Whine~~~ everyone gets to play SS but me~ *pouts*
Link had ADD last chapter, didn't he? Haha… it was stress.
Review replies
Trolley's Bara-chan: My spellfails exposed to the world. Oh, wait, I did that, not you. Eheheh… thanks! And yes, I knew about the dowries thing, its why I included it. (for anyone who has no idea what I'm on about THIS TIME, go read her review of 9 please. It will help you understand the sheikah vs. hylian cultures and the fairytale of chapter 9, too)
Sunnepho: Its fine! I completely understand! You'll find these answers eventually. I'm just not sure when. (Should I… should I really be telling you that…?)
Ryttu3k: my… my insane pleading guilt-trip worked? Awesome! Thank you for reviewing this time! And… I'm really, really glad to hear this isn't *just* a vampire story. That's a high compliment to me, I'm steadfastly trying to avoid it. I hope you continue to enjoy the story. Sheik and Zelda need hugs. Lots of hugs.
Thanks again for humoring my turnip-like self-esteem.
(Ready? Go.)
"Link…" The hero froze, a horrible chill lancing up his spine like of bolt of iced-lightening. A terribly familiar hand clapped down on one shoulder. "What were you doing talking to the duke?" Sheik grinned at him. Link saw death and bloodshed in the curve of his mouth.
Chapter 10: Whether sleeping or fading (you stop existing /for a time/)
"That was wonderful, Zelda." Link congratulated her. She smiled a little tentatively back at him, fingers brushing the crown on her head.
"Really? I wasn't planning on crying like that…"
"It was brilliant." Impa assured while patting her charge on the shoulder. "By doing that, you swayed the whole crowd." Zelda beamed back up at her, and Link listened to approaching footsteps.
"Congratulations and condolences, I wish I didn't have to give them at once." A fourth voice cut in, and Midna walked up to them giving a fox-smile to the new queen. "My dear." She greeted, holding Zelda's hand to give it a kiss.
"Midna. Was that you hexing people while I was giving my speech?" Zelda asked sharply, with one eyebrow up.
"Me? Never." Midna gasped, swooning as though Zelda had accused her of being a great burly man under her robes. She clutched her chest and swayed in place a moment, moaning about her poor heart.
And then she pointed at Sheik. "He did it." She accused point blank, devious in voice while her scapegoat squawked that he most certainly did not, even though he wanted to! (And they knew that he really, really wanted to.)
Other things he really, really wanted to do involved Link, some adhesive and a maypole (or so the hero himself had been told, by a murderous shade), but thankfully Zelda had interrupted all that.
Link frowned, rubbing the inside of his wrist. Outside calm moments he didn't really notice – a side effect of constant fighting, just like not noticing the amulet's weight was one of constant motion with heavy gear and little peace – but it tingled and burned quietly, and more often than not itched. It hurt to scratch it, of course, but there was something not wholly unpleasant about scraping his nails over it until the urge was gone. He supposed all itches were like that.
A shudder wracked through him when his hand went to the sleeve over his right wrist to do just that. Looking up, he found Impa staring back with a hard glint in her eyes.
Does she…?
Biting his lip – damn it but it itched! – he pulled back his nails and tried to focus on Zelda and the Twili noble.
He glanced over to Sheik, who was also looking at Impa. Almost immediately though, the other man's eyes drifted – painful and slow – to Link. 'Oh, shit.' His gaze telegraphed quite clearly. Link tried not to audibly gulp.
Impa leant down and said something to Zelda. And then she said something to Sheik, and he – looking like most would on their way to the gallows – followed her.
"Link. Please join us." Impa said, clapping a hand down on his shoulder. Impa was tall. Impa was tall, and scary, and he always forgot but she was stronger than him. Much stronger. He almost buckled under the force of her pat.
"… yes ma'am."
Where they went was a place he hadn't even imagined existed. The shadow garden was quite possibly the most beautiful thing in the castle, certainly the most bizarre, and the pathway to it was hidden down a convoluted system of passages in a part of the castle most often left forgotten. Checkered tiles lined the edges of the ancient courtyard, arches played peek-a-boo with crystal trees and deep blue leaves. Ice-light played on the ground with the indigo darkness. There was a fountain somewhere near them, water cascading against itself in gentle waves. The sound was faint on the air, but it carried to his too-sharp ears anyway.
Impa snapped her fingers. "Sheik. I need three." She didn't elaborate on that, but he seemed to know whatever it was she was asking for because he nodded and skulked off.
As far as Link could see he was resigned and silent and quite dreadful in complexion, before his dark face disappeared under the wavering crystal-and-blue branches of the strange trees.
Impa's gaze turned back to Link. "Start at the beginning, tell as much or as little as you please, so long as you do tell me what transpired in Death Mountain that caused you and his foray into the forbidden."
Impa. Always. Knew. Sheik probably got it from her.
"… Are you going to rip out my organs and feed them to me?" He ventured, ducking a little lower. Impa raised her eyebrows.
