FINALE
Link's arms pounded the waves as they were hurled at him, and somewhere in the mist, he could see Tariesk sitting quite calmly in his canoe, his fingers grazing the blackened waters before he looked up, a smirk spreading across his lips. Link draped himself over the front end of the canoe, staring at his enemy.
"Well. I suppose my magic hasn't exactly been doing its just this past few days, has it? For the general population, that is. You were never easy to manipulate. The others proved of far less difficulty for a wizard of my calibur."
"Why did you subject all of them to that?"
Adrien tilted his head back, emitting a hearty sigh.
"Oh, I wanted a combined kingdom, but I never wanted a wife. Besides, life behind the castle walls studying everything and yet never having a place to use it…is utterly disappointing. I finally had a test drive to do what I wanted, and it worked."
"It's sick that you're so proud of it," Link spat. He drew himself atop the canoe, and the small structure began tilting and tipping. Adrien tilted in the other direction in an effort to keep the canoe upright.
"Link! Please…I'm not a strong swimmer!"
"And I should be concerned because…?"
Adrien's eyes widened as he stared at Link, some semblance of horror gleaming in them.
"You're not better than I am, Link. Wrought with jealousy, anger, and vengeance…and you just close your eyes and refuse to believe it. There are two of us in one boat, and one cannot harm the other without being a hypocrite himself. Maybe the Hylian people saw something in you that made them turn to me…made them more susceptible to what I was doing to them.
"So what will you do, Link?"
Link turned his head away as tears began burning in his eyes, guilt burrowing deep within his veins along with anger. He could feel Tariesk's fingers reaching out to touch him, and he immediately grasped the man's wrist in a vice grip. When he looked back, Tariesk was gawking at him.
"Will you take me back to the shore, Link? I would like to be prosecuted now."
"I'll lead us back," Link murmured. "…But the waves are getting bigger."
Zelda gazed solemnly at the water, Harkinian lingering alongside her. When she could stand the build-up no longer, she leaned over and buried her face in her father's chest as tears flooded out. He wrapped an arm about her as the storm began to subside, shaking his head.
"He's out there, my daughter. You know that fiancée of your's. He is too stubborn to simply give in. He's out there fetching Tariesk, is all."
"Daddy, I have a frightful feeling. I had it an hour ago, for the first time in all of these weeks. A frightful feeling that something has happened to Link."
"You have been wrong before," he said simply. A silence fell between them when one of the sailors gave a mighty cry, gesturing to the water. Harkinian and Zelda immediately arose.
"Seems one of them is drifting in! Poor chap, he might have hypothermia or something."
The sailor leaned over and gathered the floating mass up, carrying the male onto the shoreline where he was set down out of the reach of the water. Something seemed terribly amiss as the soldier shook his head, looking back up to the royal family.
"It's Adrien Tariesk, Sire. He's dead."
Harkinian nodded slowly and wrapped Zelda in his arms as he headed toward the carriage that had waited the whole night through for any sign of Link. Zelda shook her head and wrestled with him.
"Link has got to be out there somewhere, Daddy! He isn't dead! I'll see him again, I know I will! Please, daddy…please let me wait by the shore for him."
Harkinian relinquished and wait by the water Zelda did for hours and hours, and soon days and days. Sometimes the weather was chilly, and sometimes, she could swear that the masculine fisherman she saw emerging from the waters was in fact Link, worn from days out in the rough water. The faces never matched, however, and after a month, she could not escape the hopelessness that gnawed at her soul. As the sun set for another day on Lake Hylia, Zelda arose and fled for home, fearing the day that she would have to move on.