Legend of Zelda: Reconciliation

by Rose Zemlya

Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: The Return. Based loosely on A Link to the Past.

14. Chapter 14 and Interludes

The Legend of Zelda: Reconciliation

Hey all!

Right, so … this chapter is TECHNICALLY unfinished. However, I am no fool. I've been having trouble enough finding time to work on this with all the assignments I have and with exams less than two weeks away, I KNOW I'm not going to be able to accomplish everything in this chapter for a while. So I'll have to split up what was originally supposed to be one chapter into two and pray the pacing doesn't suffer because of it. Cross your fingers. :-P

Basically the reason I'm doing this is that I've let this sit long enough, and left you guys hanging long enough, and if I post this now I can get rid of the guilt of having posted nothing for a month at least long enough to focus on my exams, right? Probably not, but it was worth a shot.

A couple of you have asked me why Anduriel is referred to as a "she". The answer is that pronouns, particularly the use of the "it" pronoun can get sticky. For the sake of all of our sanity a pronoun had to be picked, despite the fact that Anduriel doesn't have a gender. The reason that Link uses "she" is because Kiki used "she" when he first talked about Anduriel. Link was introduced to Anduriel as a she and so to some extent views her as such. Other characters may have different opinions on the matter and their own use of pronouns will reflect this.

I think that's it for this chapter. We're finally starting the second half (and by half I mean two-thirds) of the LttP game. I'd say it's all downhill from here, but then what kind of story would this be:-P

As always I hope you enjoy the read and it was worth the wait!

Rose Zemlya

"Injustice is relatively easy to bear; it is justice that hurts."
H.L. Mencken

"He who angers you conquers you."
Elizabeth Kenny

xxx

A Brief Interlude

"The King is dead," Impa said bluntly. No chink appeared in her stony expression, but there was no denying the flicker of grief in her eyes. "With Agahnim missing we were easily able to infiltrate the King's room and it was as we expected. As near as we can tell he has been dead for at least a month, though Agahnim's magic was keeping his body alive somehow, or at least giving it the appearance of life. At this point in time, the nobles are still being cautious. The ashes of the palace's east side are still being searched for any sign of bodies, and nobody wants to declare themselves King until they're quite sure that Agahnim is dead. To the best of our knowledge to date, there were no casualties from the fire, though we found the young Captain of the Palace Guard, stumbling out of the blaze and begging my Sheikah to bring him to us."

"Us?" Ruto interrupted.

"Us," Impa confirmed. "The Sages."

"He knows what happened to Link," Nabooru said eagerly.

"Let's hope he knows what happened at all," Darunia countered.

"Continue, Impa," Rauru said, gesturing.

"There has been no sign of Agahnim or Link, although we do know that Link and Neesha were headed to the palace to fight Agahnim. We have under our protection the serving girl, Marni, from the Golden Palace. She was often assigned to Link during his stays at the Palace, and from time to time to Zelda as well. In addition, Agahnim assigned her to bring Zelda, in the guise of Sheik, food while she was imprisoned in the dungeons. I suspect Zelda used her to send a message to Link, but the girl didn't mean to even give me that much information and I haven't been able to convince her to give me more." Nabooru threw her fist into her palm and scowled.

"I can convince her," she said flatly.

"You promised you'd stay calm," Ruto noted.

"Settle down, Nabooru," Impa chided. "In the scheme of things I doubt the information in the message would help us find Link. In addition to delivering this message, she was there while Neesha and Link discussed their plan of action." Impa sighed. "Apparently the boy had enough sense to acknowledge that it was irresponsible of both himself and Neesha to let Neesha have any involvement in their scheme given her importance to Agahnim's plans, but acknowledgement isn't acquiescence and he did not stop her."

"She'd better be dead," Nabooru muttered under her breath, "because if I get a hold of her and she's not, she will be."

"From there they approached the Lord Durnam for help getting into the palace – or at least, that was their plan. They had counted on Durnam's loyalty, but from what information I've been able to gather, he wasn't what they'd hoped. I have a report from the gate guards that Durnam did in fact enter the palace grounds on the night Link and Agahnim disappeared, but he had only a young, sleeping red-headed woman in the carriage with him." Darunia rumbled angrily.

"He drugged her," he growled. "Coward."

"She let herself be drugged," Nabooru muttered. "Farore. All that training and she let herself be drugged."

"Link wasn't with him then," Rauru noted.

"Not that the guard was aware of at any rate. I have a list of everyone else who entered the palace grounds that night, and assuming that Link didn't find some other way of entrance, we may be able to track him down that way. My Sheikah are investigating the people on the list as we speak. When the Captain of the Palace Guards wakes up, we will question him as well." Impa paused for a moment to collect her thoughts again before continuing.

"I predict that we have less than 48 hours before Castletown erupts into a fight for regency in Agahnim's absence. Castletown is highly polarized over several issues as it is, and this will only make things worse as the nobles start calling on their followers among the commoners for support. There is an approximately twenty-five percent chance that this will lead to violence. Should Agahnim's body, or other proof that he's dead be found, the nobles will scramble for the throne itself and the odds of violence increase to seventy-five percent. Should proof of Agahnim's body, and proof of his actual corruption be revealed, it is my belief that violence will be unavoidable. Agahnim's corruption will instantly polarize the masses into those who believe it and those who do not, and they will be further divided again by which pursuer of the throne people support. The line of Hyrule has ruled for centuries without a break. This is an opportunity like no other for some of the stronger noble houses. The King is dead, and his only living heir presumed to be as well. They will not pass up this opportunity, and they will fight for it like madmen. Castletown is on the brink of a civil war.

"It could not have come at a worse time. The Moblins are upon us. I estimate that we have at a maximum 24 hours before they've amassed enough of a force through those portals to begin their attacks. I have dispatched Sheikah all over Hyrule searching for any portals that may exist within our borders, though I'm not sure what we'll do if and when we find them. In the meantime, the Moblins seem content to use the outside ones. They'd never be able to amass a force within Hyrule, and so must settle for invading from outside, but this puts several of our people at risk. Nabooru—"

"We've held off the Moblins since there were Moblins to be held off," she said with a fierce expression. "They won't breach our gates and we're the only way into Hyrule from the desert."

"Darunia?" She turned to the Goron who rumbled uneasily.

"I remember these Moblins," he said. "I remember their strength." He shook his head. "We could defend Goron City from the invaders, but not the entire mountain. I would have to verify it with Karun, but perhaps it would be best if we abandon our home and settle in at Kakariko. They'll have to go through it to get to Hyrule so the stronger a force we have there, the better off we are."

"Ruto?"

"It is not the Moblins that are a concern for my people," she said. "It is these … things. What we fought at Lake Hylia … corrupted Zora, maybe?" She made a face. "Though I hate to think of my people falling that far."

"I think, more likely," Rauru said, "they are an abomination like the Moblins, created for Ganondorf to combat the Zora of Hyrule."

"At any rate," Impa said, "they are a threat. The waters of Lake Hylia flow everywhere in Hyrule, even on the outskirts of the desert. We need to trap them in Lake Hylia somehow." Ruto shook her head.

"That will be up to Acqul," she said. "Sage I may be, but General I am not. If anyone can figure out how to protect the waterways it would be him."

"We should all be discussing this with our Generals," Impa agreed. "We will waste time in duplication, and time is the one thing we do not have."

"That or its Hero," Nabooru muttered. "How are we supposed to defend Hyrule, prevent a Civil War, and save Link and the others?" Rauru bowed his head.

"I think," he said heavily, "we may have to trust Link and the others to save themselves."

xxx

Chapter 14

"Okay," I say, covering my face with my arm – my left arm, which I distinctly remember being broken two seconds ago – "okay. Okay, okay, okay."

"Link," Anduriel calls from the mouth of the hole I am inexplicably lying in. "Link, don't panic."

"I'm not panicking," I snap with a scowl. "I've gone beyond panic."

"Link…" But I cut her off.

"I mean … one minute, I'm lying on a pile of leaves in a cave, busted and bruised and barely able to breathe, and the next I'm lying at the bottom of a hole, still busted and bruised, but in entirely new and exciting ways, and I have no idea how I got here, or what's going on. The last thing I remember is you saying, 'Link, the Dark World looks into the heart of those trapped here and takes—' and then BAM I feel like I'm on fire and then BAM I'm eating dirt! Why isn't my arm broken! I thought my arm was broken!" I glare at her, as though she's somehow responsible for the mending of my bone, and as though this is somehow a bad thing and point angrily with my other hand. "What the Hell is going on!" I narrow my eyes at her. "And why is it day! It was sunset two seconds ago!" Her face disappears for a moment and when it reappears she's sliding a thick vine over the edge of the pit and down to me. I grab it angrily and use it to pull myself to my feet, more freaked out by the fact that I can even get to my feet than happy about it. I'm not in nearly as much pain as I was before, but I feel like I haven't slept in days.

