Keep low. Keep hidden. Keep dim.

Navi crouched low behind a pile of ancient writings. The sands of the Desert were swirling around her, the writings of Gerudo legend glowing in the cavern walls. Ages of honor and cunning, of rules and law, of the Code, were flung through the air in violent streaks of red earth. But what was once a legacy of Me'lkmar, the honor of the Code, was now twisted into a recording of deadly corruption. The walls were dank and dripping with spite; carvings on the ceiling twisted into grotesque faces and bodies torn with torture; scorpions crawled through crevasses and snakes hissed their venomous bite from the shadows. The foul stench of blood was fresh on the wind. Ramil lay in the dust, rough sand blasting at her motionless body, her face scarred, her body broken, and the spark of her life all but gone.

The shadow that was Ganon was descending; he had looked upon the ancient Code again and seen things in coming that did not take to his taste. His hatred tainted the sand on which he stepped and it melted into glass. Soon the cave was no more than a continuos reflection of the Gerudo King, and Navi shuddered at seeing him everywhere, with not even the possibility of escape. Silently she felt the stirring wrath in him, and the impending doom that lay upon Ramil. She crouched lower and dimmed her pink light so that she was nearly invisible - though the very act caused the tiny fairy unspeakable pain.

Keep low. Keep hidden. Keep dim -

"Do you know why you bleed, Ramil?" hissed the shadow. His voice was dripping with fury, his eyes narrowed and glaring at the Gerudo's misshapen form. Ramil's body convulsed horribly and blood dribbled from her parched lips.

"I...bowed...t...to...a...t-traitor..."

"Yes, Ramil."

It was too sudden and calculated for Navi to avert her gaze. There was a stab and a howl from the wretched woman, and the Hka'tie star was thrashed with blood and grime. She did not move, and Navi thought, momentarily, of her death - but Ganon, in his silent fury, gripped her neck and lifted her from the floor.

"You know what must be done."

Ramil's head rolled, barely conscious, as she struggled to say yes. She choked beneath the King's grip and her eyes fluttered with the first faint comings of death. Ganon was unmoved as his countenance began to show a twisted, fiendish delight in watching her suffer.

"No one must know."

He dropped her to the floor. The sand closed in around her and she screamed, but it was momentary. Quite suddenly she sat up, and Navi stifled a gasp when the wounds in her flesh vanished. Ganon hissed as she struggled to her feet. With the same speed and motion his hand closed on hers and she screamed, long and piercing, as smoke rose from her hand. Then he grabbed her by the neck and threw her towards the doorway. She rolled over through the sand and stopped when her back slammed against the first step. The schorching emblem of a burning star was scarred onto the back of her right hand.

"You will gather the outcast tribes. You will recruit the dishonored. If it takes you to the edges of the Haunted Wastelands, to the deepest sands of the Desert, you will bring them. I will destroy the leaders of each race. Their captains will be lost. Hyrule will remain unguarded. And the girl."

He paused, hissing slightly, and turned towards the sand-mirrors.

"They must never know. They must think it is Zelda. If you fail, your reward will be heavier even then death itself."

Ramil trembled and began to crawl up the stairs, her lips muttering prayers of thanks to Din. Ganon, distracted by the own deformity of his shadowed reflection, ground his teeth into the mirrors. Ramil paused, briefly.

"...What of the Hero, my King?"

Ganon's red-rimmed eyes shot open and he spun, gripped the sand with two hands of iron claw, and roared headlong at the Gerudo. Fangs glittered as he vomited darkness and blood into the sand. She screeched and bolted up the stairs in terror.

Ganon kneeled down, his breathe hissing.

"I know how to get to the boy."

Then he turned his disfigured head and glared...

Straight into Navi's terrified eyes.


Link walked through the gleaming oak doors of the Hyrule Castle's main front chamber with Aloarn beside him. The stairs were lined with purple carpet and the symbol of the Triforce adorned banisters across the hall; knights in full armor were standing guard, as well as butlers and maid servants come to see what result the attack would bring. Link nodded to a few servants he knew, only to have his attention drawn to high-pitched, piercing, and outraged voice.

"Betrayal! Treachery! What have the Hylains done against the Gerudo, that we should receive such a brutal and disgraceful act of treason? When I was last here you told me, allies. Allies! I see the true nature of the Gerudo wench, your uncouth nature, your disgusting barbarity, your deceitful wickedness -"

"Hold your tongue, Princess," roared Aloarn, her anger stirred dangerously within her chest. Nabooru's teeth were grinding, her hand at the hilt of blade, barely restraining herself. Alea, meek but calm as ever, was attempting to restrain her newly-arrived cousin from further berating the Second Star.

Zelda was puffed-up and furious. Her neck seemed choked with precious stones that out shone her own complexion, making her face seem drawn and sallow. However, her cheeks were now burning beneath mounds of make-up as she hissed in fury at the two Gerudo. Her dress was so tight she hardly seemed able to breathe, much less scream in such a manner; the contrasting symbol of a red shield, the symbol of Ter'zai, decorated the silver satin of her expensive and useless gown. Her hair was so high upon her head she looked three feet taller, and the amount of jewelry at her ears, waist, wrists, fingers, ankles - Link felt the uncontrollable desire to laugh and be sick at the same time. But Zelda was in no laughing mood. Her expression changed to one of disbelief, which led her to a deeper, more profound anger.

"How dare you speak to me as such, unworthy rat! Not Princess, but Queen! Queen of Ter'zai, and worth more than ten thousand of the likes of you! Beg forgiveness, wretch!"

Aloarn roared and would have drawn her blades then, dispatching the Princess herself, but Link grabbed her just in time. Nabooru, however, was unbound, and just as furious that her kinswoman was treated as such. A dagger flickered, and Zelda gasped when she felt cold metal on her throat.

"You will bring us to the Council chambers." spoke the Second Star slowly. "We will discuss who attacked your precious town, and what consequences you must now accept. This is not Ter'zai, Princess. This is Hyrule, the land you once swore to protect."