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he Eastern Palace was a place long since abandoned, just outside the eastern bounds of the ancient Hyrulian borders back before the seas had engulfed the world. Since that time, the monsters of the eastern lands had invaded it, seeking shelter from the hot sun that came over their world. It was both advantageous for them both physically but also defensively, for the Eastern Palace was full of traps, and in the grip of Link's enemies, it made the place very dangerous. Switches were everywhere to control the doors, a few trap doors in the ceiling that enabled some of the more clever enemies to drop down upon Link when he approached, and even a few cannons that shot iron medicine balls down corridors. Link found himself retracing his steps many times to get past some of the stickier spots in the temple.

Very common within the walls of the palace were statues dedicated to the various guardians of their tribe, and Link eventually discovered a sextet of statues at the rear of the temple, apparently dedicated to Armos, the Guardian of War for the tribe. As Link stepped foot into the room, the statues began to rumble and vibrate, hopping around the room violently, shaking the walls. Link's sword was more effective than he thought it would be, able to chip the fragile stone from their sides, but with a bow and quiver of arrows he found, Link discovered that striking a bright gem within their forehead would cause them to blow up and disintegrate. One after another, Link's aim and his blade downed the stone warriors, their rubble sending stone all about the floor of the room. In the wake of their destruction, a small passage opened up, leading to a small room. Link entered the room and found within it a green ovular gem tied to a cord sturdy enough to wear about one's neck. Picking it up and placed it over his head about his neck.

Link returned to see the elder in his hut, and Sahasrahla's eyes went wide as he saw the green pendant about Link's neck. With a sly smile, he invited him further into his shelter and sat down, telling Link to do the same. Sahasrahla explained the legend of the Pendant of Courage, saying that it had been crafted out of the Spiritual Stone of the Forest after it had disappeared to find a new owner after the Imprisoning War so long ago. "For their protection, the Stones went to new owners outside the lands of Hyrule, and each in turn were crafted into pendants, much like the one you discovered. Sadly," he said ruefully, "the peoples outside Hyrule did not know the power or legend of the pendants, and so they were careless with them, all of their owners now long since killed." Sahasrahla stood once again and guided Link to the door, the Wise Man telling him that he believed in the boy and that Link perhaps would be strong enough to obtain the remaining two pendants. With a guiding hand, he guided him towards the west where the Gerudo Desert, now known as the Desert of Mystery in the new land, laid. However, the secret to opening the temple was hidden within an artifact safely kept within the Kakariko Library, one that would help him to decipher the symbolic language of the ancient Hylians.

Quickly, Link rushed across the landscape towards Kakariko, and following the wise man's advice, Link returned to Hyrule using the same route, avoiding the soldiers as before, still on the lookout for the man in green clothing who had supposedly kidnapped the princess. Link found the library just south of the village where he had met Rebecassa and began looking through the many shelves of ancient and dusty texts, eventually coming across that which he was searching for: a book backed with green-dyed leather with a marking of a golden Triforce upon it, this very book, the Book of Mudora.

From the library, Link's next trial was to the south, his task to cross the vast desert. The sun shined its heat upon Link as he crossed, doubling the weight of the burden of the Wise Man's request. Vultures soared high in the sky over Link as he conquered dune after dune, but his pace continually slowed, Link not used to the intense heat of the sands. Link rested a while within a cave, a cave that happened to be inhabited by one of the other Wise Men refugees, a man by the name of Aginah. Aginah gave Link some of the precious water that he had obtained from a secret oasis far in the desert, rejuvenating the hero while they made company with one another. Link told Aginah of his quest, and the elder was pleased to know that Link had found the book to read the anicent inscription upon the Desert Temple's entrance. Link stayed there until nightfall, waiting until the cool night before setting out to finish his crossing.

