Darunia: Disclaimer! Selphie Louise does not own the Legend of Zelda or any of its characters. They are the property of Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo.

Tingle: The characters she does own are Selphie, Iggy, Jiji, and Aryn. The characters of Kage, Yugi, Mable, and Raven belong to Kearra. The character Ravick is the property of Selphie's friend, Patrick.

Chapter 19

"So… this place looks pretty decrepit," Iggy said after a few more minutes of simple cuddling. "Could you really not find a way out of here?"

"Actually there's at least nine ways I could have broken out," Jiji said matter-of-factly.

"Then why didn't you?" Iggy asked.

"Well… after what happened in the field, I thought you were breaking up with me, and I couldn't bear that thought. So I didn't see much point in breaking out," she answered.

"You were going to subject yourself to the Garo because you thought I didn't love you anymore?" Iggy asked. She nodded her head. Iggy kissed her forehead again. "No worries then, because there's no way I could not love you."

She smiled at him. "And what about you? What suddenly gave you the courage to ask the big question?" she asked.

"I haven't technically asked it yet," he said. "I don't want to have to look back and say I did it in a nasty jail cell."

"You know what I mean," she said. "I get that that's what you were trying to do that day we were walking home from Kage and Selphie's house. You were scared then when there was nothing threatening us, and yet your very life is on the line here and you were able to break out of your shell."

"Well, not only is my life on the line here, yours is," he said. "And if gathering up my courage to almost ask you the big question was what it took to save you, then I was ready to do it."

"Mr. Cool-Under-Pressure," Jiji smirked.

"Damn straight," Iggy replied, grinning as well. "So, future Mrs. Cool-Under-Pressure, please share with me the most favorable means of escape." Jiji slipped out of his lap and stood up.

"Well, probably the least conspicuous and most difficultly detected means of escape would be to climb over the wall and slip out undetected before the master returns," Jiji replied as Iggy stood as well.

"Climb over the wall?" Iggy repeated. "How will that possibly work when we still have a roof to contend with?" he asked looking up as he pointed to the ceiling. "…What the hell?"

There was no roof.

Iggy stared for a moment over at Jiji who smirked at him. "…Let's get going then."

When they had successfully climbed over the back wall of the jail cell, the two started sneaking back out of the village. This was considerably harder to do since there were two of them now and it was broad daylight. Slipping about under the cover of night is one thing, but out when there is plenty of light to see by is completely another.

And it doesn't help when your jailer returns with food for you much, much sooner than he told you and raises a silent alert for all entrances to be blocked and all sworn in and in training ninja to begin searching for the two missing captives. With all of these measures being taken…

"There they are!" someone shouted.

…Of course they were caught.

Shortly thereafter, several Garo surrounded them. Iggy and Jiji looked around the circle of ninjas and trainees and wondered how were they going to get out of this.

"How are we going to get out of this?" Jiji whispered as Iggy pulled her closer.

"How are you going to get out of this?" the Garo master asked as he stepped forward. "You would have been spared a lot of grief over the next year if you'd just stayed in that cell, little miss Jiji," he said. "And you might have even been spared period for at least a few more days," he added to Iggy.

"Curious as to why either of us would be spared at all," Iggy said, trying to hide his anxiousness with coldness. Jiji inched closer to him, though she tried to also look defiant.

"Why is it that you always ask questions before you must die?" the master asked exasperatedly.

"With all due respect," Jiji said, in this case meaning as little respect as humanly possibly. "None of the times previous that you sent someone to kill us did they actually succeed."

"Perhaps because they actually took the time to answer your questions," the master replied.

"Excuse me, sir, but if you can afford to reveal a secret of the Garo right before you die, you can afford to reveal a secret of the Garo right before you kill," Iggy said. "Either way the revelation can't harm you."

"And it's only fair that we know why we're in this particular predicament," Jiji said, although she knew quite well why she was in this particular predicament.

"I do believe you know quite well why you are in this particular predicament," the master answered, smirking very slightly. Jiji silenced and looked away. Iggy noticed this action.

"Recap for my benefit then, please," he requested.

The master rolled his eyes behind his hood. "Very well. Your friend here is the descendant of the Garo who gave away the balteus movere and thus is the only one with the knowledge of its whereabouts and secrets."

"So you were going to keep her here and use her to find it?" Iggy asked, glancing at Jiji.

"Nein," the master replied, using his native tongue. "We don't want to find it just yet. We simply wanted to keep the knowledge within our community. We planned to conceive a child with Jiji and raise it to be our secret keeper."

"You what-!" Iggy exclaimed. He was about to fly off at him when Jiji squeezed his arm. He glanced at her again as she shook her head, silently telling him not to do anything rash.

