and Zelda's memory of her mother grew stronger. "It is true after all! We'll get you fresh clothes too." Sonia said, smiling a smile almost too familiar for Zelda's rattled soul. She tried to speak, to thank Sonia for her kindness, but she couldn't get any words through the lump in her throat, and the tears pricking at her eyes.
Sonia seemed to take her reaction as wanting to still ponder her predicament. "I'm sure an answer will come to you. Wisdom takes time." Zelda managed to blink back her tears.
"I- I don't know what to say." Zelda said.
"Hmm, I wonder," Rauru said, "Mineru… She may have some idea of how to get you back to your era."
"Mineru, you said?" Zelda had never heard that name in the histories.
"Yes, she knows far more than anyone about our people." Zelda assumed that Rauru was referring to the Zonai. Did that mean that their history was still a mystery even to them? "And like us, my older sister has a Secret Stone. We'll call on her."
Link opened his eyes. Of course. Zelda was in the past… at least in these memories. This Mineru and Zelda, must have been able to work a way for Zelda to come back to this time. Perhaps Zelda had her own plan with her knowledge of the past. Maybe that was why she hadn't contacted Link despite them seeing eachother again. This must mean that she wanted Link to continue helping the people of Hyrule instead of finding her. She had her own job, and Link would have to do his.