"Get talking." She ordered.
So… he did.
"… and it was… it was really bad, Impa. It felt like the enchantments on the Shadow temple… and we had to get out of there… so…" He bit off a sigh. "I… I gave him blood. As much as he needed, I didn't ask, we had to get out of there."
Impa's face had remained neutral – imminent devouring of organs seemed unlikely, but he would still worry until the option was taken off the table by the sheikah herself – throughout his narrative. But now that the tale had finished, a little rushed and certainly flushed on Link's part, Impa allowed thoughtfulness to touch upon her face.
A bird started singing somewhere towards the glass ceiling.
"There were tunnels in the mountain used by our people, but there are no sheikah left in Hyrule." Impa murmured. "I suppose it could be a leftover spell gone awry."
"… that could happen?"
"Certainly. A goron could've set it off by accident, and awoken the golem." That didn't entirely explain how they'd gotten down there in the first place, but it wasn't uncommon for the gorons to dig deeper in search of 'yummy rocks'. Link thought it was too close, though. He knew better than to believe in coincidences of this magnitude. Whether Impa chose to share those notions was left unknown.
The faint smell of copper drifted toward them, distracting Link from the current conversation. He heard a whispered curse before Sheik emerged from the twisting illusory grasp of dark branches, a triplicate of bloody still-warm hearts in his grasp.
The red ran over his fingers. Link didn't know any monsters with red blood.
Pivoting on one heel, Impa took off into the darkness. The two young men trailed after her, one with darkness in his eyes and the other with it in his hands.
In the coming winter, the world was changing, and the high-rising bare-bone branches of the icicle trees reminded them with a sinister air. The twigs rustled and tinkled like bells. Link thought back to the funeral.
Water's soft and soothing noise became louder in the air and just around a great drooping tree that refused to relinquish its leaves, they spotted the source; Impa was kneeling beside a fountain. Silver glowed under soft-white moonlight (there was no moon, it was an illusion) and black tile edged the inside. The water glistened and rushed in swirls, brushing the sides and disappearing down hidden drains to shoot from the spout again. He could see the reflections of the crystalline trees and the glass ceiling, and the push-and-pull carried him to calm. Order and chaos, the feminine, life.
Sheik tossed the hearts in and they all watched the warm-red blood spread and stain the water. It spread and spread until a spray of water-blood was spouting from the top, a macabre fountain to make any despot envious. Under moon silver and a touch of magic, the clear purity had changed to sensuality, bloodshed, sin. To… death, Link realized sadly.
Impa retrieved a vial from her waist and mixed it in the murky garnet-and-moon glass.
"I should have, perhaps, done this a long time ago." She drawled, and beckoned them forward.
Sheik's gaze was fixed on the water, dark but not animal yet, and filled with something like trepidation. This is really happening, every line of him screamed in disbelief. This is real.
Link wished he knew what this was.
"You are not a sheikah, Link." Impa spoke clearly, "And you are not tied to Sheik. That was fine. But the moment your blood touched his lips, I'm afraid that changed." Sheik glanced away a second. Link decided not to tell her about that one time with the daggers and dodongos. "You two must be tied."
…what?
"Excuse me?" Link couldn't keep all the incredulity from his voice.
Impa stared him down. "A tradition of our people is to tie ourselves to a hylian we've bitten. To ensure an equal exchange. Here, it simply marks you as brother in arms… an honoree sheikah, you could venture." She gestured them forward. "Sheik. Finish the ritual."
Red eyes flashed toward Link a heartbeat, and then Sheik had stolen his hand. Metal flashed – Impa had looked away from them, and Link stared uncomprehendingly at the knife in his hand and the red running from Sheik's arm. That done and his arm bloodied, Sheik held it out over the water of the fountain so the red life arched down, down and splattered against the sinful water– it glittered and sizzled when the two touched.
"… we drink." Sheik murmured to him, crouching beside the fountain and cupping some liquid in his hands. Link went down and did the same.
This wasn't, in its entirety, new to him. Hearts were the main ingredient of potions. Monster blood was just as strong, but harder to prepare and preserve. It was used as a base in blue potions, Link remembered…
The hearts could be used fresh without any cooking or cleaning, though, so they were favored. Monsters would be caught (or killed wild,) their hearts boiled and concentrated, and added to a few other things to produce a healing salve.
In addition, Link had used them for field medicine many times. But this was the first time he'd… had the blood of a human touch on his tongue…
He blinked at the fire-and-metal flavor on his lips and swallowed the potion. He felt the skin of his wrist tingle, and saw it glow softly through his sleeve. Healing. The word resonated in his mind, and he felt numb.
Around that time, he decided, half-conciously, that where the hearts had come from he was better off remaining ignorant.
Impa was leaving the clearing as they brought the cupped blood to their lips, but she looked back over her shoulder as they swallowed. "You two are in this together now." Impa spoke as though they hadn't been, and they all knew they had. Though… this was binding. What Impa said meant… this was real. Link bit back and tried not to jump. "Now do what you should have done in the first place, boys. Talk." Her voice had softened a touch, and with that she left them, still kneeing beside the fountain.