"Fine… Now me," Iggy said, trying to hide his rage. He wanted desperately to massacre every last one of them, and although he was more skilled than anyone gave him credit for, he knew he lacked the capacity. He'd settle for getting Jiji as far away from them as possible. "I'd like to know why you threw me in that cell rather than killing me on the spot."

"I should have thought it quite obvious," the master said.

"Not obvious enough," Iggy replied.

"It is because you are here at all," the master said. "You were supposed to have been killed. As soon as I returned with her food, I was going to interrogate you on the condition of my two tyros. In fact, I think I shall do so right now. Where are they?"

A pit formed in Iggy's stomach and a knot in his throat. He couldn't tell them about Aryn. She'd be killed for sure. She might not live anyway, but at least with them thinking she'd died she'd have a chance to live and die after living a long happy life without the death ninjas hanging over her head and controlling every living moment of a death-filled life. "Dead. The remains of the fight are probably still lying out in front of my house," he said.

The master scrutinized him for a moment. "Do you swear on your life?" he asked suspiciously.

"Absolutely," Iggy replied, and technically he was… sort of. The one tyro was probably still lying dead in front of his house even if Aryn was alive (probably) at Kage and Selphie's house.

Iggy's eyes widened. Selphie! That's right, she had the sash! He knew where the sash was, but he didn't know how that would help him.

Kage! Iggy vaguely remembered one evening when Kage told them he was the son of Shinigami, and it was a well-known fact that the Garo worshipped Shinigami as a mass-murderer of the divine realm and a demon to boot. If Kage is his son…

The master studied him for a moment more. "Fine then," he said. "Now that I have that information from you, I can return your friend to her cell and the others may kill you."

"No!" Jiji cried out. Iggy squeezed her hand to silence her.

"I didn't want to have to resort to this," Iggy said.

"Resort to what?" the master asked suspiciously.

"Relying on the reputation of my friends to save Jiji," Iggy said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" one of the other Garo asked.

"It means," Iggy said. "That you don't need Jiji to find out where the balteus movere is."

"What do you mean?" the master asked suspiciously, stepping toward them.

"I know who has the balteus movere," he said. "And it would be incredibly unwise to try to steal it from them, ever."

"I don't much care who has it now," the master said. "We won't be trying to attain it for a few years yet."

"Yes, but this person will have the sash for many, many years to come," Iggy said. Jiji looked at him confusedly.

"And just who is this mystery keeper?" the master asked as he stepped right up in front of them, staring down at Iggy from behind his hood.

"…I suppose you've heard of the demon god, Shinigami," Iggy said, staring right back at the Garo master. The whole ring quivered.

The master took a slight step back. "…What has he to do with this?" he asked slowly.

"His son has the sash," he said boldly.

"What?" someone from the circle blurted.

"And how would you know this?" the master posed.

"Because he's a friend of ours." The Garo all started laughing. Iggy looked down at Jiji who gave him a questioning look. He looked back to the Garo master.

"That's funny," he said as the laughter died down. "For a moment there, I thought you might have actually had a valid point." He chuckled slightly. "And tell me, Ignatius, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, Shinigami being your favored deity, and you being his favored people-," Iggy said.

"Since when are we his favored people?" the Garo master asked, hiding his surprise at this information.

"Kage told me… Kage being his son," Iggy said. "You being his favored people, I think it's clear that he gave the sash to his son for protection until the time has come for you to use it."

The Garo all looked around at each other and the master seemed to mull it over. "Very well then… if what you say is true, we haven't any need for Jiji afterall."

"Precisely," Iggy said.

"But how can we know that what you say is true?" one of the other Garo posed.

"He is right," the master said. "Perhaps if you could prove you knew this god… but alas, I see no way for you to." Iggy and Jiji glanced at each other, sharing a smile and a thought. Iggy reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded paper. "And just what is that?"

"I like to keep a picture of my friends with me at all times, because they are so dear to me," Iggy answered, smoothing out the pictograph. He held it up to the Garo. "That's his half-sister, goddess of light," he pointed to Yugi, "Her husband, his brother-in-law, and their two children," pointing at Link, Raven, and Mable, "Our selves," indicating himself and Jiji, "His wife-."

"Wait a minute!" the master exclaimed, snatching the picture. "That's the little wench that fool gave the sash to in the first place! The one that stepped in the fissi en khronos!"

"And that would be why," Iggy said. "She was merely retrieving it for him." With that, he pointed at Kage. "Note, please, the silver irises," he said. The Garo master studied the picture closely for a moment.

"Fine then. This is proof enough for me of what you say," he said. "Now that I know I've no need to keep Jiji…" Iggy and Jiji both grinned and Jiji squeezed Iggy's hand.

"You both can die."