Note: Chapter 50... hooray! What an accomplishment! And an even bigger accomplishment: I'm actually a chapter ahead of schedule. I won't release more than one a week, to pace what I have, but I still hardly recognize myself. Those of you who've been sticking with this for a while know that weekly updates are a very, very rare thing.
Chapter 50: Power in a Name
Link couldn't control the shaking in his hand. He pressed his sword into the man's throat, staring fiercely into his eyes.
The boy's mind was numb and he shook terribly, feeling a warm trickle of blood run over his hand. The dark sorcerer's eyes were wide, head forced back against the wall. The cut in his throat was small, but Link found the urge to slice it open from ear to ear unbearable.
"WHY ARE YOU HERE? WHY?!" He yelled, fighting against his dry, cracked throat. He had never felt this much rage before; his mind was blinded by it, single-mindedly set against killing the man who'd taken everything he loved.
The mask salesman's lips quivered, but the cold steel on his neck prevented him from finding words. "Link, stop!" Tatl exclaimed, frantic at his side. "Don't kill him!"
The boy breathed in and out deeply, his wild gaze unrelenting. "You want me to let him go?!" Link asked, never taking his eyes away from his captive. "Let him take out his ReDead mask and kill us?"
"He said he was getting out some kind of medicine!"
"Yeah, and he also manipulated us into getting him an evil mask after he killed everyone I loved." Link threw the mask salesman back against the wall again, who winced, as the boy pressed the blade even closer. "WHY WON'T YOU ANSWER ME?! WHY ARE YOU HERE?"
"TO HELP YOU!" the mask salesman finally screamed in response. Link continued breathing in and out heavily, his gold-glinted blade still at his throat. One slice, that's all it would take. And then he would be dead. How much would he regret it later if he didn't do it now? Would he ever get a chance to kill him again? Even if the mask salesman didn't backstab them right off the bat, what if the long chain of events resulting from letting him live ended up getting them killed? I could do it now. Open his throat for everything he's done to me. The blade shook in his hand, even then.
"Link... please," Tatl said, her voice heavy with emotion. The mask salesman's eyes left Link's to look at his fairy's. He tried to ignore the sword at his neck, afraid of the boy's eyes. "He would have killed us as soon as we landed in the temple if he wanted to. He saved your life – remember?" That changes nothing.
The boy's eyes left the mask salesman's for the first time, his grip on him loosening as he looked off. "Please," he heard the mask salesman say. Link looked back to him. "Give me a chance to explain myself." Link paused, the anger slowly melting away. His mind raced as he searched for the right thing to do. Gods forgive me.
Link let go of the mask salesman and shakily brought his sword to his side. The dark sorcerer's hand instantly went to his throat, bringing it down to see the blood. The boy looked to his left hand, to see the same red line on his own fingers. He wiped it off on his tunic, backing away and refusing to look at either him or Tatl.
"Why are you here?" Link asked. His voice was so raw now. Almost drowning coupled with screaming left him sounding weak. He felt weak. Was it weakness that had stopped him from doing it?
"To help you, like I said," he responded. It was the same voice that had told him all of those dark truths beneath the clock tower, all of those secrets. The truth about Termina being a realm of shadows... Hyrule's inevitable end at a great flood... His manipulating of Link and Tatl to bring him Majora's Mask... And then Link had been overcome by his curse, and he'd struck him in the heart just like the Skull Kid had done to him.
The mask salesman's gloved hand reached into his robes again, and Link raised his sword, instantly snapping back to face him. "I'm just grabbing the medicine," the mask salesman said defensively, as he continued slipping his fingers inside. Link didn't lower his weapon. "You know I don't have the ReDead mask anymore anyways."
"What?" Link asked, his voice still filled with disdain. He refused to lighten up in the presence of this dark sorcerer. He looked to see that Tatl was merely floating there silently, eyes wide.
"You don't have it?" the evil man asked.
"Why would we have it?" He poured every ounce of hatred and anger he could into each word. He killed Navi. He killed Zelda. He organized Anju's death. He tried to kill Tatl. He tried to turn you into a shadow. Don't forget any of that.
The mask salesman pulled out a vial of some sort of thin, blue substance. It was three-quarters of the way full, and he began to double over in pain again as he released the top. "I gave it to Anju," he started, pulling his garments down slightly to reveal his chest. It was pale, aside from the massive, black scorch mark. The lines reached outward like spider legs, and he began to tip the liquid over it. "To give to you."
The blue ran over the mark, and the mask salesman bared his teeth. He remained there up against the wall, with Tatl and Link watching. "Why would you do that?"
"To prove that I was done fighting you." Link looked away from him at that, refusing to make eye contact.
He's not on your side. You can't trust him. The mask salesman closed his eyes for a few moments, before getting to his feet and pulling his robe back up. He closed the phial and slipped it inside, looking again at Link. The boy's back was facing him, but the fairy's expression was still unreadable as she observed.
"I wasn't going to tell you until after the temple," he explained. "But the scar keeps spreading. I couldn't hold it back. I healed every injury from that night under the clock tower, except the one your lightning bolt did. The medicine I have keeps it at bay, but it works less and less every time." He paused, waiting for either Link or Tatl to say something, but neither one of them did.
"It's not affecting me like it does you," the mask salesman continued to explain. "It doesn't give me new powers, and let me connect to the mask or Skull Kid. It just kills me. Slowly, but surely. And I can't do anything to stop it. I'm going to die, Link. Soon. You were right. I can't control Majora, not if... not if it so easily did this to me. But before I die... I want to... to do what I can to stop it. Please. I promise. I'm here to help."
