The heat underneath Rowark's back was unbearable as it was, and being stuck in that same spot when Rowark began to heat up unexpectedly made the very tiny gap of air between his body and the mattress feel like Din's Hearth itself. But despite these infernal conditions, Miro Miro steeled herself as the conversation continued. She was too absorbed in her own misery to care about what unknown babbling they were talk.
But just when she thought she was in the clear, an unexpected knock on the door made Miro Miro curse the blasted lady of luck. "You are," an unknown Gerudo's voice, "voe, who want vaivoos?"
"Um, vaivoos?" repeated Rowark with amicable confusion.
"Yes, vaivoos, Sheathe."
"Oh, um…" Suddenly, Rowark's heart rate picked up like a fleeing rabbit's. "No, Not… not tonight."
"Ho? No Vaivoos?"
"No, uh, I mean, correct. No, um…"
"But voe said he want vaivoos?"
"No, I uh, I did, but um… I um, you wouldn't understand. I just want to be alone tonight."
"No vaivoos? Is Pa'olia not pretty?"
"No! Please don't misunderstand!" his heart was racing twice as fast as before, "You are quite beautiful, but I, I, I changed my mind, before you reached here. I, I would like the night to myself. I'm sorry."
"Hmph!" whoever she said she was sounded annoyed, "You lucky I got paid, otherwise I gut you for wasting time!" Rowark's heart sank once those words pierced the into the room.
But once Miro Miro heard the sound of the closing door, she could no longer withstand the overwhelming temperature and humidity, digging her way through his back to freedom. The first draft of the room's air propelled her into relief as she shot her way into the open space. "PHEW!" which alarmed the soldier at first, but the instant recognition of her pink hue quickly dissolved his alerted state. The fairy gasped for as much as her tiny fairy lungs could expand. "I thought for a moment you were going to go through with it!"
A nervous chuckle escaped from Rowark's very blushed face, "Haha, I uh, I never really, uh, had an intention to go with through it."
"That's good, ahem!" Score! I always knew that Rowark wasn't pervy! "But…" she thought about the "other woman" and why she was angry at Rowark, "may I ask why you asked for her in the first place?"
"Well, uh, that's because uh…" Silence. Wow, Miro Miro instantly picked up the way his eyes were fixated downward, hands clenched up, and breathing picked up: telltale signs that Rowark was holding a secret, exact same as a Kokiri child's of seasons past.
"What?" she pressed on instead.
"I'm-" Rowark cut himself again, as if the thought of telling a soul about his secret put his heart at unease. "I, I'm… No, I can't… I'm…" he covered his face to hide his shame and began to sob into his palms.
"Hey! Listen to me! Hey, hey, hey!" Miro Miro's motherly instincts carried her to his side to give him a fairy hug, "It's okay. Rowark, if, If you don't want to talk about it, then we don't have to, okay? I can make a fairy promise of never speaking of it again."
His sobs turned into aggressive heavy breathing. Uh oh, here it comes, Miro Miro flew away to keep clear of his incoming outburst. The teenage boy whipped around to grab the pillow underneath his back and unleashed a screech…
So raw… So, death defying… What was he hiding this badly? He put down the pillow and revealed his distraught expression. "I feel like I must… Otherwise, good sleep will be naught more than a flighty dream. And if I must discuss my secret, I'd rather discuss it with you."
"I fairy promise that your secret is safe with me."
"Are you serious about this promise? Because I could get killed if someone discovers this secret."
"My fairy promise is bound by the Great Deku Tree, the father of the forest who protects all life in the name of Farore!" No matter the gravity of the promise, she intended to fulfill that sacred fairy pact through to the end of days.
Those were the magic words that would spill their secret. If her predictions were correct, Rowark would then begin to find the best way to rephrase his words. "I'm, um. I am, um… cursed."
"Cursed?" asked Miro Miro incredulously, "How so?"
