Time Cannot Erase

Say my name
Sun shines through the rain
A whole life so lonely
And then you come and ease the pain
I don't want to lose this feeling…
~Eternal Flame "The Bangles"

Chapter 2
Closing the Path

It was barely dawn when Zelda awoke to the sound of something thumping against her window. Rubbing her eyes groggily she rolled out of bed. She felt considerably younger today. The sensation of being a teenager trapped in the body of a child had slowly been ebbing away. Today there was no awkward feeling as she hoisted her small body from bed or when she stood on her short legs. Her mind felt different too. She felt more natural. She was a child again, and it felt right.

It was hard to remember now what it felt like to be a young woman: tall and slender and hardened by the world around her. It took time to readjust to her old life of luxury, privilege and safety. To wake up in a real bed in her old room and look in the mirror and see her own face: it was like living out a strange dream.

She made her way across her tower room to the window just in time to see something small and round sailing through the air strait at her face. She ducked as quickly as possible, the small object barely missing her. It hit the wall behind her and bounced to the floor. Once she recovered from the shock she peered out the window to find Link standing in the grass below, clumsily hiding a slingshot behind his back.

"I'm sorry, Princess, I didn't mean to!" Link stammered.

"Link, it's so early," Zelda called down. "What is it?"

"It's just that, well, I couldn't sleep. Today's the day," he ended, speaking just loud enough for her to hear him, but not loud enough to wake the rest of the castle.

Realization hit Zelda and her eyes flew open. "I'll be right down! Meet me at the Temple."

Ten minutes later Zelda was trudging through the dewy grass on the path to the Temple of Time, Impa not far behind her. Zelda had tried to get out alone, but the guards would not think of letting her pass without Impa accompanying her.

"The Hero of Time doesn't seem to have much of a concept of time, does he?" Impa yawned as the Temple came into view.

"I think he's worried," Zelda said quietly. "I am too."

"To be honest," Impa replied, "I am a little wary myself."

"We are right, aren't we? This is the day?" Zelda looked back at Impa, her short, blonde hair bouncing as she walked. It was early spring, but the morning was still chilly. Zelda wore a warm, hooded cloak over her dress. She relished every moment she didn't spend in Princess Attire.

"Yes, it was one week after the new year celebration, to the day. I remember it clearly."

"What do you think will happen, when we come to the time?" Zelda asked as she stooped to pick a flower and tucked it behind her ear.

"I'm not sure. We have a while to wait, though. Ganondorf's attack didn't come until nearly sunset. We will just have to wait and see," she smiled comfortingly at Zelda.

Link was waiting at the courtyard in front of the Temple. Zelda loved it here. The busy, bustling streets of Hyrule Castle town were always buzzing with people rushing about their lives, but the courtyard just beyond the square was always a place of quiet solitude. There were reflecting pools which echoed the image of the towering, beautiful temple above. There were trees surrounding the grassy lawn. It was always tranquil here, and always peaceful. It was possibly Zelda's favorite place to be.

Link was definitely nervous, though he didn't want to show it. Zelda knew that staying rooted in one spot was difficult for Link. They had been back for a few weeks and Zelda could tell he was itching for adventure. The more they had discussed it, however, the more Link came to realize that all was not yet well.

They had tampered with time. They were rewriting history, and that is a dangerous business. They had discussed it with Impa, and she had agreed. Link had promised to stay in town at least until this day. He wanted to be near Zelda and Impa if anything happened. The more they considered it, the more they came to realize how little they knew about what they had gotten into. Soon enough, however, they would see.

Link was glad he had stayed. He had attended his first New Year's celebration, one week earlier on the first day of spring. They had never celebrated the New Year or the changing of the seasons in Kokiri Forest, because they didn't exist. It was always spring in Kokiri Forest with every tree and every flower in constant bloom. There was no New Year because, to the Kokiri, the passage of time meant very little. When you do not age and you do not die, time loses almost all meaning. For the Kokiri, life is simply life. It goes on and on, with little consequence from the world around them or the passage of time.

Spring marked the renewal of the year: a time of change and rebirth. Each year the first day of spring marked the coming of the New Year: a cause for great celebration. Link had been delighted with the festivities. Each year a different town or land would host the party and all of Hyrule would gather in a celebration which began in the morning and lasted all night long until the stroke of midnight told them that the New Year had begun.

Zelda had told Link that this was the only time of the year her Father let her leave the confines of Hyrule Castle town. If he truly had his way, she said, Zelda would not set foot out of the Castle itself- ever. It was a rare treat, indeed, for Zelda to walk the path from Castle Town and out into the world beyond.

This year Lon Lon ranch had hosted the celebration. Link and Zelda had spent the whole day playing together in the attractions which had been brought in from all over Hyrule. Link won her a prize at the shooting gallery, where no one in Hyrule could compete with his shooting skills. She had smoked him with bombachu bowling, though. Zelda savored every experience she got to act like a normal child: to play and run and laugh without worrying about keeping up appearances. It had been a wonderful experience, and Link was glad he had been there.