The shadows by his knees shifted.
It's an illusion.
Sheik sighed, collapsing to the ground in a boneless pile. Link joined him after a second and groaned.
"She knows everything. How are we supposed to compete?" He demanded of his friend, who let out a half-strangled laugh.
"We have to do something that's its impossible to know, of course." Sheik mumbled, dragging a hand over his eyes. "Gods above, but I thought she was going to make us create an exchange of wills." A full-on laugh issued from his throat. His eyes flickered open to flash at Link. "I'm sorry; I should have warned you about this."
"Would've been nice." Link shot back, still considering the taste of Sheik's blood in his throat. He'd rather not taste it again, to be certain, but his main concern was why Sheik would be bleeding, rather than the flavor or substance. That was a tad worrying in itself. "Anyway, what exactly do we need to talk about?"
"I don't know. Something about me ravishing your virgin bones or the like." Sheik flapped a hand in a gesture of dismissal. With Impa gone and the matter of possibly-human-based potion drinking over, his relief was tangible. And affecting the rest of his behavior quite notably. Link shook his head.
"Right. I somehow think she would've given a refresher course on certain topics, if that were really the case." Those glib words spoken, Link continued to stare up through the shifting branches of the trees, focused on the soft white glow of a far-off ceiling. "How did she know?"
"I honestly couldn't say." Sheik sighed, "But she saw you scratching your wrist, so she knew where'd I'd bitten you."
"Is it supposed to itch?" Link asked curiously.
"No."
Silence lingered for a few moments.
"…You're not going to murder me for talking to the Duke still, right?"
"No, I think Impa was punishment enough."
Oh. That's… good. Yeah. Again, silence.
"… we can't get out of here, can we?"
"No. She locked us in."
… she'll remember we're here, though. Right?
… right?
Link's eyes widened. He glanced at Sheik, but he seemed more pensive than worried about them being locked in for a decade before Impa grew tired of their absence, or remembered where she hid the key. Whatever might cause her to forget about them. Link noticed a little bit of skin around Sheik's eyes was beginning to discolor from a lack of decent rest… and his face was troubled and sad. So Link spoke. "… I'm still really sorry. About… the biting and, everything…" he didn't speak well, of course – what was he supposed to say? That wasn't enough of an excuse to not try, though.
"Its fine, Link." Sheik sighed. "Though I would have preferred that you'd never learned of it at all."
"Well, I'm glad I learned." Link mumbled, thinking of his friend hiding half of his nature their entire time together while he looked out over the space between him and the ceiling. Reality seemed to be far away instead of existing as the air around them, a star in the distance but not a firefly flickering against his fingers. He heard Sheik take in a breath, but whether it was happy or sad was lost to him. When he turned his head to look he found he couldn't see anything of the young man's face beyond the curve of his mouth. It was peeking above his bangs while he lay supine to watch the treetops. Link thought he was looking at the treetops, anyway.
His lips were curled in a smile. Wishing he could see it and knowing it would disappear if he moved, Link closed his eyes and resolved to save the memory.
One day, he decided, I will see him smile unguarded.
Not in relief, or of humor, nor sadness or sinister intent, but in a pure expression of happiness. He wondered if that was strange. Then again, everything was strange lately, so one more thing wouldn't make him fade from reality. It might even bind him to it, like the blood droplets in the fountain had bound their fates.
(Then again, for all he knew their fates were bound long before that. Perhaps the moment he'd accepted the garnet gaud from the devil-god, or perhaps it had been building up since the very day they'd met, a an hour that was almost an eternity ago.)
Stretching his arms out over his head, Link stared at the treetops too. "What is this place?" He heard Sheik moving, and then red eyes were blinking down at him.
"A garden for the sheikah. A… comfort of home, I suppose." He drawled, supporting his weight on one arm while he loomed over Link. The darkness of his eyes was very clear, now. His skin was also getting paler, Link noticed… "These plants are native to silver grottos in the forests of Tot. They also grow in the dark world." That said, Sheik flopped to the ground beside him in a boneless pile. "I should probably clean the blood off my arm." He mumbled thoughtfully.
"With what?" Link demanded, half-wry and considering when the last time he'd even seen Sheik sleep was. The fountain was bloody and there didn't seem to be any sinks in the garden, afterall. Sheik grunted, eyes flickering away. "… alright. what's a silver grotto?"
"An underground place filled with all sorts of things." Was his murmured response. "They can only be touched by moonlight – the sun makes them hide. Sometimes they'll grow near glowing crystal." A half-dreaming sigh drifted from his lips, still stained red. "I saw one a long time ago."
"… I'd like to see one, too." Link decided, and absentmindedly licked the blood from his own. He could swear Sheik's eye fixated on them, then…
The trees rustled and the shadows laughed.
