Chapter Text
"This is the final Light of Blessing. Make your way to the Temple of Time. There, you shall find a suitable reward for your efforts."
I see. That’s the last message left for me by Rauru – or whoever did design these shrines. It makes me miss the Sheikah style of shrine, where an actual monk is there at the end. It feels cathartic to let the soul bound by duty rest after so long. Well, except Maz Koshia of course – he really stuck around to make sure that I was more than capable of ending Calamity Ganon. If that’s how strong the Sheikah of old were, emaciated as he may have been from ten thousand years of fasting, I wouldn’t want to fight another one in their prime! Honestly, if the Sheikah were able to hold the Master Sword I think Calamity Ganon would have had no chance in the first place.
Suppose I should head to the Temple of Time, I guess. Lemme just pull out the Purah Pad and warp to Ukouh Shrine. I’ve prepared as much as I could to face off against Ganondorf, and I do want to find out what this reward will be like. The only other thing I really need to do is find a way to turn the Light Dragon back into Zelda.
Walking up the stairs to the Temple of Time. Mineru might have said that Draconification is irreversible, but I want to believe otherwise. Legends speak of the Triforce, an omnipotent wish-granting object. If I must scour every last bit of the sky, the land, and the depths to find a way to bring Zelda back, I will – but if it comes to it, I will have to kill Ganondorf first. I must make sure that facing off against him will be like a sky ruin falling on a cucco’s egg. Battles are won with preparation, and there must be no possibility of defeat. The Demon King won’t know what hit him. If I can’t bring Zelda back, I will at the very least avenge her with the sword she gave her life up for.
Found the treasure chest behind the Goddess Statue in the Temple of Time. Huh. When I finished all the Sheikah shrines back then the chests were in front of the Goddess Statue in the Forgotten Temple. Is there some sort of symbolism to this I wonder? Even then I had to sell off those clothes to help Zelda pay for the reconstruction of Hyrule, and I would gladly do it all over again if she asked me to (and we earned quite a lot of money for that – there are some collectors out there with very deep pockets, like Cece, to whom most of my clothes went to). However, I liked the fit of the Champion’s Tunic more, honestly. Alright, let’s see what’s in this chest.
Ancient Hero’s Aspect, huh. Three masks in the shape of – let’s see, an owl, a dragon, and a boar, it looks like. How do you put this on – GAH.
Well, this is interesting. Let me take it off again – okay, I’m naked and back to my regular Hylian self with a Zonai arm. It seems that none of my other clothes or armor pieces will fit me while I wear this; my entire form changed. I have a tail. Hmm. And its defense seems to be a little weak – I will upgrade this as soon as I can (I have to talk to the Great Fairies again oh no). Huh, imagine if Ganondorf actually fought against the Ancient Hero. Might he be surprised that a ghost from the past showed up in front of him to take him out?
Anyway. Taking out Purah Pad. Teleporting to Ekochiu Shrine – time to pay the Great Fairy a visit to upgrade this last bit of armor.
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This feels much better, I see. Not only does it feel like I fit into it more, it also feels like I can bring more power out of the Master Sword. The beams look as though they deal far more damage than they previously did.
Alright, one last thing to do before taking out the Demon King. I’ll head up to Zelda and tell her about what I’ve done so far. It just feels right. Call me a madman but I do like to update her with what I do after every major quest is done. Maybe she can actually hear me, for one thing, who knows?
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The Blood Moon approaches its zenith and the red mists start rising from everywhere once more as I knelt on the Light Dragon’s – no, Zelda’s snout. Hylia, it feels strange to refer to her like this. I miss you. Your hair as a dragon reminds me so much of your hair as my princess, and I only wish to be able to stroke it again one more time, spend more time with you through all the good things and the bad. Zelda, if you can hear me, I swear on everything that we hold dear – I will fulfil your last wish, and I will protect everyone. And then I swear I will bring you back, I will find a way.
“Hero.”
Was that Zelda’s voice? It’s in my head again.
“Hero. No, Link! It’s you!”
Zelda? Is that really you?
“Link. I don’t have much time, you must listen to me carefully.”
Yes.
“Go to Impa. Tell her that you must go to the time of Prosperity, before the First Calamity of the Divine Beasts. Tell her to use the Ocarina of Time. Tell her that it is a Stable Time Loop and that the timeline will not fracture as it did once before.”
Understood.
“She will doubt you. You must tell her to read the diary of Impaz, preserved in the vaults of the Grand Sheikah from ten thousand years ago.”
