Three are the goddesses chosen
Three in golden fetters, unyielding chains of fate
The first bound by hate reaches for the sky
The Second bound by sacrifice watches from on high
And the Last bound by blood kill what cannot die
The Goddesses' Chosen
The night wind cut through his worn coat like blades of ice. His face had long gone numb, followed soon by his toes, but his fingers remained nimble, moving dexterously in turn to the ocarina's holes.
His breaths became notes, sweet, plaintive, things that only he could hear. Far below him were the sounds of the city. The howl of dogs, shouting, the heavy footfalls of the guardsmen, horse hooves, and rattling carriage wheels.
Yet none of them reached Link. He was hundreds of feet up, perched on the roof of Castle Town's cathedral, leaning against the cathedral's bell tower, sitting on the roof's narrow ridge.
He played an old song; ancient, some said. It was a sacred hymn, sung and played in Hyrule's temples and cathedrals. A song to honor the goddesses.
He had long since abandoned belief in the goddesses, but he couldn't bring himself to forget their songs.
Behind him, he heard a light scratching sound and he paused his playing, slipping the ocarina into his pocket. The scratching sound was familiar, it was the sound of feet scrabbling at the shingles of the roof.
Link smiled wanly. "You ought to be asleep." He said, turning to face Maple.
She wore a look of disappointment. "I was hoping to hear you play." She said with a sigh.
Link laughed softly. "I'm not that good, y'know."
Maples' lip jutted out poutily. "Well, I still want to hear you play. I don't get why you're so secretive about it."
"C'mon Link, please! One more time!" Aryll's voice echoed from the past. He could almost feel her hand tugging at his tunic, begging him to play.
He opened his mouth, searching for an excuse or an explanation but his mind was full of phantom echoes. Maple's brow crinkled in concern and he felt a pang of guilt.
Perhaps he owed her the truth. She trusted him and he had repaid her with lies and silence.
Yet how could he explain his reasons to Maple? What could he say about Aryll and gran? That he dreamed of them and woke desperately reaching for a cooling hand. That he felt their absence like a missing limb; like reaching out for balance and grasping only air.
He took a deep breath, the freezing air making his chest throb. There's no point in thinking about them. The past is the past. There's nothing for me there. He thought, ruefully. He had seen too many fools lose themselves in memories. He would move on, he would survive as he always had.
He forced a smile. "It's too cold for a concert, May." He stood, balancing on the ridge, ignoring the loud creaks beneath him.
Maple huffed, her breath rising wraithlike on the wind. "Fine." She said, though Link could tell she wanted to say more.
He stared down at the city, his chest throbbed and he had begun to shiver. The tiled roofs of cramped brick and wood tenements and storefronts were all he could see.
Smoke writhed from chimneys and laundry billowed in the wind. From above you couldn't see the squalor, the desperation and need that drove the poor forward and ground them down into nothingness.
That would be Maple's fate and it would be his fate. He realized suddenly. To steal until they slipped and were caught and hanged. It seemed horribly inevitable; as fixed as dawn and dusk.
"Link?" Maple had clambered next to him. "What're you looking at?"
He shrugged. "Nothing much." He ran a hand through his hair. "We ought to get some sleep. It's no good to be tired on the job."
"I wasn't sleeping anyways." She admitted. "It's her cough…my grandma's, I mean. She can't rest, can barely breathe. Every day it's worse." Maple angrily swiped at her eyes and Link turned his gaze away, she wouldn't want him to see her cry.
"She's just in so much pain, Link. I don't know what to do." She admitted quietly.
He put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll figure something out, trust me May." He said, trying to sound certain.
Maple scoffed, glaring at him with red-rimmed eyes. "You don't believe that." She said flatly, her eyes narrowing in anger. "Goddess, you treat me like a child!" She slapped his hand from her shoulder. "Well, I'm not and I don't need you to lie to me!"
Link met her glare hesitantly, guilt swelling within him. "I'm sorry." He offered quietly. "I…" He trailed off, his explanations sounding hollow even in his mind.
Maple's cheeks were flushed whether, from anger or the cold he couldn't say, in the moonlight, she looked horribly young. "I'm…I'm afraid, Link. I'm afraid of dying, I don't…" She trailed off her voice jagged. "I don't want my gran to die but I know how what we're doing now ends!"
Link nodded numbly. "We're getting closer, with Ganondorf-"
"Ganondorf may well kill us once we're not useful anymore! And besides that, the guards are searching every back alley and gutter for who robbed the chancellor and we've got Blind to worry about too!"