Sheik rolled away from him. The moment shattered, and Link closed his eyes.
"… hey…" He started to murmur, when the time for truth also faded.
They heard footsteps approaching.
"How did you talk them out of the banquet?" Link wondered.
Zelda blinked. "What makes you think that they would've wanted a banquet?"
"They always want a banquet." He replied bluntly, pulling out Zelda's chair for her. She smiled.
"Ah… well." She shrugged. "I have my ways."
Impa chuckled at that, setting down a steaming pot of stew while simultaneously managing to give Link the very strong impression that she was one of those 'ways'.
Meanwhile Sheik was holding up a plate of buns – eyeing them very suspiciously, actually.
"Which of you made these?" He rumbled.
"Impa. Why?" Zelda replied in innocence, turning her head to face him.
"Oh, good." Sheik smiled and set them down. "Because your cooking is terrible."
… for about a second, everything was silent, but Impa smiled wider and Link stared in horror as he waited for the inevitable Zelda-produced apocalypse.
"What!" The woman exclaimed, smacking the table. Sheik repeated himself.
Before Zelda could reach across the table (or jump onto it, like Link, Impa and everyone else who'd ever met her knew she dearly wanted to) the eldest of their quartet held out a hand for peace.
"Children. Behave." And she turned to look at Link, and continued looking until he fidgeted and sat like a well-trained dog. Satisfied with this, she nodded and began ladling stew into wooden bowls for them.
About three quarters of an hour ago she had reappeared in the Shadow garden, allowed them out and informed them that they would be dining with the young queen, but hadn't expounded any further on the subject. Link, mystified at the prospect of Zelda eating dinner privately the day of her coronation, and Sheik, mystified that he wasn't threatening Zelda's advisors into letting her eat dinner privately the day of her coronation, followed Impa with questions overflowing.
None had been answered until they had reached the little chambers – far away from the garden, to be certain - where a wooden table and set of chairs were situated, along with their lovely girl.
And it really was private. Besides himself, only Impa, Sheik, and Zelda were admitted. Link was… basically attending a family dinner.
It wasn't the most bizarre thought. He really didn't think that the reality of it deserved to be so terrifying.
As for that, though…
Zelda sighed and sipped her stew. "Midna and I had an interesting chat today." She murmured between spoonfuls.
"Oh? I don't need to rip out her tongue, do I?" Sheik answered very calmly. Link took a bite out of his roll. He was sitting beside Zelda, across from Sheik while Impa was opposite the queen. This could only end well.
"No, no." They all continued eating in the otherwise-silent room. Link wondered if a quick death at the hands of Ganon would have been preferable to the bloody one that was surely coming for him, right from the depths of hell. He was sure this was the prelude. "... In any case, we were discussing suitors. She brought up a noble from the Twili courts…"
"Not Zant." Sheik muttered, glaring into his stew, "Anyone but Zant."
"Not Zant." Zelda confirmed. "As I was saying, she brought up a noble. She said you might perhaps be interested by him."
"Please don't discuss me with Midna."
"Technically we were discussing your love life."
"Don't talk about that either."
Sip, sip, sip. Link was staring in a vague kind of horror at the siblings.
"… well, its already been done. Apparently he's quite skilled at-"
"Zelda."
"-and you-"
"Zelda."
"-virgin, so she presumed.-"
"Zelda." Impa broke in. "You're scaring him." And then she gestured to Link and returned to her meal.
"Please don't discuss my virginity with Midna." Sheik added.
"What virginity?" Zelda muttered, barely loud enough to hear, while picking at her vegetables. Impa – the kind of person whose ears were fine-tuned to everything – looked upward with a sharp expression and one eyebrow raised. Sheik shot Zelda a glare and refused to look at their elder at all.
Link realized, not for the first time, that these people were insane.
He finished his bowl and Impa asked him if he wanted seconds. One moment later found him staring down at another bowl full of dark red liquid, while he wondered if he'd regret his decision.
"- you shouldn't be worrying over such matters, anyway. You've got duties to attend."
"All I did was ask you if I was attractive. Was the roundabout and obscure rant – which I really must commend you on, by the way, you managed to completely avoid the one question I did ask - really necessary?"
"Of course." Sheik nodded, taking a bite from his bun.
"You're very pretty, Zelda." Link assured her, and also wondered if he would regret his first contribution to conversation that night. Zelda beamed. Sheik kicked him under the table.
A chuckle rolled out of Impa's throat, while Link glared back at his friend before sticking out his tongue in a childish display of spite. Sheik smirked and started to snarl out a challenge when Zelda… demanded he find her confections. Since Sheik (along with everyone else) had no idea what a cupcake even was, he was left in a mire of puzzlement while Link tucked back into his meal, Impa did her best not to react, and Zelda laughed to the high heavens. A family of lunatics, Link decided.
And all was well.
