Author’s Notes: There are two Zeldas in this story.   One is the Princess Zelda that you have to rescue from a long sleep in Zelda 2: Adventure of Link and the other is the original character Princess Zelda Malin Hyrule, a Zelda from a modern age Hyrule.  To tell them apart, the Zelda from the second game is referred to as Princess Zelda and the original Zelda is just called Zelda.

Gather round, children and I shall tell you a tale of a Princess born from a god, two people in the future, and a castle that gleamed like ivory.

 

ooo

 

Once upon a time, there was a castle that gleamed like ivory near the northern coast of Hyrule.  It had been built at the same time that balls were being held for a princess with hair the color of russet.   And so it was called North Castle, the bright gem of the north.

 

However, the doors of North Castle had been locked for more than a thousand years.  They were once ornate with carved firebirds.  Once the firebirds had been inset with precious bloodgems and opals brought from far off lands.  

 

Time had been cruel to North Castle.  Vandals had picked off the jewels and had shattered the bolts that held the doors on.  Impossibly the doors stood, still locked unable to be pried from their frame.  And it had been and always would be.

 

For it was where she rested… her eternal grave.

 

ooo

 

They said her name had been Zelda and she had been a lady of much courage.  According to the legends, she had been sculpted from the same essence as the goddesses for the king and queen of Hyrule had been unable to produce another child after their son had been born. 

 

Or so the legends said.   

 

Therefore, the king and the queen had held vigil for several days after the last miscarriage in the cathedral of the goddesses.  “Give us a child,” they had begged, holding their hands up to the goddesses.

 

What happened next was something out of a legend.  Of the three statues only great stone statue of Din, the lady god of power, molted its stone skin and stood before the couple shining gold and red at the same time.  Carefully, as if aware that its current form could kill the royal family, it bent down slowly, its, or rather her eyes, blazing red.  For Din had entered the form of the stone statue and stone is very strong.  “Mortals, what do you want?  A child?”

 

The queen had nodded, her eyes still red with tears shed and unshed.  She had spent much time grieving as she recovered from her last miscarriage.  “Yes, any child.”

 

Before the king could add a single word, Din shrunk to a more manageable size and walked over to her.  Despite this, her weight seemed to remain the same as her feet left craters in the soft marble of the cathedral.  “Your husband is not off the royal bloodline… but you are the royal daughter.  This works out in your favor.”

 

The king felt his blood turn cold.  He drew his wife close and felt her shiver like a leaf.  “What does that mean?” he demanded to the stone-form of the goddess of power.

 

Din smiled with her stone teeth.  It was a cruel hard smile.  She was a goddess of power so power filled and corrupted her.  “That she will be the one to bear my child.”

 

ooo

 

“Come help me with these doors.”  HRS (Her Royal Highness) Zelda Malin Hyrule ran her fingers over the ruined iron of the gates of North Castle.  She was a beautiful woman with her white blonde hair cropped short, a circlet carelessly tossed on her head and at odds with her jeans and polo shirt.  “Hurry up.”

 

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” his voice echoed back.

 

“Well,” she said, snorting slightly, long pointed ears flaring with her impatience.

 

He was always one to take things slow.  Finally, he came up the hill, a lanky Hylian with red hair tucked under a baseball cap, several earrings in each ear, and a stud in his nose.  He was said to be the result of a long line of heroes.  Link of the Greene was his name and he was The Hero of Light.  However, he had not been the hero of much, only defeating the latest uprising of Ganon before settling in the normalcy of every day life in a modern day Hyrule. 

 

Link yawned, as he was utterly bored.  “And why do we need to see a run down castle?”

 

Princess Zelda’s eyes widened behind her designer Lon Lon shades.  “This castle is a treasure.  A dream come to life… a… a…”

 

“An eyesore,” he said, green eyes squinting.  “Isn’t it supposed to be torn down next week?”

 

Zelda slapped him.

