Mirrors - Chapter 2
#3 of Mirrors
Sheik once again waited, perched out of sight, for Link to arrive. This time he perched at the entrance to the Forest Temple, above the sacred meadow beneath.
His eyes were closed, his body relaxed, his breathing slow and even. He was meditating, using the Sheikah techniques that Impa had taught him. Normally the stilling of being was a preparation for powerful magic, but Sheik was not casting a spell. The meditation was to calm the turmoil that stirred within him whenever he thought of Link. Waiting here, with nothing to do but think, he had found himself cast into mental chaos. And he could ill afford it. He needed to be Link's guide. He needed to do as the Sheikah had always done, subtly nudging events into the path of destiny. Calm and care were needed for such a task, and so he meditated, and waited for the hero to arrive.
The forest was still and silent. Now and again came the call of a bird, the rustle of a creature moving through the brush, or some other sign of life, but they did not disrupt Sheik's concentration.
Then new, different sounds echoed from afar. An animalistic roar. A battle cry. The clash of weaponry. Link had arrived. Sheik had passed through the branches above, leaving the moblins that guarded this place untouched. Link was obviously taking a more direct route to the sacred meadow.
Sheik's eyes snapped open. His heart began to race at the thought. Link.
He took another deep breath and stilled himself once more. Calm. Do your duty and nothing more, he told himself.
The sounds of battle drew closer. There was a deeper roar, very near, and Sheik could hear Link's voice shouting "Hya!" clearly. Then came a monstrous cry of pain, and after that silence returned. Sheik's gaze was riveted on the entrance to the sacred meadow. Somewhere a bird called again.
Link appeared, entering the meadow with that same easy, confident stride. He looked around the open, sunny space. His eyes passed over the stone platform inlaid with the forest seal, and over the temple entrance as well, and fell instead on a stump that sat to one side of the clearing. He walked to it and stood, looking down at it for some time.
Sheik was puzzled for a moment. Then he remembered. Link had been a boy here, among the Kokiri. No doubt the stump held some memory, some piece of the past that was seven years gone and yet must seem very immediate to one who had passed those years locked in magical slumber. Sheik wondered what the memory was. Perhaps he could ask. He wanted to know Link, to be familiar with his past, to find out what kind of person he was in the present...
But no. Duty called. Perhaps later there would be time for such conversations. Now there was only the war against Ganondorf.
Sheik leapt down, landing behind Link, who once more heard the nearly inaudible footfall and turned, wary but not frightened.
Sheik had mentally rehearsed a call to arms, a speech about duty and battle. But seeing the melancholy still on Link's face Sheik suddenly found those words fled.
"The flow of time can seem cruel," he said, feeling a sudden urge to poetic language.
"Yes," said Link softly, his voice sorrowful.
"It passes differently for each of us, and no one can change that flow."
Link sighed.
"But time can't change our memories," said Sheik, with a sudden vision of the past before his eyes. When he had been a princess, and had met a child hero. It seemed so very long ago...
"Yes." A sad half-smile crossed Link's face.
Sheik tried to shake off the sudden swirl of memory. Duty, he repeated to himself. I must not forget my duty.
"When you want to return here," he said abruptly, "play this song." He raised his lyre. The tune was simple, and without being asked Link took out his ocarina and echoed it. Sheik nodded approval, though the sight of the familiar instrument threatened to drown him again in memories of the princess he'd once been. He could take it no longer. There were other things he'd meant to say, but he'd done the most important thing. Link knew the Minuet of Forest now, with the ocarina's magic he could travel in safety.
"I'll see you again Link," said Sheik. He threw a deku nut, and while Link's eyes were closed against the blinding light he leapt to the entrance of the Forest Temple above. Magic and muscle worked together to carry him away, and below Link looked around in bafflement.
Much later, far away, Sheik wrapped himself in his bedroll and closed his eyes, not to meditate, but to remember. Remember a time when he had been Zelda, and when a child hero had stepped into her life for the first time.
Sheik cloaked himself in shadows as he followed Link across Hyrule Field. It was night, so the darkness hid him well. He didn't know where Link was going, now that he'd left the Forest Temple, but he could guess. The hero's course led straight to the ruins of Hyrule Castle. Though why Link might go there Sheik didn't know. His next goal should be Mount Doom and the Fire Temple.
When Link picked his way through the ruined market square towards the Temple, Sheik guessed his true destination. What could the hero want in an empty temple? Sheik wrapped darkness around him and stepped through shadow, arriving in a corner of the Temple's inner chamber, where shadows lay thickly and such travel was easy. He heard Link's footsteps on the stairs outside, and then echoing within the first chamber. The steps stopped and Link called out softly, "Sheik?"
_ He came looking for me._ The realization was something of a shock, and for a moment Sheik warred with himself. "Guide him as little as you can," had been Impa's instruction when she sent him off to meet the hero. "Watch him, give him hints, but intervene only when you must. The hero must find his own destiny, he cannot lean on you."
That had seemed easy, but now... now Sheik wanted nothing more than to speak with Link again. To truly talk to him, and not just leave a cryptic hint and flee.
Well, there was something he could accomplish here. There was another song Link could learn. Knowing that it was mostly an excuse, but with enough justification to go ahead anyway, Sheik stepped from the shadows and stood at the center of the room just before Link entered the inner chamber.
"Sheik," he said, and smiled.
"Link," said Sheik, and tried to keep his voice cool and emotionless as a Sheikah's should be. "You have cleansed the Forest Temple and awakened the sage."
"I... yes." Link frowned. "But..."
"But?"
"Saria... she..." He stopped and looked at Sheik, then sighed sadly. "Never mind."
"Why are you here?" asked Sheik.
"I don't know where to go next."
