"Are you okay?" Zelda asked. It was the first thing that came to her mind, despite the seemingly obvious answer.

Link was splattered with blood—especially his face— and bruises covered his jaw. Lumps were forming under his hair. His eye was swelling, there was dirt from the ground all over him. He was a mess. So no, he thought, he was not okay.

"I'm fine. It's not all mine. Are you okay?" he lied, though he couldn't wait for her answer, turning back to face the doorway.

Auru's soldier spotted Zelda and threw a knife at her face, or, rather, attempted to.

Link spun into her, feeling the soldier's wayward throw land deep into the back of his upper thigh.

"Link!" she gasped, trying to catch him as he crashed against her.

He 'dstumbled from the impact, but in the same motion, he ripped the knife out of his flesh and threw it back, lodging it in the soldier's throat just below their helmet as the man tried to climb over the pile of corpses. Link pulled out a second knife, one from his own belt, and waited for the other soldier to come into view before doing the same thing. He hopped over the pile of bodies and glanced out into the hallway before beginning to clear the path to the door despite the pain dragging dead weight sent through him.

"Link, wait!" Zelda hissed, looking at him with horror, specifically his face, which he knew had to be close to unrecognizable at this point. He pulled away from her.

"It's not as bad as it looks, really. We can't stay here. They're going to send more."

"How do you know?"

Link smirked as he moved one final body out of the way. "I was a part of the group coming to kill you."

"What?" she hissed, more confused than before.

"It's a good story, Princess, but not one I have time to tell. We have to get you to safety, and—believe it or not—we have to get Daltus."

"Please, just wait one second!" she hastily whispered, stopping him. His leg was dripping blood, so she ripped one of her sheets from the bed and wrapped the strip around his thigh to at least try and slow that bleeding.

When she was done, he grabbed her hand and pulled her alongside him, turning to make sure she had Seres as well before leading them down the corridor to the stairwell. They went through another hall before Link pulled them both to a halt.

"Seres," he said quickly. "Do you know where Finn is?"

"No, he just said he had to meet someone."

"Okay, he was meeting with Viscen. Listen, I need you to find one of them. We have to get to Daltus, and so do they."

"What am I telling them to do?" Seres asked, looking confused.

Link glanced around. "We managed to get some important information to Finn. He'll know what to do, just find him and tell him to go to Daltus. If you can't find him, find Viscen and tell him the same thing. He has the rest. That wasn't the original plan, so they won't know. Just…I'll explain everything later, but please Seres, this has to happen fast."

"She's not safe, Link," Zelda protested.

Link turned to Seres. "She knows how to seem invisible here. She can do it."

"I can," she nodded, looking to Zelda. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. Just stay safe, Princess."

Seres took off down the hall and Link pulled Zelda into the nearest room, barricading the door quickly before slumping heavily against the table in the room. "Zelda," Link muttered, pulling at his gloves. "I need you to help me out of this armor."

She hurried behind him and unfastened the straps behind his back while he pulled off the leg fronts. They let it all clang to the floor, Auru's symbol glaring up at them both.

"I need help with this too," he admitted, gesturing to his chainmail.

"What happened?" she asked, though she helped pull it over his head, watching him wince and listening to his sharp breathing as she did.

"A lot."

He tried to pull his collar down for her to see the mark they'd given him earlier in the day, but the collar was too tight. Instead, he pulled his shirt up, wishing he didn't have to, for her sake.

"Link!" Zelda gasped, taking in the bruises that covered almost all of his torso, the old blood from the mark stained his skin where it had dripped down over his abs, and finally, the mark of King Auru himself, which looked like it was already building an infection.

She went to instinctively reach for him, but he caught her wrist. "Not right now. Every one of the traitors who was plotting to kill you has this mark engraved in them. Auru is going to use it to say that there was a faction of rogue soldiers in his army, and that they'll all be fleshed out by checking for this. It's his failsafe in case you weren't killed. He'll look like the hero. You can stop that from happening, but we need Daltus too."