 

Link’s hand went up to his face.   In the legends he had read in school Princess Zelda, while Tomboyish, was an utter lady.  Zelda was the completely opposite of that and cursed like a sailor when she was drunk.  Of course, others had said that the royal line had gone downhill after Tetra had appeared and colonized New Hyrule by wishing back the land into being against the last wish of a King who should have known better.  “Ow,” he said, rubbing his face, “That piercing is fresh.”

 

She looked at him, amber eyes narrowing behind sunglasses that had slipped down her face.  Even out of her usual dresses, even angry, there was a certain royal fierceness to her features, something utterly hawk-like about her.  She had a hard sharp nose and what appeared to be tiny feathers at the base of her neck.  This was no surprise since there was some Rito blood introduced a few generations back.  “Who cares about your piercing… this is a piece of my family’s history.”

 

ooo

 

The queen had entered the room where Din led her.  The door closed and the king had scratched the door until his fingertips bled and ended up scarred.  There was no sound, but an hour later, she came out, bruised around the breasts and thighs.  She had wept and flung herself into her husband’s arms.  However, the weeping was silent, marked only by the tears that ran down her face and the shaking of her body. 

 

They said after that, she never spoke again.

 

ooo

 

Link rubbed his nose, sourly.  If only she hadn’t been kidnapped.  Before that, she had been the sweetest thing with long hair flowing down her back.  After the whole kidnapping and defeating of Ganon, she had stood up, cheeks bruised and blood dripping from her nose.  “Give me your sword,” she had said in a thin and watery voice.

 

He had reluctantly handed the sword over to her and she hacked her hair off in thick chunks.  Tears dripped down her face as she did so.  The only things that fell were her tears and that seemingly endless waterfall of cut off blonde hair.  Link had moved to stop her, but found she had formed an invisible magic bubble around her.  Her hair grew more and more ragged.  “It is done,” she said, her once long hair now reduced to a tangle of hair which ranged from bristle to shoulder length.

 

After that, whatever had been between them was gone.  Zelda’s hair was still short, but more sleek than what it had been over six months ago.  It was almost like the fur on the royal family’s hunting hounds.  Something about her had changed.  It was as if something had happened to her, something that she wouldn’t tell Link about.   Perhaps something had been done to her by Ganon.  He’d ask, but the Dark Lord was locked once again in the sacred realm.

 

Even now, she still scanned the papers, cutting out articles and reading them with shaking hands.  Then she would lock them in a box and would never say anything.

 

“I don’t get you,” he said.

 

“Don’t try to get me,” she warned and leaned against the doors. 

 

Oddly, though they lacked all latches and hinges, she remained standing.  Were the doors of North Castle so thick that it was impossible to budge them?  “They say that one thousand years ago, there was a hero who was destined to save the world.”  She touched the door slowly with her hands, leaned forward, and kissed the surface.  “He did and his deeds were known far and wide.”

     

Link stifled a yawn.  Zelda was already in a foul mood.  “And?”

 

“He was a brave man who recovered the Triforces and was known throughout the land,” Zelda said.

 

Uh-oh, her jaw was clenching and her eye was twitching.  “Sounds like a good man.”

 

Zelda smirked.  “It’s a shame that his traits could not be passed down the line.  That man was your ancestor.” 

 

Her mouth relaxed and she wistfully smiled.  “However, there was a task he could not do.  He tried his best at it.”

 

“Which was?” Now he was interested.  Considering that people painted the heroes before him as perfection and examples of godhood becoming, one with a flaw was a new thing.  “Come on… let me know.”

 

Zelda sighed softly.  “He couldn’t save her.”

 

ooo

 

Princess Zelda had been born in a rush of hot blood the color of her hair.  Some people took it as an omen and that it was a curse upon the house of Hyrule.  Yet others swore that under the bright crimson were pale blonde locks of hair.  For the people of Hyrule knew their royal family was a family of blonde women, slender as twigs, breasts perched high on their torsos, and waists as slim as their wrists.  However, once the blood was cleared from her skin and hair, the nation of Hyrule somehow managed to take a deep breath in horror.