The dinner's clean up was simple – it had all rushed by in a blur, and despite his almost complete lapse in socializing Link hadn't really noticed the flavors of his food, let alone savored them. That made him feel a little guilty, he knew Impa had worked hard on that… But then, he also supposed it was to be expected when thrust into a novel situation such as he had been; it was difficult to focus on anything outside the main event.
Sheik and he (well, mostly Sheik since he was an impatient person and kept taking from Link's pile after he'd finished his own) washed the bowls and silver in a private room, as they were Impa's and she wouldn't have them mixed with the castle's own dinnerware before returning them.
She then whisked those away to her secret silverware hidey-hole or wherever Impa stashed her things, while Link and Sheik stood awkwardly until Zelda mused that she would like to visit her library's study. Apparently since she hadn't been inside in quite some time, or something. Neither of the males could rightly understand why anyone would want to return to a room dedicated to paperwork, but she was Zelda and they tried not to look too hard at any of her obscure habits, lest their minds explode from the pressure (see: Song of storms). So they went along with her wishes, and once she was safely ensconced inside the little torture cell known as an office- er, study, Link and Sheik themselves had settled into the library. Finding the place appropriate, Link had then pulled into existence his own read.
"… there is light to cast a shadow. The darker the darkness the brighter the light.
Those who are light, accordingly cast shadows of themselves. Pale stretching things who barely scratch the surface of dark, but there are shades blacker than black because of their burning-white lights.
(That's kind of dramatic.
Get out of my book.)
The darkness is not an opposite but a mirror – inversion of the truth but not the desire or the mind. It is an individual self, connected only by the string of fate to its caster. It exists from birth but does not begin to form its own mind until seven years have passed in full… In some cases the formation takes longer, but the shadow will develop a morality similar to the light. It holds itself back from what the light will thoughtlessly grasp in its palm, and seize in the darkness that which the light covets but never holds."
Was the rest of the book written more concisely? He supposed it was to be expected in a volume about magic and darkness. Mages had a penchant for melodramatic riddles, at the end of the day.
"… and the shadow of a shadow is actually a light; it has living starfire eyes and skin like night or the surface of the moon, softness against sharp edges and angles…"
He rolled the words over in his mind. Despite the sheer amount of flowery insanity, it made sense… somewhat…
"This light which casts shadows from the dark world are connected to those not made of light but residing in the realm of it. Revealing of the truth within… and radiating the light…
From there it devolved into puzzles and riddles he couldn't hope decipher, then.
"Hey Sheik. Ever heard of a 'shadow caster'?" Link called to him from the table. Sheik looked up for the bookshelf, eyebrows knitting together.
"No, what is it?"
"A light being connected to sheikah, kind of like how hylians have shadow versions of themselves. Apparently." Link muttered the last part under his breath. Did this mean Dark Link had existed before Ganon had…?
"Light?" Sheik's eyes had widened. Link wonder what could possibly be so…
From inside Zelda's study, there was a crash.
Nayru damnit.
He should have realized something had been wrong, but then wasn't that how these things always started?
Her smiles weren't faked, but the grief also hadn't faded and it had rushed back on her the moment she stepped out of their circle – please, please be alright – and once he'd gotten the door open, he almost wished he hadn't. Cool green eyes assessed him, burning with starlight and power. Someone with his face but not was reclining on the desk, lazily looking themselves over.
A slow, reserved smile unfurled over his features. His hair was untied and falling down in long tresses that were unmistakably Zelda's, even when they were put on this parody of the queen and her guardsman as one. The stolen lips pulled up in sweet, sharp smile. "Why, good evening. Isn't this a pleasant surprise, mon obscurité?" was his address to the horror-stricken sheikah, before his eyes flickered to Link.
The smile became a grin full of teeth.
Sharp, jagged teeth.
"And you brought the Hero…" He murmured it so fondly, like Sheik had just been so thoughtful to do that… and then he lunged.
There was something funny about trying to stop yourself. Sheik learned about it just then, because the light had already woven under his outstretched arms to continue his attempt of assailing Link.
Link's wide, wide eyes shot to Sheik for a second – begging for what he could do, some instruction, aid, anything at all- and Sheik was staring back and his head was screaming move more move-!
Because they had no idea what it was doing, not a goddess-forsaken clue but quick as a flash of sunlight through blinds the shade-who-was-not had Link in his grasp and up against the study's doorway. When Link opened his mouth to shout, the shadow caster pressed a very demanding kiss to his lips.
Sheik was not in a happy place.
This was the least likely thing he expected to spend his night on, but there they were. Too literally.
Link was turning a very interesting shade of red while Sheik's horrible doppelganger shoved its tongue down his throat.
The fact, half-hidden by magic he supposed, that the shadow-caster was using Zelda's body immediately made it a thousand-fold worse.
Sheik's fingers clenched at his side. Link snapped out of his daze long enough to head butt light Sheik- Zelda? Sheik's light shade? This was confusing – and scramble away, sliding behind the Sheik who didn't pin him to walls for passionate kisses at random. (He ignored the part of him chiming that it wouldn't mind that, so long as it was his Sheik, and not some lunatic light-equivalent of a hylian's darkness made manifest.
