It took a while for his pain to subside, and while they waited for it to become bearable they just sat there in silence. Tya didn't want to speak out of fear that she'd make even more of a mess of the situation, and she could only assume Link just wanted nothing to do with her. And if that was the case, she wouldn't blame him. She didn't even want anything to do with her.
The silence wasn't broken when he felt he was able to move on either. He just sniffled, looked at her, then got to his feet. As he walked, he very loosely put more bandages over his arm, then put on his gauntlet.
Tya wanted to help, she really did. She asked if she could, but he only told her he was fine and he could handle it. So she stopped asking…
For a couple hours, they traveled in silence. They finished finding the mechanisms they needed to trigger to continue, and this time Tya pretty much forced herself to be more aware. She forced herself to watch every movement Link made so she could help when it was needed.
Which she found to be when he was turning the wheel like device that opened the path to where they needed to go. His blade was used for it, and they turned it to face the three mechanisms they'd spent the day finding.
After interesting theatrics which sent a heavy gust of sand flying over them as a building rose from the sand, Link pulled his blade back and Tya helped him sheath it.
That was when he finally spoke to her again.
"You d-don't have to help, Tya..." He faced in her direction, but his gaze was on the ground.
"I didn't mean to make it seem like I didn't want to." She actually answered too quickly. She knew why he was saying that, because she'd put him under the impression that it was true. Because she'd been a horrible friend to him all day and thought only of herself. And she had to literally force herself to do otherwise.
Why was she allowed to associate with other people? She shouldn't be.
"If you di-didn't want to make i-it seem like th-that, why did you?"
She paused again, looking at the ground beneath them. What an unfair question… She hadn't meant to make it seem like this, she just told him that. It was accidental… But regardless, the actions were still hers to take responsibility for, whether it was on purpose or not.
"I didn't do it on purpose… I just… don't feel all that great today. I just really want to rest, and I'm having a lot of trouble focusing. I didn't mean to come off rudely, or as if you were bothering me. You're not. I want to help you."
Her explanation made him go silent, and he seemed to think it over before turning away.
"Let's keep going..."
The pair descended yet another particularly large staircase.
The smell of must and age hit them first, and the further down they went the more the heat of the desert faded behind them, leaving just the coolness one could expect from a building that had been secured beneath the land for ages. It was probably nice to Link to cool off, but Tya preferred the warmth of the desert above…
Link didn't speak to her, and she didn't speak to him. As much as she wanted to, she kept quiet, knowing it was a bad idea to do anything else.
The entrance room was simple enough to handle. There were bits of sinksand, but getting across was easier now that they knew how to deal with it. Only one crossed to get to a lever that was needed to pull up a gate on the door.
The next room was only a crossroads with another of those monsters with multiple heads. Again, another thing they knew how to deal with so it was dispatched easily and quickly.
The crossroads was also not particularly difficult. There were three doors, two of which were blocked off, one by a gate and the other by chains. The third lay directly before them, and while it was open, the ledge it was on was too tall to access. But of course, with two people, it was much easier.
Link lifted Tya up and she helped him crawl up as well, all while being wary of his arm, so they were able to go through the door.
This time, they entered a much larger room. The areas to their left and ahead of them were both blocked by ancient gates that they couldn't get to budge. The right side was where they were forced to retreat, as all that sat there were wooden crates. Tya got rid of them, meaning they could effectively cross and climb the ladders provided.
All they were able to get to, however, was a chest which contained a key. Not that it was a problem, exactly, as they then just backtracked to the crossroads and were able to get through the chained door.
The room behind the chains was just as dull as the rest of the place seemed to be.
There were paths and broken conveyor belts over seas of sink sand. Luckily though, from what they could see, they didn't exactly need to cross any of the sink sand itself. Along with that, there was also quite a bit of rubble, which Tya guessed was from old, broken machinery.