Link was heaving, winded, bleeding, and starting to feel the creep of pain break through his adrenaline. He let go of his shirt, letting it fall back into place and looked down at the chainmail on the ground. It had Auru's symbol on the links on top of being far too bloody to not arouse suspicions about the wound on his chest, and he couldn't risk using it, leaving him injured and uncovered. Instead, he adjusted his fingerless gloves and vambrace and kicked his muddy boots on the ground before securing his sword belt further.

Zelda watched as he did this, taking advantage of the brief pause while he worked. "Please, what else can I do?" She looked at the pitcher of water beside her and grabbed a cloth, dipping it into the water. "Clear some of the blood?"

"It's not bothering me, but if you want."

She barely pressed the cloth into the knife wound on his forehead than Link sucked in a sharp breath. "Fu—" his curse trailed off into a long groan. He shook his head at her, and she quickly backed off. "No, no, stop. I just am not having the best day for injuries. At least with the cut, they know where the blood is coming from. I'll take care of it all later."

Zelda grimaced, almost physically feeling some of his pain with him as she looked him over, silently agreeing that it was probably not his best day. "I thought you allegedly trained to avoid injuries."

He snorted, despite the ache it caused, grinning as he continued. "Are you suggesting that I'm out of shape?"

She crossed her arms, smirking playfully at him. "Well, no, obviously you're not. But are you out of practice?"

He finally reached his belt and smiled as he met her joking stare. Because even now, they knew how to calm the other down and how to take their mind off of everything else. "Princess, I just singlehandedly stopped thirteen trained soldiers who tried to kill you, and you're saying I'm out of practice because I took a few hits? I'm highly offended."

"Right," she snickered. "You're also slow. Come on."

He eyed the knife in her hand and nodded, offering her his hand. "Ready to run?"

"Can you run?" she scoffed.

His cocky smile was an attempt to mask just how much pain he was in. She knew it, but she took his hand anyway.

They nodded to each other and Link pushed the barricade out of the way, feeling a bit freer without the burden of armor, but also feeling the effects of more movement on all of his injuries. They crossed the main foyer when Link heard someone call out their location.

"Go, Zelda!" he said, urging her to keep running while he stopped, taking his best stance despite clinging to his throbbing ribs with one hand, the other on his sword.

Three soldiers were on him, and he managed to quickly dispatch the first one that reached him. He always found it easiest to take down an opponent who was running. They were less stable and were far less focused on the actual fight but on reaching their opponent in time. And though he managed to quickly kill that one, he found himself on his back when the second soldier made it to him.

That soldier noticed Link defensive covering his ribs and took advantage, forcing Link to attack on the other side and expose his injury. The soldier spun around and slammed their sword's pommel straight into Link's side, sending him down to his knee. With a second pommel strike, this time to his face, Link found himself on his back. The soldier crouched over Link, one knee on Link's chest to keep him down, sword ready to stab straight into his heart when Link managed to slide his knife along the soldier's thigh right into a large artery that he'd seen lead to a very painful death without treatment. It caused the soldier to forget about Link, to stagger away, screaming for help as he collapsed with his hands wrapped around the wound, desperate to keep the blood inside their body.

Link had no time to recover, and the third, final soldier reached him and slammed his shield down into Link's stomach, causing Link to scream out as he felt the tip break through his already bruised skin. The soldier threw his body down onto Link, pinning him with more ease and efficiency than the other soldier had. He pushed the side of his sword down into Link's throat.

Still reeling from the earlier blow, Link couldn't make his muscles work as well as they normally could. His fingers closed around the blade as his hands bled where he gripped the blade, trying with the rest of his strength to keep it away. He had very little leverage, and tried to use his leg as best he could, but he let out a strangled cry as the edge started to breach the skin of his throat, too deep for comfort. It caused his body to fight back harder, keeping the knife just away from him.

Then, the soldier screamed and fell off Link, crying out as he writhed on the ground.

Link blinked a few times to see Zelda hovering above him, her hand shaking and bloody as she clung to her red-stained knife. Her eyes were unseeing as she stared at the discarded sword that was still clenched in Link's blood-covered hands.

All Link could do was force himself to scurry to his knees in front of her. He gently pried the knife from Zelda's fingers and slid his battered body across the floor to finish the soldier off before turning back to her.

Her eyes were on his throat, the gash revealing where he was about to lose his fight for good.