 

Princess Zelda’s hair was red as blood, redder than any Gerudo’s hair could ever hope to be, as red as the Triforce of Power was said to be. 

 

Priests came to look at the girl who was considered an evil omen, a blight on the house of Hyrule.  Healers and a Shaman came from the Far East, draped in their billowy garments, visited this girl, murmuring prayers and giving potions.  She looked up at them and cooed, blue eyes wide, the only normal things about her.

 

For the first years of her life, Princess Zelda had been a fat pollywog of a toddler following her older brother, Prince Michael, everywhere.  Much to the young prince’s embarrassment, little Princess Zelda wouldn’t leave him alone.  Instead, she waddled behind him, little legs like sausage links moving rapidly.

 

“Tell the little sausage to move,” Michael’s friend had said to him.

 

Michael looked back at Princess Zelda.  Her eyes were squinted up in her little roly-poly face and her skin was bright pink from the sun.  “Awww… I can’t,” he protested, “She’s my little sister and besides…”

 

Princess Zelda slipped on the cobblestones.  It wasn’t a bad spill, but she scraped her knee.  One look at the scrape, which was now slowly oozing blood, and her face screwed up and turned as bright red as her hair.  “I don’t like how she cries,” the friend said.

 

Running to tend to his sister, Michael glared at his friend.  “She can’t help what she is.”

 

The friend looked at Princess Zelda.  She smiled with all four of her canine teeth, sharp little things that had been the first to grow in.  “She’s a demon,” said the friend, looking at Princess Zelda warily.  “That’s what my father says.” 

 

“Bollocks,” said Michael.  Nevertheless, even he was startled by the look in those dark blue eyes.  “That’s a load of bollocks.”

 

“Maybe,” the friend said, “But that’s what the wizards say.”

 

Innocently or perhaps not so innocently, Princess Zelda chewed on the edge of her dress.  “I like this land in the north,” she said sweetly and far too clearly for a child her age, “Will you build a castle for me?”

 

Michael looked at her.  “Ask father.”

 

Little Princess Zelda toddled off, bleeding knee and soggy dress, to write her own legacy.

 

ooo

 

Zelda looked up at the crumbling edifice of North Castle.  Once it had been a beautiful castle built in a distant cousin’s honor.  Now it was a crumbling structure in Ruto City, destined to be torn down to make a theme park.

 

All because one man had failed.

 

Zelda sighed.  Lately her life had been full of hard knocks.   “Why won’t this door open?”

 

“Rusted shut?” Link guessed.  He shrugged and looked at her.  “In this case we should just go away.”

 

She leaned against the door.  “These are stone doors.  Or wood from an ironwood tree.  I can’t tell.”

 

Link walked back and forth, knocking on the doors.  Each knock made a metallic ring, which much to Zelda’s disgust proved that the doors were rusted shut.  “Let’s go home,” he suggested, “Why should we hang around this South Castle?”

 

Zelda snorted.  “South Castle?  It’s North Castle… wrong direction.”

 

“Whatever it is,” Link said, “It’s creepy and obviously not opening even if I say Please.”  He rested his left hand against the door.

 

“Stop kidding around,” Zelda scolded him, “This is my family’s legacy.”

 

She tossed a punch at him.  Link dodged it and somehow his hand slipped into an unseen hole at the side of the gate.

 

Suddenly the gates of the castle glowed for a few seconds.

 

It was a bright light, red, blue, green, gold, and silver all at once.  It was nothing and it was something.  It was a start and an end all in one.  After thousands of years of being sealed, the gate of North Castle shuddered and crumbled into dust.  It was an underwhelming end for such a mighty gate.  Even one stripped of its former glory. 

 

“That’s it?” Link said, squinting his eyes.  There was still dust in the air from the destruction of the gates.  Somehow, he expected it to be grander.  “I guess saying please worked.”

 

Zelda shook her head and tucked her shades into the pocket of her shirt.  “Couldn’t be it.”

 

Link remained leaning against the wall.  “Has to be it…. wait a second.”  He lifted his hand to reveal a small crest of the triforce.