Yes.
“Link. You cannot bring the Master Sword there. Return it to me for now.”
You mean stab it into your forehead again?
“The Master Sword cannot hurt me, nor the Blood of the Goddess. Return it to my crown for now.”
I unsheathe the sword from my back and as gently as I could, place it back in her head as she requested. Tendrils of her hair take hold of the blade again. holding the blade fast and secure against her brow.
“Link. When you go back to the past, you must not take off the armor that you wear now until the right time. You will know when that is.
“You will see me again, Link. Now, go.”
The Blood Moon ends, the red mists dissipate, and I hear Zelda’s voice no longer. Was I merely hallucinating? I remember the voice pretending to be Zelda from before, talking to me during the Blood Moon. No, I do not think there is time to doubt this. I take out the Purah Pad again and travel to Makasura Shrine near Kakariko Village to do as I am told.
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I go up to the second floor of the Chief’s House and I see Impa sitting down in front of a table with many books stacked in front of her. Clearly, she is also doing her research to find a way to turn Zelda back. We haven’t told anyone else about this – this is just between me and Impa, two people who knew Zelda from before the second coming of the Calamity. Besides, she did tell me not to tell anyone else because it might cause a panic. Purah knows by now, smart lady that she is, she managed to piece together all the information I had given her, but I haven’t told anyone else.
Impa?
“Yes Link?” she said, turning to face me. “Ah. I see that you are wearing the attire of the ancient hero. How amusing. You almost look like that figure depicted on the screen…”
Impa, I talked to Princess Zelda. Or the Light Dragon. I can’t be absolutely certain, but I heard her voice while I was on the Light Dragon.
“What did Her Highness say?”
She was very specific. She told me that I must go to the time before the Calamity of the Divine Beasts, and that you are to use the Ocarina of Time.
“What? But that’s not possible, that’s not right,” she replied. She stood up. “The Ocarina of Time is forbidden from anyone’s use, not even the Royal Family. The last time it was used, the timeline fractured into three.” She walked over to another book on another desk titled “Hyrule Historia” and showed me a diagram. She pointed out the left-hand side of the timeline, labeled “The Decline of Hyrule and the Last Hero”. She continued, “If we were to use the Ocarina of Time once more, you run the risk of creating a timeline where the Demon King is victorious. From there, he may be able to seep into other timelines and attempt to destroy everyone again! It took literal divine intervention from the Goddess Hylia to weave together the timelines once more and even then, you can see cracks and contradictions that make no sense in our history.”
She also said that it was going to be a Stable Time Loop, whatever that means.
“I would think that it’s still far too much of a risk. However, the mere fact that you know of the existence of the Ocarina of Time at this point when it is now a closely guarded secret between the Blood of the Goddess and the Chief of the Sheikah means I can’t dismiss your claim outright.”
She also said to read the diary of Impaz, she even told me that I cannot bring the Master Sword there and had me give it back to her temporarily. Impa, who is Impaz?
Impa’s eyes had widened at the mention of the name “Impaz” before settling into a steely sort of understanding. “Alright Link, let me just get this diary before I do anything that I will regret. Wait here.”
She went out the room and descended the stairs. I heard sliding things, a quiet rumbling – wait is that a Sheikah elevator down there somehow? Tempted as I may be to peek Impa did tell me to stay put – and the secrets of the Sheikah should really stay secret, even from me.
After a few more minutes that I spent trying to check for cobwebs on the ceiling (there were none, Sheikah are raised to be very neat and tidy as much as possible), I heard Impa’s footsteps going up to her room once more.
“Link,” she said, and took a deep breath afterwards. I wonder if your age is catching up to you already?
“I’m old, but I’m not that old. But yes, you spoke true earlier.” She showed me the object in her left hand, a bright blue thing with holes, the same bright blue as the hilt of the Master Sword. “This is the Ocarina of Time.”
Wow, that is pretty. It’s giving me nostalgia for some reason.
“The Hero of Time once held this in his own hands and used it to save Hyrule from a previous incarnation of the Demon King, Ganondorf. Unfortunately due to previously unforeseen circumstances the use of this Ocarina then did split the timeline in three, as I’ve mentioned before. I will only play this once for you, and in the correct spot where Impaz said you would first go; I cannot and will not undo the work of the Goddess.”
It sounds like I should read the diary too, so I have more of an idea what to do.