Link still had his back to him, taking in every word as his eyes shone brightly ahead. The mask salesman waited, but it was several minutes before the boy finally turned to face him. "Do you remember what you said to me under the tower?" Link asked. The mask salesman only responded with a face expressing deep sadness. Or just another mask? "When you had me frozen with that ReDead mask, you told me to remember how powerless I felt. To remember how out of control I was, and how you are always in control... even when you're not wearing the mask.
"You told me I was nothing. That I was nobody. That you would turn me into a mask when you were done with me." Link wasn't sure if his voice was shaking just because he was sore, or if it was because everything that happened that night was coming back to him. "You told me that you owned me. That... that Navi learned." The mask salesman winced at the mention of her name. "That Tatl learned... that Tael learned... Anju... Zelda..." Link forced out the last one, his face expressing just as much grief as the mask salesman's was. "But you know what?
"I guess I didn't learn. Because for once, I am in power over you. I had a sword to your throat, and there was nothing you could have done to stop me from killing you. But I let you live. Even though I shouldn't have, because I still don't trust you. Even if everything you said is true, you don't deserve to join us. Not after all you've put us through. Go... go die somewhere else. By yourself. We don't want you here."
With that, Link turned away from him and began to walk down the hall. Tatl looked between the boy and the sorcerer, the mask salesman turning to the fairy for support. She gave him none, turning around to fly and join Link. "W-wait!" the mask salesman called out from behind. Link and Tatl both stopped, but neither one of them turned around. "Please. I can help you. I can... I can make up for what I've done. There are no more hidden agendas. No more secrets. You can trust me."
Link paused, but never turn around. "Then what's your name?"
Silence was his only response. Link smiled at that, shaking his head as he continued down the hallway. Tatl gave the mask salesman one last glance as they came to the door at the end. He stood there with his head hung down, staring at the Zora mask laying at his feet. The fairy and boy opened the door and passed through. It closed behind them.
Link and Tatl stood there for a moment, both staring off as they were together in the new room. It was another confusing mixture of pipes and spouts of water. It was just as large as the ones before, with a pool at the bottom, but this one had a walkway that appeared to lead up and around all the way to the next door. Link and Tatl hardly took it in, however, still processing what had just happened.
"You're not upset I left him?" the boy finally managed to say.
"No," Tatl replied solemnly.
"Why didn't you want me to kill him?"
"Because I'm afraid of what that would make us." Link hadn't expected her to say that. The boy turned to face her curiously. "Link, I already told you how weird it felt when you stole from that fisherman and killed those pirates. We can't become our enemies."
"I've never done anything as horrible as he has."
"No, but I think, a long time ago, the mask salesman probably found himself in a similar situation," Tatl stated, returning Link's gaze. "He probably had a sword at somebody's throat... somebody who wronged him, or took something he loved. But he probably killed that person, unlike you. I think... I think you not killing him was a good thing. For you. For us." Link took in what she had to say, looking away again as he thought. "Did you notice that he said the exact same thing you did?"
"What?"
"You wanted to reveal your identity to the Zora people after you freed the temple. He said the same thing about telling us he was Evan." The words dug deep, and Link didn't like what they were implying. "I'm really glad you didn't kill him."
"Well, I'm not changing my mind," Link said, going to walk further away from the door and towards the walkway. It sloped up, and he followed it as it curved underneath the many pipes and gears. "He's too dangerous." Tatl eventually nodded her head in agreement, following.
For a while, they walked in silence. Only the turning of the gears accompanied Link's echoing footsteps and Tatl's twinkling. The walkway was long, however, snaking through the room's many pipes and walls to take them over the water without ever having to enter it. Spray still washed over them from the many apparatuses, but Link was still drenched from his dive in the previous room.
"Do you think he was telling the truth about the ReDead mask?" Tatl asked, finally breaking the silence as they walked.
Link thought about it for a moment, and then shrugged. "I don't think it really matters. He didn't use it on us back there, and if he did leave it for Anju, it was probably left behind in another cycle."
"Not if our theory's right. The mask salesman isn't from Termina." Link realized she was right. The ReDead mask would have traveled through time with them but remained in its same physical location. "That's a dangerous thing to just have lying around."
"What are the chances that it'll actually do any damage, though?" Link asked. "Only shadows who don't go back in time will find it. So even if someone did... once we go back in time, they'll just lose the mask."
"Unless you happen to play the song when it's in a physical location where that shadow could find it again," Tatl proposed.
Link scoffed at that. "If that happened, Tatl, I think that would prove the gods actually do have a burning, seething hatred of us."
Tatl laughed weakly at that, and silence fell again. Link's mind returned to the mask salesman, and he wagered that Tatl's was too. He began to realize how elaborate his plan must have been, to be disguised as Evan when they happened to run across Great Bay Temple. How far had he been following their every move?
"I just realized something," Tatl said, interrupting his thoughts.
"Yeah?"
"He had to have known that you were Mikau. The entire time... even before your mask fell off. He had to of."
Link smiled when he realized they'd been on the same train of thought. "Another reason why we can't trust him. He must have found Evan somewhere to turn him into a mask. I wouldn't even be surprised if he killed Evan to get a Zora mask."
"But how could he have planned it so perfectly?"
"He didn't plan it perfectly," Link explained. "Or else we wouldn't have found out."
Tatl agreed grimly. She turned back to look over her shoulder. The door they had come through was now far in the distance, obscured by the many pipes and gears. "What do you think he's going to do now?"
"I don't know," Link replied. "I don't really care."
She paused before responding. "That mark... it's the one you gave him?"