 

It was covered slightly by plaster, obviously by workers back in the 89450s during one of the many building sprees Ruto City had gone through in that era.  Paint up those dull windows and cover up those old cracks.  We don’t want to see those bastards in Nabooru Town get the university.    “Oh, a Triforce crest,” Zelda said, peering at it and running her hands over the gold surface, “Not gilt, but solid gold.  Probably set to respond to the triforce in your body.”

 

Link took off his cap and bowed.  “I do my best.”  His bright red hair glowed in the light of the sun and he was on his way to a sunburn.  For a moment, Zelda felt like a real princess and not a figurehead to appear on Hyrule News Network.  “You okay?”

 

She nodded and lied, “I’m fine.”

 

They walked forth into the hall of North Castle.  Ancient banners of rotting silk and velvet hung from massive gold rods suspended by rusting chains.  Ages ago, the Princess Zelda who she had been named after had lived here.  Moreover, it was where she rested after the wizard Kasuto had cursed the young princess at the peak of her youth.  “So this is it, huh?” Link asked.  “What happened here?”

 

Zelda pointed to an ancient picture.  It was badly faded, but painted by an expert eye.  In it, a young girl, in her midteens, sat in a small throne made for a princess.  Her hair was scarlet, which was clear even through the grime, age, and dust.  A gold circlet kept those crimson locks bound back until they spilled over the shoulders of a pink beribboned dress.  “There she is.”

 

“There she is,” Link repeated and stared.  Zelda decided that the girl must have had some rather red hair if her portrait’s painted, faded hair could make Link’s red hair look almost pinkish.  “Who is she?”

 

Zelda felt like slapping him.  “This is Princess Zelda the First.  She is a hero in her own right.”

 

“Oh,” he said, “Don’t slap me for this but what made her a hero?”

 

“Because I was silent and said nothing,” a voice said.  “That’s what the legend said.  By the way, the legend is wrong.”

 

It was clear as a bell and musical as the wind blowing through what was left of the lost woods.  Link panicked, rushing for the entrance before Zelda located the origin of the voice.  It was right near the entrance to the throne room.

 

“Link, stop!” she called and he skidded to a stop and looked around in confusion.  “Over there!”

 

There was a translucent girl standing at the entrance to the throne room.  Her dress was puffy and pink with a long ribbon at the back and several more at the hem.  And her hair…  Zelda touched her own cropped locks and regretted cutting them so short.  “I love your hair,” Ganon had said.

 

No, there would be nothing for anyone to grab anymore.  The ghost (for what else could it be) looked at them.  “Welcome to North Castle.  Have you come to rescue me?”

 

“Yes,” Zelda said eagerly, “Are you Princess Zelda?”

 

The two of them waited for her answer.  Link didn’t wait in silence.  “But what did she do?”

 

Princess Zelda laughed softly.  “I saved the Kingdom at the expense of my life.”

 

Zelda gasped.  “But the legend said the wizard Kasuto put you into a deep sleep.”

 

“Alas,” the princess sighed, holding her hands up to her chest, “That is what the legends say, which are still horribly wrong.  No, I am dead.  And that is why the ancient hero was unable to save me even with the triforce united.”  

 

Link finally broke in, “That’s all well and good, but what’s the story with this ghost princess?  Can we just go?”

 

“No,” Zelda said, “We came here to save her and save is what we will do.

 

Princess Zelda looked amused.

 

“What’s with ghost girl?” Link asked, jerking a thumb in the princess’s direction.

 

Zelda had to admit she didn’t know.  “I can imagine you came here with the hero… what is his title?”

 

“The Hero of Light,” Zelda supplied remember how Link had found the Candlestick of the Midnight Sun and saved her, be it a bit too late for her virginity.  She shuddered and pushed the memory out of her mind.  “He’s the Hero of Light and his name is Link of the Greene.”

 

“And you?” the ghost of Princess Zelda said.  “A servant in plain clothes.  Such a plain ugly face.”