The young knight steeled himself, as if the next sentence was going to greatly test his cherished friendship once and for all. "I have a mark to remind me of my original sin."
"Okay, what's that?"
"My sin is…" he was getting close… "That, that I am…" Any heartbeat now… "I am…" Another rapid set of breaths before he took the final, deep one…
"Queer."
Rowark instantly turned away from her, afraid of confronting her judgement.
Queer? What is he talking about? Queer could mean anything! But even then, His hands tightened their clench on the blanket with each heartbeat as he anxiously waited for a response. Why's he overreacting like this? Once a child had spilled the truth out, the child was scared of punishment, and Rowark was certainly acting like he was awaiting motherly justice… But what was the secret? "I don't get it," she confessed anticlimactically, "Like, queer how?" she asked anticlimactically.
He instantly opened his eyes "Queer, you know…" The blood drained from his face instantly, "Queer, like, you know…" Rowark looked to Miro Miro to complete the thought, but her curious silence was beginning to drive him mad, "Wait, you mean to say… Ha… Haha!" Out of her countless times dealing with children's secrets, she had never had someone giggle at her 's he just laughing at my expense, "You," his hysterical laughter interrupted him time and time again, "You really don't know what I'm talking about?"
"Well, what are you talking even about?" Miro Miro asked angrily at her temper's end.
"I'm sorry, HAHAHA Miro Miro, I'm not laughing at you. I just, HAHAHA I can't believe this is what HAHAHAHA I got all worked up for HAHAHAHA! OH! HAHAHA! I was SSOOOO afraid HAHAHA that you would disown me in a heartbeat HAHAAAA…."
Disown him? Why would I do that? she shivered a she began listing every potential crime he could have committed in the past that was serious enough for her to disown him so.
"Well! All you're doing is you're telling me you're weird!" defended Miro Miro aggressively, which somehow turned into an angry compliment, "Which is, true, you know! Because you're much nicer than everyone else in this city! And you're not pervy like everyone in the city."
"Awww, okay, I won't, laugh anymore, I promise! Ha! This is why I can be best friends with you," said the youthful adolescent wiping the last remaining tears of his incessant guffaws. "Okay…" Rowark took a quick breath and expelled out any last lingering bits of nervousness, "Queer is when… a man…
Rowark took another deep breath, "Loves… another man."
"Ohh!" the recognition of the concept came back to her and froze time for Rowark again…
"That's not queer at all! Haha! Oh! That's why you were, that's why you were worried? Oh that's funny! HAHAHA" the genuine laughter from Miro Miro poured relief into Rowark's overstressed heart like a Zora under the falls, "It was normal back in the Kokiri Village!"
"Er," Rowark was suddenly taken aback, "What?"
"Well, us fairies liked to arrange playdates with our companions," Miro Miro felt sentimental and propped up her chest as if she was lecturing her companion once again, "So long as the rules were followed! Which was no clothing removal, no nether touching, and no pecking on the lips except for one at the end of the date!""Anyways, no one broke the rules, and everybody playdated everybody. And if two liked each other particularly, we called them partners. Boys partnered with girls, girls partnered with girls, boys partnered with boys… There was no term for boy-girl or girl-girl or boy-boy relationships. We just called them, partners."
"It sounds like a dream," the imagery conjured in his head brought a smile to his face, "So, the idea that a man could love another man… is that, okay with you?"
"Well, duh, why do you ask?" asked Miro Miro innocently. He responded with a cold silence and stared deeply into his memories. Was it her question? Was it not acceptable? "Are you okay?" The sound of her voice forcefully expelled the images out of his head. Only then did he realize that he was drawing rapid, heavy breaths.
"Yeah, sorry…" he muttered somberly, "Between a boy-girl relationship or a boy-boy relationship, which do you think is punishable by death?"