"All right!" Anduriel calls. "The rope is braced. Come on up."

I brace my foot against the wall of the pit and start hauling myself up hand over hand, muttering the whole way and trying to force myself to calm down.

I'm sure there's a logical explanation for this.

This is only twice now that this has happened.

I'm sure it all makes sense and I'm just not seeing something. It's all perfectly logical.

Oh Farore, let it be logical …

Anduriel grabs my hand and helps me up the rest of the way with surprising strength. I can't help but raise an eyebrow at her.

If she's this strong when she's poisoned …

"Oh Beast sir!" Kiki cries happily. "You is being okay! And we is not being eatens!" I stare at the little monkey for a good while before turning back to Anduriel, who, I've noticed, has a tendency for better grammar, and making sense.

"I need to know what's going on," I say slowly. "I don't think I want to, but I need to."

"All right," Anduriel says, pushing herself to her feet. "But not here. The Moblins are thick as thieves here lately for some reason and we can't risk capture now."

"Then let's head back to the cave," I say with a frown, "and you can chat on the way." Anduriel offers me an hesitant expression.

"Link, we are very far from the cave," she says softly. "We've, um … we've been chasing you all night." I shake my head slowly.

"But … I haven't been … I don't remember …" I cast a slow, confused look around at my surroundings. We're in some kind of weird forest. The trees are twisted torturously around themselves and up towards the sky, but they're wide apart and the canopy isn't thick at all. More than a few of them, I can't help but notice, have faces, twisted into god-awful expressions of pain or sorrow or fear or any other unpleasant expression you can think of. I stare at them with an uncomprehending expression.

"They used to be beautiful," Anduriel says, following my gaze. "These trees. They were my orchard. All year 'round they would give the most wonderful fruit. Like nothing you could find in Hyrule." It takes me a moment to register her words through my shock.

"The … faces …"

"Souls of those who used to tend to them," Anduriel explains, her face betraying no emotion. "Ingested in the Re-Creation by the very trees they cared so much for. Absorbed by them. They didn't even have a chance to run." Her face is stony as she stares flatly at the trees. "Ganon's soul has a sense of brutal irony, I think, to have done this. This and other things. Some worse, some lesser." She turns. "But there is nothing we can do for them while Ganon yet remains as the Master of this place. Come, we have much to discuss."

I tear my eyes away from the trees and turn to follow her. Kiki makes as though to climb up me and perch on my shoulder but I glower at him until he changes his mind and chooses Anduriel's shoulder instead.

"I tried last night, Link—"

"Last night!"

"Yes, Link. Last night. I tried to warn you about … about the Dark World and what it does to those trapped within it, but unfortunately your story was longer than I expected, and I wasn't quick enough to finish."

"So finish now," I say darkly, liking this less and less. "I believe you made it to, the Dark World looks into the heart of those trapped here and takes…"

"Takes all of the worst aspects of your personality and character that it can find." She pauses to gather her thoughts. "It dredges through your soul searching for any hint of darkness, any sign of negativity, and fears and deficiencies and weaknesses, and then it uses them to change you." She sighs. "Once upon a time the Sacred Realm would do the same thing, only it would look for the positives. It would find everything bright and shining in you and put it on display for the world to see." She shakes her head.

"What do you mean, change?" I ask.

"I mean what I mean," she responds. "You change. Physically, mentally, spiritually. You become your worst feature." I frown.

"Am I immune, then?" I ask. "As Hero of Time or something?"

"Unfortunately, no," Anduriel answers. "Would that things were that easy."

"But I haven't changed. Not physically at any rate. Why—" Kiki gives a sudden laugh.

"Not change?" He says, peering at me. "Not change says Beast sir!" He laughs again until Anduriel shushes him.

"I'm afraid, Link, that you have." She says softly. My gut wrenches again.

"Does this have anything to do with why he calls me Beast sir?" I demand, nodding my head at Kiki.

"Yes," Anduriel says. "Link, what do you consider your worst feature? Your biggest weakness?" I narrow my eyes impatiently at her.

"You already know the answer, don't you?" I demand.

"Yes," she replies. "But it's important that you come to the conclusion on your own."

"Fine," I say and think for a minute, trying to remember all the things about me that people complain about. "I'm … stubborn. More than stubborn, I'm downright bull-headed, and not always for the better. I can be single-minded. I'm … reckless, and I don't always think things through before I act on them. I'm way to sarcastic for my own good." Anduriel's face doesn't change. Whatever answer she's looking for she hasn't got it yet. I raise an eyebrow at her. "Is it the temper? It's the temper, isn't it?"

"Close," Anduriel says. "Very close. Take that thought deeper."

"I … lose my temper really easily," I say. "At the drop of a hat sometimes. But I get happy again just as quick," I add, feeling the sudden need to defend myself against what seems to be a damning list of flaws.

"And that's just it," Anduriel says. "It's not just your temper, it's your temperament. You're like quicksilver, Link. Happy one minute, furious the next. You move from over-confident, to fatalistic, to enthusiastic, to naïve, to cynical, and so on and so forth without so much as a moment's notice. You can't make up your mind about how you're going to feel, how you're going to behave. The Dark World has decided that your physical form will reflect this. Your emotional state changes 'at the drop of a hat,' so your physical form will change with the rise of the moon."

"What, like a werewolf!" I demand, annoyed suddenly. "Everybody knows those are just children's stories. Once upon a time someone who didn't know any better saw a wolfos and jumped to some really wrong conclusions, that's all." Anduriel stops in her tracks and turns to face me fully. I blink, taken aback by the expression on her face.

"Link, you need to understand something," she says, her face as hard as steel, cloudy eyes narrowed, "you're not in Hyrule anymore. You're in the Dark World. And there are no such thing as children's stories here." She turns again and continues walking.

"You should count yourself lucky," she says. "To have your original form for even as short a time as you are granted it. There are others – many others – who are not so lucky."

"Ki, ki," Kiki agrees with a sorrowful tone.

"Are you telling me he was a person at some point in his life?" I jerk my thumb at him and raise an eyebrow.

"Kiki was so!" The little monkey responds, giving me a baleful glare. "I was being a person like you." I raise an eyebrow at him.

"So if I'm a werewolf—"

"Lycanthrope," Anduriel corrects me. "There's no guarantee you're limited to wolf."

"—because I'm emotionally unstable, then why are you a monkey?" My eyebrow goes higher. "Let alone a blue one."

"Firsting," Kiki says with a snooty tone, "Kiki is being purples. Not blues."

"Sorry," I say with exaggerated apology. Kiki doesn't appear to notice.

"And I is being a monkey because when I was being a man, I was a copier."

"A what?"

"A copier," Kiki repeats. "Ki, I copied."

"Copied what?" I ask.

"Everything," Kiki responds with a sigh. "Alls of it. I was copying clothings that people was being wearing, I was copying words that people was being writing, I was copying songs that people was being singing…"

"Kiki," Anduriel says, patting the monkey's head soothingly, "never bothered to decide who he was. He was too busy trying to be like everybody else. Exactly like everybody else. At his worst he was also an out-and-out plagiariser."

"Monkey see, monkey do," I murmur.

"Monkey always copies you," finishes Kiki. "Yes," a sigh, "that is why I is being a monkey."

"But why blue? Purple! Purple," I correct myself when the monkey glares at me. Another huge sigh.

"Because Kiki is never liking purple," he moans. "Kiki is liking greens. I is being hateful of purples." I frown.

"Seems kind of petty for something as powerful as the Dark World to waste its time doing that to you."

"Never underestimate pettiness, Link," Anduriel comments. "Some of the worst, most painful cruelties are the small ones." I shake my head, still floored by the entire conversation.

"All right," I say, "let's recap. The Dark World changes the people who come here into a physical manifestation of their worst qualities. I have violent mood swings, and so at night I turn into some kind of monster. Is that about right?"

"A very dangerous monster," Anduriel confirms. "If your story of how you came to be here is true, then the Beast had to tear its way through an army of Moblins stationed at the Palace and God knows what else to make it as far as Kiki's cave before collapsing."

"Is that why I was so beat up?"

"I can only assume," Anduriel says by way of answer.

"Then why aren't I still beat up?"

"Because last night the Beast did not fight an army of Moblins," Anduriel answers. "Link, the Beast – this incarnation of it at any rate – is a thing of anger and fury. Look at it on a metaphorical level. Anger eats away at a person. Fury hurts. These emotions take their toll on a body eventually. Therefore the Beast's injuries are your own. The Beast hurts itself to hurt you. But anger is not held by your own physical limitations. Anger does not require physical health or strength. The Beast is unaffected by your own wounds. You cannot hurt it." I feel cold all of a sudden.