 

Zelda stiffened with rage.  “I am Her Royal Highness Princess Zelda Malin Hyrule.”

 

“It’s a nice name,” said the ghost. “It’s my name too.  Well, I hate to tell you this… you are late.” 

 

“What do you mean?” Link asked.

 

“My body is reduced to bones.”

 

And so, she told them how she ended up that way.

 

ooo

 

When North Castle was completed, the King of Hyrule fell ill.  He was an old king and yet there was no doubt in the people of Hyrule’s mind that this was no more then a minor bug.  He could shrug it off.

 

Princess Zelda, who had finally grown curved and sleek from onset of her monthlies, took over the job of his care with what many said was her Princessly Duties.  Yet, oddly, in her care, the king grew worse.  Finally, Kasuto, the Prince’s best friend and sorcerer-in-training told Michael that he would discover what was going on.

 

He followed her that day.  “Oh, hello,” she said, none too sweetly when she was about the enter the royal bedchambers, “If it isn’t my old enemy.”

 

“Back, you harpy,” Kasuto said and traced the shape of the triforce on his chest, “I only came to see what you are doing to the king.”

 

“Nothing,” said Princess Zelda, slipping past them, “As long as you watch me.”

 

The door closed behind her.

 

ooo

 

The king died that evening.  While Zelda wept and tore at her clothing, Kasuto noticed there was a certain falseness to it.  But that was of little matter.  Prince Michael Phillip Hyrule was about to be crowned king and named guardian of the Triforce.   The moment he touched it, he would be blessed by the goddesses themselves. 

 

That was not to happen.

 

Michael looked at his sister, dressed her best pink dress.  He smiled and she waved.  Yes… he could do this.

 

The moment he touched the Triforce, it split leaving him with the Triforces of Power and Wisdom in his now trembling hands.  “What?” he said, finally realizing what Kasuto said was true.

 

The room’s occupants were frozen and Princess Zelda stood, the Triforce of Courage in her hands.  “Ask me,” she said, “And I’ll tell you nothing?”

 

Kasuto ran into the room with a powerful wand stolen from a Wizrobe.  Its ivory length sparkled and glimmered with untold power.  “Answer us, witch.”

 

Princess Zelda laughed, “A witch?  That’s rich?  I am a daughter of the goddess Din.”

 

“I don’t care about the circumstances surrounding your birth,” Kasuto said, holding his hand forward, “Give that Triforce piece back to your King, witch or I shall kill you.”

 

“My King?  You mean that fool with the imbalanced heart?” she laughed, “How rich… as it so happens father told this would happen before he died and more.  I guess he was right.”

 

“Tell me what you know.”

 

Princess Zelda shook her head.  “I don’t think so.”

 

The young king looked at Kasuto.  “What can we do?” he asked softly, “Clearly my sister has the advantage.  His hands wavered causing the Triforce pieces in them to flicker.  “I should give these to her.”

 

She smiled. 

 

“No,” Kasuto said.  His hand was raised, staff starting to crackle, “We still have a chance.  Tell us what you wrestled out of your dying father’s body.”

 

“No,” Princess Zelda said, her voice and eyes cold, “I don’t think so.”

 

ooo

 

“And he cast a spell and I died right there,” Princess Zelda said, “My brother denied my death and tried to have me recreated as a saint.  He believed that some part of me was still good.  It did work… and therefore all firstborn females in the house of Hyrule are named Zelda.”  She shook her head.  “What a fool he was.”

 

Link and Zelda stood in dumbfounded silence.

 

“But when the hero came, there was no use reviving my body.   I wouldn’t have wanted it anyway… it was beginning to rot and smelt quite bad.  In fact, in ear had fallen off.  Can you believe that?”

 

“Your body?” Zelda asked and for the first time in a long while sought comfort by clutching Link’s hand. 

 

Link could feel her tremble slowly and stroked her short hair with one hand.  She let him.  With the other he reached his bag for the miniscule candle that had banished Ganon the last time he had been resurrected.  The Candle of the Midnight sun was an immensely powerful object equal to the moon pearl and the Ocarina of Time. 