As she reflected on their time at the festival Zelda's mind wandered back to the first time they had met. Zelda had always had a rebellious streak in her. One day she had snuck out of the castle, away from Impa even, and had gone to the market. There she met a boy who was having trouble paying for the food he had eaten from a cart.

She smiled. It was so like Link to get buried in trouble before looking around and realizing he had no way out.

He and she had spent the whole day together. It was the best day of her life, the day she realized she could never heed her father's orders that she remain in the castle.

Now, one week after the coming of Spring, she sat in the grass in the shadow of the Temple of Time, waiting for the moment to arrive: the moment that he had pulled the Master Sword from the pedestal. That was it: the hinge upon which the gates of time swung. There was no way of knowing what would happen when this path of time converged with the path he and Zelda had once set Hyrule upon. Neither he, nor Zelda, nor Impa, nor anyone else could tell what that moment of divergence would bring, but they would soon find out.

In the hours they waited the three became lost in conversation. They discussed the triumphs and travails of the past. They laughed at things they had seen or done at the festival. Link even began to teach Zelda a few moves with his sword.

"You're a natural!" Link exclaimed as Zelda practiced. The sun was getting higher in the sky and the air growing warmer. Zelda had removed her cloak a while back.

"Thank you," she replied. She tried a wider sweeping blow and lost her balance and fell to the ground.

Link couldn't help but laugh. Even Impa chuckled slightly. Zelda frowned playfully. Forsaking the sword she pointed her finger at Link and a tiny fireball shot from its tip. Link's laughter ceased as he shot his shield up in front of him which quickly caught fire.

"Hey," he half shouted, half laughed, beating the small flame out.

Zelda giggled but quickly gasped as Link retaliated with his own playful fireball. Zelda spun around once, a shield of purple light encasing her. Link's fireball hit it and backfired. He yelped as he ducked to avoid it. The two continued to play their game of flaming tag until they couldn't stand any longer through all of their laughter.

"All right, that's enough you two," Impa smiled. "You'd best stop before you burn down the temple. Zelda giggled once more as she lay in the grass. She couldn't remember ever feeling more lighthearted and free.

To her surprise Impa turned with a quick, stern look. In a solemn voice she whispered, "We are getting close."

The three sat in silence from that moment on. The only sound was the soft chirping of birds and the wind rustling through the trees. The sky had taken on a golden, orange glow. Even though the air was cooling as the sun began to set, the deep, rich colors left the world feeling bright and warm.

Link thought back as hard as possible. He had emerged triumphant from Zora's Domain holding the Spiritual Stone of water late that spring afternoon. As he approached Hyrule castle he had been surprised to see the gates still closed, as they normally opened at dawn to admit travelers into the city and didn't close until just after sunset. Though still a while before dusk, the sky had clouded over and the world had turned as dark and bleak as the middle of the night. As he approached, Zelda and Impa had ridden out over the bridge, fleeing from Ganondorf, who was not far behind. He had immediately run to the Temple of Time to open the door.

They had to be getting close. Any moment now, he knew it.

All at once the entire courtyard went silent: a painful silent, as though all sound had been drained away, leaving the air devoid of life. The world became suddenly strained and tense. Zelda and Link exchanged glances, but at that second the Temple gave a great shudder. The entire building began to quake.

The doors flew open. The trembling of the Temple seemed to expand, and, like a great wave, the vibration rippled outward from the building. In a circular motion the wave expanded, causing everything it touched to quiver to the point of near destruction.

Fear gripped Zelda as the wave crashed over her. She felt her whole body shake, down to the very center of her being. She fell to the ground, trembling.

As the shock washed over her, before her eyes appeared a vision of the life she had lived after Link had pulled the sword. She saw herself, exiled and alone, assuming a new identity. The constant fleeing, the fear of being discovered, the joy when she saw Link for the first time after seven long years, the endless struggles, the constant danger, her capture by Ganondorf, the final battle: every memory flashed through her mind in an instant with power and intensity beyond endurance.

Link had not been prepared to have his mind assaulted with every memory of his former life crammed into one painful instant. The shock of Hyrule being laid to waste, his continuous battles to reclaim the six temples, his confrontations with Ganondorf, reunions with old friends, the tragedies that befell others, his pain, his suffering, his toil, the final conflict where he risked all to rescue Zelda and save Hyrule: it flashed before his eyes, consuming him. It was too much to bear.

As the wave passed over them, continuing to ripple out, sending a tremor over the entire land of Hyrule, Link and Zelda's small bodies crumpled to the ground, overwhelmed by their experiences. Darkness took them, and they knew no more.

******************************

Zelda opened her eyes to find herself standing in a room unlike any other she had ever seen. She was standing on a platform that seemed to be composed of light, floating above a bottomless chasm. Everything glowed with a strange, blue light.