The only thing that really stood out in the room were strange fish like creatures floating about. Tya dispatched them easily only to earn an unexpected explosion. Link seemed particularly amused by that fact, but they kept moving.
They crossed to a belt, only to be met with a dead end on the other side. Fortunately for them, it seemed a good bit of… Something had grown up the side they apparently needed to go up. She couldn't quite tell if they were vines, they were a dulled tan color. If they were, they seemed to have died long ago. They seemed thick enough though, that it would support their weight.
Given the fact that they had done this before, Tya assumed it would be simple enough to climb up them and do as they needed to, but evidently she was wrong. She figured that since she'd been lifted a bit before and they'd gone up a ladder, it wouldn't be overly difficult for Link to climb- his arm wasn't so bad that he couldn't put weight on it. But he pulled himself up and crawled up a little only to let out a quiet cry and lose his grip. It seemed as if it was only on one side, his injury, and yet the pain urged him to fall. He landed on his feet, but his knees buckled, and he immediately moved to grasp his previously injured arm.
Tya seemed to freeze up a little at first, taking a moment to comprehend what happened. Her mind was working so slowly with the influx of unwanted thoughts…
When she caught on though, she moved to him and knelt at his side, a hand resting on his back. It wasn't until after she did this that she realized he had been angry with her- she shouldn't be near him. It wouldn't be what he wanted. She quickly drew her hand back, hesitating a little before her fingers curled into a fist.
He looked at her, his mouth open just slightly like he was about to speak, but he didn't. He just brought his arm to his chest and closed his eyes…
For a moment, the mage watched him, hands still lightly hovering over him where she'd had him before. But it wasn't right. He was in pain. Not only was it a normal instinct to help someone in need, but it was Link. He was important.
She shook her head a little, setting her hand on his back again. She finally just moved to rest her head against his shoulder.
"Link, I'm so sorry..." She said quietly, hiding her face against him and setting a hand gently against his arm. He didn't respond verbally, but he did rest his head against hers after flinching at the touch near his injury. He shakily moved a couple of fingers on his uninjured hand to wrap around hers. "You are important to me. I know casting you off and acting like you're burdensome is unacceptable and I'm sorry. Please let me make it up to you."
"Just pl-please help. E-everything else is str-stressful en-enough. I need help."
She pulled back, nodding her head a bit and sniffling. She hadn't realized how close to tears she was, until then, but she was happy to notice so she could keep them back. "Of course I'll help. I'll do anything you need... What happened?"
"I th-think it just… Too much s-strain on it."
Tya nodded once more, looking up to the wall they were meant to climb.
"I will go up alone, if you'd rather stay back here?"
For a moment Link seemed to not like the idea, but after a moment he gave a begrudging nod. The hand Tya had set on his back moved to wrap around him gently, and she gave him a small squeeze before parting from him and starting toward the wall.
Given her lack of upper body strength, it was a difficult task to handle, but she managed. It seemed all this was really allowing her to get stronger, and while she was proud of herself for preforming such a task when she felt horrible, she carried on.
Past that, was another ladder amidst quite a bit of mechanical rubble. She paid little mind to the debris before climbing up the ladder- a much easier task. On the ledge she aimed for, was a button, which she was hesitant to step on. She didn't know what it went to, or what it could possibly do, but evidently it was their next move as nothing else could really be reached.
She took a breath before taking a step onto it and looking around. She could hear the sliding, crackling sound of something opening, yet she couldn't tell what it was. She stepped off the button, moving to the edge to see if Link was looking as well, but the moment her weight was lifted, whatever had opened slam shut again.
It took the pair a minute to figure out what it was that was opening and closing, but soon enough they spotted a little cage on the ceiling which a time shift stone was held in. Link had begun to use the beetle to hit it, but they both immediately realized how bad an idea that was. He was standing on an ancient conveyor belt- going back into time would likely start the machinery up again like it had all the other times.
He moved back to the path they'd come from before using the beetle to trigger the stone.
Just as they expected, everything in the room started up again.
