Disclaimer: Everything Belongs to Legend of Zelda/Nintendo (Well, except any OCs)

Shadowed Waters

25

Unexpected Encounters

"Ralis!" called Agitha again as he disappeared through the door to Telma's Bar, leaving it slightly ajar. She ran after him, slipping inside the bar and looking around. Water dripped from her hair and clothes, leaving puddles on the wood floor beneath her. Telma and Renado stood before the bar, watching her carefully with eyes full of concern.

"He just ran through here, sweetie," said Telma sympathetically, "Looked pretty upset too - rather like you do, actually. I'm gonna take a wild guess and assume he saw something he shouldn't have seen?"

"I- I," stammered Agitha. She couldn't finish. Her voice choked in her throat as tears began to stream down her face, mingling with the rainwater before falling in droplets to the floor. Blinking and looking away, she dashed across the main room and into the back hallway. The door at the end, leading to Ralis's current room, was closed and the hallway was dark.

"Ralis?" she asked tentatively knocking on his door. She heard shuffling and her spirits lifted. If she could just talk to him, just explain…

Click. She heard the faint noise of the door locking. The shuffling receded. Agitha felt her breathing hitch as she slid to the floor, tears flowing freely.

"I'm so sorry," she choked out in a whisper as she was overcome by sobs.

"He just needs some time, sweetie," said a comforting voice, and Agitha looked up to see Telma standing over her. "Why don't you get some sleep, things will be better in the morning."

Agitha shook her head. She couldn't sleep now, what if Ralis decided he wanted to talk?

Telma frowned. "Fine, but let's at least get you off the floor." She reached down and looped a gentle hand beneath Agitha's good arm and pulled the girl to her feet. Agitha allowed herself to be led out into the main room and settled into a chair before the hearth. The flames had died down, leaving glowing embers in their place.

Somebody, either Telma or Renado, placed a blanket around her shoulders and then left the room, leaving Agitha alone with her thoughts. She pulled her knees up to her chest and clutched one arm around them. The tears had stopped, leaving an unsettling emptiness in their place. In the dim light of the remnant fire, Agitha eventually drifted off to sleep.

Her dreams were plagued with nightmares. Emerald eyes turning away, lost in the pouring rain. She would reach out for Ralis only to have him disappear beneath her touch. The only reprieve came when her dreams settled enough to allow her to approach the dream-Ralis. She could have sworn she actually felt his lips brush against her forehead before her dreams were again consumed by a darkness that rivaled the Twilight.

She awoke early the next morning. The bar was still empty and dark – Agitha guessed that Telma and Renado were still asleep. The blanket fell to the ground in a heap as she stood, arching her back and stretching her good arm. Agitha sniffled, trying to keep a calm demeanor as she headed down the hall to Ralis's room.

Agitha was surprised to find his door slightly ajar, gray light from the small high-set window spilling into the hall from his room. She took a deep breath before approaching the door and knocking lightly on the wood. It swung on its hinges from the light touch. "Ralis?" asked Agitha softly into the dimly lit room.

No answer came. Agitha could feel her heartbeat accelerate as she peered around the door. The bed was fully made as if no one had slept there last night. And Agitha knew why. No one had slept there last night. The long brown cloak that had been slung over the door of the wardrobe was missing, as was its owner. Ralis was gone.

Agitha walked slowly over to the bed and sank down upon it, breaths hitching in her throat. But no tears came this time. She had cried herself out last night.

"Agitha? Ralis?" Telma's usually loud voice was very quiet this morning. The buxom barmaid peered into the room where Agitha sat alone. Agitha didn't need to look at her to know that her host understood. "I'm so sorry, honey," said Telma, sitting down on the bed beside her, the mattress sunk beneath her frame and Agitha had to brace her good arm against the bed to keep from tipping, but said nothing.

After a while Telma said, "Come now, sweetie, you'll feel better with some breakfast in you." Agitha doubted that was true but didn't protest as the barmaid helped her to her feet and led her out into the bar.

Renado was already frying some cuckoo eggs behind the bar. Agitha felt numb as she was forced into a seat at the bar and given a heap of eggs and a glass of milk. She didn't want food, she wanted Ralis.