“As for reading the diary… well, you can try for yourself, Link,” she said in reply, and showed me the book in question. It was less of a book and more of a collection of thin rectangular slabs. Wise choice by Impaz if I do say so myself, since from experience we’ve seen that stone holds messages far longer than paper. It would be more helpful if I could read it though since they were written in Sheikah cypher.
I made a motion to pull out the Purah Pad to take pictures when Impa almost swatted it out of my hands, saying “No, Link – this is entirely classified, need-to-know information. The Eye of the Sheikah sees history and records it through time, but not everyone will be able to handle the truth. No records of this outside of the Sheikah archives.”
Hm, I see… question, if the Yiga are offshoots from the Sheikah clan do they not have a copy of this as well?
“Sheikah Impaz also made it clear here too that the Yiga did destroy all of their ties with the Crown and the rest of the Sheikah, which included burning their own books and records. However it is interesting that they continue to develop the technology available to them – perhaps in their haste to divorce themselves from us they lost their own records of their achievements.” She sighed. “At this point there is no hope to reconcile with them, though if there are willing deserters to them we keep a close eye on said individuals.”
Like Dorian?
“Especially Dorian,” Impa grinned.
I know the Sheikah can be very secretive at times, after all, and honestly, after having known Impa and the rest of the Sheikah for more than a hundred years (not counting the fact that I was unconscious for most of that time), sometimes it’s better to not ask.
“We will move to the Temple of Time on the Great Plateau in a few hours, at the crack of dawn,” Impa said. “Er, Link, could you do this old lady a favor?” You’re only a few years older than I am, but alright. “My old joints won’t be able to walk as far as I should be able to. Would you mind helping me make a hot air balloon that will carry us to the Temple of Time? We should be able to get some of the parts from the Dispenser in town.”
I suppose she wouldn’t be able to ride on anything rocket powered; I wouldn’t want to risk Impa falling off a flying machine to her death. One dirigible, then, and a fan for steering. Have I mentioned how much I love Autobuild?
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In a few hours we had made it to the Temple of Time on the Great Plateau. The ruin held steady throughout the ages, and I always did like the Goddess statue in there. Imagine my surprise when I heard a similar, yet different voice, that time when the Bargainer wanted me to get its eyes from the sides of the Great Plateau. The question now is who was I really talking to all this time? I always thought that it was the Goddess Hylia Herself communicating to me through the statues, but perhaps they are merely conduits of some other will? But then again it is very presumptuous of me to say that I can hear the Goddess speak to me through the Statues when Zelda herself couldn’t hear her after hours of supplication and what amounted to self-flagellation to awaken a power that should have been hers from the start. I can no longer be sure.
That is probably a discussion for another time, I feel, as Impa told me to stand in front of the Goddess Statue.
“Stand up straight, Link,” she said as she sat before me, and I drew on the extra height that the Ancient Hero’s Aspect gave me. It now just feels more natural for me to walk on the balls of my feet. Impa took a deep breath and proceeded to give me her last instruction –
“Conduct yourself in a manner that befits the Hero of Hyrule. Make our Princess Zelda proud. May the Goddess smile upon you.”
Impa, you’re saying that as if you’re passing on like an ancient Sheikah monk.
She grinned in return and brought the Ocarina of Time to her lips. She played a tune that I was familiar with, I had hummed this to myself while I was cooking before. Zelda had taught me this song and I would often whistle or hum it to her before we went to sleep – Zelda’s Lullaby.
And then the world faded into white as I felt time move backwards, the ages undoing themselves around me. The sun set in the East and rose in the West three thousand and a thousand and a thousand times over in the blink of an eye. Things fell upwards. The dead came back to life and got younger and were unmade. It all went too fast for me to see, because the moment I had opened my eyes I was standing in a Temple of Time that was almost new – that reminded me just a little bit of the Temple of Time in the Sky – with the Master Sword in front of me.
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Addendum
As Impa watched Link travel to the past, she smiled, having fulfilled her duty. It was a good thing that she had remained seated otherwise she felt like she would have collapsed. The energy required to channel the Ocarina of Time to such an extent was too much for someone at her age. Perhaps if she were younger she would have made it without losing consciousness, but at this point she’s going to count herself lucky if she lives through it.
She lay on the ground, trying to catch her breath and restore feeling in her numbing arms. Her eyes were blurring, slowly fading to darkness, but before she fainted she beheld a blue eye in the sky with a single tear falling from it – falling towards her.