"When I was … did I … has it killed anyone?" I ask.

"I do not know," Anduriel answers carefully. "Not while within my sight, though there is little guarantee of what was done at other times. However, Link, though it pains me to say it, there is little left in this forsaken world that would not deserve death for its crimes." I shake my head.

"I'm sorry," I say. "This is all kind of … hard to believe."

"Does it not make sense?" Anduriel asked. "Does this explanation not answer all of your questions?"

"Answering my questions and making sense are two different things," I point out. "I mean I just … this is …" I trail off, unable to find a voice for my problems.

The problem being that this is impossible.

Not the werewolf thing, not the dark world thing, not even the I-am-having-a-conversation-with-a-blind-creature-with-wings-and-a-purple-monkey thing.

It's the whole thing. It's the situation. It's the fact that I'm here and I'm not supposed to be here! I should be back at Hyrule! It's the fact that all of my closest friends, and quite a few of my not-so-closest-but-still-very-very-close friends are imprisoned here, probably in worse straits than I am and me with no possible way to rescue them. No possible way to get home. An army of Moblins is invading Hyrule, and here I am, strolling casually through Hell's orchard and discussing my own personal character flaws.

And if it's true … if I really am a monster at night …

"I will prove it to you," Anduriel says. "Kiki and I brought your arsenal with us and have left it in as safe a place as we could find. You have Sahasrahla's mirror?" I blink at her in surprise.

"How do you know that?" I demand. She smiles at me.

"Blind I may be, Link, but that doesn't mean I can't see. Have you not noticed that I've been in the lead this whole time? Not wondered how I tracked you without my eyes?" She gestures around herself. "So long as we are in my domain, I have no need of my eyes." I nod, realizing that she has been in the lead this whole time.

"How do you know it's Sahasrahla's?" I ask. Her smile grows sad and wistful.

"Because I gave it to him," she says. "Has he told you of his son?" I frown.

"I know he was the first Hero," I say. "And that he died."

"He was, and he did," Anduriel confirms with a sad sigh. "He died here, in the Sacred Realm as a matter of fact. He died protecting the Triforce. He died protecting me. I would have stopped him if I could have, but …" Her cloudy eyes grow distant as she loses herself in what is obviously a painful memory. "Sahasrahla … I pitied him. He lost so much in that war. His whole family. All he had left was his brother, and then he drove away even that. Turned into a recluse. I felt … I felt like I owed him something. I couldn't give him his son back – that is beyond my power. The best I could do was give him a reminder that his son had not died for nothing. And a reminder of the good that still existed within himself. So I gave him the mirror." I raise an eyebrow at her.

"The one that shows you how horrible you are?" I ask. "That mirror? What a wonderful gift."

"Hmm," Anduriel notes, "you are sarcastic, aren't you?"

"So I've been told," I respond.

"Yes, Link, I gave him the mirror that shows you how horrible you are. But it didn't always do that. The mirror is actually a means of glimpsing into the Sacred Realm. Before Ganondorf warped it, the Mirror showed you the side of yourself that the Sacred Realm would take and display. The bright and shining part of you. More than that, it originally had a Moon Pearl set into it. The Pearl allowed a person with the mirror to travel back and forth easily between the Sacred Realm and the physical realm. But now, the pearl is gone, and the Sacred Realm is the Dark World. It still shows you the side of you which this place takes and displays, it is merely the side displayed that has changed."

"So … you're telling me that if I look into the mirror, I'll see this Beast of yours."

"Yes," Anduriel says. "If you think you are strong enough." She pauses in front of a large tree and presses a knot in the trunk. The bark and wood slide in and to the side, leaving a space in the shape of a door, revealing a small, circular room. My stuff is piled at the back. Anduriel gestures me in, and then follows close on my heels, sliding the door shut after her. As soon as the door clicks shut, the darkness envelops us, then immediately vanishes as runes carved high up on the walls begin to light up, casting a soft, blue glow over everything.

I spare a glance for the runes, then move over to my things and take my time about finding the mirror, feeling the same apprehension as I did when Sahasrahla first offered it to me. I sling my weapons on over my back and tie my pouch to my belt with greater attention than is strictly necessary before reaching in to my pouch and fishing around for the mirror. My fingers brush against it's cool handle, and I can feel the delicate carvings on it as I wrap my hand around it. I pull it out and stare nervously down at the back of it, suddenly, acutely aware of just how creepy the Sheikan symbol is. Anduriel and Kiki watch me expectantly.

I steel my resolve and flip the mirror over, raising it to look into it.

What I see does not make me feel good, or happy. It does not make me feel any better about my situation. What I see makes me clench the mirror harder in order to keep myself from throwing it back and away from me again.

Beast is an appropriate word.

It's not exactly a wolf, though it is definitely wolfish. Vaguely humanoid in shape, in that it's got two arms and two legs, but beyond that … dark fur ripples and bristles all over its body. It's huge – at least as big as the biggest Gorons, and bigger I think – and every line of its body screams of fury and power. It's teeth are permanently bared, even now as it mirrors my shocked, disgusted, horrified expression, the prominent canines look sharp and frightening. Its eyes are solid slits of red, like Dark Link's used to be, and its hands end in wicked looking claws. There's blood on its muzzle and its claws and it looks as though it would like nothing better than to claw its way through the mirror and sink them both into me as well. It occurs to me that tonight it will escape the mirror and will start sinking its teeth and claws into anything it can find and I feel a sudden stab of fear.

The image in the mirror shifts, beginning to blur and change, but I can't look any longer. I've hit my daily horror quota and I feel kind of sick. I shove it hastily back into my pouch and close my eyes, trying to shake the image of the thing in the mirror.

The thing in me.

I raise my hand to my temple and squeeze. "Nayru, Farore and Din," I swear quietly. That thing is me. That thing is inside me. It's part of me. That … that beast is a part of who I am. How is that even possible? What kind of monster am I?

A soft, cool hand suddenly wraps itself around mine and pulls it away from my face. Anduriel crouches in front of me, her face an expression of gentle sympathy. Her cloudy, golden eyes have that same, urgent quality they've had since I met her.

I spontaneously decide that I like her eyes, cloudy or not.

"Link," she says gently, "what you saw in the mirror, that is not who you are. It is of the gravest importance that you understand this."

"But you said—"

"I said that the Dark World perverts. That it finds your weaknesses and fears and your own darkness and puts it on display. But it blows it out of proportion. It exaggerates it. It shows you your dark side, undiluted by your good."

"But that thing—"

"Has never been able to control you," Anduriel interrupts again. "It's a part of you, yes, but it is not you. Link, everyone has a darkness inside them, just as they have a light. And just as with physical light and dark, they are neither good nor bad. Your anger is not always a negative thing. Righteous anger, when carefully controlled and focused can be a force for the positive. It is merely this place, Link, that makes it so negative. That is its goal. To pervert. To destroy. It wants you to think that that is all there is to you. It wants you to think that you are an awful, ugly thing. It wants you to despair, because it needs you to despair. It feeds off of it. This is its defence. This is what keeps it safe. If it can drive you into hopelessness, and fear, and anger, and despair it can keep you from focussing on your mission. It can keep you from restoring the Sacred Realm to the place it once was. This is how it will defeat you." She takes my face in both her hands and stares straight into my eyes. "You mustn't let it defeat you, Link. Please. Do not let it defeat you. Don't give up!" I feel a sudden surge of anger at her words.

"Give up?" I cry, trying to wrench my face away from her hand and look away. "Give up on what! There's nothing left. Agahnim's won. He's taken the Maidens, he's broken the seals, he's—"

"No, Link! No he has not!" Anduriel cuts me off, holding my face in a grip suddenly vice-like. "He has not won. Yes, he has taken the Maidens. But they are alive, and they can be taken back." I blink in surprise.

"W-what!" I demand, wondering briefly if I heard her wrong.

"It will be dangerous," Anduriel continues. "Very dangerous, but—" I grab her wrists and stare at her, feeling for the first time since I've come here the desperately weak, but still undeniably there flickering of hope.

"I don't care," I say quickly. "I don't care if it's dangerous. They can be rescued? You mean it?"

"Yes, Link. I would not lie." I fall back against the wall, swimming in a sea of possibilities, brain working frantically.

"But if I can rescue them … without them, Agahnim's spell falls apart …"

"And the Seal will be bent back into place," Anduriel continues. "The Moblins will no longer be able to get into Hyrule. Each Maiden you rescue will weaken Agahnim's spell, bending the seals further and further back into shape, closing the portals kept open by the Maiden's presence." I pause.