"Zelda, hey, are you okay?" he said, trying to avoid putting his bloody hands on her but still trying to snap her attention to him. He took a quick look at his hands and saw that there was completely dried blood on his knuckles from earlier. It was the only part of his hand that wasn't actively bleeding, so he opted to run them lightly along Zelda's jawline.

She turned to him, still her eyes focusing slightly more on his, and nodded. He let out a breath, too relieved to stop his light up and down trail. "You should have run. But thank you for that. I'd be dead if you ran."

"Did I kill him?" she muttered.

"No. He was still alive. Barely."

She nodded and rose to her feet, holding her hand out to Link.

One of his hands went to hold his ribs again, and he made a face, gesturing to his bloody hand. But Zelda didn't move, waiting. Finally, he took hers, allowing her to help him to his feet.

He overestimated his ability to recover from another headshot so quickly and immediately crashed against the wall, leaning his face into the surface and enjoying the slightly lower temperature it had. Zelda grabbed him as he started to slide. The world was spinning onto its side, and he felt himself start to stagger forwards with it. Zelda's grip on his sleeve tightened, and Link used his sword to help keep him upright, though if he had to admit it, just holding the sword in his bleeding hands hurt more than the crash to the ground would.

"Link," Zelda said, unable to hold him up on her own as he started to slide into the wall again. She helped him lower himself to the ground and sat on the ground beside him, checking on the worst of his wounds but knowing that there was nothing she could really do at that moment. "I swear to the Goddess, don't you do that to me again. I just nearly saw you get your throat slashed. Don't you dare make me watch you die now." She wiped some of the blood from his face with her hand. It was everywhere. She pressed her hand over his throat, hoping to at least get that one to stop. Her dress wasn't made of reliable fabric to tear, but she tried anyway, reaching for her knife.

"Zelda, stop," he whispered, grabbing her wrist in just his fingertips, weak and definitely not strong enough to actually stop her. "I can't promise you that. Just leave me here with my knife and get to Daltus. Take my sword, just in case."

Shaking her head, she lightly ran a hand through his hair. "If you can't run, then it looks like I'll have to watch your back."

Link grinned weakly, feeling the pain in his head starting to overtake him. "My Warrior Queen."

She kissed a spot that was free of blood and bruises in the corner of his forehead. "Don't you forget it."

He hummed his response to her before wincing. "You have to go now."

"No."

"Zelda," he said, ready to argue when he heard several more footsteps. He pulled Zelda away from the hallway, and she fell across his lap before sliding off behind him. Even now, he found some way to get between Zelda and the next soldier.

Link didn't realize how he got his knife, but he held it ready as a body rounded the corner.

But he let it fall when he saw who it was.

"Finn," he sighed, feeling his body start to drift off to the side, relief washing over him too intensely as his body realized that he didn't have to fight so hard with someone else to get Zelda out. Zelda leaned against him to keep him upright.

Finn bent in front of them and looked Link over with a mortified expression.

"Only about half is mine," Link mused.

"Link," Finn grimaced, "You look like absolute shit. What in the nine hells happened to you?"

Link noticed Seres and Viscen behind Finn. He addressed Viscen. "I killed him. Got the mark. Stopped the assassination. What else you need me to do?"

"I think you've earned a few hours rest," Viscen joked, though there was obvious concern in his eyes.

Seres pushed past everyone to grab Zelda's shoulders. "Are you alright?"

"I am."

Viscen nodded absently. "Let's go. We aren't leaving you here, Link, but we have to get to Daltus."

He slid his arm around Link's waist and heaved him up with surprising strength. Zelda had his other side, leaving Finn free to fight.

Thankfully, he didn't have to. They reached Daltus' room at a slow pace, but they reached it nonetheless.

And when they opened the door, they saw Daltus lying in his bed, cowering as a figure held a sword to his neck.

At the sound of the door, the figure spun and gasped.

"Colin? Oh Goddess, is that you?"

Link groaned. Izza.

"Colin, what did they do to you?"

Link tried to take a step towards her, but his leg gave out, the one that had caught the knife in Zelda's room. He was on his knees, unable to get back up, and he realized that there wasn't much more his body could take before it stopped him from functioning. He didn't think he'd lost enough blood yet to kill him, but his head wounds, if nothing else, were going to take him down soon.