 

“Its bones now,” Princess Zelda said, gesturing to a room whose door had long been torn away. 

 

Slowly, Link and Zelda walked through the door, their hair entangled in the dust and cobwebs that hung from the frame.  Link kept telling himself that there was no way this could be a princess of the house of Hyrule.  Sure enough, there was a figure covered by a veil.

 

“This can’t be your ancestor,” he said.

 

“I don’t know anymore,” she said, “Pull back the veil; I can’t bear to do it myself.”

 

Slowly he pulled the veil away to reveal the bones of Princess Zelda the First.  The scraps of what had been a pink dress clung to her body and fragile remains of red hair clung to her skull.  “Do you see?” Princess Zelda said, “The body is gone, useless.  So I’m very glad you came here.”

 

Zelda looked like she didn’t want to ask the question, so Link asked it for her.  “What the hell do you mean?”

 

His hand tightened on the candle, only a few inches long at the moment.  He could will it to grow to full size in less than a second.  Princess Zelda (if that was Princess Zelda) wouldn’t know what hit her.  He would protect Zelda, his Zelda, as he couldn’t half a year ago.  The Candle of the Midnight Sun had been forged after the last hero had passed away two hundred years ago by Sheikah and Goron candle makers to “Light the way back for spirits who had no place in this world.”  He knew it had worked in Ganon’s case when he had shoved the flame directly in the rotten, twisted, demonic flesh of the once Gerudo king.  Princess Zelda pointed at Zelda, her distant cousin by a span of time long past, “I want her body.”

 

“You can’t!” Zelda gasped, “It’s not right and I’m using this body at the moment.”

 

Princess Zelda tossed back her ghostly head and laughed, “Frankly, I don’t care, my dear.  I will take your body and rule over Hyrule from my North Castle.  The power here… if you knew the secrets of this castle’s location, would you destroy it?”

 

“That’s not my choice to make,” Zelda said, gritting her teeth, “That is the choice of the council of races.”

 

Link gripped the candle in his hands.  Could he do this quickly enough?  Could he save her?

 

“Parliament?” Princess Zelda raised an eyebrow, “Lady Gods above… father dismissed that as new age fanatical politics… and you went with that?  No wonder your line has gone downhill.  Hylians must be intermingling as well.  You, my namesake must be part Rito and your Link of the Greene must have some Gerudo blood in him.”

 

“My hero line doesn’t intermingle with a traitor’s race,” Link growled, “Or the spawn of a goddess of corrupt power.”

 

“Corrupt?  Is that how you think of Din, she who created this rocky plane and sculpted the ley lines under this very castle?  Din, my father, my patron, my blood?”

 

Ley lines!  That was it.  There had to be a node of power under the castle.  (Zelda…) he sent to her in a weak telepathic plea, (Did you hear that?)

 

(Yes.) Zelda gave a mental nod.  (Node of Power.  The more she manifests herself, I can sense it.  Under those seven stones she’s standing on.)  She sent him an image of a raw pulsing mass of flesh. 

 

Link reeled mentally, but kept a grip on the tiny candle knowing it was the only way defeat a spirit such as Princess Zelda.  Nodes of Power, unlike Nodes of Courage and Wisdom, grew so quickly that the magic going through the ley lines grew corrupted in the core of node.  This one was black with power and hate.  No wonder the sleeping princess turned ghost had chosen the location.  Only a power source as strong as a node could keep her fragile spirit in the plane as long as it was intact and connected to even a single ley line.  Once all connects were severed, the node would rot and take the princess ghost with it.  On this node, there were four ley lines, thick things that pulsed with the magic flowing through them.  (Can you break the lines to the node?)

 

(I think so ) she thought back as Princess Zelda realized their silence wasn’t out of awe for her power.

 

“Are you going to destroy me?” she snarled, “Destroying me will destroy the last chance for the House of Hyrule to be powerful!  You will make that chance die with me!”