"But then … how can I get the Maidens back to Hyrule?"

"Once upon a time you may have used the mirror," Anduriel said, "but you will simply have to search for what portals are still open. I would show you where the portals in my domain are, but by the time you need them we will have rescued the first of the Maidens and they shall be closed." I pause.

"You … know where the first Maiden is?" I ask. Anduriel smiles and gestures with a hand. The runes on the wall begin to spin and change, rearranging themselves into different patterns. It takes them a moment to slow down and lie still again. She gets to her feet and moves over to where the door was, pressing on the wall again and the door slides open to reveal a much different location than the orchard where we were when the door shut. I gape.

"What the Hell …?"

"They may have stolen the guardianship of my domain," Anduriel says with a touch of smugness in her voice, "but it is my domain still and its secret ways cannot be barred to me." I step out of the tree and blink as I peer around.

This place is a wasteland. Cracked, broken ground spreads as far as I can see from here, broken only by the ruins of some long forgotten temple and its outlying buildings (also in ruins). A field of brambles has somehow managed to eek some kind of life out of the dead ground and lies between us and the ruins.

"What you see is what is left of my dwelling after the Re-Creation. Within those ruins you will find both a Maiden and the monster that guards her."

"The one they replaced you with?" I ask.

"Yes," she answers, then pauses. "Have you ever seen a Maeasm?"

xxx

A Brief Interlude

Thomas paced agitatedly back and forth outside the council room's door, wishing fervently that he was inside watching and listening and praying for the twins. It was his fault they were even in there, after all; because they'd tried to protect him.

"You're really worried," noted the young girl seated on a bench opposite the room. Thomas glanced over at her. "What's going on in there?"

"My friends are … they're being tried for treason essentially," Thomas said, not wanting to go through the hassle of explaining Sheikan justice to a Hylian. It wasn't that he didn't like Marni, it was just that it was a private thing, and besides, it always sounded unnecessarily harsh to anyone who wasn't a Sheikah. "For helping me kidnap Zelda the first time."

"But you were mind-controlled," Marni pointed out, then added with an air of authority: "Agahnim can do that, you know. He did it to Liam." Thomas offered her a brief smile, devoid of any humour.

"I'm fully aware, Marni," he said. "But my friend's weren't mind-controlled. They were just … they were just worried about me. They were trying to protect me."

From my own stupidity, he couldn't help but add silently.

"Well there you go!" Marni said. "That should get them off the hook, shouldn't it? If they were trying to protect someone they haven't done anything wrong." Thomas shook his head and frowned.

"It's not that simple," he said, frustrated with the effort already. "It's never that simple, Marni. If it had been anyone else, maybe, but it wasn't, it was Zelda. You can't just … as a Sheikah you have to…" He made a frustrated noise and resumed his pacing. He didn't want to explain it. Marni wouldn't understand. He was having a hard enough time accepting it as it was, and he was a Sheikah. He'd been born and raised with the principles and rules and ideals that governed his people, as had Bel and Mel, and no matter how much he might love Bel and Mel he knew and understood why they were on trial right now.

It was just … they were Bel and Mel. Somehow it didn't seem fair that the rules had to apply to them. Or to this case in particular.

If I hadn't been so gullible … so damn…power hungry…

Marni looked for a moment as though she was going to say something else, but retreated back into her own thoughts instead. He remembered her being a lot more chatty than she had been since he'd gotten back to the Caverns, but, he supposed, this place was as alien to her as any and she didn't know anyone here. She generally followed him around when she couldn't stand to be in her rooms anymore, but even that was only because she knew his face from the time he'd spent at the palace. And besides that, not many Sheikah were all too happy about having an outsider in their ancient home. Unfortunately for them (and for her, he supposed) the girl needed protection and until they could send her somewhere else she was stuck there. At least they'd finally started making efforts to find her brother. She'd be happier once she was sure he was all right. Thomas knew that for a fact because once upon a time he'd had an older sister who had worried over him in the same way.

I wish Ket was here right now…

He briefly wondered why Marni hadn't just been shipped out on the caravan to Summerfell – he had thought that one had been scheduled to leave that morning – as there were at least other Hylians out there, and less secrets to keep. He attempted to focus on that little puzzle for as long as he could in a futile effort at distraction, but other, more pressing matters reclaimed his attention before long.

Bel and Mel's trial.

He knew what would happen. They would be found guilty of treason. There was no way around it. What they had done was wrong. It defied the Sheikan Code on too many levels to count. Their intentions didn't matter. That was part of what he'd never be able to make Marni understand. The Hylians were too caught up in ideals and principles and heroes and villains to understand. Inspire the right emotions in your jury in Castletown and you could get away with just about anything – even treason. Nayru knew there was more than one ruler in the history of Hyrule who had technically been a rebel and a usurper, but with the hearts of the people behind them no crime was too great for forgiveness.

But for the Sheikah emotion had nothing to do with it.

A treason committed with the best of intentions was a treason still.

A Sheikah – an active Sheikah – was supposed to live and die for Hyrule. This meant that, as an extension of Hyrule, the Royal Family was under Sheikan protection as well (except for those rare occurrences where the Royal Family was actually worse for Hyrule than anything else. In this cases the Sheikah did whatever was necessary to right things again, which was another murky part of the Sheikan Code that was hard to explain to outsiders). Zelda was the heir to the throne of Hyrule. Zelda, perhaps even more importantly to Hyrule, was the Seventh Sage. Zelda was to be protected at all costs. Everyone knew that. Everyone understood that. What sacrifices had to be made would be made, even if they included other innocent lives. Even if they included other Sheikah.

Even if they included him.

And when Bel and Mel had chosen him over Zelda they had turned their backs on everything the Sheikah were. They had blacklisted themselves as Rogues. They had committed treason in the highest order.

And the penalty for that, in most circumstances, was death.

He felt his face go a bit paler as he considered that. Impa had assured him that they wouldn't receive the maximum penalty. The compromising situation they had been placed in, combined with the fact that they had willingly surrendered themselves and have been more than willing since to help in any way they could against Agahnim would be enough to spare them death.

But the alternatives weren't much better when you got right down to it.

He wished again, desperately, that he was in there with them. That they didn't have to face this alone.

Oh please, he thought to himself. Please … Nayru, Farore and Din, if you can hear me please. I haven't got that many friends left … please don't take them away too….

And at last the door opened. Marni straightened and Thomas whirled around to stare as the council filed out one by one, looking grim and unhappy. He blinked in surprise when he realized his mum and Impa weren't part of the line. They were both on the council, why weren't they there?

He shook his head and waited anxiously for the line to continue past him so he could slip in through the door.

Bel and Mel were at the far end of the room with their father. Mel was folded up into his arms, shaking with what were probably tears but she wasn't making any noise. Bel was pacing back and forth furiously, opening and closing her fists and glaring with stony determination at nothing.

"It doesn't matter," she was saying, "who cares? This place was boring anyway. Been looking for an excuse to leave for a while now. Always wanted to … to travel." She looked up and met Thomas' eyes, and beneath the grey-eyed gaze she could feel her resolve crumbling. "Sorry, Thomas," she said, her voice cracking, "looks like you'll have to keep yourself entertained without us for a while." Thomas was ready for her when she burst into tears, pulling her into a tight hug and wanting to crawl away and die because whatever it was it was ultimately his fault.

If I hadn't been so stupid…

He looked over Bel's head at her father, who met his gaze sadly and hugged Mel tighter.

"Exile," he said, and suddenly it was hard for Thomas not to cry himself.

xxx

Chapter 14 (cont.)

"What!" I practically shriek. Kiki scrambles away from me, startled. "You little rat! Forget it!" He glares at me from between Anduriel's legs.

"Ki, ki!" He says reproachfully. "You wants the doors open! I wants monies! Fair trades!"

"A hundred rupees is not a fair trade for hitting a couple of switches!" I snarl. "That's robbery!"

"Kiki is not being a thief!" Kiki squeaks indignantly. He turns his back on me and sits down petulantly. "I is being insulted. I is wanting two hundred monies now!"

"Why you little—" Anduriel holds up a hand before I can lunge down at the little monkey and do something nasty to it.

"Link, control," she says warningly. My mind flashes back to the thing I saw in the mirror and my rage bleeds from me as easy as that. I stumble back a step away from Kiki and suck in my breath, trying to get myself back under control. Kiki eyes me until I regain some semblance of normalcy again before glaring at me.

"Be apologizing," he says. My irritation spikes suddenly and I quash it before it can turn into rage.

Oh this is going to be fun.