… Their world was far too confusing, he often found.)
The shadow caster turned around with a still-bright smile, lips shining from saliva. Zelda's lips.
Goddesses, this was a mess.
But the body in the dress was definitely male…
Did the magic change her sex?
And the smile was definitely Sheik's, though on rose lips in a pale face... Sheik scowled. "That body isn't yours." He hissed, canting his head to the side so his eye gleamed in the candlelight. "So why don't you sit down and let me lock you away?"
"That sounds terribly boring." The-one-who-wasn't-Zelda announced with a roll of stars-or-hellfire eyes, before another sharp grin lit them up. "I have a better idea."
And that was how Link found himself swinging from a chandelier in the dining hall.
Er… perhaps not completely, mind you, but it was a logical transition in his mind. To break it down for those not privy to such unique insights as the ones tucked under his ridiculous green cap, the events went something more along the lines of this; a not-really dark alley, a bad idea, and him really needing to learn to shut his mouth. Zelda's body being possessed by something called a shadow caster, which was a Sheikah's 'light' but could as be defined as a demon from the deepest pits of hell, a very upset Sheik, and a hallway of terrified maids. A lot of screaming.
Some scandalous rumors about Zelda (possibly drunk) would be spreading through the kingdom the next day.
Oh, and of course Link's super-quick-escape abilities, which he was seriously picking up from Sheik (excepting this one, Sheik wouldn't let Link blame this on him). When he was running from Zelda's maniacally laughing possessor, he leapt onto a table and kept jumping. An occupied dinner table, the occupants being nobles and food. Bah. As if that would stop a harried hero or his harasser.
Somewhere to the side, Midna was having a good laugh. And Sheik was expanding the vocabulary of everybody in the room.
Eventually he remembered that terrified nobles weren't just screaming speedbumps though, and bellowed for Midna to clear the hall – this was done between downright maniacal laughs, the teary-eyed woman shooing them off like she was swatting flies. Meanwhile, Sheik had managed to catch up and tackled the shadow-caster, while Link tried to kick and struggle his way higher onto the chandelier because the light being had been eyeing his ankles and, well, Zelda was taller than him. He was sure the jump could be made with enough struggle.
Meanwhile Sheik and the light being fought, that being a relative term since one inhabited the body of a frail queen and the other inhabited a happy world where one did not deck his baby sister, even possessed. And that was how, in the incredible struggle-that-was-not, the caster of shadow had a cruel upper hand. Which was also handicapping him a bit, but more when it came to escaping his cast shadow and catching the terrorized hero than in the proposed combat itself. The pros outweighed the cons where they were rolling across the floor in a mess of pulled hair and torn scarves and skirts.
He got away from Sheik soon enough though, cackling and tossing a tablecloth over him because why not, it made as much sense as anything else today, before they returned to eyeing up Link. Sheik's swearing was muffled but it wouldn't be for much longer, and the light one took one backward glance before jumping the table and approaching the space under Link, who had wormed his way entirely onto the light fixture (he'd knocked down several candles in the process, which rolled about the table at the possessor's feet, and thumped the ground quietly when they fell).
Midna, being the ever-helpful noblewoman she was, had pulled back a chair and a plate of appetizers that weren't imprinted with the triforce on Link's boots or the heels of Zelda's shoes, and was watching with all the contentment in the world.
Everybody really hated her.
Except, of course, Light Sheik, who was quite happy there was one person who didn't so whole-heartedly disprove of him jumping the Hero of Time's bones.
He made to leap and came up short, and Sheik swore at him. The light one swore back, clutching his chest and staring at it with irate curiosity.
"… worthless weak body…" He was muttering, giving a frustrated look to where his hand clutched on the bodice, when Sheik remembered that he was a powerful spellcaster. One of the best.
Light and fire flickered, dimmed and almost disappeared until the room was colored Nyx black and brown and gold. Swathes of shadow like hair-ribbons* came ripping out of every dark space between the golden lights and bound the imposter's body in the flat blackness of the void…
Midna gave a final laugh as the shadow and eclipsed light stole away. Still decorated in shimmering, half-faded lights, her prize was better, and it was already caught.
"Oh Link…" A chill ran up his spine, and he wished for a better place to run. Unfortunately, while attaching himself to the chandelier let him escape someone Zelda's size, Midna was taller. And she had the means and motive to cut him down without even mounting the table, that was important too.
Sheik had never mentioned that twili could levitate things. He stared in dawning horror at the too-cheerful noble as she lowered him to the floor in grasp of a giant half-there hand. Her eyes were those of a demon.
"I'd like to ask you a few questions about your pretty sheikah…" Midna purred, wrapping her solid fingers up in the neckline of his tunic before yanking so he either followed her or choked.
She sent a sharp glare to the candles still lit. The room went dark as the moonless night outside the castle.
