The Legend of Zelda: Cursebreaker

The Familiar Face

She reached the dungeon entrance without any trouble, her unease growing greater with every step. Had the castle been... Abandoned? It didn't make any sense, she should have encountered some sort of opposition by now. Especially considering how she'd acquired the stone that softly lit the way. Zelda would have thought that destroying the Master Sword would have been something to gloat over, rather than be cause to slink back into the shadows!

Opening the thick iron door and slipping inside, she began the descent into the dungeons. No, it didn't make any sense for them to have just left the castle entirely. The rebels had just shown their hand, however: Perhaps Ganondorf and his forces knew that they had come from Kakariko, and gone to make an example of the settlement? She dearly hoped not, but the only other option she could think of was that this was a trap.

Which she couldn't rule out as a possibility, though she had to admit that if it was a trap then it was a very poor one. Doubly so, if it was even meant for her. How would they know that she would even know to come? How would they even know that she was alive? They couldn't, the only people she had talked to were Malon, the Gerudo, and Batreaux. Both the Gerudo and Batreaux would have had no problem killing her or just leaving her to die had they not meant her well, and she was loathe to suspect Malon. And Malon didn't have a deceitful bone in her body, did she?

Zelda scowled at herself. She was trying to curb the overly suspicious mindset she'd learned as Sheik, and travelling down that train of thought would get her nowhere. Even if Malon had betrayed her, she was inclined to believe the farmer had been coerced into doing so. Or perhaps she hadn't even known that that was what she was doing; the enemy was probably clever enough to arrange such.

And besides, wondering about who had set a trap she may or may not be walking into would not help her if she sprang it. Right now she needed to focus on finding Link and getting him to safety, assuming that he was even still here in the first place. It was entirely possible that he had managed to escape on his own without the Master Sword, after all, or that he had been moved elsewhere, considering the emptiness of the castle. She refused to consider the remaining alternatives.

She reached the bottom of the stairs, half-expecting to find Ganondorf himself waiting for her, only to find her immediate line of sight to be empty. Carefully she crept forward through the rows of cells, peering into each to examine the sleeping prisoners inside. Most were adult Hylians, with a few Gerudo and a Goron, but halfway through she had still seen no sign of Link.

And then she reached the end of the cells, and a numbing chill swept over her mind. He wasn't there. He wasn't there. Where had they taken him?! They had to be keeping him prisoner somewhere, because they couldn't have... They couldn't have...

Could they?

No. No, she refused to believe that he was dead. The goddesses had already allowed the sword to be broken, but letting their chosen hero die...? He had to be here somewhere, or else they must have taken him to some stronghold elsewhere. He had to be here somewhere. He was alive, he had to be alive.

Doubt began to gnaw at the the back of her mind, though, as her memory dredged up the stories that Impa had told her so many years ago. There had been once, the old Sheikah had admitted. One timeline they knew of, where the chosen hero had fallen to Ganondorf. It had happened before, in another world, and as much as Zelda wanted to believe otherwise... It was a possibility. Especially if her enemies thought that she was dead, because then what reason would they have to keep Link alive?