 

Zelda glared at the ghost, face scarlet with rage.  “Then it should die.”

 

Link let the candle finally grow to its full size.  It was an odd candle, silver with runes carved into it in red.  It glowed with a power that was oddly cold.  Meanwhile he could feel Zelda activate the small blade of power she wore as a simple bracelet on her left wrist.

 

One ley line was severed with a crackling sound and the effect was immediate.  Protoplasm dripped from a gaping cut that had opened in Princess Zelda’s pretty face.  Zelda looked at Link and made a motion as if she was lighting a candle.  She had to dart away as the evil Princess shot a bolt from her hands.  Even incorporeal she was a force to be reckoned with.

 

The bolt skidded across the flesh of Zelda’s back.  She hissed in pain and severed another ley line.  Link gripped the Candle of the Midnight Sun.  This was no time to be watching.  “Light!” he commanded it.

 

The candle was so used to his commands that it no longer needed to hear the complex spell.  Unlike the fight with Ganon, there was no way he could use the gilded Master Sword in this match.  A flame the color of blackness etched with silver flickered on an invisible wick.  Link smiled as he crept up behind Princess Zelda.  He could do this.

 

“I’ll ask you not to run,” the princess said, ectoplasm now dripping from her shoulder.

 

“Go to hell where you belong,” Zelda growled and hacked a glowing ley line.

 

As the tumor of a power node spasmed, Princess Zelda coughed up glowing gunk.  Link gripped the candle and ran forward.  If he failed, Zelda would no longer be Zelda.  He had to do this.  There was no other way to save the woman he love.

 

“Look here, Princess,” he said loudly.

 

Princess Zelda turned just as the flame was forced into her ghostly face.  She screamed and suddenly her hair and dress went up in ghostly flames.  “That’s it!” Zelda said as the candle flared in his hand and began to melt.

 

Hot wax dripped over his hands and forearms but Link kept the flame in the ghost’s face.  Despite her long buried crimes, her screams were heartrending as she begged for Din to put out the flames.  Still, he would not waver as Zelda’s blade ripped through the last stringy ley line that led to the core of Princess Zelda’s power.  He looked into the ruin of his face.  He saw Ganon, he saw corruption, he saw the goddesses, and she saw him.  It was like seeing death.

 

When the ghost finally faded from sight, it was a relief.  She had simply flowed into the seven stones which where now pulsing slowly as if in pain.  “That’s it,” Zelda panted, “We’ve cornered her.  I dare not fight her no more.”  Her clothes were sticky with sweat and her hair stood up in clumps.  She was beautiful… more beautiful then the ancient Zelda had been. 

 

“Zelda…” he said and brushed a hand against her cheek.  They were together again; they had made it through the storm in one piece.  “Let’s live again.”

 

She suddenly sobbed in relief and threw herself against his chest.  “Oh Link… I’m so sorry I didn’t believe in you.  I’m so sorry.”

 

“Come on,” he said, not looking at the pulsing stones, “Let’s go.”

 

“Yes,” Zelda softly, “Let North Castle be torn down and reduced to memory.  I don’t care anymore.”

 

As they left, they heard the edge of a pleading voice.  However, it was trapped in the stones where the now decaying power node laid.

 

ooo

 

Once there was a gleaming white castle in the north of Hyrule called North Castle. 

 

It was gone now save for seven stones the demolition crews could not remove.  It is said that is where the power node is, still decaying as it has for the last ten thousand years.  They say at the rate that such a node decays at, one day it will be gone.  They also say the ghost of Princess Zelda the first had gathered much power while she had lived in the halls of the castle.  I repeat only what I hear so forgive this storyteller if she be wrong.

 

They are old stones, unremarkable.  However, at night when the air the city is so still and silent that your heartbeat beats as loud as a drum, they say the stones glow.  And if the wind blows just right over the stones, some people say they can hear a girl saying something about it only being a joke and pleading to be set free.  On other nights, she weeps and it is like having one foot inside your grave.

 

But it’s only a legend?

 

Right?

 

The End

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