Chapter 6 - In Castle Walls

-here-

"And then, I says, I says to this guy... Huh? Danno, have you got boulders in your head as well as your stomach? Are you even listening to me?" The guards on the gate chatted away carelessly. No-one would trouble them, they knew. For a start, there was nothing to trouble them over. The queen had made a point of regular appearances and audiences with the Hylian townsfolk ever since she'd been free of possible retribution via helix-bladed sword. And for another...
"Yeah, Coll. I'm listening. You's just boring the rocks off me."
For another, one of the guards was the castle's first Goron employee. Darunia's little brother - which had always made him the butt of jokes - he had set out for town looking for something he could do where he didn't feel literally like Big Brother was watching him. His presence on the gate seemed to terrify any potential intruders - even though he was naturally gentle, his idea of gentle as applied to organic races' physiology often left them with a broken bone or two. Word had gotten round...
But someone obviously hadn't heard, and was heading up the path towards the castle with a confidence that suggested that no-one would stand in his way.
"Hey... Look over there. Does that guy look a bit familiar to you? Could almost be old..."
"Aw, hell, Danno! That's him! See?"
"Thought he was dead."
"Thought wrong. Her highness is gonna freak out. Oh, man... what're we gonna do..."
"Pull your chain mail straight?"
"Easy for you to say. You haven't got any."

-

Link trotted Epona up the path towards Hyrule Castle. So far, his disguise was holding. No-one had even looked too closely - for all they knew, he could be the figure of their fear down to the ground, and they'd found it best not to stare.
This felt wrong. Taking off a mask to effectively put it on again. He couldn't believe what he was doing... but really, he had to find out what was happening to him. Not just the mask problem, but those strange shifts in time he'd experienced too. The castle library would hold the answers, no doubt.
And besides... there were things left there he really wanted to reclaim as his own. Oni's treasures then, and Link's possessions now. Spoils of war, mostly, but some of them precious beyond compare, so much so that he was about to go behind his own back to retrieve them. One thing in particular had to be retrieved... He hadn't mentioned them to Alena or Malon. He hadn't wanted to seem selfish - or too much like his old self.
He picked something out of a pocket. Thanks, 'Lena, he thought, before clasping a fine silver wire around his neck. Immediately, the blue colour faded from his eyes. He hadn't wanted to use it so far, but coming up to the castle he thought it might be wise to complete the illusion.
Okay, Sheik. I understand how you did it now. Just a simple bit of magic, really...
Alena had been a bit shy about acknowledging that she knew how her mother had disguised herself for fifteen years, but she'd revealed the truth in the end. It turned out the key to the whole thing was the pendant that Alena had brought with her. A 'Shadow's Pearl', she'd called it. A rare stone, precious to the Sheikah, that under the power of a magic-bearing mind could produce simple illusions - say, changing red eyes brown, and blue eyes to red... or white. Unable to use it herself, she had given it to Link readily. It had taken some trial and error to make it do anything, but now things were working perfectly.
He tucked the pearl out of sight and concentrated on carrying himself as he would have when he was someone else.

-

The queen of Hyrule walked through the corridors, pensive. Things had reached a critical stage in the negotiations with the Gerudo ambassador. Perhaps now, two years after a war started by one man's bloodlust and longing for revenge, there was a chance at peace...

Zelda stopped in her tracks, as she saw the armoured figure step around the corner. No - how could it be? She'd thought he'd vanished. The troops had all reported that he'd disappeared from the battlefield. Some had thought him dead, but they'd never found the body... some, totally unbelieved, claimed they'd seen a boy fleeing the battlefield wearing his armour - but how could he have been destroyed?
As it turned out, he hadn't.
And things were going so well, she thought...

