Chapter 9. Oh Hell

Link had heard stories about the Gerudo Desert, though she'd never been there herself, and this place was nothing like that. There were far too many plants for one thing, though they were mostly tumbleweeds or other plants of the short-and-prickley variety. The few cacti that she saw were also short and brown, and not particularly scary-looking. Link knew that cacti contained water, but she also knew that some of the short ones had hallucinogenic properties. She didn't particularly want to be distracted from her goal by flying critters no one else could see.

Even though it wasn't as daunting as she'd feared, the desert was still huge, and the portal was all the way at the other side. Zeld had been fairly certain Vaaltos had not closed the portal behind him, and even if he had Kobold thought the fabric of reality would be weaker where the portal had been.

Zeld's voice had disappeared rather suddenly from her mind, but she tried not to worry. He couldn't talk to her and other people at the same time, and he didn't want other people to know he was talking to her, so it made sense that he would have to leave suddenly from time to time.

But she couldn't seem to stop thinking about him. And that "got my heart" thing. That had come out of nowhere, and before she even knew it she had said yes. It made her wonder, could there be more there? More than just Hero and Prince?

She had to admit, the idea was far from unpleasant.

Time passed...

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Zeld gritted his teeth and turned his face away. Vaaltos placed the flat of a black knife against Zeld's cheek and turned his head so that he could look the prince in the eyes.

"Trying to escape?" Vaaltos asked with a cold smile. "Silly boy, you're trapped. You're not going anywhere..."

zzz

It was lonely, crossing the desert. Link whistled, sang, peeled off clothing, and found as many anagrams for "bored" as she could. But when the sun sunk beneath the still-distant mountain range and the desert grew cold and dark...she got nervous. Real nervous.

Lonely is one thing when you're surrounded by heat and light. It's something very different when it's gone, and all you've got are the sounds of unidentified animals snuffling around your makeshift shelter.

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It's also very different when you're chained to a table, stripped to the waist, and have no idea when a sadistic wizard will be returning to fill your veins with poisoned fire...or at least that's what the last spell had felt like.

Zeld closed his eyes and sent his mind away...

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Link shivered under her bedroll, more from fear than cold. There wasn't even a moon out. Link had never been afraid of the dark, but she was all alone under the open sky in a place she hadn't even known existed a few days ago.

And then, suddenly, she felt warm...

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Back in Termina, deep in what had once been the Clock Tower, Zeld smiled and drifted off to sleep...

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It took Link three days to cross the desert, even after she gave up on getting a full eight hours of sleep every night. Zeld didn't contact her once during all that time, and she was really worried. She had a dream the second night. Zeld was screaming, and some freaky dude in black was standing over him and smiling. It looked like a torture scene from a story, but without the strange devices. The only thing in the room besides the two men was the rough wooden table Zeld was lying on, and the chains that kept him on it.

The dream had caused her to wake up in a cold sweat. Up until that moment she'd always thought "cold sweat" was just a figure of speech.

For some reason, the thought of Zeld being hurt both terrified and enraged her at the same time.

And filled her with the urge to shout "Mine!"

Though that one was probably just the exhaustion talking.

Finally, late in the afternoon of the third day, she reached the edge of the desert. "Now what?" Link murmured. There was grass, and foothills, and a tree. And that was it. Zeld had said they'd traveled straight across the desert, with Death Mountain behind them the whole time. Unfortunately that didn't narrow down the area much.

And then, much to Link's surprise, she felt a tug. She spun around in surprise and saw no one there. And then there was a push.

Quickly, Link shrugged off her pack and pulled the still-sheathed Black Rose Blade from where she's stashed it. Sure enough, it tugged her to the left. Out of sheer curiosity, Link pulled it out.

She gasped.

It was ruined.

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Zeld was chained to a wall when he awoke. The last thing he remembered before he'd passed out, was that bastard Vaaltos saying something about his "dignity."

Perhaps that was why he was once again shirtless.