As described, the Desert Temple's door was blocked, and Link was unable to make his way past a statue that rested within the vestibule of the temple. A stone slab was placed within the small room at the foot of the temple, and indeed, the language of the ancients was upon it. Using the Book of Mudora to translate it, Link read the inscription:

To open the way forward
Make your wish here
And it will be granted.

The inscription was puzzling at first, but Link eventually realized the secrets behind the inscription. He bent down on one knee and whispered a prayer to the goddesses, wishing that he would be allowed to enter the temple, and as he arose, he discovered that the statue blocking the way forward had been moved out of the way, allowing him to climb the staircase into the temple.

When Link saw the temple's interior, he was almost surprised. Most of the temple's lower level did not have stone flooring beneath him, the ground being compromised largely of desert sand . Thankfully, however, the sand here did not have the heat of the sun outside to make it unbearable, making it more comfortable inside than outside for Link. Like the Eastern palace, the temple seemed to have a foreign feel to it, many of the statues carved of shapes and figures he did not recognize; some of them had a single eye that rotated about their form, an eye capable of delivering a sharp beam of energy if it managed to catch Link within its gaze. What impressed Link was that only half of the temple could be reached from the main entrance, the upper levels only reachable from a cave that lay above and behind the main entrance. There, dug into the hillside, the temple was tiled completely and decorated much more elaborately, Link figuring this to be a place for the nobility of the people that had lived here.

However, though cut into the hillside, eventually Link found himself walking on sand once more, either by the hill cutting away at a point to reveal the sand once more or by the use of some arcane magic, and Link could see creatures living just beneath the sand. He could recognize them as Lanmolas just from the descriptions of them in the stories he had heard from the village elders. The worms would choose to come out from the ground from time to time, seeking to immobilize the intruder within their room, but they were not well-equipped to defeat Link's blade, which made short work of them. As they were defeated, they would shrivel away into sand, as if they were made of the prominent desert powder, and as Link destroyed the last one, as it decayed he found a red pendant emerge from within its body. From the description of Sahasrahla, he knew it to be the Pendant of Power, and he picked it up and wore it proudly around his neck. He knew that he was almost ready to face the evil wizard, knowing from Sahasrahla that the last of the pendants was kept within a tall tower on the pinnacle of Death Mountain.

Somehow while Link had been searching for the pendants, his actions had been found out by Agahnim the wizard, and the wizard decided to watch him closely. As Agahnim was Ganon's pawn, privileged to all of the knowledge of the Evil King, he knew what Link was doing and why, fearing that Link would be able to find and draw the Master Sword from its place of hiding. To try to circumvent this, a decree was issued in the king's name to forbid all access to Death Mountain without the king's expressed permission. At the same time, the wizard decided to cast a spell over Link, a spell in the form of an invisible wrath that watched over him and reported all Link's actions telepathically to the wizard, for Agahnim had the feeling that Link would eventually find his way towards the thing he desired most: the Seventh Sage, Princess Zelda.

The decree, however, did not phase Link in his determination. Figuring that he was already to be arrested for abducting the princess, violating another falsely issued decree would put him into no worse trouble. He climbed through the caves towards the summit of the mountain, and, while using his lantern to light the way, he eventually stumbled across the old man Wealas, father to the one of the six maiden-Sages. He had heard about the pendants which swung about Link's neck, and so he made the decision to trust the young boy. Asking him for the favor to guide him to his home in the mountains after getting lost in the downhill climb, he gave to Link a magical mirror that he might be able to use should he lose his way. The mirror's origin was unknown and its purpose only recently discovered. All that Wealas knew about the mirror was that it would bring travellers who had found themselves lost in am unknown place back to Hyrule, but what he did not realize was that the mirror could use the cracks within the veil between the worlds would bring Link to Hyrule from the Evil Realm, something like a portable gate. Link thanked the man and then he continued up towards the highest point in Hyrule, Spectacle Rock.