Izza instinctively went to help him, but Zelda and Finn both moved to block her.

"Colin?" she asked again, confused.

"Link," he muttered, sitting up. "Not Colin."

Izza's eyes darted around, landing on Zelda. "Oh Goddess, you? The Princess? You should be dead!"

She went to strike Zelda with her sword, But Finn was faster, driving his sword straight through Izza's stomach. She fell in front of Link and Zelda, clutching her wound as she rolled onto her back, though dying wasn't as fast as she'd believed or would have liked.

"You- you're with them?" she asked addressing Link—the only face that she knew—her breathing wispy and light.

"Yes."

"Goddess. And I let you in."

Nodding, Link bent forward and covered her hand. "Yes. I'm sorry."

Izza's eyes slid to Zelda, noting how she was protectively in front of Link, despite the fact that it should have been the other way around, a small, knowing smile on her lips. "This her? The girl?"

Zelda looked at him, confused. But he offered his most comforting smile as the girl's eyes almost seemed to lose their color, like the rest of her as the blood pooled around. "Yeah. This is her."

"What will you do to my body?" she asked, though it was strained, and easily her last few words.

Link sighed. "A soldier's death. Auru will see it."

She let out a gurgled noise and her head lolled to the side, a final smile on her lips.

Link let go of Izza's hand, wishing he could just see her as a monster, and not a girl he'd befriended, and a fellow soldier who would do anything for her king. She reminded him of himself in that way and found it hard to fault her, especially since she'd failed.

Link felt the room spin again, and he slid himself over to the wall, needing something to lean against. Zelda helped him over and stayed knelt by his side, one hand on his leg, like she was afraid he was going to disappear if she let go.

Daltus finally slid out of the bed, though it was ungraceful and stunned. Zelda wasn't sure if he'd ever seen a dead body before, considering how pale he went.

"Prince Daltus," Viscen said, finally turning his attention away from the dead girl on the floor. "I work for Princess Zelda. Master Link and I have uncovered evidence that King Auru is working with the Demon King Ganondorf, and… and we have proof that Master Niko was working with them in hopes of puppeteering you.

"There has been a large assassination attempt on Princess Zelda in order to kill her and bring you to the throne of Hyrule. Ganondorf believes that he can more easily sway you into ceding the throne to him. He would then ally with Auru to take your kingdom from your parents with you as their bargaining chip. Niko would receive a large piece of land that he would have essential kingship over. He is manipulating you and taking advantage of his influence with you. He has already been sending both Auru and Ganondorf information about you, and this home. He is trying to ensure his future, and little more than that."

Daltus scoffed, unable to say anything other than: "What?"

Link couldn't stand up to see Daltus, but he continued speaking for Viscen. "King Auru marked all the soldiers involved in the attack so they can be easily spotted and identified. Since it's gone wrong, he's going to try to play the hero. He'll call his guards and expose the ones who are still alive. They already know it's coming, and there would be no fight. We practiced both scenarios: a win and a loss. He's going to claim it's a radical group who wants him in power, but it's just him."

"What?" Daltus said again.

Link directed his attention to Zelda, since Daltus didn't seem to be hearing anything. "Thanks to Reese's suggestion, Auru sold half his army to Ganondorf for rupees and loyalty."

"Reese? The Reese who stabbed you in Saria?"

Link gestured to his forehead cut. "He likes knives."

Her hand flew to his forehead, a new urgency to her touch, as if she thought it could burst open at any time thanks to a trick. "Where is he?"

Link gently moved her shaking hands away and his mouth formed a hard line, answer enough.

Standing, Zelda crossed her arms, keeping her eyes up to avoid looking at Izza's body. "I believe everything your saying, obviously, but Auru won't. You have proof of all this?"

"No," Daltus said, "No, you can't have proof. Niko didn't do anything, so there is no proof."

Viscen clasped a triumphant hand on Zelda's shoulder and handed her one of the letters he had. "There is enough proof here that you can easily back away from your marriage to Auru." Then, he turned his head and addressed Daltus. "Were you the one who suggested the arranged marriage to Zelda, or was it, by chance, Niko?"

