No.
Wait.
Not yet.
It's not my time to meet you. Not now.
I'm certain. I'm not done with Hyrule yet.
How do I know?
Well, I pulled that Sword out, didn't I?
My eyes flew open and I shot up to a sitting position, my hand jumping to my chest. My heart was thundering.
I raised my fingers to my lips. A thin coat of blood. I wiped my mouth on my sleeves and winced at the patch of crimson on the gray fabric.
I was this close to death.
I felt thrown off balance, dizzy, like I'd drunk too much.
But I'd survived. Against all odds, I was living, breathing, the Master Sword in tow.
The Master Sword.
I felt around frantically for it in the darkness, throwing up clouds of dust. I coughed, my eyes watering. My breathing came fast and harsh.
Where was it?!
Then my fingers found the hilt and I shuddered. An electrical charge ran through my entire body as I came into contact with the blade, as though a long dormat power was finally starting to stir at my rouse.
For a moment I just stayed there, gripping the Master Sword tightly, feeling fire and ice entwined rushing through my veins.
The sword rejected me still. That's okay. I would not be the one to keep it.
My skin crawled. To think I bore the Hero's name, presented to the public as the savior of Hyrule like a gift-wrapped poster boy of hope, whereas the real Hero was a stable girl everyone met and promptly forgot about. She would be the one to wield this Sword.
It was not in me to resent Sadie. We'd been through too much together for me to be petty about this now. However, it was still strange. As one who was given the name Link, having lived my life playing the role of the Hero of Hyrule, only to gift another with the Blade of Evil's Bane certainly was unprecendented.
Forces were colliding. Rules were changing. Patterns were breaking. Nothing was as it seemed.
And it was no accident that I have survived the trial that was meant to kill me, as the wielder of an alien Triforce attempting to claim the Sword. I knew better to accredit it to Hylia's mercy.
So... were there other influences at play? Other reasons I didn't know yet?
My head cleared, like a tide retreating and leaving behind a beach smooth as a mirror. I decided to stop questioning things with no answers and get a move on. I had no idea how long I'd been out and wasn't inclined to lose my cover of chaos.
I turned back to the pedestal. I sheathed the Master Sword, cutting off its unearthly glow, and hid it within the shadow of my cloak. I'd clipped a belt there for this exact reason.
Then I pulled out another blade, its identical twin, and unsheathed it. The finely made edge glinted, catching the smallest hints of light within the Sanctum, yet it lacked the hum of power that the real Master Sword possessed. It didn't possess its ethereal presence, almost like a soul held within a blade.
This was the one I had used for most of my life as a soldier of Hyrule after the world had accepted me as its hero.
I'd stolen it from the blacksmith that I knew was preparing this sword for me to use shortly in the future. My father had wanted everything to be prepared as early as possible, including the fake Sword, and now I knew why.
Dismissing the bitter thoughts, I positioned the fake over the slit in the cracked pedestal and stabbed it downwards.
I had to admire the blacksmith's ability; the sword fitted nearly perfectly into the hole. It slid in like a hand into a glove.
I gave it a few tugs. It didn't budge.
I knew the story: the Queen allowed a top-notch blacksmith into the Castle in absolute secrecy and gave him an hour to completely make a model and a diagram of the Master Sword. That explained how it was such a perfect copy.
I didn't know what happened to the blacksmith after that. I wouldn't be surprised if he were dead. After all, there were plenty of blacksmithes in Hyrule and he had seen a secret passed down through generations.
Perhaps I had bought him some time with this theft. Now he had to make it again.
The smith already had the information he needed to create another one, just as perfect as this one. The Link in this timeline would only be affected minimally.
All right. The fake was in place. Now, if -- and it's a slim possibility, but it's best to be prepared -- someone came to check, somehow, nothing would appear off. Or at least, at first glance. I had time to escape.
Perfect.
I wrapped my cloak tighter around myself and stepped back. My left hand balled into a fist and the Triforce of Wisdom pierced through the darkness again.
"Thank you." I whispered into the still air.
As though the room heard my voice, the pedestal bearing the Master Sword's copy rumbled, then slowly descended back into the deep. The hole closed in onto itself and it looked as though nothing had happened, no one was ever here.
I spent a few minutes disguising the disturbance in the dust, covering up the tracks I'd made by sweeping over it with my cloak. It looked as good as it would ever be. I breathed out slowly and turned my back to the room.
Then I was gone, flying through the tunnel once more, my blood buzzing with a sense of accomplishment that made me feel on top of the world.
I had it. The Master Sword. The main mission was complete.
Now all I had to do was sneak away from the Castle and head back to the Stable.
Thankfully, Hyrule Castle had quieted, but not too much. There was still sufficient noise and movement. There were members of the Royal Guard employed now to attempt to keep order, and they were herding the people away from the scene to almost exactly where I needed to go: the outskirts of the Castle borders.
All I had to do was blend in with them for a few minutes until they'd practically carry me towards my escape.
I squeezed my way through the crowd, which was still riled from the incident, and matched my steps to theirs. A few times the Royal Guards' eyes passed over me and I stiffened, all too aware of the Sword hidden in my cloak, but the Hyrulean hierarchy won out this time. None of them would bother to remember all the faces of such inferior people as the cleaning staff.
As soon as we neared the sidelines of the Castle's courtyard, I began inching my way to the edges of the swarm of escorted Castle staff. Then, taking the first chance I could when the guards' piercing eyes were turned away, I broke off and began sprinting as fast as I could into the cover of a clump of woods nearby.
As I ran, my ears were on highest alert for any shouts, any exclaimations, any hint that somebody had noticed me.
