I had a most horrible morning that was spent mostly in front of the porcelain god, so this chapter wasn't done quite as I liked. And to my great, great dislike it's short. It makes me angry, but I have school tomorrow... Blech! And I still have so much to do for tomorrow! Grr... Well, see ya'll in two weeks... I feel bad for saying that. T.T

Link could not sleep for the rest of the night. Sure, it ended up that it wasn't anything dangerous but the creepy entrance haunted his mind. Apparently it did Poe too, because he and the ghost still hadn't let go of each other.

It was when light was slowly entering the room from the mountain's unseen light sources that they managed to let go of each other. They decided that they would never speak of it, either. They were men after all; people couldn't know that they had screamed like children and held each other for dear life the whole night.

They both jumped and yelped when there was a knock on the door but relaxed a bit when the door opened revealing Rayeh. She had a big grin on her face.

"I heard you two had a very nice night." she said.

"Yeah…" Link started nervously, "Very nice… slept like a baby…"

She just smiled again but dropped it when she asked, "Are you ready for today?"

"Today?" he asked.

Both Poe and Rayeh gave him an incredulous look.

"How could you forget?!" Poe said angrily. "Today's the first day of the Master's trial!"

"Oh shi-" Link started. He had completely forgotten. He was used to three day wait periods and this was… this was a two day wait period and it had already passed. This was absolutely horrible. He hadn't gotten any votes yet, aside from Cyclos, but just one vote wasn't enough. It wasn't nearly enough. He had to think fast.

"Poe," Link started, "Find Venus and stick around her. Try to talk to her and convince her about voting for us- but be subtle!"

Poe tried not to panic and let out a shaky, "Okay." Subtly was what had gotten the Master frustrated the day before…

"And Rayeh, you're reasonable. Find Zephos, see if you could convince him to go on our side. Zelda hasn't contacted me yet about him so we have to try to appeal to his reason, like Farore suggested." he told her.

Determination behind the woman's eyes, she nodded. "I will do my best." she said confidentally.

"That's what I like to hear, now let's split. We have work to do!" Link said.

Rayeh and Poe took their leave first, heading off to find their assigned gods. Link stayed behind and reached for the pouch at his side. He felt the gossip stone's warmth. He pulled it out and saw it glowing.

"Heard everything?" he asked.

"Yes," he heard Zelda's voice. "That should do for now, but today you have to stall. If those two manage to succeed that still won't be enough."

"But how am I supposed to stall? I don't know the first thing about these types of procedures… And Din's the one I have to go up against. I honestly don't know how I can handle arguing with her." Link mumbled.

"That's why you have me." he heard Zelda say. "I can help, Link. You know as well as I do that even the Prime Minister can't win in a debate against me!"

He nodded, "That's true. But how?" he asked.

"Stick the gossip stone under your hat. You can still hear me but no one else can. That way, if you are in a tight spot I can tell you what to say." she explained.

He sighed in relief and smiled at the stone. "And some guys complain that they're girlfriends are too smart."

"And most men don't have to go through what you go through." she said through the stone. He felt a twinge of guilt crawl up his spine. She sounded… well, she sounded sad when she said that.

"I'll be back soon, you know that, right?" he said.

"Yes…"

He just stared guiltily at the gossip stone and a strange silence came over the room.

"Guess I should get going…" Link mumbled. There was no answer from the other side of the stone but he put it under his hat.

Rayeh and Poe had gone to the trial room. The stands were already filling with all the gods and spirits there. The maid frowned. There were so many… but she had to be optimistic! No matter how impossible this situation really was there had to be some strand of hope somewhere…

"Do you see either of them?" she asked Poe.

The ghost was looking around anxiously while twiddling his long, ghostly fingers. She smiled at him gently and put a hand on his shoulder. It was strange, actually being able to touch the ghost. She had to admit, she didn't think she would do as a gesture of comfort anymore. He was ridiculously cold.

"If you want, I can talk to her in your stead." she told him.

"No!" he said quickly, "I need to do this!"