Finding no way to ascend towards the Tower of Hera just above him, Link found that he had no other choice than but to step into a mystical blue light that he found upon the mountain. As he did so, however, the world about him faded to white and he soon found himself in a world similar to his own, but now lava streamed down the mountain, not to mention that the world beneath the mountain appeared to be a ruined form of his own. It was then he realized the pain he was experiencing just by being within theis foreign palce, and looking at his hands to find the cause, he saw a furry paw rather than fingers; he was in the Dark World, and because of the evil magic Ganon had gathered and spread through the world from the Triforce, the magic not only had created a perverted form of Hyrule, but over time all the inhabitants who found themselves here were transformed into that which they resembled most within their hearts. With whiskers on his face, fur covering his body, and a small cottontail beneath his tunic, Link had been turned into a rabbit, partially because of his resounding innocence despite his most recent experiences, partially due to his love of nature. Link remembered what Wealas had told him, and he positioned himself where Spectacle Rock would have been, for some reason not appearing in this deformed world, for this world was not an exact copy of Hyrule. He held his mirror up and looked into it, and just like before, he shifted back to Hyrule through the medium of white light, appearing back on top of Spectacle Rock in the Light World of Hyrule. By using a staircase cut into the stone from the small plateau, he followed the path into the Tower of Hera.

The Tower was filled with the regalia of a religion that was not Hyrule's own. Of particular interest were a collection of crystalline spheres that caused a set of blocks to rise and lower on the ground, hindering Link's way forward. Even more curious were star-shaped tiles that activated certain trap doors in the ground. Link surmised that this place must have held great significance for the civilization that lived here, only those who were meant to be within its walls able to make their way through. Link often found himself falling down to the floor below him if he wasn't careful where he walked. As he climbed he happened to find a secret treasure chest containing a glassy sphere that Wealas had told him about, the Moon Pearl. Rumor had it that he who possessed the Moon Pearl would not lose his form in the other world. He pocketed his and kept it with him as he ascended to the sixth and top floor of the tower.

There he found another worm, significantly larger than the Lanmolas of the Desert Temple; it was a Moldorm, a creature made out of a jellylike substrance that did not seem to be affected by Link's sword or any weapon for that matter. Moldorm would sometimes push Link off the platform where he resided, forcing Link to climb back up the staircase to Moldorm's chamber. Link soon discovered that Moldorms were weak in the tail, causing the worm to panic as it sought to find shelter from the pain of Link's blade. Its fleeing would not enough for the worm, however, and the worm soon found himself defeated as he wriggled to death from the pain. When the worm died, a sapphire pendant appeared beneath one of the floor tiles. Link picked this up, claiming for himself the Pendant of Wisdom, the final key to being able to take the Master Sword.

After Link finished climbing down the mountain, Link thanking Wealas before leaving, he returned to Sanctuary to see Zelda and tell her the good news. Both the sage and the princess were relieved to see that Link had found the Wise Man and had collected the pendants needed to wield the Sword of Evil's Bane. Zelda explained to Link that the sword would be hidden deep within Lost Woods upon a dais, a dais reminiscent to that in the Temple of Time long ago. They wished Link well, and Link promised he would return shortly. He went to the Lost Woods in the northwest of Hyrule, west of Death Mountain, and the mist and the fog that hung over the woods kept him from seeing clearly within the forest. Dispursed throughout the woods were a handful of Master Sword facsimilies, placed there to allow the thieves within the forest to fall upon their distracted prey, but Link's strength and skill with a blade soon rendered the thieves uninterested in attacking him. Finally, very deep within the forest he found a glade, at the end of which was a dais just as Zelda had described. Upon the dais was an ancient inscription in the old tongue, which Link translated with the aid of the Book of Mudora.

The Hero's Triumph on Cataclysm's Eve
Wins three symbols of virtue.
The Master Sword he will then retrieve,
Keeping the Knight's line true.