"Kiki," I say through clenched teeth, "stop. Talking. To me." Anduriel hastily scoops the little monkey up before he can retort.

"Kiki," she says gently, "think about this for a minute. Are you really being fair?"

"Kiki is being fair," he responds stubbornly. "Kiki wants 100 green monies. Beast sir is wanting doors opened. Is being a fair trade." Anduriel sighs and looks at me.

"Link, do you really need the money here?" She asks. "There are no stores or shops or even any goods for you to buy. And besides, from what I understand of your position in Hyrule, money is not, precisely, an issue for you."

"It's the principle of the matter," I huff. "You don't spend a hundred rupees on a shirt that's only worth five, no matter how much money you have." I glower at the monkey. "And besides, I haven't got a hundred greens on me. Who carries that many? They're only worth one anyway." Kiki clambers up from Anduriel's arms onto her shoulder and peers at me.

"How many is you having?" He asks, face twitching as though trying to smell how much money I have.

"I can give you ten," I say. "I'll give you ten green rupees if you open the door for me." Kiki's nose twitches.

"Ten nows," he says, "and a hundred laters?" I throw my hands up into the air and bite back the urge to strangle him.

"You can't even do math!" I cry. "Why am I talking to you about money!" I grind my teeth at Anduriel's expression and force myself to calm down. "All right, look," I say flatly, "I will give you ten green rupees now. That's all I have. If I ever actually manage to get back to Hyrule I'll bring you ninety green rupees back, okay? But you that's it! For that price you'll do what I say without charging me anything from now on, got it?"

"But I wants a hundred," Kiki whines.

"Ninety plus ten is a hundred," I growl. "Just not all at once." Kiki throws his hands into the air in a perfect imitation of my own gesture two seconds ago.

"Fines!" He half-sighs-half-growls and drapes himself over Anduriel's shoulder in a matter both dramatic and sulky. "But I is being thinking Kiki is not the robbers," he grumbles to himself. I stare incredulously at him for a moment, then force myself to turn away before I give in to the homicidal urges spiking in my brain.

"Can we continue?" Anduriel asks mildly.

"Lead the way," I say, pausing to stick my tongue out at Kiki (who does the exact same thing at the exact same time) once her back is turned. I fall into step behind her.

"You two will have to keep your arguments down from now on," Anduriel says quietly. "I've done the best I can to keep the Moblin scourge from my domain, but there is only so much I could do. We are approaching the stronghold now, and my power is limited there indeed."

"How close?" I ask.

"Once we're out of the bramble maze," she responds. "A few minutes at the most."

Silence descends on our small, awkward party as we walk, until at last Anduriel holds up her hand and signals me to stop. Kiki shifts nervously on her shoulder and she gestures me closer.

"You can see the stronghold through here," she says, gesturing at the much thinner brambles.

"So," I whisper, peering through the branches and thorns at the intimidating structure before us. "What's the plan?"

The building is similar in design to the one on which I first arrived here in the Dark World, but much more grand. Where the first building had little in the way of adornment, this building is decked out with statues and gargoyles and elaborate pieces of architecture that appear to serve no purpose save to look fancy. The doors are exactly like what Anduriel described to me earlier: thick stone slabs covered in runes that look as though they are likely magical. No mortal force, according to the Makani at my side, can open them without either permission, or knowing where they "key" is. There are apparently two switches on the roof which can be activated to override the magic holding the door shut – a failsafe Anduriel created in the first few days of the Dark World for just such an occasion.

Of a larger concern, however, is the group of Moblins milling around in front of the door. A quick headcount shows nine of them.

"The object you seek will be held by the Maeasm somewhere within that structure. I doubt the creature has any guards of an animate nature about it. It is a jealous and violent beast and not likely to share its territory willingly." Her use of the word beast brings a small, but rather important question to mind.

"Is it like Kiki and me?" I ask. "Is it a person?" She turns and regards me neutrally.

"Does it matter?" She asks and I frown darkly at her.

"Yes," I say flatly, and her expression melts into a pleased one.

"Good," she says. "And no. It is merely a beast. A monster created by my brethren to guard what I would free."

"What kind of abilities or powers does it have?" Anduriel arches an eyebrow.

"It's a giant maeasm, Link. What more does it need?" She pauses. "There is one thing, though. It wears a mask."

"A mask?" I ask. "What kind?"

You know…there was a time when I might have thought nothing about a monster wearing a mask, but after Termina…

"To protect its face," Anduriel explains. "The monster is a thing created of black magic, and the purity of the maiden works as a counter-spell. In order to protect the maiden from attempts such as ours, the monster needs to keep her close to it, but this means that her presence is constantly unravelling the magic that holds the monster in existence, and it needs to continuously remake itself. For some reason this unravelling is centered on the head and as such its armour cannot protect its face. It wears the mask to protect this vulnerability."

"So if we can get its mask off…" I turn my gaze back to the building and frown. "You said there were no animate defences. Why the distinction?"

"Because the stronghold defends itself," she responds. "Those statues, for example, are not statues. They are armoses."

"Which ones?"

"All of them."

"Oh."

"There are other traps as well," she says, "though I can guide us around most of those."

"Most?"

"Some simply must be overcome. Such is their nature. Others may be new. Recently added." Her expression is far away. "I have not been in there since…" Her voice fades off, but no explanation is necessary.

"All right," I say, "good enough. How do we get past the Moblins?"

"Unfortunately, there is no 'getting past.' We will have to go through." I smile before I can stop myself.

"Fine by me," I say, reaching back for the Master Sword and drawing it as silently as I can. "Kiki, can you handle those switches while I handle the Moblins?"

"I will help," Anduriel says quietly. I blink up at her in surprise.

"Are you sure?" I ask. "You said that once we're out of the maze you'll be limited."

"Even the most primitive humanoids can hit things, Link," Anduriel says. "Do not be so quick to assume that my definition of limited is the same as yours. Weakened I may be, but I am still an immortal. Or was at any rate."

"Kiki is not being paids yet," Kiki points out dully, oblivious to the discussion. "You is promising Kiki ten monies for Kiki to be opening the doors." I scowl at the interruption and reach into my pouch.

"Where are you going to put it!" I demand. "We're not near your little hidey-hole."

"Kiki is having lots of hidey-holes," Kiki returns snobbishly. "Just because I is not sharing with yous doesn't mean I isn't having them."

"Whatever," I grumble, dropping ten green rupees onto the ground and glaring at him as he scrambles off of Anduriel's shoulder for the money. "You've got thirty seconds or I'm feeding you to the Moblins when you get back." Kiki squeaks indignantly, but hurriedly scoops up the money and rushes back into the maze. "Creepy little monkey." I snort. I turn back to Anduriel, trying to ignore the odd look she's giving me.

"Do you need a weapon?" I ask. "I have extras. You're strong enough, I think, for the Megaton Hammer if you'd like to use it." Anduriel offers me a wry smile.

"A powerful artefact if ever there was one," she says, "but what I have is better. Do not worry for me, young Hero. Just mind you do not get lost in the blood lust." Her face grows concerned. "You know what the Dark World—" I wave her off.

"Yeah, yeah," I say. "I know. I'll keep it under control." She frowns and I'm struck by the impression that she's suddenly debating the wisdom of this. Before she can press that thought any further, though, Kiki comes bounding back out of the maze and stops at Anduriel's feet.

"I is back!" He announces, panting. "I hurries!"

"Thank you, Kiki," Anduriel says, smiling at him. "Now prepare yourself. Wait until Link and I have busied the Moblins and then open the doors for us." She gives him an encouraging pat on the head when he quavers then turns to me. "Ready?"

"Born ready," I answer. "Let's get this over with." I feel a sudden stab of impatience. One of the maidens is in there – one of the girls. I seem to recall Anduriel saying something about a "she" – and I want to get to them. I don't want to leave them trapped in there any longer than I already have.

Anduriel creeps towards the exit to the maze and I fall into step behind her, sword and shield at the ready.

"I'll go right and you go left," she says and a sudden rush of homesickness takes my breath away for a moment. "One," she counts. Dammit I miss Dad. "Two…" I shake my head and steel myself.

"Three," we both say at the same time and wasting no more time on secrecy burst from the maze and make a beeline for the group of Moblins, splitting up just before we run into them and heading in opposite directions.

Now…this is the first time I've fought these particular Moblins – the first generation ones. And to their credit (and my dismay) they're every bit as good as the Sages and Generals have made them out to be. An attack like this would have decimated the other Moblins. They'd have been so confused by the suddenness of it they wouldn't have had time to get their stuff together again before we'd cut a swathe into the middle of them. That was the nice thing about the other Moblins. They never failed to have the numbers on their side, but they were dumb as bricks, and when you get right down to it, a hundred bricks is still just a hundred bricks. They don't get any smarter for there being so many of them.