"Yep."
"Do you think it affected you differently because it was mixed with the ocarina's magic?"
Link nodded. "It looks like, had I been struck without my ocarina in my hand, I would be dead by now. And I never would have gotten purple-eyed and evil, either."
"I wonder if he realizes that." Link didn't have a response, but given how the mask salesman seemed to know everything else, he wouldn't put it past him. Link and Tatl approached the door at the end of the room, and Link slid it open as the two of them went inside. The door fell back into its groove once they'd entered the long, square-shaped hallway. It was a bridge, with a strong current of ocean water underneath. It lead from within wall to the other, disappearing from sight down a long, narrow tunnel. There was a door across the bridge.
"That looks like the underwater hallway I went through earlier," Link reasoned, peering over the bridge. He wondered if it lead back to the big, main room.
"I wouldn't know," Tatl commented. "Let's hope we don't have to go down it, because the black void is not a very comfortable place."
Link smiled weakly, walking to the other side. Despite how calm he tried to appear, he still found himself shaking slightly. He'd come within an inch of killing the mask salesman a second time. I wanted to, he thought. He remembered those dark eyes from behind the ReDead mask, as the mask salesman had forced him to his knees, twisting his hand backwards. Did I tell you she writhed in agony in her final moments? It was so cleverly done; not even the masters thought to question whether or not it was actually a disease. She screamed for you. But you weren't there to save her.
Why didn't you kill him? Link thought to himself again. He should have. There was no denying that that's what he deserved.
Link opened the door on the other side, and Tatl flew in beside him. The next room was perhaps the largest yet, except quite unique in that there was no large pool of water. It was immense and empty, cube-shaped, and had only the one door behind him. Puddles of water had collected across the level, singular floor as drops leaked from the ceiling; it was still as dank, dark, and cool as all of the others. There was one thing, however, that stood out to Link.
It had several racks in the back of the room, similar to the one he'd found in the goron temple. Weapons were hanging from the many shelves, Link noticing a mace, a greatsword, scimitars, and daggers. Plenty of other shelves also existed in the room, some holding bits of armor with most of the sets incomplete. It's an armory. What mainly caught his attention, however, was a bow that hung on the back wall.
It looked quite similar to the one he'd lost on the beach. Instead of one red light twinkling at him from across the room, however, a red and a blue one were. Link smiled, pushing away thoughts of the sorcerer as he ran eagerly towards the prize waiting for him. His boots splashed in the puddles as he went, the bow on the other side. He didn't even notice that Tatl hadn't followed him, eyes wide in shock at the ceiling.
"Link, above you!" He stopped halfway across the room, his boots having run across the metal bars of a grate. He stumbled slightly on one of the bars, catching himself before he fell, and spun around to look upward.
An eye met his own. It stared down at him from the ceiling, far larger than Link's entire body. It was surrounded by pink spheres, but it had no distinguishable body of its own. Link blinked, dumbfounded at the thing above him, and it blinked in response. The eye had a green iris, the red lines surrounding it appearing stressed and bold.
Then, it closed again, detaching from the ceiling. Link didn't take another moment to reflect on how strange this creature was. Instead, he ran, splashing about as he made to go as far away from the center as he could. The giant eyeball landed on the grate where he'd once stood, turning to open its eye as Link drew his weapon, having returned to Tatl at the door.
The being appear to be a thick, scaly, green orb. The outside was a shell of sorts, its contents appearing to only be a massive eyeball. A hole in the shell was where the iris peaked out at him, a green scaly eyelid coming down to blink once more. Link's mouth was wide open, not understanding the strange creature. It was more than ten times his size, but it didn't seem to be capable of hurting him. "What is that?!" Link exclaimed.
"... It's a wart," Tatl stated sullenly.
"A what?" The pink spheres began to fall from the ceiling as well, and Link realized how many of them there were. They were bubble-like beings, their innards cloudy within the gelatinous exterior. They began to bounce along the ground after they had fallen, congregating towards the eyeball and latching onto it. Link became even more perplexed, as there were at least fifty of them bouncing around pedantically. Soon, the wart was covered in pink bubbles, its eye still visible when opened from behind the masses.
Link remained where he was standing, sword still drawn, his tunic still very wet. The wart levitated into the air, floating around now as the pink bubbles protectively rotated, gliding across the scaly green surface underneath. It continued floating throughout the parameter of the room, and Link cautiously took a step forward. "Can I... just take the bow and go?"
"If you're ready to fight for it," Tatl added, looking worriedly at the monster.
"What's it going to do? Blink at me?"
"Yes, but I'd be more worried about the bubbles, and the eyeball's ability to just smash you." Link, after taking the words into consideration, began to walk across the room towards the bow. The wart happened to be against the left wall, and it noticed his movement, lurching in one direction as a pink bubble left the surface of the hard, green skin. It began plopping its way over to Link, sloshing down on the ground before springing into the air repeatedly. It moved faster than the boy anticipated.
Only halfway across the room, Link drew his Clock Town bow and notched an arrow, just then remembering the water damage. The string was heavy and raw on his fingers, the feathers on his arrow drooping with seawater. He aimed at the bubble, but the string was not nearly as crisp while saturated. It flung forward heavily, the arrow spiraling off nearby and far off target.
He lowered his weapon and cursed as the bubble slammed into him. The sloshy, pink surface was hard against his skin, the impact knocking him off his feet and into the puddles. He tossed his Clock Town bow aside, rolling out of the way as the bubble bounced upward and came down to crush him. It missed, and as Link rose to his feet he brought his sword into an upper-ward arc.