She walked up to him and tried to speak calmly, remembering just in time not to use the name that he had borne as a child.
"I see you've returned, Oni."
He flinched and turned round, surprise written in his expression. He suddenly seemed to remember himself, and removed something from around his neck. Instantly, his eyes began to shine a brilliant blue... blue?
With a jolt, Zelda realised. This wasn't... this was...
"My name is Link, your highness. It always was."
"Time was, you'd have killed me for saying that to you. So. Why have you come back, then?"
Link dropped to one knee, respectfully. With his eyes closed, it was hard for Zelda to decide what she was seeing. "I am here only to apologise for the terrible things I did to you, when I was truly who you thought I was. I swear that if there is any way I can make up any tiny fraction of the damage I have done, to you and your country... I will serve you as long as I am able, if you will accept me into your service again..."
Zelda turned around. "I understand what you are saying. My mind can accept it, and has already forgiven you. But I am afraid my heart may never. Please. O... I mean, Link - leave me here. Leave me to my thoughts. If there are any other things you have to do while you are here, do so. But now - I am afraid that I cannot talk to you..." She walked away, quietly. "One day, perhaps you will return and I will embrace you as the hero I know you are. But, for now..."
"I understand, your highness," Link whispered. "I understand."
As far as anyone here's concerned, even Zelda - I'm still the Fierce Deity. I think I'd better give them what they expect. He clipped the amulet back around his neck, and his eyes started to blaze white from within.
But it feels wrong... so wrong...
...Or is it?... People see me as Fierce Link, not just Link... so who am I, then?...

-

The library had been unenlightening. The closest thing had been an obscure passage, almost unreadable...
"The link between past and future will never lose the face he once bore, as he and it are one..."
That had not been the sort of thing that Link had wanted to read. He had left shortly afterwards, and headed towards the castle towers. Eventually, he paused outside one room in the castle's far reaches.
The door creaked open, and Link found himself in his old chambers - or at least, Fierce Link's, Oni's. Dust covered every surface. It was clear nothing had been touched. Perhaps they had been too frightened, he thought...
These rooms had been his for his six-year residency at the castle. He couldn't really call it a 'bedroom' as the Fierce Deity had never needed to sleep as other men did - the closest thing to a bed was a chair pushed up against a wall. Instead, the setting reflected its owner's personality...
Arranged over almost every available surface were trophies of many a battle. Probably the majority had been gained during his explorations of Hyrule's far reaches - most of it weaponry that the Fierce Deity had taken from its fallen owner. A map hung on a wall displayed features of the country that not many people realised existed - the simple reason being that not many cartographers had been out that far and returned to tell the tale. Crosses on the map marked his so-called victories, scenes of bloodshed and destruction.
This place, if anywhere, brought memories of his fierce days back to Link. Part of him was sickened by what he saw... but not all...

He looked around. Yes - there was the ebony-and-silver longbow, a prize from a duke's tournament. He slung it over his back. Next to where the bow had hung sat a long dagger, its blade one pure piece of perfectly sharp volcanic diamond. It's probably unique, Link mused, and reached out to pick it up watching his own reflection in the shining crystal. You're lucky to have found something like this, Oni'kara...
Link swore, and jumped back in shock and surprise.
He hadn't used that name in two years. He hadn't heard it either. Most people he knew had just shortened it to Oni - and indeed still did - but Link knew where it came from. He'd chosen the name himself, after all, when he could not stand the last literal 'link' to his past...
Why did I just call myself... Am I forgetting who I am? Or am I remembering?
He sheathed the dagger by his side, and moved on. The next item seemed a little out of place, having nothing as it did with combat. It was a small, ornate wooden harp, similar to the one 'Sheik' had played. Link idly strummed at its strings, eventually picking out the flowing notes of the Song of Soaring...

-there-

A wind whipped Link off his feet and left him... How had he gotten here? The ruins of the castle, where he had fought Ganondorf the first time - twelve years ago by his timescale, but only five to anyone else.

This wasn't the world he lived in.
This was the world of the past, of the seven sages and...