"Thinking like that will get you nowhere," said Renado, seemingly out of nowhere. Agitha looked up from her plate, where she had been absently pushing the contents back and forth, and cast the healer a surprised glance. How had he known what she was thinking? Renado merely shrugged, yet again answering her unspoken thoughts, "I have a daughter about your age. Teenage emotions are not so lost on me. I know that you are sad, but things will work out eventually. Couples argue all the time. He just needs his space to think and you," he pointed to her with the spatula he had been using to make a second batch of eggs, "just need to do something to get your mind off things."

Agitha frowned and looked down at her now mangled breakfast. "Like what?" she asked trying to keep her voice from cracking.

"Might I make a suggestion," said a voice from the doorway. Telma had thrown the door wide upon re-entering, with Louise at her feet. She stepped aside to reveal someone behind her.

"I did it Agitha," said Colin with a grin that did not look forced at all, "I got us an audience with the Royal Court to plead the Zora's case. Where is he anyway?" asked Colin, looking around the bar.

Agitha's heart fell. She was not looking forward to explaining the situation to Colin. "That's great Colin, really," she said with a smile so forced that all but made up for Colin's natural one.

"Oh…" said Colin awkwardly once Agitha finished explaining. Well sort of explaining, she explained that Ralis left early this morning without reason - although that last part was not necessarily true – and that she didn't know where he went. "Well we can still go and argue his case, I guess," continued the soldier, "Although it would have been nice to have some living proof that the Royal opinion of Zoras may be royally wrong."

Agitha cast a curious glance at Colin, but he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were on the rough wood surface of the table they were all sitting around. She couldn't help but think that that was an odd thing to say for someone who was so adamantly opposed to Zoras, but she decided not to question it.

"I think that sounds like a wonderful plan," cut in Telma, "I may stop by later too. I just have some… business to attend to first," she ended vaguely, eyes faraway, lost in thought. After a few moments, she added, "But Agitha, dear, you may want to consider getting some of your own clothes. Not that you don't look lovely in mine, but let's just say that you don't quite fill them out the same, as I do."

Telma laughed as Agitha, Colin, and Renado blushed deeply.

"I wonder if she ever gets embarrassed," mused Colin as he and Agitha wended their way through the busy streets of Castle Town. Vendors lined the cobblestone road, flashing wares and showing off goods to eager shoppers.

"Doubt it," replied Agitha, looking around at all the little stands and shops. Vendors were always on the move, leaving so another could fill their place, but after being gone for so long Agitha scarcely recognized any of the sellers.

"Did they have anything like this?" asked Colin.

Agitha stopped her scanning and looked up at the soldier. "What do you mean?"

"You know, at their Domain," said Colin, carefully avoiding her glance, "Did they have a marketplace."

Is he really asking about the Domain? wondered Agitha, but she didn't question it. If Colin was going to get over his irrational hatred, she wasn't about to stop him. "No," answered Agitha, "Nothing like this." She gestured to the street around them with her good arm.

"Hm," said Colin, contemplatively, "I was just thinking - " But Agitha didn't get to find out what he was thinking as he was cut off.

"There she is!" yelled a voice from somewhere behind the pair. A very, unfortunately, familiar voice. Agitha whirled around to see the small, horrible doctor standing behind them, flanked by three uniformed soldiers.

"See," said Borville excitedly to the Hyrulean guards, "I told you that boy would lead us to her. I knew he must have gone to her as soon as I told my case. He just needed some incentive to go back." The little man smiled maliciously, his magnified eyes squinting behind his thickly framed glasses.

Agitha's eyes widened in hurt confusion. She turned to Colin, "You – you turned me in?" she sputtered, "For a crime I didn't even commit?"

Colin's eyes were as wide as hers felt. "Agitha," he said, "I swear I don't know what's going on here. I - "

"Uh-uh," said the doctor, cutting off Colin once again, "You shouldn't tell lies. You know what you did. This is definitely the one; the one I fear may be a spy and a threat to the kingdom."