Link bit his lip. She was right, right about Blind and the guards and right about Ganondorf as much as he didn't want to think of it. The guard had been tearing the city apart looking for the culprit and it had been weeks since they'd paid Blind. She was right to worry.
He let out a breath. "You're…you're right, May." He said, leaning his head back against the tower. "We're playing a dangerous game. Blind, the guards. Ganondorf, it's our lives on the line but I don't…" He sighed and tilted his head to look at her. "I don't know what else we can do."
Maple closed the few feet between them and perched beside him. "I know. I just wish it didn't have to be like this." Tears glimmered at the corner of her eyes and they fluttered closed.
His heart twinged at the sight. She looked too much like Aryll, too much like herself. He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently.
"I'll protect you May. I swear on Farore, I won't let you die." He vowed solemnly, invoking goddesses he no longer believed in.
He looked away from Maple's tear-stained face to the sky letting the wind numb his cheeks, wishing fervently he could believe his own words.
"Checkmate," Ganondorf said, deftly pocketing his king. Link frowned, looking over the board, he had yet to defeat Ganondorf and the repeated defeats pricked at his pride.
Ganondorf grinned at him, a writ clearly on his face. "Do try to put up a fight next time."
Link smiled sourily, idly tossing and catching a bishop. "Sure. Anything else you want, your majesty?" He drawled.
Ganondorf raised an eyebrow. "Galled by your defeat then, boy? Good." He continued not waiting for an answer. "Victory is the price of life. There can be no tolerance for failure if one hopes to achieve anything of value."
Link snorted softly. "Failure…I've lived with her for many years now. Victory is sweet but flighty, just when you think you've grasped her she's gone." He shrugged. "Besides I'm not the ambitious type, I want to survive, no more."
Ganondorf scoffed, his eyes contemptuous. "Dreaming only of sustenance, living only for rupees. How…pitiful."
Anger swelled in his chest and he gently set down the bishop. "It's easy to dream when you're fed, harder when you've not eaten for three days and ten rupees is all that's standing between you and spending a winter night on the streets, King Ganondorf."
His anger dampened as he braced himself for Ganondorf's response, the man didn't like being disrespected and wasn't shy of forcing his point. He watched warily as Ganondorf's smirk faded and he slowly leaned forward.
Link sat still, meeting Ganondorf's amber eyed stare. "If you think I've not known the desperation of hunger, of pain and cold, you are wrong. The Gerudo do not see fit to pamper their royals as you Hylians do."
Link nodded slowly, forcing a crooked smile. "I suppose you don't come off as a common spoiled noble."
Ganondorf turned his eyes back to the board, leaning back, slowly setting the pieces in place. "If you want any hope of challenging me, you must think beyond survival. Think of what you desire and how to seize it."
What I desire? The thought was novel, he hadn't wanted, hadn't dreamed since he'd lost everything. Every day after that he'd fought for survival, fought to keep himself alive. There'd been nothing to dream of.
After a moment he dismissed the thought, something to be pondered later and hummed, placing the pieces on his side of the board.
"Very well. You should know I intend to beat you whatever it takes." Link said, keeping his eyes on his task.
Ganondorf laughed, his deep baritone sending an odd shiver through Link. "Good. A futile ambition is better than none at all."
Link grinned, moving a pawn forward. "Your move."
Ganondorf moved a pawn with no hesitation and Link paused while considering his next move. "I confess your majesty, you've got me curious about just what your ambition is."
Ganondorf's eyes gleamed as he eyed Link. "What do you think my desire is, boy?"
Link frowned thoughtfully. He wants more than being king of the Gerudo, that's for certain. He wants something big, something dangerous.
He thought of Ganondorf, his hawk eyes, the magic flaring from his hand, his restlessness and grim resolve.
"I think you want power." He said softly. "And I think you'd do anything…sacrifice anything for it."
Ganondorf's lips twitched, his eyes narrowing. "You're correct, it seems you've paid attention." He picked up a piece, propping his face on his fist. "In this world you are nothing without power, you are vermin, a thing to be trampled and forgotten." Ganondorf's voice was low and solemn and Link couldn't help but lean forward.
"How…how…do you get power?" He asked quietly. He felt suddenly unsure, as if he were climbing in the dark, he was curious and he was unsure, he was…uneasy. His instincts screamed at him, told him to shut up and back off and yet…he listened for the answer.
Ganondorf set down his piece, taking one of Link's own. "Power is conquest. It is seizing what you need, what you want, and crushing those who would deny you."
His full attention was fixed on Link and he struggled not to flinch. "You must be ruthless, cast your softness, your weakness into the flames and do what must be done. If you have the will and the strength, power is yours for the taking."
