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Din, Nayru, and Farore sat at the little round table, morose.
“So, that’s it then?” Farore leaned back, cradling the four-sided pyramid die in her hands. “There’s nothing?”
“The Oracles are lending their aid…” Nayru offered, consoling, her hand coming to rest on Farore’s arm. “While they can. But I’m afraid…” she trailed off, seeing the quietly growing anger building in her sister.
Din finished for her. “We cannot maintain the balance of time much longer.”
Why must we favor the hero of time? You know I value him as well as any other hero, and yet by letting him accept his failure and one life, we bring about his soul again and again and again. He can live so many lives there?”
“ at the cost of the king of Darkness ruling over Hyrule for centuries? How can we argue that's in the best interest of the people? Of Hylia? To let evil thrive in a land of ruin.”
“It will recover! And what of the golden age before then? They advance further along than nearly any other time until the return of the Sheikah.”
Din stopped her dead cold. “But we cannot keep them all. That is a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless. We have to let one of them go, and I agree that any timeline where Ganondorf wins is a risk.”
Farore stood, shouting, “We cannot avoid that fate for forever!”
“Hylia’s line chose this. She chose the Hero of Time,” Naryru pleaded.
“And he fought nobly, but why does he get two lives when everyone else only has one? Why punish an entire world when its alternative should never have existed in the first place? And it only does so by your favor.”
“I trust Hylia.” Naryru cut back.
“Oh don’t you try and dress this up, sister. You began that Timeline, and your pride is riding on erasing your mistakes. Well we cannot simply erase the consequences of our own actions, as much as you’d like to dress it up in some noble cause.”
Farore left Din and Nayru to ponder her words, but she was not done. No, while they dithered, she would have the courage to do what must be done.
“Hero’s Spirit, forgive me for choosing you.”
Great drops began to fall on the table, startling Naryru and Din. They opened their eyes to the era without a hero, where Ganondorf would be defeated in time with the rise of a new Hero’s Spirit… But what had begun could not be undone.
Lightning flashed. Rain blanketed Hyrule.
“My sweet children…” she cried into the howling rain, “I’m sorry.”
Farore called down the end of the world.
Far away in time and eras, deep within the Temple of Seers, Cia watched, and listened to her guest.
"An alliance?"
"Yes."
"You? With Me? Well, I am surprised. And all just to save this little mess of a timeline?"
"And all those within." The Fierce Deity nodded.
"And why do you think I should?"
"Because I know you'd be in danger if they learned who unraveled it in the first place."
"I have conditions." She rose, cupping her hip and leering greedily at her many, many portraits of the hero.
"As do I." A blade appeared in his hands. "You will not die, if you agree. Otherwise, I will summon every god to destroy--"
"UHG! FINE" She waved him back. "It's a deal."