One of the guards stepped forward. He wore chain mail, emblazoned with a red Hylian crest and carried a long, menacing spear. Agitha could see his eyes, the left one stone gray, the right, an unfocused milky white: he was blind in one eye. His one-eyed gaze was fixed on her with an odd satisfaction. "You're going to have to come with us, miss"

Agitha blinked and took a step back. This couldn't happen. Colin had said she had an audience with the Royal Court, not a trial.

"General Evrret," said Colin to the Guard that stepped forward, "This has to be a misunderstanding."

"Quiet, Corporal Colin," growled the General apparently named Evrret, "Consider yourself lucky that we're not turning you in as well. The Court thinks you were in on this plan all along. Step aside, unless you want us to correct their assumptions."

"But she has done nothing wrong!" argued Colin, "She just - " But Agitha reached up and put a hand on his arm, effectively stopping his speech. So he hadn't been involved, Agitha was sure of that now.

"Don't try to defend me, Colin," said Agitha. She couldn't let him incriminate himself as well. Not after all that he's done for her. "There is nothing to defend, anyway, as I have done nothing wrong."

"Sure," said Evrret, "Tell it to the Court."

"I will," said Agitha defiantly as the General stepped forward and grasped her roughly by her good arm. And for the second time in her life, Agitha was being carted away to imprisonment. She hoped that Ralis was, at least, faring better than she was.

Agitha had always imagined her first time seeing the inside of the Castle would have been very grand. Perhaps she would have been invited to some sort of banquet, or ball. She would have had her hair done up nicely with glittering clips, and jewels would have ringed her neck and wrists. She would have worn her finest gown and looked absolutely stunning as she stepped through the grand double doors leading into the courtyard.

But, of courses, things never go as planned.

Evrret pushed Agitha roughly through the slightly opened entranceway to the Castle courtyard. The two other soldiers flanked them, spears at the ready in case things got out of hand. What, however, they thought was going to go wrong when dragging a small, injured girl to jail, was beyond Agitha. Colin and Borville walked on either side of them, Colin's glum expression, only matched by the doctor's smug grin. If she were not in custody, Agitha would have liked to slap the small, horrible man across the face for all the trouble he had caused.

"This way," grunted the General and shoving her through the grassy courtyard. A large statue of twisted metals topped with a Hyrulean crest stood in the center of the clearing, and the Castle, tall and white stood behind that. Soldiers and workers alike stopped their chores and work to watch their procession. Agitha could almost feel their judging gazes and hear their whispered speculations, but the exact words were too quiet to make out. Agitha ignored them as the guard led her up the marble steps and onto the marble entryway.

Inside the Castle was no better. The carved wooden doors creaked loudly as the guard pushed her through, signaling to all within the grand hall that a prisoner had arrived. Agitha avoided making eye contact with any of the Castle's tenants and instead took to examining her grand surroundings. The checkerboard light and dark marble floor stretched to the nearly circular walls of the atrium. Vaulted balconies hung high on the whitewashed walls towering at different levels to the grandly arched ceiling. The only lights came from the flickering dance of the flames held in golden torches and the chandeliers that hung delicately from above.

Intricately carved wooden doors were set into the marble walls around them. Evrret paused for only a moment before dragging her towards a small door off to the side. The others followed, footsteps echoing loudly through the main hall.

The door housed a narrow, stone staircase that allowed Agitha to guess all too easily where she was being led. The air smelled damp and moldy, getting thicker as they descended deeper within the Castle. Eventually the passageway leveled out and in the dim torchlight Agitha was able to see a very bored-looking guard standing before a set of rough double doors.

The young guard perked up as he saw them coming. "Sir," he said raising a hand to his forehead in pursuit. Agitha watched as his gaze travelled across the odd party. It was obvious from the look in his eyes that he was very confused as to why a young lady, injured no less, was being led to the dungeons.

"I need a cell prepared," said the General, his iron grip still locked around her arm.

"For her…?" asked the guard, raising an eyebrow.

"Believe me," muttered Agitha, "You aren't the only one confused."

"Quiet, you," intoned Evrret harshly, before continuing to the dungeon keeper, "The girl is a traitor to the kingdom. She was known to have been in league with a Zora."