The wall was stone, and cold, and he was chained with his face against it, his hands above his head, and his feet barely touching the ground. It was extremely uncomfortable, but somehow he doubted this was all that was going to happen to him.

He leaned his forehead against the wall and tried to enjoy this reprieve. Maybe he could work up enough energy to say hi to Link.

A door opened behind him. He couldn't turn enough to see, but from the light he guessed someone was standing in the doorway.

"Do what you want," Zeld said, surprised at the strength in his own voice. "I don't even care anymore. I honestly don't know where the Triforce is, and even if I did I wouldn't succumb to the dark side so easily."

"You're making jokes," a familiar, though sad voice said from behind him. "I'm glad."

"Tor?" Zeld tried to twist around to see. "Is that you?"

"Um, yeah..."

"What's going on?"

"I... Your highness I..."

"I told you to call me Zeld."

"I can't your highness. I just can't... I don't deserve it..."

"What are you talking about?"

"I- Your highness, I need you to do something... This will seem strange but... Please believe me when I say there is a very good reason!"

"What do you need me to do?"

"It's...well... Please...ask me to sleep with you."

"What!"

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The Blade wasn't actually ruined, much to Link's relief. The black roses had...spread somehow. It looked almost like they'd grown. At first glance, what with all the black, it had looked like the blade was acid-scarred or something.

Link tried pointing the Blade in the direction it had been tugging her, and right before her eyes more roses bloomed. She pulled it away and the roses wilted and disappeared.

"Neat!"

zzz

"I don't want to!" Tor exclaimed quickly. "But- but that's why you have to ask me!"

"You're making no sense at all."

"I...it's...Vaaltos ordered me to...to...rape you."

Zeld was silent for a long moment.

"What?" he said finally.

"You heard me," Tor sounded miserable. "He said that pain wasn't doing anything...so maybe a combination of pain and shame would get you to talk... He said he wanted to take away from you the last thing you had left...your dignity. And he ordered me to do it because...well...he found out a few years back that I'm...I like men."

"That bastard."

"Yes."

"So?"

"So what?"

"Are we going to get this over with?"

"No! No your highness! I would never- I couldn't- I won't-"

"What about your oath?"

"Screw the oath! It's not worth it!"

"What will Vaaltos do to you if he finds out?"

"How can you think of what will happen to me when you know what I'll have to do to you to obey him?" Tor exclaimed bitterly.

"I don't know. I just know what Vaaltos is capable of, and don't want it to happen to anyone else."

"You're a good person, your highness."

"Yeah...I guess... So are we going to get this over with or what?"

"No! I can't! That's why you need to ask me!"

"Uh, the whole not making sense thing again."

"Remember how I said there are loopholes in the oath? I swore that I would obey Vaaltos' orders exactly. That means to the letter. He ordered me to rape you. If you ask me to sleep with you, it means you're willing, and that makes it not rape!"

"That actually makes a weird desperate kind of sense."

"That was the idea."

"Hey Tor?"

"Yeah?"

Zeld smiled wryly. "Do me baby."

And then, from sheer relief and stress, they both started laughing their heads off.

zzz

The Blade was almost completely black from all the roses on it. There was a strange shimmering in the air in front of Link, and something was glinting on the ground.The shimmering had to be the portal, but what was on the ground? Maybe something Zeld had dropped?

Linkstooped and picked it up. She blinked.

It was small and gold, but didn't seem to be made of gold. In fact, it didn't seem to be made of anything Link had ever seen before at all. It had one smooth edge, and the rest of it looked uneven, as though it had once been part of something larger that had shattered. She scanned the ground around where she'd found it, but there were no other pieces.

Link stared at the object in her hand. She'd never seen anything like it before, but something about it was resonating in her mind...

"Oh no..." she said. "Oh hell no. This is not a piece of the Triforce of Wisdom!"

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Notes From the Author

Remember in Wind Waker how Tetra had a piece of the Triforce of Wisdom that she'd gotten from her mother? And Ganondorf had the rest? Ever wonder how it got broken?