With the encouragement from Zelda and the inscription coursing through his body, Link placed his hands upon the sword's pommel. Drawing in the pendants' strength, he pulled the blade from the marble pillar, the power of the sword surging through his body. Instantly the fog about the forest cleared and the light of the sun shined down upon him. In the back of his mind, speaking to him with telepathy, he heard Sahasrahla's praise and congratulations, urging him to go quickly to defeat Agahnim.

However, Link soon found he had a more important task, for he also heard in his mind, much louder than Sahasrahla's message to him, a cry from Zelda for help. Soldiers were on Sanctuary's doorstep, coming to take her to the castle. Agahnim's spell upon Link had worked, Link leading him to Zelda as expected. Link ran out of the woods, not making an attempt to keep his stealth from the bandits, but they could not catch him at the speed he was running. However, as fast as he ran, by the time he arrived at the cathedral, it was already too late, at the priest within the cathedral died moments after Link arrived, Link screaming his frustrations to the air. It was no use cursing at himself though; he knew he would have to go to the castle to rescue Zelda.

Link rushed into Hyrule Castle, not caring about not being seen. The guards were either trampled by Link's feet, forced to the ground by the swiftness of his body, or they were not fast enough in their armor to keep up. He came to the entrance to the castle's central tower, held sealed due to Agahnim's magical energy that served as a barrier. Now with the Master Sword, Link sliced through the energy field as if it were air, disrupting the magic long enough for him to gain access to the tower, the barrier sealing the exit once again after he passed through, locking the other guards out. Once inside, Link began climbing the stairs about the edge of the tower wall, using his new sword to surpass every obstacle and enemy that was presented to him. He pressed onward, not letting anything get in his way, eventually reaching the tower's pinnacle on the seventh floor.

There Link saw Zelda lying upon an alter, the wizard Agahnim standing right behind her. The wizard could only laugh maniacally at the sight of Link as he cast a spell upon Link to keep him from moving to free the girl. "Link, I have been waiting for you. I have been hoping that I could make Princess Zelda disappear before your very eyes. Behold, the last minutes of Princess Zelda!" His powers rose the princess off the alter, hers arms and legs drooping like a ragdoll. Electricity, shining brightly, streamed out of the wizard's hands and encompassed the princess, shrinking about her as her body disintegrated into nothing. "With that, the last of the Sages is gone and the seal of the Wise Men is broken!" Agahnim explained. "It is now only a matter of time before the King of Evil re-enters this land. I leave you to whatever ends you choose to meet."

The wizard teleported away, and as he did such, his hold over Link weakened and broke, freeing Link. Link did not know where the wizard had gone, but after some searching he found a secret passage behind one of the curtains, leading him straight to Agahnim's chambers. "So your wish is to be completely destroyed then? Very well; I will help you make that wish become true!" Agahnim began teleporting around the room from point to point, stopping only to cast balls of energy and electricity at Link, which Link dodged. Soon he found that the Master Sword, powerful as it was, was not powerful enough to directly damage the wizard, the sword electrifying Link with dark thunder whenever he sliced at him. Much by accident, however, one time Link failed to jump in time; he held his sword up to the energy blast, and he was surprised to see that it was reflected back to the wizard that had cast it.

The wizard, unprepared for this, knelt to the floor and sputtered, looking to the boy. The wizard was not finished, but rather knew he should keep his strength for the battle when Ganon marched into the land. "Well met, Hero," said the wizard angrily. "But it is not time yet for us to have our final parting. Instead, let's see how you fare within the Dark World!" Using his power and the fading of the Wise Men's seal, Agahnim used his magic to force a magical wedge into the Ninth Gate between Hyrule and the Sacred Realm, but his power was only strong enough to open it in one direction, from where they stood to the Evil Realm. With the Ninth Gate open, Agahnim drew both Link and himself into the portal, sending them into the other realm.