He sounded so lost. And something about the forest sage seemed to be troubling him. Sheik wanted to reach out, to reassure him, but he bit his tongue and spoke only of the quest ahead. "There are other sages to be freed."
"Oh. Right. You said..." he frowned again, this time in concentration, trying to remember. "One in a forest, I've been there already. One on a mountain, one under a lake... I suppose I can guess where those two are."
"Yes."
"So I need to go to Death Mountain now?"
Sheik nodded. "And the time will come when you will need to return to this temple. I will teach you the song you must know." He pulled out his lyre, and Link smiled and took his ocarina from his bag. Sheik played, and Link echoed the notes skillfully. They harmonized together, both playing on even after it was clear Link had learned the song. For a long moment there was no quest, nor duty, only the music. When Sheik finally lowered his harp, Link took the ocarina from his lips and smiled at Sheik. Sheik's heart jumped.
"Sheik... you're a Sheikah. Do you know Impa?"
"Yes..." The sudden change of topic baffled Sheik for a moment. What was Link getting at?
"She was Zelda's bodyguard. So... maybe you might know... Is Zelda all right?"
Sheik's heart jumped again. "Yes. She... she's in hiding, waiting."
"Waiting? For what?"
"For you, hero," said Sheik. The sudden smile that lit Link's face nearly broke his heart. Link cared for Zelda, that much was obvious. Sheik was nothing but an enigmatic stranger to him.
"Then why is she still hiding? I'm here..."
"It's not safe. Zelda is..." Sheik wanted to shout "Zelda is here!" He wanted, suddenly, to be the princess again if that would gain him Link's regard. But he managed to continue without blurting out his secret. "Zelda is not the Hero of Time. She can't use the Master Sword or face Ganondorf directly. You are the one who can do that. If she were to show herself now, she wouldn't be safe."
"So I won't see her until after I beat Ganondorf?"
"I didn't say that. You will need her help before the final battle, but first you need to free the sages."
"I see. So once I've freed all the sages, then...?"
"Yes."
"Then I should be on my way." Link's face settled into an expression of determination, and his hand reached back, touching the hilt of the Master Sword.
"Yes," said Sheik. "Go to Death Mountain, find the Fire Temple and awaken the sage there."
"I will." Link turned to go, and Sheik prepared to throw a Deku nut once more and vanish. But Link turned back suddenly. "Sheik..." He hesitated, his brow furrowed faintly as though he were thinking hard about what he should say. Finally he said, "Thank you," and turned and left.
The Fire Temple was an ordeal. Sheik shielded himself with magic, but could not quite shut out the horrific heat. Sweat trickled down his back beneath his clothing, and his hair was rapidly becoming soaked with it.
Link, when he strode into the volcanic crater, looked utterly untouched by it. For a moment Sheik hated him. The hero, moving easily along the path to his destiny, all Hyrule yielding to his sword. Even I will yield to him, Sheik thought to himself with a kind of bitter resignation. He would yield, and willingly, returning to the identity he wished he could leave behind simply because Zelda was part of Link's destiny.
But when Sheik once more dropped from his perch above to stand before Link, the hero's face lit with a welcoming smile, and Sheik's anger faded. Why should he hate Link for being what he was? Sheik would have to become Zelda again no matter what else happened. Hyrule would need its princess, when Ganondorf was gone. So it was for the best that Link cared for her. Sheik was doomed to vanish all too soon. Zelda would live on. And for now... for now it seemed Link looked on Sheik with positive regard. Perhaps they could become friends.
With all that tumbling through his mind, Sheik found himself speaking in poetic terms once more. "Friendship is something that grows over time. A feeling in the heart that becomes stronger. The warmth of friendship blossoms into a power that can guide you."
Something Sheik couldn't name crossed Link's face. But he nodded as though he understood what Sheik was trying to say.
"This song... This is a song of the heart." Sheik took out his lyre. It was a magical instrument, though not as powerful as the Ocarina of Time, so the heat had not warped its strings and its tone was still true. Still the metal was hot almost to the point of pain under Sheik's hand. He closed his eyes as he played. There was a pain in his chest as well, though he didn't want to put the cause of his sorrow into words.
Link echoed the song, but didn't continue playing when it was done. Sheik too lowered the harp as soon as he had finished. "Link..." Sheik didn't know what else he wanted to say. There was nothing he could say that wouldn't be a selfish delay of the hero's quest. "I'll see you again," was all he could come up with. An illusion of fire gave him the chance to escape through shadow, and a moment later he lay in the blessed coolness of his camp on the slopes of the mountain.
Sheik sprawled on his back and looked up at the sky above. The ring of fire that marked the mountain's curse lit the scene with a lurid glow. Soon, no doubt, the ring would be gone. Link would defeat the dragon that laired there, free the Gorons, waken the Sage of Fire, and advance one step closer to his final destiny. To Sheik's final doom.
_ I need to control myself. This is what I've trained for. I can't let my feelings about Link confuse me like this. _ Sheik closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing, calming himself. He wasn't even sure what he felt. He hardly knew Link. His child-self Zelda had idolized the boy hero. She had been certain that Link could do everything and anything. And I guess I still feel the same way, I'm so sure he'll be victorious in there. So maybe that's all it is, just hero worship. And why not? A little hero worship is natural. He is a hero. But I can't possibly... I shouldn't possibly allow myself to feel anything more. I'll be strong. I'll guide him to finish this quest. Then... then there will be no more Sheik, so my feelings won't matter anyway.
Sheik nodded, relaxing a little. That was how things would be. He would remain a distant, enigmatic guide. Link would follow his clues and awaken the sages. Then Zelda would return and... and things would play out as they must. Hyrule would be saved, the princess would be crowned as queen, and Sheik's duty would be fulfilled