In Nayru's Palm

I woke slowly. The stones under me were cool and solid, and somehow dryer than what I expected. The Realms of the Sages was an experience, all right. Scary amount of magic there. Undoubtedly that of the Goddesses themselves.

“Sheik? You awake?”

Soun was sitting against the back of the Altar, the auras of the Spiritual Stones glowing in opalescence behind him. His hand was on the back of his neck, where he had been bitten.

“Yes,” I groaned, sitting up.

“You okay?” He moved to my side, then cringed and stumbled to his knees next to me, swearing.

“Better than you, it would seem,” I told him, putting my hand to his shoulder. He laughed, sounding strained. Then he sobered.

“I thought you did something stupid to keep me alive,” he told me, trying to pin me with his gaze.

I smiled. “You actually helped.” When he looked at me with shock, I grinned. “Leave it to you to be more useful unconscious.”

He stared at me, and I realized that that particular taunt wasn’t funny. I sighed, my smile melting away. “When we came in here, Rauru contacted me and helped me heal you. If I had not been who I am, he would have been unable to do that. He was much more willing to explain everything to me when he knew he could work magic through me, as the Seventh Sage.”

Soun processed this, back to rubbing at his neck.

“So what did you find out?” he asked. He didn’t want to talk about his weakness protecting me, I realized, and was upset. It wasn’t his fault.

I dismissed these thoughts. He had asked me a question, and I should probably answer as best as I could: who knew what I would have forgotten since waking up?

“When the Sages are killed,” I explained, “their spirit remains in their Temple. I can find them this way, but I cannot draw much power from them. Rauru said that one of the reasons he was able to help heal you so well was that he used my magic for me, as well as some of his own. Otherwise you would still have an infected bite in your neck.” I took a breath, using the relapse to regather my thoughts and get them back on track.

“So when the Hero of Time is released and on his way, he will awaken the last of the Sages’ locked power, and I will be able to use it in full. And once all the Sages are awakened, the Hero will be able to go to the Evil King’s stronghold and seal him.”

“Sounds pretty simple,” Soun said slowly.

“That’s not quite all of it.” I breathed again. “I also have to find all the Temples and contact the spirits of the Sages before the Hero gets there. I have to learn their power signature and learn it so that I can teach it to the Hero. Without those signatures, he will fail.”

Again, Soun thought about my words. Then he gave me a piercing look.

“Will you tell him who you are?”

The question took me by surprise. It hadn’t even occurred to me that that may come up, but…would I? He might recognize me even without my revealing himself to him, but what if he didn’t?

“Names are power, Sheik,” Soun reminded me gravely. “The longer we wait for the Hero to appear, the stronger he will get. And he’ll be able so sense the use of your name. He will undoubtedly be watching for it once he realizes exactly what that mark on his hand means, and if the Hero shows up here, and you speak to him and give him that name, you’ll be found. And if you have to meet him at every temple, which I’m sure he will attack, and you tell him at one of those, you will be found.” He searched my face. “And you can’t show yourself, either. He’s bound to have monster’s looking for you, and if your face shows up around one of the Temples he’s guarding, you’re toast.”

The reality of it left a sour taste in my mouth, but I agreed it did make sense. So Link would know me as Sheik. He was not to know that I was his princess, that I was the one who was at fault for locking him away until the goddesses deemed him ready to pursue his fate.

“I won’t tell him,” I said softly. “I am Sheik.”

We rested in the Temple for a couple more days, waiting for the both of us to regain our former strength. With a small amount of contact with Rauru, I was told that Ganondorf did not have the capability to send monsters in here; any ability he would have at that was banished when I established contact with the Sage and used his magic. With this in mind, I didn’t mind unwrapping the bandages and letting my skin breathe. My hand stayed covered.

It was one time that I had my wrappings off my face and arms when Soun looked quizzically at me.

“What?” I asked, tossing hair out of my face.

“Your hair got longer.”

“Hair does tend to grow, Soun.”

“Not that fast,” he said, shaking his head. “Last I saw, it was around your ears. It’s touching your shoulders, now.”

I fingered the strands. They were a bit greasy—they needed washing soon. But they were longer than they had been just a few days ago.

“Wha’d’you think made it grow so fast?” Soun asked, leaning forward intently. Curious.

I remembered healing him, how pure power and energy had pulsed through my body, into my head.

“I think it might have been healing you, Soun.”

He frowned, but didn’t challenge it. Then he leaned forward.

“Wasn’t it darker before, too?”

“It’s as dark as it has always been.”

“Yeah, but it’s all greasy. Greasy hair is always darker.”

“Oh, thank you,” I snapped, glaring.

He shrugged. Obnoxious.

“Well, I’m going to wash it first thing,” I snapped. He grinned.

“You do that.”

“I will.”

“Did you notice that you’ve become a bit more normal about talking?”

I shot him an acid glare. “No.”

We left a bit later, speeding through the market as quickly as we could before we were attacked again. The Poe guy was absent as we passed by. Somehow this was more ominous than his being there.

The horses came when we called after only a short wait. Their tack jingled as they danced, making it difficult to mount. Rue wasn’t helping—she leapt between them, trying to get to Soun and I. I petted her head once I was safely in the saddle.

“I need to report to Impa,” I told Soun. His face darkened.

“I have to finish my business before I go back,” he argued.

“And I need to tell Impa what has been going on.”

“Use a gossip stone,” he growled. Beneath my bandages, my mouth tightened.

“I’d rather not—”

“I can’t protect you if I’m not there.”

“I do not need protection.” The words frosted my lips on their way out. Soun’s hands clenched, and his horse skittered farther to the side, picking up his distress. Beneath me, Mirage was doing the same.

Soun spun his horse to the northwest. “I will take you to Kakariko,” he stated brusquely, allowing no room for argument. I set my jaw, but set Mirage on the path after him. Rue plodded on just behind us, her steps heavy.

True to his word, he escorted me to the village. And he still made me use one of those awful stones.

It pierced my head with its intent stare, and I fought it down, trying to establish a sort of contact. When I got to the garden of the stones outside the Sheikah village, though, I saw nothing but orange and black.

I struggled to see through the flickering colors, the maelstrom of confusion of dark and light giving me an intense headache. I felt nauseous. Then my head felt weak and fractured. My skull was splitting. My hand was burning. The black and orange fell away to a sharp, agonizing blue—

“SHEIK!”

I shuddered. Blackness welcomed me in calm, soothing waves. Anything better than the flickering light and dark, those bright colors…

I saw green. Lush, healthy grass, with dark soil cradling the thin roots.

“What did you see?” urged Soun desperately.

“I couldn’t,” I sobbed, my voice struggling to emerge from my throat.

“Wha’d’you mean? You were screaming—”

“Black and orange, and then blue. My head.”

“I don’t understand.” His voice was strained.

We sat in silence. Droplets of bright water landed on the tips of green blades, weighing them down only until they slid down. I was sweating. Sweating and crying. Rue tentatively licked my face.

“I’m going up there with you,” he said, with an air of finality.

All I could do was nod.