But these Moblins…they don't seem to be that stupid.

Neither Anduriel nor I shouted a battle cry, but all it took was one of them seeing us and reacting. He shouted an alarm and the Moblins responded as a unit – if you can believe it – tightening up and turning to face us. These aren't canon fodder moblins. These are soldiers. My eyes narrow.

But I'm Gerudo.

I raise my sword as I slam into the closest Moblin. Immediately a second closes in behind me. Apparently they aren't about the fair fight anymore than the moblins I'm used to.

The second moblin thrusts at me and I try and change direction mid-step. It doesn't quite work out for me as well as I'd hoped. The blade slides across my shoulder, slicing through tunic and skin, and as the sudden sting registers in my brain, something unbidden and angry tries to snarl its way to the surface inside me. I crush it ruthlessly in a sudden, surprised panic, frightened by the ferocity of it, and almost get my head cut off in the process as the first moblin slashes at me. I suck in my breath and counter the sudden blow, forcing myself to keep my focus and not dwell on that sudden surge of rage.

I twist like a cat to catch the second moblin's blade on my shield. It hits me hard enough that my whole arm goes numb and I stumble backward with a surprised cry. I catch myself just before I can fall onto the first moblin's blade and raise my sword to block a slash from it. I back-peddle quickly, trying to shake the feeling back into my shield arm and hold back the snarling thing inside me, which seems determined to rise to the forefront. The moblins don't let me get far before coming after me. The first lunges at me and there's nothing to do but meet him head on, which, to my horror, I am delighted with.

I charge the closest moblin and it tries to run me through. I twist to the side without stopping my advance and let the Master Sword flare blue, sacrificing my front for the sake of my attack.

The moblin's blade only grazes my gut, it doesn't cut deep … but the sight of my own blood brings the snarling thing tearing its way up again with an unexpected burst of strength.

No! I scream at it as I raise my sword and thrust desperately. Can't stop fighting just because there is something angry inside me trying to take control. Back! GET BACK! For a half second it's presence dulls, obeying my shouted command and starting to recede, but the next instant my blade, aided by the blue fire, cuts through the chainmail like a knife through butter and I've buried it inside the moblin, right up to the hilt. Blood washes out and over my hand.

Everything seems to hover in perfect stillness for a moment. The scent of blood, sharper than I've ever smelled it, fills the air around me and floods all my senses.

The Master Sword's fire goes out and the snarling thing inside me explodes forward.

This time, there's no stopping it.

Xxx

A Brief Interlude

Impa shut the door quietly behind her and turned her serious gaze on Nabooru who was pacing back and forth furiously.

She didn't have time for this. She really didn't.

She still had to consolidate the reports from all those they'd detained, find out if anyone had tracked down Durnam yet, make a desperate (yet ultimately futile, she knew) attempt at frightening the nobles into not inciting a war, meet with Dune for an update on their defence plans, check on Darunia and the Gorons progress, somehow find time to find out how Bel and Mel's trial went, and a million other things she didn't have time for either.

She didn't have time to placate Nabooru.

But she couldn't afford letting the Gerudo react as she knew they would, either.

"You look like you would like to shout," the Sage of Shadow observed, "and since Captain Liam needs his rest, I would suggest we take this somewhere further away from him." She raised an eyebrow. "And further away from Castletown before someone sees you. Agahnim may be gone but his proclamations have not been lifted yet. The last thing we need right now is a Sage getting arrested."

"Like they could hold me," Nabooru sniffed derisively. "Wouldn't be the first time I've broken out of your dungeons." She crossed her arms and blew a stray hair out of her eyes. "But fine. Let's head to the Lost Woods." For a moment light infused the room, and when they opened their eyes the solid grey walls of Castletown had been replaced with the soft green of the Lost Woods. Nabooru immediately began stripping off her coat and scarf with, Impa couldn't help but notice, more force than was entirely necessary.

"This is great," the Sage of Spirit snarled now that the need for quiet was past. "This is just peachy. They've both gone off and gotten themselves sent to the Goddess-damned Dark World with the rest. Just wonderful. How the Hell am I supposed to break this to my girls! We have a war on our hands and our King is missing in action. Goddess dammit!" She threw her hands up into the air. "That's it!" She cried angrily. "There's no other options! We're going to have to declare war on the Hylians!" Impa winced inwardly, though this was not unexpected. It was a large part of the reason she had asked the other Sages to let her deal with Nabooru alone. The Sage of Spirit was already on edge and in a difficult position. It wouldn't do to corner her now.

There was nothing more dangerous than a cornered Gerudo.

"Nabooru, don't be rash," she said calmly.

"Oh I'm not being rash," Nabooru returned, glaring at her, "I'm being realistic. You want rash? Wait until I tell the Elite what's been done to Link. Then you'll see rash. They'll want to burn down Castletown! They'll hang me if they even suspect that I'm going to suggest we let the Hylians get away with this!"

"Nabooru, the Hylians haven't done anything," Impa said calmly. "Agahnim isn't even a Hylian." Nabooru directed a mulish glare at her.

"So?" She demanded. "Link didn't kidnap Zelda either, but everyone still seems quite content believing it. And it won't take long until they're blaming him for burning down half the palace."

"In all fairness," Impa said mildly, "according to Liam it was Link's fault."

"Well if Liam – a Hylian – hadn't been attacking him in the first place—"

"As a result of Agahnim's – not a Hylian – magic." Nabooru growled quietly and pulled at her ponytail in an agitated fashion as she began to pace again.

"Impa, look, you're not understanding what I'm saying," she said. "It doesn't matter. None of that matters. You can rationalize it all you want. You can logic your way in and around it, and I'm not arguing with you, and I even agree with you on some of it, but it doesn't matter. A Gerudo King has been captured, possibly killed, we don't know. The treaty with the Hylians has been voided. Now…we've behaved ourselves better than most expected given the circumstances, but with Link gone…Impa we can't just sit there in the desert, all right? We have to do something. We have to act. My people will demand action. And I don't know how I'm going to keep that from turning into action against Castletown."

"It will be the Great War all over again, Nabooru," Impa said with a frown. "You can't do that. Not after everything we've worked for." The Sage of Spirit paused in her pacing for a moment, then gave Impa a look from over her shoulder that the Sage of Shadow did not like one bit.

"If I do," Nabooru said, her voice quiet, "where will the Sheikah fall?" Impa's face hardened and her eyes narrowed.

"Where we have to," she answered flatly. "Castletown is the seat of power in Hyrule. The Hylians are the rulers of Hyrule. You know our codes." She shook her head. "There has to be a way to prevent, this, Nabooru. Think." Nabooru shook her head and turned away, resuming her pacing.

"It would take a direct order from the King. I may be their leader, but I haven't got that kind of authority over them. I can be replaced. The King cannot. Unfortunately for us…"

"Can you delay it, then?" Impa asked. "We need to give Link time. He's gotten himself out of worse situations in the past. Who's to say he can't get himself out of this one too?" Nabooru stopped and turned to face her.

"Delay it how?" She demanded. "We're not exactly a patient people, I don't know if you noticed." Impa briefly ran down the mental list of all the Gerudo she knew personally: Nabooru, Link, Neesha.

"I've noticed," she said dryly. "But what about the Moblins? You can't very well split up your forces like that. With first-generation Moblins beating down your door it would be foolhardy to waste resources on Castletown." Nabooru dropped down onto the ground with a frustrated noise, laying back on the grass and going silent for a moment. Impa – recognizing the gesture as Nabooru's way of asking for time to think – settled herself onto the grass in a cross-legged position. She watched Nabooru silently, trying to read the decisions on the younger Sage's face, and willed her to think faster. They didn't have much time.

"I wish," Nabooru said after a moment, "that Saria and Zelda were here. This kind of thing is always easier with all seven of us."

"Well, they are not," Impa said feeling a sudden pang of sympathy for Nabooru. The way she felt about Link going missing probably wasn't all that different from Impa's own feelings regarding Zelda's abduction. "And we will have to make do with five."

"Four and a half," Nabooru corrected. "Rauru can't do much to help us in this case now can he?"

"No," Impa agreed, drumming her fingers on her knee as a sudden idea struck her, "but perhaps his brother can." Nabooru propped herself up on her elbows and raised an eyebrow.

"Do we have a plan, Impa?" She asked. "It would make me very happy if we had a plan."

"We have a thought," Impa responded cautiously. "A hope. Nothing more." Nabooru's eyes flashed.

"Right now, I'll take what I can get."