"Don't forget to mention," chimed in the doctor from somewhere behind them, "that they tried to physically harm me." The glee in his voice made Agitha sick to her stomach.

The dungeon keeper's eyes widened, his gaze flickering to her as if she were a dangerous criminal. Well I guess that's not that far off, thought Agitha with a grimace, Not as far as he's concerned, anyway.

"The cell?" repeated her captor.

"Right away, sir," said the dungeon guard, quickly, pulling a ring of keys from his belt. He unlocked the double doors and pushed them open into a long corridor lined with barred cells. The only sounds came from the clacking of their shoes against the stone and the soft trickle of water from somewhere down at the far end, as the guard pushed her roughly forward down the passageway. She could see from the dim torches that hung on the thick stone walls separating the cells that most of the dungeon was empty. In fact, it was completely empty. A chill ran down Agitha's spine at the thought of being the only one in this goddesses-forsaken place.

At the last cell the dungeon keeper stopped, and turned towards the cell on the right side. With a pained squeal of metal against metal he fit a rusted key into the lock and opened the cell door. Agitha yelped as the General pushed her forward and she fell into the cell, just barely managing to catch her fall with her knees and good hand before her face hit the floor.

She heard a creak and a click as the barred door closed behind her.

"That oughta hold you," said her former captor with a grin.

Agitha resisted the urge to comment with a sarcastic you think? and wave her injured arm at him. She, instead, just glared up at him with as much malice as she could muster. Evrret laughed as he, the doctor, and the other guards turned and began walking away.

Colin stayed behind, kneeling low next to her cell, fingers wrapped around the bars with a pained expression on his face. "I swear I had no idea…" His voice was trembling.

"Colin," said Agitha, eyes wide, voice serious, "I believe you. But that's not going to get me out of here."

He sighed. "I know. I will get you out of here."

"Corporal Colin?" called a voice from down the corridor. They both looked up.

"Go," said Agitha, quickly, "Don't get yourself in any more trouble."

Colin stood and turned towards the call, but Agitha noticed his hesitation at answering.

"And Colin," she added and he turned back towards her, "I know you will."

Agitha saw his lips curve into a genuine smile before he turned and headed down the hall, leaving her there alone, blinking into the dim torchlight, trying to watch him go. An echoing thud told her that the door at the end of the hall had been closed tight.

"It must be nice to have someone looking out for you," said a female voice that made Agitha jump and her heart skip a few beats. She had been sure she was alone down here. "To know that another soul knows and even cares that you're down here, rotting away."

Agitha strained her vision to see into the darkness of the cell across from her. She was sure that was where the voice had come from. "Who's there?" asked Agitha, trying to sound braver than she felt.

The voice laughed. "You don't have to be afraid, young Hylian. I heard your guard say the reason you were brought down here – I have very good hearing, all of my kind do" added the voice, answering the question she had been just about to ask; the guard had given that information when they were on the other side of the door.

"You didn't answer my question," said Agitha, wishing she could stop her voice from trembling.

"I told you, you do not have to be afraid," repeated the voice, "I would even go as far to say that we are allies."

"Who are you?" asked Agitha again, anger now rising in her voice.

The voice laughed again. "I should have known all along that if someone was to help our cause it would have been you. Your cousin's descriptions were very accurate. You're every bit as headstrong and determined as Iza said you were."

"You know Iza…? asked Agitha, confused.

"Know her? We worked together up until all of this anti-Zora paranoia started," the voice laughed again as comprehension dawned on Agitha.

"You mean…" she began.

"Hello Agitha," said the Zora, stepping forward, out of the shadows and into the torchlight, "I am – well, was – Iza's assistant. My name is Jinn, and it's nice to finally meet you."

Ooh, now there's a bit of a twist. I decided to name the unnamed Zora working for Iza, so I hope you like my choice =)

Sorry for the delay in updating... but I'm a college student and unfortunately, sometimes work has to come before fanfiction (depressing isn't it?)

Thanks so much for the reviews so far! Please leave one and let me know what you think of my story, chapter, whatever ^_^