The gold-tinted sword cut through easily, the bubble popping and sending pink muck to splatter in the near vicinity. He turned to see the entire wart still floating across the room, the pink bubbles swarming around chaotically. It didn't appear to react too strongly to one of the bubbles dying. Then again, is it even possible for this thing to express emotion? The boy turned to see Tatl still waiting at the door, looking fearfully at the events taking place. He wasn't sure what she was so worried about.
Link slid his sword back into his scabbard and drew something else out of his bag. Let's get this over with as quickly as possible, he thought to himself, bringing the hookshot out. He leveled it at the beast making its way towards him, pressing the button for the chain to fire forth. It easily pierced one of the minions, clanked against the hard, green skin, and then made its way back to Link. There were now two spots vacated in its penetrable pink shield, and he decided he would have to repeat that until its eye was exposed.
He fired the hookshot again as the wart hovered closer. Another pink bubble was destroyed. When he went to press the button a third time, he'd allowed the monster to come too close. He narrowly side-stepped it, having expected the strange creature to move out of the way. The nearest sphere brushed up against him, and he stumbled further away from it, the wart changing direction to run him down.
Link fired the hookshot again. And again, and again, and again. Each time the hook at the end would kill one, tap the green shell, and then return to him. The wart always slowly levitated towards him, but Link always kept moving, making sure to never allow it to get that close again. The eye always watched from behind the glossy, pink shield, occasionally closing only to open once more.
Then, the moment he had been waiting for came. One of the holes in the shield happened to pass over the eyeball, while it was open. Link narrowed his eyes, aimed, and fired. The hookshot passed in between the bubbles surrounding it, latching into the soft white goop of the eyeball. The wart shrieked, a high-pitched noise he hadn't been expecting.
The hook returned to the mechanism, as blood trickled out of the wound, the red lines surrounding the iris becoming bolder. It continued shrieking, Link turning to Tatl to see that her fears were being confirmed. The pupil spun madly in the green ball, as the eye turned pink. It crashed into the ground angrily, the thirty or so pink spheres left flying off and detaching their selves. Link watched with wide eyes, as the green wart began to shake furiously, its eye eventually stopping its rolling and finding him.
It began to skid across the ground in his direction, the thirty pink bubbles following in its wake. About it not being able to show emotion... He wanted to amend that statement. The wart was only expressing rage as it charged. Link hardly had time to run out of the way, half slipping on the ground. He felt the wart pass behind, missing him by half an inch. The wart slammed into the metal wall, turned, and went to skid after the boy again.
Link was still running away, but now he was in between the pink bubbles and the green eyeball. There was no time to stop and aim, though, so he rolled out of the way again. The wart missed him by a wider margin this time, making sure to avoid crashing into its minions as it arced around to attack him again. Link stowed his hookshot away, drawing his sword after he decided the time for aiming and waiting was over.
He slowed as the wart neared him, slashing out for the soft, white eye. He missed, narrowly avoiding being barreled over. His sword hit the green shell, the force of its attack knocking the blade away from him. His sword spun into the minions, taking out two of them before clattering far into the distance. The twenty-eight pink masses now separated him from his sword, and the wart was turning to attack him from behind again.
Now what?
Link chose the goron mask. He went to wear it as he narrowly side-stepped another attempt from the wart to flatten him. However, his side-step got caught up in the bars underneath him. He hadn't even noticed that he was passing over the middle grate. The mask fell from his hands just before it touched his face, slipping in between the bars and falling out of sight. "No!" Link yelled, Darmani's mask disappearing into the darkness.
Link didn't have time to panic, rolling onto his back and jumping to his feet as the pink bubbles attacked. One slammed into him before he could stand, flinging him back to the ground. Then another hit him hard in the chest, knocking the wind out of him as the others began to swarm him. The wart then stopped its attacks, seeming pleased now as it watched from nearby as his minions began to surround him.
"No!" Tatl screamed, flying forward but unable to do anything.
Link wasn't able to scream himself. They were everywhere, his vision one foggy, pink mess. He felt their slimy, jelly-like bodies beginning to encase him, absorbing him into their masses, as if feeding. Their insides were wet and thick, and his legs were already completely inside of five of them. They were working their way up his body, suffocating him, blinding him, completely enclosing everything else from view.
"No... no... no...," he feebly struggled against their attacks. Soon his arms were gone too, and then Link was only able to lie on his back and look up into pink fog. His neck was absorbed soon after. He took in one last raspy breath, in the small enclosed space left for his nose. Then, his face was inside of them too, and he could no longer breathe. His entire body was suspended in their collective mass, it wet and thick.
He refused to open his mouth, not wanting them to invade his insides. But he wouldn't be able to hold his breath for very long, he knew. He couldn't hear anything; all sound was silenced from within the light pink prison.
He remembered almost drowning in another room after fool-heartedly running for the ledge. Of all the stupid ways to die, he remembered saying to Evan. He supposed it had actually been the mask salesman, though. Regardless, that statement was proving even truer now.
He saw a brilliant flash of color on the other side of the foggy, pink encasement. It was bright and powerful for a brief moment before dying away. Link wondered what it had been, but then saw the momentary bright flash again. It repeated itself a third time, and after the fourth time, he felt a rush of air blast into his face as pink bubbles exploded.
Link took in the fresh gulp of air and saw another flash of bright light. This time, he felt its warmth and recognized it as fire. It tore through the minions surrounding him, the others that didn't die detaching from his body to flee. Link rose as quickly as he could, his head swimming and his limbs sore. He ran away from the grate they had trapped him to, free of any pink goop.