"Welcome to the Chamber of Sages," a grizzled, husky voice spoke to her. "Rauru!" Zelda called. She broke into a smile. They were all there before her: Rauru, Saria, Darunia, Ruto, Impa, Nabooru and Link.

"It has been a while," Rauru smiled.

Saria rushed at Zelda, embracing her. Nabooru winked affectionately. Darunia pounded his chest and smiled. Impa looked as calm and unreadable as always. Ruto walked slowly up to Zelda, looking grim and serious. It struck Zelda that Ruto was a child. She had never known Ruto as a child before. Ruto cleared her throat and spoke to her in her most adult and dignified voice.

"Princess Zelda, I have not yet had a chance to thank you for what you did that day when you rescued me from Ganondorf's curse." Ruto's face broke into a mischievous smile, "So why haven't you come to visit me yet?"

Zelda laughed and pulled Ruto into a hug. "I wanted to," Zelda replied longingly, "but father wouldn't hear of it."

"You should do what I do," Ruto replied knowingly. "Just don't listen and do whatever you want."

Zelda shook her head sadly, "I don't dare risk it now. Father's furious with me. I tried to tell him the truth about Link and he blew up. He accused me of making up wild tales to get his attention. He ordered me out of his sight and forbid me to speak of Link or the Triforce or the sages ever again."

Link clenched his fists and bit his tongue. The more he learned about her father the more Link disliked him. What gave him the right to call Zelda a liar and demean her? The pain he caused her made Link furious, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it. The thought that Zelda was in such trouble and misery for trying to defend Link made it all the more worse.

"What's going on here?" Zelda asked, suddenly snapping back to reality.

"What are we all doing here? What happened to us?" She turned to Link.

"The chain of events has begun," Rauru spoke and everyone turned to him. "The results of your actions are starting to take shape," he addressed Zelda. "You did and wise and noble thing, Princess, by returning Link to the past. You were right in your thinking. This course is the only way to ensure that Ganon is sealed away for good. When this timeline collided with the alternate timeline Link created when he pulled the Master Sword the impact of the collision was felt as the current timeline overlapped with the alternate timeline and began to erase it. The tremor you felt emanating from the Temple was time changing course as the gates of time began to close. The timeline you once created and existed in is vanishing with every second that passes in the timeline we now exist in. Time is erasing itself: being replaced by this new reality. The gate to that path is closing: never to be opened again.

"Princess, your wisdom is unsurpassable. You not only sealed Ganondorf away, you have eliminated his very existence," Rauru smiled.

"It is working then?" Zelda cried in elation.

"Yes," Rauru replied.

"Then Zelda was right. Ganon has never existed," Link said in awe.

"For all intents and purposes, yes. That is the beauty of Zelda's and the Sages' seal: it exists here, in the sacred realm where time is virtually meaningless. A seal created here is timeless: unaffected by the passage of time. You sealed him away from the past, present and future. It is truly as though he never existed, to everyone but us, that is.

"His existence will never be known, his evil deeds never done, his darkness never felt."

"Then the path of time is closed," Link asked.

"Not quite," Rauru replied. "It is closing. Until you pass the moment you defeated Ganon and sealed him away, the other timeline still exists. But, as I said, it is fading with every second we travel this path. In seven years time it will be closed and lost forever. Ganon will be truly gone."

"We've done it then!" Link cried joyfully.

Rauru looked grave still. "I called you all here to make sure you understand the importance of your duties as the Hero of Time and the Sages. Until that gate closes completely we must keep constant vigilance. Though it is our saving grace, it also leaves Hyrule in a precarious situation. The paths of time are now quite unstable. Our responsibilities are not over. We must do all we can to ensure that the gate of time closes and that Ganondorf is erased."

"We understand," Zelda replied. Link and the others were nodding fervently.

"You must return now," Rauru motioned to Link and Zelda. "Your duties lie in Hyrule."

"What of the Sages?" Zelda asked, her eyes locking on Impa.

"Though they will be allowed to live their lives in Hyrule, much of their responsibilities lie here."

"Do not worry, Princess," Impa replied. "You haven't lost me. I'll rejoin you soon."

"Besides, you have to come and visit Zora's domain," Ruto nearly demanded, "and I will have to be there to welcome you. You too, Link," she added with a giggle. Link began to blush and mumble something under his breath.

"You must come to Kokiri forest as well!" Saria called to Zelda and Link with a smile. "I'll be waiting for you both."

"You're always welcome in Goron city," Darunia boomed in his deep voice.

"And Geurudo Valley," Nabooru smiled. "Tell your father it is a diplomatic mission, he may fall for that!"

Zelda laughed as she waved farewell to her friends. As she waved they began to fade and she felt herself slipping back into Hyrule, leaving the Chamber of Sages behind.

Forsaking the sword she pointed her finger at Link and a tiny fireball shot from its tip. Link's laughter ceased as he shot his shield up in front of him which quickly caught fire.

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