Link became aware that he was being watched. He span round...
"It's good to see you again!"
For a second, he paused, speechless. "Sheik? Zelda?!" Not the frightened queen he'd met, hardly minutes ago - the proud Sage of Wisdom, even in disguise.
"Of course."
"But why are you still dressed like that? Ganondorf's gone. There's no danger to hide from, anymore."
"I could easily ask you the same question, fierce one."
Link looked at himself, remembering. The armour, the clothing, the warpaint... of course, to an observer he would still be... and he knew perfectly well that the seven sages knew about the Fierce Deity. "Oh. Yes. But despite this, I'm not... I mean, I don't feel like..." Or do I? I just used the name without knowing, so am I still, on some level...

Sheik walked up to Link. "It is hard to take the form of another, without becoming that person. You and I both know that. We've both hidden behind masks, one way or another...
"Masks are only tools, a means to an end and not the end itself. Perhaps all they can ever do is bring out the face underneath, the face in your mind that only comes out in darkness..."
"You're speaking in riddles. I don't understand."
"One day, soon, you will. There are things afoot, both here, and the world that you have been calling home. Link! Understand this, even if you can't understand what I said before. Destiny has still not finished playing its games with you. You are not just the hero of time... You are its guardian."
The last words were hidden in an ethereal gale, as Link found himself blown back to the world he knew...

-here-

He landed, shaken. What did that mean? The 'guardian of time'? Even if being thrown between worlds wasn't enough, now he had some mysterious title landed on him, too?
But Sheik's words had reminded him just why he was there. Stowing away the harp, Link pulled open a drawer and removed a long, slender box. He blinked, and flipped it open. Inside lay a faithful friend, but one ruined. If he'd never laid hands on it, Link thought, he would never have known what destiny meant... If it had never been broken, his past twelve years would have been so different - he'd even seen how he would be... he'd have fought his battles as himself, never been forced to take on the mantle of a dark warrior...
He closed his eyes, and snapped the lid shut on the broken remains of the Master Sword.

Link headed out of the castle. The sky did look dark, threatening - there must be a storm brewing, surely! No sooner had he thought the words, than giant fat raindrops began to smack into the ground. The sword's box tucked under one arm, he ran to reach Epona and leapt onto her back. They pounded through the market and across the drawbridge.
In a storm like this, he had to get to shelter quickly, he knew. Link spurred Epona into the fastest gallop she could manage. Lightning flashed, and the mare spooked, slipping in the mud. Link was thrown to the ground, and into unconsciousness...

-

"Whrrr... Where am I?"
"You're home, Link." He blinked, and looked straight up into Alena's eyes. "When Epona came back without you, I rode out here to find you."
"You rode out?"
"Sure! Nothing to it. It's just getting down I don't like." She laughed gently as she looked at him. "You know... the fierce look suits you..."
"What?!" Link sat up in bed, and raised one hand to his throat. The shadowpearl amulet still hung there. "That's it! I am done with this thing... You have it back, 'Lena!"
"No rush..." But Link had already unclipped the stone and passed it over to her. She paused as he blinked. Something was wrong. Very wrong. "Um... Link?"
"What is it?"
"How do I put this... your eyes haven't changed back."
"What?!" He looked around, wildly. There was a mirror on one wall of his room, and seeing his own reflection gave him a shock. That wasn't his face - with the warpaint still there, he looked even to his own eyes to be his Fierce persona. "Sweet Nayru! This is not happening!" He shut his eyes and tried to focus. Blue... they're meant to be blue... He opened them again. They hadn't changed. "What's going on... Why. Haven't. They." His words petered out as a sickening sensation drifted over him. The same feeling as when he'd realised he couldn't destroy the mask without killing himself... He whispered quietly to himself. "The link between past and future will never lose the face he once bore, as he and it are one... Don't say... don't say..."
"What do you mean..."
"I'm never going to be able to say that Fierce Link is no more. Because that's me..."
"No, you're not. Wash that paint off and you're not going to be any more the Deity than I am. The colour of your eyes isn't the question. I mean, I'm half-Sheikah, I should have red eyes by rights, but I don't. Cam and Kafei haven't got anything to do with the shadow people, I don't think, but they look like they are... It doesn't matter!" She caught a strange expression on his face, amplified by the red-and-blue streaks. "But. Here - have this for good, Link. You'll make better use of it than I could."