He saw the bubbles dancing away fearfully, only a handful of them left. They were scattered and broken, their remains everywhere. The wart was off into a corner, its single eye wide in shock, now unprotected by his slain kin. And in the center of it all, he saw the mask salesman.
He still wore his black robes, gloves, and boots, but a mask was hiding his face. It was fashioned to mirror the face of a dodongo, and the mask salesman was conducting his arms elegantly as light filled the air.
A lash of fire sliced through three bubbles in one fluid movement, popping them in brilliant, red light as the flames then died away. The mask salesman retracted his arms, only to send them outward again, a ball of flames engulfing the last remaining minions. Link's face was blank, watching in amazement at the fiery dance ridding them of the pink nuisances. His eyes lingered on the black-robed man in the mask, who paid the boy no attention.
Link watched the mask salesman conjure more fire as the wart began to realize it had another foe to battle. The sorcerer sent a thick jet into the monster as it barreled towards him. The wart closed its eye, however, the fire passing harmlessly off of the outer green shield. The mask salesman spun out of the way before it ran him down, and Link was caught off-guard when the wart continued onward towards himself.
He exited his shocked trance to avoid the attack. Link ran for his sword, as the wart came back around to attack the mask salesman again. The sorcerer sent more fire in its way, but it was just as ineffective. This time, the wart was expecting him to move, and it went to crush him as he spun out of the way. Link noticed, and he hoped the sorcerer would too.
The mask salesman removed his dodongo mask, slid his hand into his robes, and pulled out another, as water continued to shoot out from behind the wart hurdling towards him. This mask was blue and round, with a skull and crossbones on its face. Just before the monster barreled down upon him, an explosion erupted from his body. The great ball of fire completely overpowered the wart's momentum, the bomb loud and fiery, a small mushroom cloud climbing into the air.
The wart slammed into the metal wall painfully, sliding back to the floor in shock. It still appeared unharmed, opening its eyes to find the mask salesman perfectly intact, at the core of the explosion that began to clear. Link, sword now in hand, ran to join the mask salesman.
He removed that mask to put on yet another one: it was solid white, with bubbly swirls drawn into its surface. The wart was already angrily sliding to plow into both the boy and his ally, hoping to crush them with one final sweep. The mask salesman, however, lifted his arms again, and this time a hurricane blew forth. The wart hardly made it halfway to them, but the massive gales of wind blew it up against the wall after just having fallen from it.
It tried to fight against the powerful winds, but in vain. The wart couldn't move, its eyelid forced open to expose the white of its eye. For the first time since the start of the battle, the mask salesman looked to Link, through the mask on his face. Link nodded his head. He sheathed his sword, drew his hookshot, and fired.
The hook stabbed into the soft flesh of the eye, and it shrieked as it had before. But Link didn't stop. The hook returned to its mechanism only to be fired again, the wind from the mask salesman still pinning it to the wall. It stabbed the eye a third time, blood beginning to gush from the gashes as the eye turned redder. The hook repeatedly stabbed the wart in the eyeball, and by the tenth time, its eye was a tattered, reddened, bloody mess.
Its pupil turned to face them with one last effort to move. It looked sadly at its killer, before the eye twitched a final time and then stopped. Blood ran in a fine sheet across its glossy surface, and the mask salesman lowered his arms. The wind stopped, and the wart hit the ground heavily. It rolled slowly and lifelessly away. The room was strangely silently, now that the beast had been slain.
Link lowered his hookshot once the deed had been completed. He turned to see Tatl joining them, smiling widely at the two of them. The mask salesman remained masked and staring at the defeated enemy for a moment longer. Then, he removed it, sliding it back into his robes. He still looked at the dead wart, his dark eyes mysterious and almost emotionlessly watching it roll into the wall and come to a stop. The blood had collected on the floor, a trail leading to where it had died.
Finally, the mask salesman summoned the courage to face them. His hair was red, as it had always been, the man as tall and lanky as ever. His eyes were still slightly squinted, but not as drastic as when he was pretending to be happy. Link wondered if smiling so broadly underneath his facade had simply put those lines there permanently. He seemed to be at a loss for words, appearing uncertain as to how they were going to react.
"You saved me," Link finally said. "Again." The mask salesman smiled at that, and the boy thought it may have been the first genuine one he had ever seen.
"I wasn't lying," he replied. "I'm here to help."
Link looked down from him after that, still refusing to return the smile. He wondered what he should say or do. Did this mean he could join them? His power had been rather impressive, and it was true that he would be dead two times over if it weren't for him. Link slid his hookshot into his bag, it once again becoming heavier with its dense, metal weight. "You genuinely want to destroy Majora's Mask?"
"Yes," the mask salesman replied. "The magic still is going to kill me, but before that happens..." He paused. "It was a long several days after you left me for dead under the clock tower. I knew that I was going to die, and I didn't know what that meant for me."
"How did you escape that night?" Link asked. Surprisingly, the boy received an answer.
The mask salesman reached into his robes and took something out. It was a small chip of wood, appearing to be a fragment from some larger piece. The bottom half was covered in faded green paint, but the top was a light brown. It seemed ancient and weathered, and the sorcerer held it gingerly in his hands. "A chip from the doors of the clock tower," he explained. "As long as I'm holding this and touching the doors, I can return to my shack. They are the gates to and from Termina, and always have been."
Link stared at the piece of wood interestedly, Tatl doing the same behind him. The mask salesman slipped the shard back into a pocket on his robe, looking up to Link and Tatl once again. An answer. His time in Termina had been plagued with questions and mysteries, but just like that, one had been answered by merely asking. Maybe the long chain of events from letting him live would be positive, rather than negative, as Tatl had predicted. Did I finally do something right?