"Try to answer concisely." She tutted, eyes lighting up in the black.
"You're terrible, you know. A real monster." Light Sheik called from behind the barricade, likely rolling his eyes heavenward.
Sheik heard one fist smack the door. "The first time I'm out in years, and you won't even let me have a bit of fun…" Shadows and lights were inverted images. He tried to remember that, watching them play together over the floor.
At the silence his caster too went cold and quiet.
Sheik left the locked door behind him, slipping back into the main room. There was a certain sharp taste in his mouth when he looked back down the unforeseen's path. A light room for trapping disobedient shadows…
With walls that could take more punishment than Zelda's body could ever hope to give, (at least, now).
He shuddered and sat on his bed, trying not to look again at the hallway that only he could see.
Because fate wasn't done yet taunting him, shadows sliced up from the floor in upside-down waterfalls, morphing into darkness he'd never seen but clearly knew. That presence that was so close to Link's, only the most careful differences existing… It made him hiss in rage. Stronger bloodlust, less mercy, and a sharper tongue.
"… Eh? Whats this? My light has escaped from his keeper's fingers?" the voice wasn't really like Link's, he thought. The tone was one of feigned shock and outrage. "You must be losing your touch, shade…" it dropped to an amused purr, half-harsh in the silence. Sheik didn't look up, just closed his eyes. Unless Link wants to kill me, I'll be safe. He reflected.
"Bite me." He muttered instead, carefully tracing a crisscross of scars hidden under his sleeve to calm himself. A brand of the sheikah… he could feel the bump of his burnt flesh from under the fabric.
The Hero's darkside laughed. "Isn't that your thing?"
… It seemed a pertinent point to review that Sheik wasn't having a good night.
Dark Link seemed to realize this and leant back just as red eyes narrowed and flickered up to meet his.
Another wave of shadow was unleashed.
Both Midna and Link frowned as a flash of power invaded their senses, just for a second. "Someone pissed Sheik off." Midna guessed calmly, glancing at her captive. Link blinked at her and pursed his lips.
I'm not talking. He repeated, returning to the line of thought he'd been on when Sheik's momentary rage had interrupted them.
She tried to make him speak, anyway.
"… what would he have to gain if the king's killer was never found?" her latest question ended. Link rolled his eyes.
Get with the program, Milady. The vindictive smirk tugging his lips as he stared up at her, eyes half-hooded, reminded of certain irate sheikah. Midna scowled down at him.
"Look, you little shit." She grumbled low in her throat, leaning over him so their noses brushed. "Either you answer these questions now, or your friend will be answering them later. Messily."
After a moment spent considering that, in which Midna grew more and more impatient, Link grimaced.
"He didn't have anything to gain." He said, because he couldn't let Midna question Sheik. He just couldn't. Her eyes glittered in surprise a moment before a smile stole over her face, one that might sweet and coaxing if it weren't for the sharp gaze of a hungry snake above it… and was on anyone else's face.
"What a good decision." She muttered, before she patted him on the head.
Good decision. Right.
Because he really needed to deal with Sheik murdering a neighboring kingdom's queen. Supposing he would just have to get through this quickly, Link spoke up again, "He just wouldn't have done it. Anyway… he threw himself all the way into finding out who did. He… he really loves Zelda, you know?"
This seemed to placate the woman somewhat – perhaps she'd get lost if he kept it up. Her face grew thoughtful.
Midna nodded slowly – she remembered something like that, written in the tired lines of Sheik's expression when he had brought her a half-broken doll so long ago. The little broken doll who had been crying - sobbing that she hated him. Sheik had a different look on his face back then, a sadder one, and he didn't rebuke her or defend himself, just braced his shoulders for the weight of more blame to fall there… But Link didn't need to know that. She barely suppressed a new smile from curling her lips.
"Sheik couldn't have killed the king, anyway. He was with me the whole time."
… wait. Thought-train derailed. Midna raised an eyebrow. "All of it? Even the whole night?"
"All night." He said flatly, and couldn't figure out why she looked so impressed all the sudden.
"No kidding." She paused to give a low whistle, looking him over as if searching for visual proof. Whatever it was she wanted, he guessed she found it… probably, because she stopped. He was a honestly a touch unsettled, but by whatever means he would get through this. "Well, thanks kid." She chirped, and spun on her heel to leave.
See? Success.
"What, no threats of bodily harm to discourage me from mentioning this to anyone?" He couldn't resist demanding, a little wry, of the woman's back. She gave a sharp and wholly unpleasant laugh, more like a rebuke than a response.
"Silly boy. Don't you realize I already have a noose around your neck?" She cackled, dancing into a pool of black shadow so only her gaze was left for him. Her eyes narrowed to yellow-red slits in the dark. "If anyone found out the king was murdered, I wonder who they'd suspect first~?"
And so the eyes faded.
Link realized just how neatly they were trapped. "Farore damn it all."