Almost there! One more heave! Called the Captain in charge of getting the chain barriers in place. His men pushed hard against the large, heavy gate, falling away panting when it finally clanged loudly into place, sending a brief ripple through the water. Acqul nodded approvingly and tried to ignore the dead feeling in his chest that the sound created.

The gates hadn't been erected for decades. Not since the Great War. Though back then they'd been erected around Zora's River. To protect it from the multiple ways of entrance from the water. It had been a simple enough thing, really, to transport them out a bit and hem in Lake Hylia. Protecting the ground would be left to the other armies. The waterways would be the responsibility of the Zora. And to protect the rest of Hyrule from the underwater threat, the barriers had to go up.

They'd tried desperately to come up with something else. They'd even played briefly with the idea of using Ruto's powers. A talented strike team could have fought their way into the Water Temple with her, and there, at the seat of her power, she could have done something drastic. Blocked the flow of water from Lake Hylia somehow. Frozen all the waters in Hyrule for all he knew. He was unsure of the limit of her power.

Nor had he really ruled out using it.

It was just that it was too soon for that, and Hyrule needed the water. To block off Lake Hylia was to stem the flow of water everywhere. The lakes and rivers would dry up, as would Zora's Domain, and they couldn't have that. The Zoran barriers had been designed to allow the flow of water, but halt the flow of the enemy. That was what mattered.

But how long the old walls would hold…

Although he hoped it wouldn't come to it, he had already started to pick and choose a strike team from among his men. Just in case.

In his mind he flashed back briefly to the scene in Lake Hylia when the Tower had activated. They'd lost two of the Zoras accompanying them to the green monstrosities spawned in the waters that had always belonged to the Zoras and no other. Webbed hands and feet that ended in wicked claws, green scales that flashed in the light from the tower, a crest of fins on their head, and a mouth that revealed two rows of jagged teeth when opened… it was the stuff of nightmares. Like horror stories told to Zoran children who misbehaved in an attempt to scare them into being good.

They had to be spawned of the Dark World. Hyrule had its fair share of monsters, but nothing like those. And besides, the Zoras would have encountered them before. The instant they'd smelled the blood in the water they'd gone insane. Like piranhas.

If it hadn't been for Ruto…

There was an undercurrent of tension in the water as his troops stared warily up at the barrier. Most of them were old enough to remember what the great chain gates meant. It had only been three years since the last war, and though that one had been blissfully short, almost negligible as far as time, it had been an expensive one. Nobody wanted another war. Nobody wanted to have to fight again.

But if that was what it came down to…

Acqul shook his head and forced his face into a neutral expression as the Captain swam forward to report what Acqul could see for himself.

The barrier was raised. War was upon them.

xxx

Chapter 14 (cont.)

"Link! Link, control it! Tame it!"

I can barely hear Anduriel. She sounds like she's a million miles away even though she's right on top of me, pinning me to the ground as I try to thrash at her.

I am currently trapped in my own head, locked in a snarling, raging wrestling match with the blood-crazed thing that has snatched control of myself from me; the snarling thing inside me.

The beast.

"Link! Get control! Calm down!"

Like it's that easy. I'm as angry as it right now, and twice as terrified. I really only dimly understand what this thing is, why it's here, and what it's doing to me. The fact that I lost control to it that easily frightens me on a level I really don't want to be frightened on, and that, as much as rage, is fuelling me as I fight it for control.

Get calm, she says. Good luck.

"Link!"

It's no good. We're evenly matched and I can't beat it. I can't wrench control away from it. I can't even really tell right now where it ends and I begin. We're both clawing and screaming and trying to rip each other apart.

I can't win this…

Anduriel releases one of my arms, ignoring the immediate vice-like grasp I put on her own arm, and covers my face with her hand. The beast snarls its rage at what it knows will be an intervention in our struggle, but it's too late. I am blinded suddenly by a bright, golden light, then something rips the beast away from me and hurls it back into the darkness.

I come back to myself with a gasp and immediately remove my hand from Anduriel's arm, shocked at how red the area where my hand had been is. I go limp beneath her, panting hard. She slowly removes her hand from my face and peers down at me, a thin line of sweat on her brow. I stare back at her as the last vestiges of my anger and fear fade, and a sudden inrush of intense shame replaces it.

I just lost myself there.

The air smells of death and out of the corner of my eye I can see the bodies of the moblins I just delighted in destroying. I can feel the slick evidence of my carnage on my hands and face and Din knows where else. I didn't just fight them. I didn't just kill them. I didn't even just destroy them.

I murdered them… never mind that they were Moblins. That didn't matter. When the beast was in control … it didn't care that they were moblins. It just cared that they were alive, and that it could kill them.

It had even gone for Anduriel…

For a minute there, I was worse than Ganon ever was…and I couldn't even get myself back. It took Anduriel to do it for me.

"Link," Anduriel says, and I close my eyes and turn away, unable to meet her cloudy, golden gaze any longer. "Link, what did I tell you?" She demands, her voice urgent. I can't help but notice the sudden tremor in it. "You need to fight those emotions. You cannot beat a beast made of anger with more anger. You'll only fuel it!"

"I'm sorry," I manage, shaking my head. "I tried…I couldn't…" Anduriel climbs off of me and drops into a seated position on the steps of the fortress, studying me unblinkingly. After a long moment she finally shakes her head.

"No, I'm sorry," she says at last. "It's too soon for this. I shouldn't have led you here before you were ready."

"What?" I demand, pushing myself up into a seated position. "What do you mean?" Anduriel shakes her head and leans back against the cool stone stairs, mindful of her pallid wings.

"The powers of the Dark World," she says softly, "are not something taken lightly. Not to be underestimated. It is too soon for you to be taking part in actions like this when you haven't even learnt to deal with – or even coexist with – your alter ego, yet. It was irresponsible of me to bring you here."

"Anduriel," I say, "I'm not going back. I'm not leaving here without whatever maiden is in there."

"And what good is a rescuer who cannot even rescue himself?" Anduriel demands. She's not being cruel, but she's being pointed, and it's effective. I recoil slightly.

"That was…" I look despite myself at the scattered Moblin corpses. Not even at my worst, have I ever… "Did I kill all of them?"

"Do you not remember doing it?" She asks. I tear my eyes away from them.

"I remember," I say, "but I was distracted. I wasn't really…it wasn't counting."

"I killed two," Anduriel replies. "They would be the cleaner corpses. By the time I was done that you had lost yourself in the blood rage and it was all I could do to subdue you at that point before you hurt yourself or something else." I push myself to my feet without answering and move over to pick up my sword where it fell. "Link, the Beast will be a big enough hindrance to you and your mission at night when you can't stop the change, but if you lose yourself to it in the day as well then we've no hope of ever completing this mission."

"Well why does it depend on me?" I demand suddenly, glaring at her as I pull a cloth out of my pouch to clean off the Master Sword's blade. "Why can't you—"

"Because I am bound to the Triforce, Link," Anduriel responds. "And by extrapolation to it's master, or masters. The Master of the Triforce of Power will not allow me to interfere with his plans for the maidens. The Master of the Triforce of Wisdom is currently not capable of guiding my actions one way or another. The only way I can help is if a Master of one of the Triforce pieces will allow me to, and you are the only one in a position to do that. If you lose yourself, I can do nothing, do you understand?" She pauses. "And I can help none but this one, anyway."

"What?" I ask, blinking at her. "What do you mean?"

"It is as I've said, Link," she says patiently. "This place is my place of power – what little of it I have left. Outside this domain … what strength you've seen, what power I've demonstrated only functions here. I could not even see if I left my domain. A sightless, wingless, strengthless makaniis a sad sight indeed." A sudden cold feeling has settled into my gut.

"So … you're saying that even if we manage to rescue this one maiden, I'm on my own for the next six."

"Yes, Link," Anduriel responds. "That is what I'm saying. You understand now why you need to learn to control the beast within you? I won't always be there to push it back. I would be surprised if I could do it again today without rest. It's a powerful creature indeed." I blow my bangs out of my eyes in frustration.

"It's not that easy," I argue. "I couldn't…when it came forward that last time there was nothing I could do. How am I supposed to fight that?"

"By not giving into it," she replies. "Whoever said fight fire with fire was a fool, Link. Fire feeds itself, grows larger. The same applies to anger and rage. If you respond to anger with more anger you only make it worse. You need to be calm. When the beast attacks meet it with serenity. Give it no foothold and it won't be able to take you." I stare at her uncertainly.

"It's not that easy," I repeat. She sighs and rustles her listless feathers.

"Link," she says quietly, "if I can fight the Dark World for as long as I have, then you can."