"I know I've done terrible, terrible things, but before I die, I want to do something meaningful," he replied. "I wasn't lying when I told you that I was hoping Majora's Mask could save Hyrule. There is a storm coming, and it will wash away the entire land." Link's gaze fell downward at this. He'd hoped that tidbit was a lie. But what if all of it had been true? "I want to save Hyrule, and I know now destroying the mask is the only way. If it can infect us like it does... then bringing it there would only bring its influence outside of Termina. As that tribe feared all those years ago when it sent Majora here."
He stopped, waiting for Link or Tatl to say something before he kept going. "What convinced you it should be destroyed?" Link asked, the sound of water droplets falling to the floor still filling the gaps of silence. "You seemed pretty convinced you could have it under complete control."
He collected his thoughts before answering, still seeming worried by the direction the conversation was taking. "When I first got struck with lightning, I was expecting it to affect me the same way as you," he began. "But it only kept killing me, even after I subdued its effects. It never once offered me a connection to the mask, and never... possessed me, like it does you. So, I knew there was something you had that I didn't. Something that, if it could save you from Majora's magic and let you use it to your advantage, could destroy Majora itself."
"... Did you figure out what that something was?" Link asked, wondering if they knew something this all-knowing man didn't.
"I have my theories," was his response. "Have you figured it out?"
Link removed the ocarina from his belt and showed it to him. "The lightning stuck the ocarina first and then me. Its magic and the Skull Kid's are mixed inside of me."
The mask salesman nodded his head. He still seemed a little uncomfortable, standing there before them at their complete mercy. It does feel a little awkward, Link reflected. The boy reasoned it had been a long time since the dark sorcerer allowed someone else's will to take precedence over his own. "Then it's the key to killing Majora," he stated.
"Do you have any suggestions?" Link asked, sliding the instrument back into his belt. "Should I play the Song of Healing? Would that make Majora fade away... just like that?" He knew that wasn't the solution, but made a joke out of it all the same as he said it.
"No," the mask salesman replied, smiling himself when he picked up the sarcasm. "That song only works when there is goodness in something to be healed. That demon is pure darkness." Link nodded his head, pursing his lips as he looked away again. "We'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it."
Link narrowed his eyes as he looked away, his mind still racing to process the situation they were in right now. Honestly, it wasn't close to any of the possibilities he'd considered. Here he was, with the mask salesman, who had just saved his life. He was asking to join them, to help defeat Majora, with all of his power. Could the gods really have turned their luck around that drastically and suddenly? Or was there some cruel, underlying joke beneath it all, that would shatter their luck as soon as it had come?
"I have one last question for you, before I approve this whole... joining us thing," Link said, turned to face the mask salesman again. His dark ones still appeared to be having troubling meeting his blue ones. "You said you've been searching for Majora's Mask for years, constantly trying to find a way to get here to take it. You spent just as long trying to find a way to get me here because you knew you couldn't bring the mask out yourself. You killed, kidnapped, stole, tortured, and manipulated over the course of all of those years, with the one goal of obtaining the mask.
"Was all of that... seriously done with the sole intention of saving Hyrule? Singularly because you genuinely thought it was the only way to save the world?" Link never broke his eye contact as he looked at the mask salesman. It had been the one question burning at him the entire time after their night under the tower; he hadn't believed him for a second, then, given all the evil he had done.
The mask salesman took a long time to answer. "No," he finally said. "I wanted the mask because it was rumored to be the only thing capable of returning the dead to life." Link hadn't been expecting this answer, his face softening in response. "Dead is dead. There's no coming back from that. But the mask... it's power was so dark, and so great... that there were many recorded instances... compelling recordings... of it being capable of necromancy."
Link knew what he was going to say before he continued. "I truly believed that the evil I had done could eventually be undone," the mask salesman continued. "Once I finally got ahold of that mask." The words Tatl had spoken returned to him. I think, a long time ago, the mask salesman probably found himself in a similar situation. He probably had a sword at somebody's throat... somebody who wronged him, or took something he loved. But he probably killed that person, unlike you. Link knew that his own victims weren't the only ones this dark sorcerer had intended to bring back to life. He'd lost people close to him too.
The silence after that was longer than all of the others combined. Link eventually took in a deep breath, not believing what he was about to say. "I'm not sure if I can ever forgive you for the things you've done," he responded. "Without you, I would still be happily in Hyrule, and Zelda and Navi would still be alive." He paused. "But without you, I guess my attention would never have been drawn to Termina... and Majora's Mask would probably have eventually escaped on its own. I know the things that have happened to me have been... terrible. And I'm sure you've suffered too, but maybe that's all been because... I needed to come here. And bring the ocarina, so it could be the one weapon to defeat the Skull Kid."
He then turned fully to the mask salesman. "You can help us free the temples. After that, we're going to call the giants and face the Skull Kid on top of the clock tower." He stopped. "But we still have other things to do before then." He was still determined to keep his promise to Anju, before all of this was done. "If you step out of line once though... if I have any reason to believe that you're still... scheming..." He didn't finish, but he knew he didn't have to.
The mask salesman nodded his head. "Of course. Assuming I live that long. My blue potion is keeping the curse from killing me, but once that stops working..." He didn't finish. Instead, after a long pause, he turned to Tatl. "What about you? You haven't said anything yet... since stopping Link from killing me. What do... what do you think?" He asked as if he was afraid of the answer.