When Link finally could open his eyes, he found himself atop a large pyramid within the Evil Realm. He looked around from his vantage point and saw that the world looked very similar to Hyrule all around, yet it was different, distorted; the general layout of the Dark World was very akin to Hyrule, but the specifics were all wrong. The next thing he realized that he felt no pain being within the Dark World, for the Moon Pearl was with him, shielding him from both pain and transformation. Suddenly a voice appeared within his head, very faint but still audible. It was Sahasrahla, and somehow he discovered that he could communicate with Link across the veil with his telepathy, difficult as it was. Sahasrahla had felt the opening of the Ninth Gate, and he expressed to Link his concerns; however, the Wise Man knew that the veil had only been torn in one direction, the reverse direction still holding but decaying gradually so long as the maidens were held by Ganondorf's forces. Feeling the presence of the first maiden taken away by Agahnim, but only because she was located in the corresponding area to Hyrule's Eastern Ruins, where he resided in Hyrule, he directed Link towards the east, towards the place which he called the Palace of Darkness. Wishing him the best, his presence left Link's mind, hoping that Link could make his hopes and dreams come true.

Link did as the elder advised, walking eastward towards the Eastern Forest. The forest was full of closely packed thickets and bushes, making the going very difficult as Link cut his way through it, using his sword to cut the clinging branches and stranging limbs. Link would often find himself at an impasse, unable to go forward and having to backtrack through the dense trees and shrubs. As he made his way towards the palace to the east, he came across a small shrine, in which a man, transformed into a small bush by the evil magic of the land, resided. The bush told him a story about Ganondorf Dragmire, that he was the one who had obtained the full Triforce. However, because of that power, the man had turned into his current; how the bush wished to destroy Ganondorf, for that was the only true way for the Golden Land to return, but he could not, powerless as he was. Giving his complements to the Hero, the Hero thanked the bush for the story and continued his way into the Palace of Darkness.

The Palace of Darkness had a very similar feel to the Eastern Palace, consisting of a large number of statues of forms that Link had never seen before. The monsters here were quite different from the ones he had met in Hyrule, all of them significantly harder and more crafty. Link found traps that obstacles that had since been unseen by his eye as break-away floors kept him on his toes while poundable barriers blocked him from progressing through the palace, barriers only able to be tamed by a mallet he found within the confines of the Palace of Darkness. However, despite the darkness about him, a beacon of light shown through when he finally heard a telepathic message from Zelda; to hear her alive gave him hope within her heart. She mentioned that she was trapped within Turtle Rock upon the mountain range of the Dark World, and she asked desperately for him to hurry, and Link promised himself that he would do his best to see her saved soon.

Eventually Link came across a huge scorpion-like beast within the palace known as the Helmasaur King. The scopion tried to trample Link and gore him with his claws as soon as Link stepped in the room, but Link dodged it, sidestepping the beast narrowly. Link noticed that the monster wore a mask, and so he assumed that perhaps that its purpose was to hide the weakness of the monster. Using both a few bombs along with the hammer, Link broke the mask off of the beast, revealing a great green orb upon his forehead. In a fury, the Helmasaur King whipped Link back with his long, flowing tail, then breathing fire onto his body. Link put out the flames on his tunic and climbed to his feet again, taking out his bow, and with a careful shot, an arrow was placed into the center of the scorpion's forehead, causing the monster to disintegrate into nothingness.

Once the creature disappeared, a single crystal appeared before him, and within it stood the first of the maidens, Aekorra, the Sage of Shadow. She thanked the Hero Link most gratefully and cast him a glowing smile. Aekorra and Link talked for a few minutes, discussing the history of the Dark World and of Ganon, the boss of the Gerudo thieves who had found the Triforce many years ago. Most importantly, she mentioned that Ganon's goal was to fully link the two worlds through the Ninth Gate, and then he would be able to march his army into Hyrule and destroy it. However, there was hope still within her, that should the seven Sages come together they would be able to help Link defeat Ganondorf.

Link cast a smile to the Sage of Shadow and thanked her for all she had done, and before he left, she gave him one simple phrase. "May the way of the Hero lead to the Triforce."