It was a very stressful, frightening and frustrating experience. The strange women provided him with water and food, which he was grateful for, but their attempts at conversations were basically useless. The one called 'Namah' was the one that tried to communicate with him the most, she kept trying differently sounding languages, and had tried to use written language with him as well. They hadn't managed much, he had attempted to write some of his language back, in hopes she would understand, but it didn't seem to be getting them anywhere. It seemed they had to start from scratch, and start they did.

Namah started with basic things, food, water, numbers and the like. He wasn't sure how long it took, how many days it had been, but eventually they were able to have very minimal conversations. He still couldn't quite communicate the things he really wanted to: where he was, what they were, what that intense light was peeking through the windows during the day. Namah and her people had put together pretty quickly that the light was too intense for him and kept him in the dark most they could.

"What are you?"

That was the first real question she had managed to ask him, and he would've found it a little rude had he not been thinking the same thing.

"Twili." He answered. "My…people, Twili."

Namah nodded, gesturing to herself.

"My people are Gerudo. I am a scholar, I study things."

He blinked, paused a moment as he tried to recall the words, then responded.

"I also. Also 'scholar'." He said, holding up his hand. "I…show?"

Namah nodded, a little skeptical but equally parts curious, if he understood her expression.

Link faced an empty part of the room, holding his hand out in front of him. With a little concentration a ball of black and red electricity formed, buzzing in his palm. Namah was staring, but didn't seem to be scared, so he continued. He performed a basic warp spell, transferring the cup on the table into the palm of his other hand. Pleased with himself, he smiled at her, holding out the cup. Namah said something, seemingly excited, but he didn't quite catch all of it. When she noticed this she showed her own hand, bright sparks of electricity flickering around it.

"Magic," she said, pointing at her hand, then his. "Magic."

Oh! That must be their word for sorcery. She was spellweaver too?

Surprisingly, they began to understand each other much faster after that; was it because they had something in common? Link liked to think so, maybe their mutual interest was helping bridge the gap in their languages. They began to speak easier about spells and the like, then progressed into general conversation. He learned many things from her, although they didn't all make a lot of sense. The place he was in was called Hyrule, and the town was exclusively for her tribe, the Gerudo. Apparently they were only women, and only women were allowed there. When he voiced his concern about that, she explained that they had made an exception in his case.

"The light hurts you, there's no way you can go through the desert on your own. That and you're no race we've ever seen, we don't know how people will react if they see you."

"I am frightening?" he asked. "There are none that look like Twili here?"

He had put together he was in the light realm, though he still had no idea how or why. There were races and lands he had never heard of, and that burn outside the window curtains, it didn't take a genius to figure out he was no longer in his sweet Twilight.

"No, but there are legends about you." Namah told him. "I don't know much about them, but I have a friend from another tribe that might know more about it. She said she'll come to visit as soon as she has anything that can help us understand what's happening. That and…well…your hand…"

He followed her gaze to the back of his left hand, biting his lip. The three triangles were still marked brazenly on his flesh, as if they had been there his entire life. That symbol appeared when all this started, he knew there must be a connection but…

"You know this?" he showed her the mark. "You know what it is?"

"That's the crest of the Hylian royal family, of the gods, the Triforce." Namah explained. "It must be important, but I don't know why. Do you have any idea about it?"

"It appeared right before I came here," he frowned. "I was just walking down the hall and then it showed up, then…there was a light, some…thing, made of light, and then I was in your 'desert', burning."

"I see…I'm afraid I can't go off that at all." She sighed.

"Ah," Link frowned, disappointed.

He thought a moment, eying the closed curtain. Even though it blocked the light for the most part, there was still that searing gold peeking through the gaps. Would he have to stay here the rest of his life? Well, no, if he wanted to he could go out during the darkness of their night, but…

"Can I go outside?" he asked, still looking at the window.

"Outside? The sun's light didn't agree with you last time, I don't think that's-"

"Not right now, at night, when the light is dimmed." He looked back at her. "I haven't left this room, I want to go outside."

"Well…" Namah frowned. "I…suppose so, but we'll have to be careful, okay? I'll come back later, once it's dark enough."

Link nodded, thanking her before she took her leave.

Once alone again, he settled back down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. What was going to become of him? Would he ever get home? Would he just waste away in this room being studied like this? Granted they were much more hospitable to him than they could have been, for which he was grateful, but…

He shook his head, turning onto his side. Namah was accommodating, even about letting him leave, so he truly did believe that she at least was trying to help him. Still, what else was there for him to do? He was still learning their language, but that was basically all there was for him to do to pass the time. Would this friend of hers be able to help? Would she be able to get him back? And what about that mark? Why would the symbol of the goddesses of light, the ones that had banished his ancestors, be drawn into his skin like this? He mulled over thoughts like these for a good while in silence before he finally slipped into slumber.

The dream he had was strange; he was in a vast field of green grasses, a single tree in the center of it all. The sky was an intense bright blue, clouds white and bone, but they didn't seem to come with the burn of the light world sun. There was no 'sun', actually, but then why was this place so bright? That and it just kept going, there was nothing on the horizon, the field just stretched endlessly in all directions. Figures circled about the tree, but he couldn't make them out quite right. He frowned and made his way toward it, curious to see who was there.

As he grew closer he made out the figures to be children, pale, but light-realmers, all wearing simple white clothing and strange masks. When he got close they stopped running about, pausing to look at him, at least he assumed they were looking at him. They said nothing and he continued toward the tree where a final masked child sat, hugging its knees. The mask was…familiar, the eyes, the patterns, it almost looked like something he had seen in the library, something from a long time ago-

"Are you here to play?" the child asked.

He went to answer but he had no voice, no sound would leave him.

"I know your magic," the child's head tilted to an unnatural angle. "It's my magic too. Are you going to take me home?"

Again, he couldn't answer, but the child continued.

"We'll go home together." They said. "Once we're done playing. You need to take that mask off first, you can put it back on later."

Link tried to speak again, tried to explain he wasn't wearing a mask.

The child reached up and grabbed his face, pulling him down to their eye level. Their nails dug into the skin of his face, causing Link to shout out in pain. He tried to grab the hands and pull them away, tried to yell at him to stop, nothing worked. The child dug their nails under his face and with a rough, sickening ripping sound, tore Link's face clean off. Link screamed, clutching at his face- only to find there was sill flesh upon it. He froze, desperately gripping at his face, feeling it. It was- normal? No, not quite, it was different but-

The masked child held up his own face, his features, chiseled into a wooden mask. Suddenly he was looking through the mask that was his face, at himself, or what had been himself. A tall, pale man with white hair and white eyes, blue and red marks on his face-

"Let's play!"