Tatl looked away as she thought of a response. Link wondered what was going through her head. She'd been kidnapped by the mask salesman long before he'd found out the truth about everything. Allegedly, some of their conversations had caused her to have a soft spot for him, amidst all the fear and distrust. Something along their journey had convinced her that he was human. That had annoyed him for the longest time; he hadn't wanted to think the man who'd killed his beloved was anything less than a monster. But now he was willing to give him a chance.
"I still don't trust you," Tatl replied, after thinking. "But I'm willing to try to learn to do that." She waited resolutely for him to respond. He smiled, much broader than Link had expected him too. It almost curled as wide as the fake one he'd given them at their first meeting.
"Thank you," he said. "That's all I ask for... a chance."
Tatl nodded in approval, beginning to motion towards the door. "Do we want to get a move on, or something?" the fairy asked, Link happy that all of these circumstances weren't reason enough for her to drop her sarcasm. "Or are we going to stand around here all day until the moon comes knocking on the roof? … Violently."
"Of course," Link said, beginning to step towards the exit. He stopped himself, however, swinging around to face the grate in the middle. "Wait!" He ran over to its bars, getting down on his knees to look within. It was still darkness, water dripping from the metal rungs into its depths. "I dropped my Goron mask down here during the fight." He got back to his feet as the mask salesman and fairy joined him. "Do you have a mask that can reach it?"
The sorcerer smiled at that, shaking his head. "No," he said. "But I can open the gate for you. You should probably step back." Link and Tatl exchanged a glance, before going across the room. He removed the blue mask with the skull on it, putting it on his face again. The explosion was smaller than the one before it, but just as loud. The grate was torn from its hinges, scorched black and blasted up into the air, landing far away. The middle was now a wide, open hole.
Link and Tatl went back to join him, standing around the still dark hole. "Whoa," the fairy commented. "What do you call that thing, the Blast Mask?" The mask salesman removed it and put it away, shaking his head.
"I could," he said. "I only have names for a handful of them."
"A shame," she replied. "How many do you have on you right now?"
"Seven," he answered.
"Wow," Tatl said, turning to Link, who still looked down into the hole. "And how many do we have?"
"We have six," he answered. "But only three of them actually do anything magical... and one of those three is currently at the bottom of this. Tatl, could you see if it's down there?"
"Sure thing," the fairy replied, turning to look at the mask salesman before she did. "I know you guys have your fancy masks and instruments, but my super power is glowing. And flying. And being smaller. You'll find out that I'm far more useful than mister hero over here." She flew down into the hole, lighting the way as she went.
Link noticed that the mask salesman was smiling as he watched her go, the boy never having thought he was capable of being a sociable being. Even then, he was hesitant to stand too close to him, less he shove him down. He played the murderous madman too well, he thought. Or was this the act, and the other the real him? Or had they both been real? Maybe his transformation while he lay dying in Hyrule had been just that – a transformation.
Tatl found the Goron mask lying on the bottom, and she flew it back to them, handing it to Link. "Thanks," he said, taking it back into his hands. He stopped for a moment though, realizing that Darmani was still injured. His arm had been in the severe stages of corruption, and that had been days ago.
"What's wrong?" Tatl asked.
"My goron form," he said, sighing. "Remember Romani's ranch with the wood stuck in my arm?"
"Yeah, I remember in the pirates' fortress when it looked like it was about to fall off." The fairy then made the same realization. "... It might have fallen off by now..."
"I can heal it," the mask salesman broke in. Link and Tatl turned to face him. He pulled out the blue potion from within his robes. "This should be enough to close it up, unless it was injured by Majora's magic."
"But it's keeping your scar from killing you," Tatl said. "We don't want you to bring yourself closer to death."
"It's going to stop working eventually anyways," he replied. "Probably before this phial runs out. But... even if it didn't, I could always go back to Hyrule and make more." He smiled. Link took the phial into his hands carefully, still slightly suspicious. He eventually laid it on the ground and turned into Darmani.
His arm was revolting. It was purple and swollen, pus oozing out from around the wound. His head swam with a fiercely burning headache, and he felt like he was about to faint. Goron Link stumbled on his feet, his heavy body swaying and threatening to collapse. The mask salesman and Tatl reached out to help him, but he managed to stop himself from falling.
"Oh no...," he said, holding his head.
"Here, we need to pull the wood out first," the dark sorcerer said, picking up the phial and wrapping his hand around the shard. "This is going to hurt. Are you ready?"
Link nodded grimly. The scream was louder than the wart's shrieks had been. The mask salesman quickly poured the potion into the open wound, then instructed Link to drink some. After this was done, he removed the mask, and the pain was gone as quickly as it had come. He stumbled forward as a human too, the quick vanishment of the pain sudden. "Wow," Link said. "It's pretty amazing being able to leave behind that form while it heals."
The mask salesman nodded. "The black mark appears to be the only thing capable of transcending forms." Link widened his eyes in acknowledgment, knowing that himself all too well.
"Now can we keep going?" Tatl inquired, pointing towards the door. "Or did you drop anything else?"
"Actually...," Link began. "There's still the reason I risked my life."
He walked to the back of the room, standing before the bow. It was made of dark gray wood, just like the one in Snowhead, with a thick, taut black string. The boy pulled it off, wondrously looking at the glowing red and blue gems. There was a third slot that was empty, but the two there were colored brilliantly. A flame was drawn on the first one, and ice on the second. He ran his fingers along the their smooth surfaces. He eyed the quiver and dark gray arrows that had been laying next to it.
"Those are like the gems the witches had," Tatl commented from behind him. "Except smaller." Link realized she was right, never having made that connection himself in the pervious temple.