"That's not a fair comparison," I complain, "you're an immortal." Anduriel raises a cool eyebrow at me and shakes her head in something akin to disappointment. She gets to her feet and turns just slightly towards me, raising her arm to display her side. Her tunic has been slashed open and blood the color of oxidized gold has stained her side and tunic.

"Not anymore, Link," she says softly, touching the wound with a regretful expression on her face. "Not anymore." I suddenly want to curl up and die.

"Anduriel," I breathe. "Oh Farore, tell me that I'm not the one who…" My voice trails off and she doesn't answer, merely stares at me. There's a long pause as I stare at her wound in shock and she continues to stare at me with a considering expression.

"I think," she says slowly, "we should retreat for now. Return when you're more capable of dealing with the Dark World's influence."

"No!" I say, pulling my eyes up to hers. "No, we can't retreat! We can't just leave her in there!"

"Link, consider the wisdom of going in there unprepared. You didn't make it past the first fight—"

"It was the blood," I say quickly. "I did resist it the first three times it tried. It was just the blood that did it, and you said that there won't be anything inside but inanimate traps. Those don't bleed."

"The Maeasm will," she counters. "And do you really want the maiden caught in the crossfire if you lose yourself?" I turn my gaze uneasily back to the bodies scattered at the base of the steps and then to the wound in the Sentinel's side. I hesitate for a long moment.

"Do you know who it is?" I ask. "Do you know which maiden is trapped in there?"

Most of them would be strong enough to wait … Hunter, Neesha, Zelda and Saria I'd bet my life that they'd be all right if we delay a little bit. Even Goron-Link. It'll kill me to wait, it'll kill me to leave them there, but Anduriel's right, as much as I hate to admit it, and we may be better off.

But if it's…

"Water," Anduriel answers. "The blood of the Sage of Water flows somewhere in that structure." I close my eyes.

"Dammit," I hiss, rubbing my forehead. "Goddess dammit." Then, "No. No, I'm not retreating. I can't leave her in there." Anduriel raises an eyebrow.

"But there are some you would?" She asks.

"The others … the others would be all right. But not … for Nayru's sake, Anduriel, she's not even three yet. She's just a baby. I can't do that to her. I can't leave her in there." Anduriel remains cautious.

"Link, you understand that they are not hurting her, don't you?" She asks. "She is captured, but not in pain. Not even really in danger. The spell preserves and protects her from that and Ganon's forces know better than to tamper with the maidens."

"I will not leave a three-year old in the hands of an enemy she's not even old enough to recognize yet," I respond flatly. "If it was anyone else, Anduriel, I'd seriously consider it, but not her. I can't do that to her. I won't. I'll go in there without you if I have to, I don't care, but I'm not leaving her in there." I fix her with my best sullenly mulish expression and am more than a little smug to discover that it apparently works on immortals just as well as on mortals. Anduriel sighs and nods.

"All right," she says. "But be careful, Link. And whatever you do stay calm. I doubt the little girl would be much happier about a friend who hurts her than an enemy who can't."

"Laruto," I say as we turn and head towards the door. "Her name is Laruto. And besides," I add, "I've already paid Kiki to open the doors and somehow I doubt he's fond of the idea of refunds."

xxx

A Brief Interlude

Darunia sighed heavily as he watched his people try to settle into their new home in the Sheikah Caverns. On the upside, it was still caves. On the downside, it wasn't their caves. For the most part the Sheikah helping them out were friendly enough, although still very Sheikan. And more than one of them looked slightly harassed at the thought of more interlopers in their ancestral home – which they generally tried to keep secret. He felt a brief pang of amused pity for them. It was hard to keep secrets and still be good neighbours sometimes.

"Big Brother?" Darunia blinked and glanced over. Arkun clapped him roughly on the back. "We can handle things here," he said. "You should go help out Karun. Our army needs you more than our civilians right now." Darunia turned around and surveyed those gathered as they looked up at this pronouncement and gave him confident smiles and even a few winks. Even after being asked at the very last minute to pack up their homes and lives and abandon their own ancestral home to whatever Moblins may claim it, his people remained optimistic and confident. Not a sour face among them. He gave them the smile he reserved for Gorons and Sworn Brothers alone, feeling a sudden surge of warmth for his indomitable people.

"All right," he said, returning Arkun's clap tenfold. "I'll see you on the surface once you're done here." He turned towards the exit and started off.

He didn't really pay attention to where he was going. He didn't know the Sheikan Caverns that well, but, being a Goron, he had an innate sense of which way up was and he'd find an exit easily enough with that instinct.

He supposed he shouldn't really be wasting time wandering through the halls when he could just ask where the nearest exit was, but he knew from hard-earned experience that these last few hours before the Moblins arrived would be the last he'd spend in any kind of peace. Indulgences were allowed in such cases as far as he was concerned, and so he allowed himself to enjoy the walk for what it was: a walk.

He had a feeling it would be the last he'd have for a while.

Besides, he'd always liked the Sheikan Caverns. His own caves had been smoothed and shaped carefully over the years by talented smiths and stoneworkers until the whole city would have been indistinguishable from a normal building made of stone save the lack of seams. But the Sheikah had allowed their caverns to grow and form as they would, guided by no hand but the Goddesses. They occasionally dug themselves a new hole or two if their population expanded or they needed the space, but otherwise the caves were left to their own devices. The Sheikah liked it better that way. They were big on not leaving a trace of themselves behind and so were quite content to leave Nature as their architect.

You had to venture deep into the caverns behind Goron City to find caves like these.

"…we've gotta do something!" Darunia blinked and stopped, taken aback for a moment by the sudden angry shout. "We can't just let them…you shouldn't have to…this isn't fair!" Darunia blinked. That was Thomas. He moved towards the voice. What could have gotten the boy so…

Bel and Mel's trial. That had been scheduled for that day, hadn't it?

He paused instead with his hand on the partly open door, deciding that perhaps a bit of eavesdropping was in order.

"Thomas," said one of the twins, "stop it, all right? It is fair. What we did was wrong on so many levels."

"Well what were we supposed to do!" Responded another of the twins angrily. "Just let him die!"

"Agahnim wouldn't have killed him," responded the first, distinguishable only by the tone. "Right Thomas?"

"I…" Thomas trailed off, his inability to answer all the affirmation the twins needed.

"We were fooled, Bel. We let ourselves be fooled and we betrayed our people by doing it. We deserve exile." Darunia winced. So that had been the sentence. He had his own opinions of what Bel and Mel had done and he found himself disagreeing with such a harsh sentence.

But he was no Sheikah, and it was their business.

"It doesn't seem right," Thomas said, sounding upset and angry. "It's my fault. You guys didn't even do anything wrong. I did things I don't even want to think about! I mean I kil…I murd…" He stopped, frustrated.

"Thomas, you didn't!" One of the twins said angrily. "That's the whole point! You weren't in control of your actions!"

"Well they still shouldn't exile you for trying to protect me!" Thomas exploded. "It isn't right! None of them wanted to! I could see it one their faces when they left the council chamber! Nobody likes this!"

"Well what are we supposed to do about it?" The twins demanded at the same time. One of them continued. "We'll be leaving with the first caravan out, Thomas—"

"I'm surprised we haven't already."

"—and there's nothing we can do about it! So … stop making this harder!"

"So that's it then?" Thomas demanded. "You're just going to sit there and accept this? You're not even going to try to do something!"

"What can we do?"

"There's gotta … there's gotta be a way for you to redeem yourselves somehow," Thomas said desperately. "I'll help. I'll do anything. We just need to find some way for you to prove that you're loyal to Hyrule. That's all."

"You say it like it's easy."

"It's not easy, Thomas."

"Well fine then!" Thomas cried. "Fine! Go on! Go on and accept your damn sentence and go live in Summerfell, but I'm not giving up!"

And in that instant, Darunia made a decision.

True, it was Sheikan business…

But when you got right down to it, Darunia had never really been a business man.

He stepped back and away from the door for a few meters, then stopped and called out.

"Thomas! Bel? Mel? You around here?" The shouting in the room went silently suddenly, and after a moment of hushed whispers the door opened and Thomas stuck his head out. His face was still red and his hair was more dishevelled than usual, but he did an excellent job of putting on a neutral face. Sheikah to the core.

"Something up Big Brother?" He asked respectfully.

"Have you spoken with your mother yet today?" He asked.

"No, she's been busy," he answered. "She said she was going to make some kind of announcement soon, though. I bet you could catch her if you ran down to the—"

"I'm not looking for her," Darunia said, waving him off. "I'm looking for you and the twins. Are they around?" Bel's head joined Thomas's in the door.

"Yes?" Darunia grinned at the three of them. It was a long shot, and he might have some time talking the others into it, but…

"I have a proposition for you…"