Nothing. Everyone was absorbed in their own thoughts, their own world. Everyone was shocked to their bones, too much so to take note of a shadow slipping away.
I could hardly believe it.
I'd pulled it off.
I kept on expecting something to go wrong, someone to come after me as I darted from shadow to shadow, but Hyrule Castle had faded into the distance and nothing happened. The Master Sword rattled in my travelling cloak as I stumbled over a tree root. I pressed on, my heart light as the clouds.
I did it. The quest was successful.
The first person I saw as I neared the stable was Sorrah, sitting on a tree stump, idly picking at the bandages on her hands. Her head shot up when I crashed through the sparse forest by the Dueling Peaks Stable.
"Finally!" She leapt off of the stump and met me, grinning. "I've been waiting for you! You've got it? You've got it?! I didn't know how to feel about all that fuss in the Castle, but you're here and you don't look fatally injured or running for your life, so that must mean it went okay, right? Where is it??"
I unwrapped my cloak and showed her, unable to help the smile dawning across my face, unsheathing it a few centimeters so she could see the wickedly sharp edge. The moonlight gilded the blade's facets and it looked like liquid starlight.
"Whoah..." She extended her hands towards the Master Sword as if she couldn't resist the pull, then winced and dropped them.
(Okay, the fact that Sorrah is so attracted towards the sword has a very specific reason and consequences that will take place later in the story. Therefore, keep it in mind. I have worked to rehash it over and over again with Link, so you wouldn't forget in a hurry.)
"It went great." I said, keeping my voice low. "I managed to escape notice for the most part because of the chaos in the Castle. Barely a hiccup at all in the plan. I doubt anyone will be coming after me at this point, and even if they do, they can't find me and they can't trace it to you."
"Ahh. Good." She closed her eyes for a moment. Once again I had to force myself to remember that she would become my enemy someday very soon.
"Okay. Now I just have to give this to Sadie, no?"
"Yeah. I'll call her out so you wouldn't get Father's attention. It's night time so she might be grumpy, but this'd wake her up for sure!" She turned her gleaming eyes back to the Sword.
"...Thanks..."
She threw me a sloppy grin and bounded off towards the stable.
Within a few minutes Sorrah had gotten Sadie outside and they were heading back towards me, Sadie rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Sorrah practically bouncing with each step.
"C'mon! C'mon!" Sorrah tugged on Sadie's arm. "You're not gonna believe this!"
"Okay, okay, I'm coming." Sadie said, her voice foggy with sleep. "Geez."
"Ah, there you are." I stood straighter. A million words were jumbled up in my mind and I found it hard to speak them, now that we were face to face. I didn't know how to break this to her, I realized too late. "Sorry to disturb you at this time, but... well, here it is."
Even before I pulled out the Master Sword, Sadie was straightening, her brow furrowing. She felt it too.
The three children of the Triforce were gathered together and they all heard the call.
"What's--"
Her words died.
Immediately she reached out towards the Master Sword exactly like Sorrah did, albeit with less blind rapture in her eyes and more constraint in her movements. I let her hold it, weigh it in her hands. She was breathing unevenly, blinking rapidly.
"This is the Master Sword, isn't it?" She breathed, wonder unfurling over her eyes. "But-- why?" She pulled back and scrutinized me again. Sorrah was watching her carefully. "Who are you?"
"There's no easy way to say this." Even as the words left my mouth I realized it myself. "I am Link. The holder of the Triforce of Wisdom. Sorrah is the holder of the Triforce of Power. And you are..."
Her eyes had widened until they looked like moons. "What?"
I held out my hand, a silent invitation. Sadie hesitated, placed her soft hands in my callused ones, looking at me with wariness. Taking a deep breath and trying my best to control a power that I barely knew, I drew forwards her Triforce with my own. I watched as the Triforce of Courage, tinted by shadow like it was before, burst forwards onto her hand. Sadie was watching with her mouth open.
"The Hero of Hyrule, holder of the Triforce of Courage. With a bit of a complication that doesn't matter right now. Take that any way you want. Just... don't freak out, all right?"
"And that's for you." Sorrah interjected. "The Sword. We came up with a genius plan to steal it for you so you don't have to be put to sleep like the legendary Hero of Time. You've gotta train with that with the years we bought so you can defeat evil and do hero stuff, 'kay?"
"Wait, wait, wait." Sadie held out her free hand. "Hold up. Did both of you know?"
We nodded.
"Why didn't you tell me?" She demanded.
"Well... I tried?" I shrugged helplessly.
"Ah. I... see." Sadie frowned at nothing in particular. "And what did you want me to do?"
"To learn how to use this Sword so you'd be ready when the time comes." I stated quietly.
She was silent for a moment. "This is rather a lot for one night."
"I understand. However, I don't have much time." I was impatient to go to a time closer to the "present". The more I stayed here, the higher the risks were that I'd make a mistake and mess up something huge. "I have somewhere I need to be. Please... make sure you're ready. The both of you. What comes ahead is absolutely brutal, so you all must be at your maximum to meet it."
"...O...kay?" She raised her hand to her eyes, no doubt still processing the fact that a Triforce dwelled within it. She dropped it, still holding the Master Sword, then her gaze wandered to the side of my belt. Her hand twitched.
I didn't know it then, but those tiny movements were about to destroy everything.
"I'll be going, then. See you." I turned my back on the sisters. I walked away until I was sure shadows veiled me, that there was no way they'd be able to see me time-hop.
I closed my eyes.
Six months before present.
"Sadie?" Sorrah's call, blurry with distance, stabbed through my concentration. My eyes snapped open, but it was too late. I was leaving this timeframe and there was nothing I could do to stop the tides of time dragging me into its depths.
I whirled through history.