Dark Link swore from the other side of the curtain, pressing a gentle hand to his side. It oozed black. The barrier between light and dark worlds was thin but strong under his fingers, metal mesh layered with sheepskin.
The perpetual darkness of the realm swathed him and shadows stitched his wounds, and rushed into him as new life when he breathed.
He doesn't pull his punches.
All the better for protecting his light, he supposed, but at once wished that ruthless energy wasn't directed at him. It was never wise to enrage a shadow, and the princess's pet had more years of experience than Dark Link himself… he was also, though it was loathsome to admit, better. His foolish light had no idea just how lucky he was that the sheikah was protecting him instead of ripping out his throat…
Well, perhaps he can do both. Dark Link reflected with a smirk.
But- as much as he would like to stand about and ruminate on all of that, he'd gone looking around the light world for a reason. It just turned out that, for once, his light wasn't beside the dark one or in his chambers… (Dark Link paused a moment to frown about this. He really shouldn't be able to just assume his light was in some lunatic sheikah's chambers.) Which meant he would have to go skulking about the castle to find him instead. Hoping deep in his black little heart that the meddlesome Lady wasn't skulking about, he ripped open the boundary between worlds once more and hoped he'd get lucky, because he sure as hell wasn't aiming.
Link frowned. He knew that Navi had just been with him in the afternoon, but he felt as though she should have returned to him by then…
The moonless night spilled over him in waterfalls of ink. He sighed and leaned against the wall, rubbing a scar on his shoulder without any real thought as he gazed outside through a window cut in the stone. Iblis's amulet was heavy round his neck, and he pulled it out to rest over his tunic before settling himself in completely. The night wind he couldn't feel was begging him to come and play, rushing against the high castle walls with whistles and gusts of noise.
He wondered where Sheik had gone with the warped light, but soon realized it didn't matter. Sheik would do what he would, and somehow bring Zelda back. Though why… Sheik's caster was controlling Zelda, was another matter entirely…
His vision blurred, his eyes flickered shut. The wall was cool and smooth under his back when he slid down it. After escaping Midna's cold, psychotic grasp he'd migrated towards the less crowded parts of the castle because he really didn't think he could stand being near humans just then. Fortuna smiled, and he had found a wing abandoned. The light here was all blue, blue like the color of moonlit night skies and the clothes of the people who frequented the world of night, and he looked up on the wall and realized there was a bleeding eye painted on the stone. It looked black under the scant starlight.
Unbidden a smile stole over his lips. Less crowded, indeed. This was really an abandoned wing. Those people… didn't exist anymore.
Blue eyes slid back down the darkness, and in the doorway of one darkened room he saw a blurry shadow. A little, little body, like that of a child slowly came into his focus – color then form.
When all was done a little girl stood in the darkness with red eyes fixed on his disbelieving blue ones. She tilted her head at him and mouthed something slowly.
'You see me?'
Slow and lazy, he raised his hand in a wave. Something moved around her waist, and when he looked a pair of wide, narrow wings nestled in the small of her back were extended out, and fluttering gently. A long tail with a spaded tip curved around her legs. His eyebrows went up.
A devil?
Was this an apparition, a person, or… a genuine spirit…? The smile on her face was sweet and happy, and he frowned. What on earth am I seeing?
'I can't talk to you.' She mouthed, gesturing first to herself then him as she spoke, 'Need to warn you.' She added, and looked up at the night sky out the window. She frowned. With a sharp wave, she stepped back and disappeared in darkness.
Something approaches, something approaches, his own thoughts echoed.
A shadow a shadow a shadow in the dark…
Link glanced down the hall to where Sheik rounded the corner, as silent as he'd ever been.
Eight hours twenty-nine minutes…
Twenty-eight…
Not for much longer.
The shadow caster was contemplating the wall, a scowl tugging his lips, when darkness swirled into existence on the floor next to him. A body popped into being in his little closet, and looked around while the shadow caster tried to stifle his sudden smile.
"… Who the hell are you? You're not Link." The shadow protested, sounding irate, when he turned to look at him.
Light Sheik canted his head to the side in consideration. "No." He agreed with half-lidded eyes, "But you are."
All the sudden, Dark Link looked the slightest bit nervous.
Chapter 10 end.
AN: … holy shit CHAPTER 10!
Preemptively striking this: Hylians can hear danger, in the air around them. Its what told Link Sheik was coming, and it is totally credited to Sunnepho~ thank you for letting me use it! I would hve put this at the beginning of the chapter, but it made more sense as an afternote.
Omake:
"What virginity?" Zelda muttered, barely loud enough to hear, while picking at her vegetables. Impa – the kind of person whose ears were fine-tuned to everything – looked upward with a sharp expression and one eyebrow raised. Link heard because he had the misfortune of being a hylian, and was seated right next to her. Sheik shot Zelda a glare and refused to look at their elder at all. And so Link's thoughts would be littered, later on, with images of Sheik the not-virgin doing things with some faceless noble, that had somehow wound up looking like Tingle. Gah.
Dinner sucked.