"It was m—…" Daltus shook his head. "No…"

"Here," Zelda said, holding out the letter she'd been given. "Niko's handwriting."

"No!" Daltus shouted, swiping his hand against the nearest object, a tall pile of books, and sending them flying.

The door flung open, and Auru burst in, wrapped in a robe, as if he'd been woken abruptly from sleep. "What's happening? Are you all alright? I heard screaming."

His eyes landed on Zelda and widened in shock for a near imperceptible moment. "Oh, you're safe. "

"I am," she said coolly.

He strode over to her and kissed her cheeks, as he had earlier, and then a light, awkward kiss to her mouth before pulling away. "Thank the Goddess. Do you know what happened?" His eyes flickered to Link on the floor, and the dead body of Izza on the ground.

She could feel everyone's eyes on her, waiting for her to expose him. With a deep breath, Zelda knew what she needed to do.

Zelda made herself look smaller and hugged her arms against herself, deliberately keeping her eyes off Izza and Auru. "It seems there was an attack, most likely by Ganondorf, if I'd have to guess. Thank the Goddess that you're safe. I have never been so afraid for my life. I want this war over. I want to sleep peacefully at night again. I want to end this.

"Auru, I believe we should announce our wedding to the people tomorrow, once this place has been cleaned up. The city gathers for announcements under the foyer's balcony. We can let them know that we'll march to war in the next few days."

"Zelda," he muttered, clearly not expecting that. His arm reached out to comfort her, but it was a very forced and unnatural gesture. Either he didn't want to have to comfort her, or he wasn't used to doing that to anyone. Or both. "I must marry you before we march. My troops won't follow you if we aren't."

Zelda's eyes were steel as she regarded him. "Then we'll marry the morning we march. I'll have the contract drawn up immediately and a copy will be brought to you tonight. I cannot stay here anymore. Please, I know it's such short notice, but do this for me, as your future wife."

His face was as stunned as he blinked his surprise. "I… yes. That works. Tomorrow, we'll announce it."

She took a few steps toward Link, stepping around Izza. "Auru, you should go to sleep for the night. Post extra guards outside your room. It's not safe. I may even take the Commander's room in the barracks just to be surrounded by my soldiers."

"Wise, Princess." He looked at the body. "I can have my people look into this."

"No," she said quickly. "No, leave it alone. Let them think that they're safe. Perhaps they'll get sloppy and show themselves again. But we'll be ready."

"Still," he said, lightly kicking Izza's arm. "It should be looked into."

She shook her head. "There have been attempts on my life here already. I know who's behind it. It's Ganondorf, and I'm dealing with it. My interventions are likely why this attack happened. Let me finish dealing with them my way."

Auru hesitated, a visibly torn look on his face, knowing that the attack wasn't Ganondorf. "I suppose I can offer you support in your own investigation then."

This time, Zelda nodded. "Not tonight. I want to sleep. There won't be much time for it once we're at Ganondorf's door. You should sleep as well. I'll have my guards gather the bodies and burn them."

She noticed Auru's white knuckles and hastily added: "Ganondorf won't get away with this, I swear."

With a tight expression, he simply nodded, the wheels in his mind turning. "I will see you in the morning then, Princess."

"Noon. The announcements here in Damel are at noon."

He nodded once and turned, leaving through the door, bellowing out for his guards as he headed away.

"Princess?" Seres whispered. "What did you just do? You can't marry him."

Zelda smoothed her hand over her blood-covered dress. "I'm getting my troops."

"Zelda," Link moaned, trying to move. "He's going to kill you as soon as you're married."

She shook her head. "Do you trust me, Link?"

He leaned back, wanting to fight her. But he couldn't. Not when she said that. "Yes."

"Then believe me when I say I have a plan, and Daltus is going to help me." She turned to Viscen. "But first, we have to get Link to Shad. Daltus," Zelda said, turning to her still-stunned cousin. "Daltus?"

"His handwriting," he muttered, still looking at the letter.

She stood in front of him and clasped his hand. "I know. But we have very little time right now, and I need you."

He wiped a hand across his eye and shrugged, looking empty for the first time since she'd arrived.

"What do you need from me, cousin?"