"The witches weren't the only ones from their ancient race that crossed over into Termina," the mask salesman said. "Their tribes all used gems and masks to store their magical powers. Their influences, from the few who crossed over, can still be seen all over Termina."
Link nodded his head slowly, as he drew an arrow and aimed it off at a nearby wall. The blue gem glowed fiercely as he willed it to be activated. A glowing blue light was born at the end of his arrow, and Link smiled. Cold air rushed around, bellowing forth as snow began to fall from it and hit the ground. Tatl's eyes widened. The boy released the arrow, and it traveled into the metal wall, the cold air trailing behind it and tip still glowing. When it made contact, a large sheath of ice suddenly covered the spot it had hit, crackling as it hardened to solidify a thick shield.
He continued smiling at the chunk of ice he had created, it remaining stuck to the wall up above. "... We have so many new toys," Tatl said absently, referring to the elemental bow and the masks. "Are you sure you don't want any of these other weapons?"
The armor and massive weapons were all powerful and strong, if old and damaged. "I think it would just be more trouble if I was carrying around a giant great sword. We have enough new toys for now."
"Agreed," Tatl said, turning away from the weapon rack.
Link removed his old quiver and arrows and replaced them, slipping the bow into his bag as well. Finally, it had been replaced by the one the Skull Kid had destroyed on the beach. The boy headed towards the door. Tatl flew by his side as the mask salesman followed from behind. The two of them looked at each other again, expressing the same thought.
Do either of us actually trust him yet? He didn't think so. They'd be on their toes for the rest of the time he accompanied them on their journey. When Link reached the door, he stopped, turning to face his new ally before he opened it.
He looked at the man that had killed Zelda. Just moments ago he'd wanted to kill him, and now here he was, having joined them. He wondered what secrets were hidden behind his eyes, secrets that he would now be willing to give them. One secret, however, interested him more than the others, at that moment. It may not be relevant to their adventure, but the question burned within him, nonetheless.
"What's your name?" the boy asked again. The mask salesman's look became baffled, appearing almost sad. He seemed just as hesitant to answer as he had been earlier. "Why won't you tell us?"
He stopped, looking down as his mouth opened uncertainly. "There's power in a name," he said, his face scrunched in confusion. "But...," he trailed off, uncertain how to continue. "But that was a power I gave up long ago."
The mask salesman approached the door himself, pushing it inward and raising it up. Link and Tatl exchanged a glance, neither one understanding. Eventually, they followed him through, the sorcerer leading them onward. The three of them passed through the doorway, it slamming shut behind them.
The wart was left behind, dead and in the corner, as water continued dripping from the ceiling.
Replies to Anonymous Reviewers:
Quill: Thanks! I'm a sucker for plot twists too, so it's nice to know that I'm capable of pulling them off justifiably. And you have Link's reaction just above! Hopefully it was just as interesting as the suspense. But I'm glad you liked the chapter before too! I always had a problem with the giants' "deus ex machina" nature as well (my LEAST favorite plot device), and I felt like the game didn't give them a proper explanation. But I'm happy you liked mine!
That Guy (I apologize for the long-winded response): Well, the first thing to take into consideration is the giants talking about how the witches had "forgotten who they were," due to the effects of prolonged exposure to Termina. So they must be treated as unreliable narrators, as many of the townsfolk of Termina are. They all seem to have trouble remembering things from their past, and there's more to explore regarding the nature of these shadows and people-turned-shadows (Koume and Kotake) in chapters yet to come. Koume and Kotake state they have never heard of Hyrule, even though the giants claim that that's where they're from.
The witches, do, however, remember the conflict between the tribes, so your critique does remain relevant in that sense. I imagine you're referencing the conversation Link and Tatl had with Koume in Chapter 13: Poisoned Swamp? They never actually ask the witches if they're from that tribe, and even then Koume still doesn't really give a clear explanation (unless that happens in a different spot and I've forgotten). Koume does state this, however: "Majora's Mask corrupted an entire tribe of our kind, long, long ago." Which leaves narrative room for the giant's statement to still hold true: "Two witches in the tribe threatened to follow us and take the item for their selves." Notice "the" tribe instead of "our." They all had gems and they all had similar ethnic characteristics, but I will admit that this talk of tribes is rather ambiguous, coupled with Koume discussing "the tribe the mask corrupted" as if from a third party point of view. The point I meant to bring across is that they are of the same people, and were both involved/around during the mask's existence/creation in Hyrule. Sorry if it was confusing. And like you pointed out, I will clear up the language if need be when I get there whilst revising.
S.R: Thank you so much! I'm glad you stuck with it long enough to get into it. Part of my revising is trying to make the language/wording of the first chapters clearer and quicker (since narrative movement is much slower than it is now). I'm glad you're such a fan of the way it's done! The old man does appear to be an important thing to keep in mind, as well as the Skull Kid/Ikana Canyon. We'll see how all that turns out...
EDLDS3.14159: Thank you! I'm happy you liked it. Plot twists and cliffhangers are among my most favorite things (if you haven't noticed).
Santiago: Thanks! And I'm glad. Great Bay was always my least favorite temple to go through, so I'm glad I've been able to set aside my bias and do justice to the descriptions, haha. But yes! I've hit a productivity streak, and I'm determined to not lose it this time. Plus, summer = more free time.
Steph: Very angry... But yes. More to come on specifics regarding what happened to Evan, obviously. And I'm glad you liked Aveil's section! I really enjoyed writing it. She's a much more intriguing character than I initially thought she would be. But yes I am! Once a week!
