Link sat in the corner across from me, a blanket around his shoulders, the Master Sword unsheathed and wedged into a crack in the stone flagging. He held the hilt in his hands - he was taking no chances - and rested his chin on the pommel, eyes half closed, dozing, but there was no way he was going to fall asleep in the presence of Ganondorf, depowered or not. Even if I couldn't physically hurt him, I was still the King of Thieves.

He yawned and looked up. "Do I call you the King of Thieves now or the Qu-"

"King," I bit off sharply. "The King of Thieves."

"Right."

"Or the Prince of Darkness," I added.

He nodded and said, "not the... King of Darkness?"

"There are things in the Darkness much more powerful and dangerous than myself," I said. It was truthful, but I said it with the intention of casting a dark cloud over what he must presume was now his vacation. "I do not delude myself into thinking I am King."

"Things like what?"

"You will find out soon enough."

This was less truthful. The dark forces I spoke of were dangerous indeed but only really to people such as myself who went out of their way to dabble with them. Otherwise they were kept securely out of Hyrule by magic or dimensional walls. Link was perfectly safe to frolic on the grass with his princess, or whatever else he did with his life when he lost his purpose for living. i.e. killing me.

Still... if any of my specimens survived the destruction of the castle and escaped...

I hoped the Zoron had survived. I'd had quite a soft spot for my chimera; quite an achievement of biological engineering. It's skin was certainly hard enough to survive the debris...but it had still had it's natural weakness to fire and the smoke would have clogged it's gills. Darn.

"Maybe you should think about telling me," Link said. "Since I am doing you a favour."

My shrug was as nonchalant as I could manage. "Demons, elemental forces of anger or hate or lust, masks-"

"Masks?"

"Happy masks."

"The Happy Mask Shop?"

"Has things in it's inventory that could tear worlds asunder. The Happy Mask Salesman has adornments that can corrupt the innocent, give the wearer terrible powers." I laughed fondly. "He even has one which explodes on your face at the slightest provocation. No wonder he's so happy; he hands them out to old ladies."

Link stared disbelieving at me over the top of his sword. Unsurprising really, considering the salesman was an expert in masks; able to hide his true nature behind false geniality and servitude. "You were lucky enough to only try his depowered stock. The race masks he has? Normally they have the power-"

-to completely change one's form. Of course! Why hadn't I thought of that sooner. All I needed to do was get him to make a Ganondorf mask or Male Mask or something and I'd be... well, I'd still have the power-sapping enchantment on me... and the proximity enchantment, but at least I'd be male again. Did I have any favours to call in? Last time I saw him I was chasing him out of Hyrule Town with a flaming sword and minions at his heels; not to mention I'd killed off half of his customers...

"-the power to what?" Link asked.

"Huh? Oh... nothing. Go to sleep."

"But you said-"

"No. No, I didn't. It was all lies. I was trying to scare you. But you have the Triforce of Courage so not much point doing that. I grow weary of your talk. Good night."

Laying down on the floor, I pretended to sleep and started to scheme.

That night, when I eventually fell to sleep, I had a dream. I was floating in another world, surrounded by bright blue light that flowed like liquid, and before of me hung Nabooru's head, the neck roughly severed, her eyes wide and screaming, her mouth moving soundlessly, desperately at me.

I woke to find Link shaking me.