And just as he said that, Venus floated right by them; she didn't seem to even notice them.

"Go get her." Rayeh said encouragingly.

Clenching his fists and thinking I can do this! Poe floated off behind the Fairy Queen. Catching up to her, he struggled for words. The fairy woman still didn't even seem to notice him, even as she sat in her assigned booth.

Finally, he managed to choke out, "Um, ah, hello Your Majesty…" even then, it came out as a squeak.

"Hm?" the Fairy Queen turned her head in his direction with an expression of surprise. "Oh, hello. I didn't even see you there." her voice was so musical, Poe almost felt like dancing to it. She crinkled her nose then, as if trying to place him and then said, "You were with Link, were you not?"

"Ah, yes… Yes, I was." he said skittishly.

She smiled a glorious smile and Poe resisted actually melting onto the floor.

"What brings you here, apparition?" she asked.

Her voice was so beautiful… He just wanted to blurt out the truth, right there.

"… be subtle!" he remembered Link say.

"Ah, I thought you might enjoy the company…" he said nervously.

She cocked her head to the side, her sparkling, gold hair falling to one side, a few strands cascading over her beautiful face… She was obviously trying to detect some sort of ulterior motive, but Poe had just become so entranced by her that she couldn't tell if he was lying or not. And even though there was an ulterior motive, Poe hadn't been completely lying. He really did wish to be around her…

Rayeh, in the meanwhile, was looking around for the god she was in charge of convincing. She had seen no signs of Zephos so she had gone to looking around for Cyclos. Chances were that if she found him, Zephos would be nearby. Instead, both gods ended up finding her.

"Ah, if it isn't the young woman that was with Link yesterday!" it was Zephos, she could tell from the cheerful tone. She didn't have to look for him, his cloud carried him right in front of her. A disgruntled looking Cyclos was not too far from him. "Vaati's ward, correct?" asked Zephos.

She nodded a bit hesitantly. She still wasn't quite used to dealing with a giant frog, despite the fact that she could deal with Bokoblins just fine.

"Yes," she answered, "Mu name is Rayeh and I was hoping I might watch the trial with you two. Though we were not formally introduced yesterday, you two are the only ones I am acquainted with and I would hate to be alone…"

The green god gave a hearty laugh and said, "I have no problems with it." He then turned to his brother and asked, "Do you mind, Cyclos?"

The red god didn't seem too interested but shrugged and said, "Whatever you want. Either way I don't care."

The green frog pivoted his cloud around and laughed again while saying, "Then it looks like you're welcome in our booth."

She bowed deeply and said, "Thank you very much."

"Ah, it's nothing lass, you needn't bow like that." said Zephos, "Shall we?"

And so she followed the twin gods to their booth. When there, it wasn't too long before Zephos and Cyclos then began to get in an argument similar to the one they had gotten into the day before. They both had very conflicting opinions on how the trial would go and Zephos's argument was depressing her greatly.

"Ah, sorry about that," said the green frog when he noticed how down she seemed, "I'm only stating the facts, you know."

"I know…" she said quietly, "But in my heart I hope that it will not happen like that."

The green frog looked at her curiously and then asked, "What is it you see in him?"

She laughed at the question. She wasn't sure why it was so funny but for some reason she just found it so.

"I really don't know." she answered honestly. "It is true, he is… he is not a very nice person. Quick to anger, quick to insult, he actually seems to like getting others angry, he does not care what others think of him, and he has goals that most would find… questionable. Oh… and he is a womanizer of the worst kind." She paused for a moment before adding one last thing, "But… he is kind to his servants, in his own strange way… He does not treat us badly… except Poe but he seems to like it."

Dazed and having drifted off to her own world, she didn't even hear Cyclos chuckle.

"And what's so funny?" Zephos asked his brother.

"That girl is stupid." answered the red frog. "Don't get me wrong, she has backbone to come all this way to try and save the sorcerer, but even she knows this is all impossible. She's stupid… but I guess I admire that kind of idiocy."