Power…Ganondorf…They were dangerous things, deadly things and yet they were tempting, so tempting. Link had not truly lived before Ganondorf, had been surviving by groveling to Blind and living off scraps. With power he could protect those he cared about, could make it so that no one would take from him ever again.
He nodded slowly, meeting Ganondorf's gaze.
"I see." He said quietly.
"Do you?" He asked, taking Link's rook. "That remains to be seen."
Link smiled faintly. "Then watch carefully." He said, moving his bishop to take Ganondorf's queen.
Ganondorf grinned slightly. "Oh, I shall. Checkmate."
Link smiled at Maple. "Dovok's house is near empty, I asked around. I've been watching the place for three days and I got a meeting with a maid he sacked. She said she'd talk to us at a bar near here."
"Using your famous charms, I assume." She joked.
"You know me, I can't resist a lady in need." He explained as they ducked down an alley. The night was cool but not freezing, the moon and stars shrouded behind Castletown's smog.
Maple smiled mockingly. "In need of better standards, you mean." Link grinned at her and he led her to the dirt road that served for Castle Town's slums.
"So what's this desert king like anyway?" Maple asked as they dodged out of the way of a racing carriage. The clattering carriage was too loud to speak over and he waited until the hoofbeats faded before answering.
"He's…well, he's strong." Link turned the question over in his mind. How to describe Ganondorf?
"He's a cunning sort, a schemer. He knows what he wants and he knows how to get it." He said at last.
"Nasty temper too, I'd guess." Maple said lightly. Link looked at her, raising an eyebrow as they crossed into a foul-smelling alley ignoring a man pissing against the wall.
"You walked out with a black eye," she gestured to the fading bruise ringing his left eye. "I know you didn't catch it falling down the stairs."
They turned the corner into a tight backstreet with bottles lining the walls and shouts echoing from behind their locked doors.
Link nodded with a smile. "You've got sharp eyes, May. Yeah, he's got a temper but he keeps a taut rein on it, lets it out when it suits him. I-" He opened his mouth to say more but paused as he heard the sound of footsteps behind him.
He turned, at the mouth of the alley were four men, the two behind were burly, at least six feet tall and in front of them stood Sakon and Blind. Link swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly desert dry. Sakon carried a sharp curved knife and Blind a heavy wooden club.
Maple was right. The thought flit through his head as he spun, grabbed Maple by arm and raced forward. Maple struggled only a second before began running beside him. They just needed to make it out of the alley and they could lose Blind in one of Castle Town's labyrinthe streets.
He made it to the mouth of the alley, their steps deafening against the cobbles and his heart beating too quick to count when Link stopped short. Maple slipped from his grasp, falling to the ground as he skid to a clumsy stop.
At the mouth of the alley was a troupe of six guardsmen. Link turned the other way to see Blind's crew approaching them.
Oh goddess. No, no, no…They were trapped, trapped between death and demise.
"These are the ones who robbed the chancellor?" The guard at the head asked, drawing a gleaming spear from his back.
Blind nodded, swinging his club back and forth. "That's right. These are them. I promised you a culprit and I made good…" He paused feet away from Link. "However, you can only have one of em', these two have been holding out on me, taking jobs on the low. I need to send a message with one of em'."
The guard shrugged. "One's enough." He tilted his head to Blind, his helmet concealing his expression. "I know what you sort get up to, we'll take the girl."
No! He wouldn't let them take Maple, couldn't let them hurt Maple. Instinctively he lashed out his fist taking the head guardsmen in the cheek. The guard recoiled, putting a hand to his cheek as the five other surged forward, Link stepped back and ducked under a spear.
He hastily backstepped, raising his hands only for something horribly heavy to collide with his leg. He screamed, his legs falling out from under him the pain hitting him like a wave of ice-water.
He fell his knees and as he tried to stand another horrible collision hit his stomach. He heard a sharp crack and another wave of agony wracked him. He felt like someone had stolen the air from his lungs and he gulped trying to take a breath and grasping at his throbbing chest.
He instinctively tried to curl in as the guards surrounded him, another kick to his stomach forced a scream from his throat as his chest ached excruciatingly, he sprawled onto the ground, his face level with the filthy cobblestones.
He lay helplessly as endless blows rained down on him. "No!" He heard Maple shout over the grunts of exertion and his own screams. "Stop, please, you'll kill him!"
"That's the idea." Blind's voice said coolly.
A painful kick jarred his head and Link whimpered, warm blood pooling from his nose and the cobblestones growing blurry. He heard Maple's tone, heard Maple scream something but the words were indistinct as if they were speaking through water.
I failed…He thought hazily as unconsciousness took him.