She pondered upon his words briefly, before she reached the conclusion that was too terrifying and too, evil, for her to express. "Why!?" Why would Hylians kill because of… love? "That- That's…"
It was her turn to cry uncontrollably. She didn't understand it anymore herself. A reality had dawned upon her. She did not want to hate Hylians unconditionally, but the image of Hylians murdering other Hylians for expressing their true feelings of love could only draw a conclusion she did not want to conclude… that Hylians were truly evil.
She screamed through her crying, "That's horrible! What is wrong with a man being in love with another man?"
A tear streaked down his face. A smile was planted on Rowark's face, but behind his frustrated, sleepless eyes, he was hiding almost a lifetime spent pondering this question, "Because… it is…" he sniffed loudly, "it is against the Golden Laws of the Hyrule."
Her sudden curiosity soaked up all noise and only left the dry silence hanging in the air. "What's that? I have never heard of the Golden Laws before."
"You've never heard of it?" Miro Miro shook her head. "Have you never read the Book of Legend before?" Again, she knew nothing.
Rowark hesitated for a bit but then began staring into the back of his mind. With one great exhale, "Book of Creations, chapter 1 verse 21," he recited with a monotone voice, "However, when Toorlik reached the peak of Hylia, he found a monument left by the Goddesses on top of Mount Hylia. An angel of Nayru came before Toorlik the human and taught him language, saying, 'You have valiantly triumphed Nayru's trial before all the people before you could. The Goddess of Wisdom bestows upon you mastery of communication, a language with which to call your own, but your people have been chosen to burden a great responsibility. Copy the Laws of the Goddesses before thee and preach them to each and every home. Go forth, my chosen people, and spread the language of the Goddesses and become the rulers of the land.' Then, Toorlik began to recognize the engraved shapes on the holy monument, and once he fully learned to discern the patterns, he became the first to read the Golden Laws of the Hyrule:"
He drew a deep breath and gulped hard. Exhaling, he prepared himself.
"Honor the life you share with thy neighbor.
"Honor that which is not thine own.
"Honor the Goddesses and all her bounties placed before thee.
"Honor the trust between all beings.
"Honor the sacred bond between a man and a woman," he paused briefly and took another deep breath.
"Honor the love of thy parents," he managed to squeeze out and then complex sigh afterward, "I have spent many, many years studying these two verses.
"I was brought up to follow the Golden Laws. My father, he revered the Goddesses. He followed the Laws religiously up to the point where he had to kill to protect. I tried to follow the laws faithfully, just as my parents wanted me to. For my father's hard work and devotion, he cursed with a son that liked boys."
"Hey, let's not start calling this a curse."
"It is sinful, though," said the knight sullenly, "in the eyes of Nayru."
"Okay... but what does you being cursed have anything to do with being a sinner?"
"It's because… My original sin has been marked by the Goddesses, to remind myself that I sin when I look upon another man with curiosity."
"You're not a sinner!" the fairy raised her tone, "I refuse to believe that the Goddesses could be that cruel!"
"Oh but they are that cruel!" Rowark fired back intensely, "Because of my curse, I have to live a dishonest lifestyle! Have to break that Golden Law or die! I am about to be placed in charge of dozens of men's lives, and I must always tell the same lie again and again... Is knighthood even worth it, then?"
"I'm… I'm sorry to hear that."
"I…" he exhaled like he had no longer had anything left to vent about, "Forgive me."
"Oh no, it's fine! You didn't transgress me, so there's no need for forgiveness."
"Well I've been… up and down and up and down, in only a matter of minutes. I'm not, like this normally. It's just, you are THE second person in my life who has ever allowed me to be fully honest, you know? The only other person who shares that privilege is my sister Alexa." Wow, such an honor! "And I, I thank Hylia with all my heart that she has blessed me with a friend I can trust."
Miro Miro's heart gushed at the sudden boost in value, "Aww, Rowark! That was so kind of you to say! How could anyone as nice as you be cursed?"
A sigh.
"Perhaps it's better if I show you," Rowark looked down at the wrapping over his hand, and it was probably the first time Miro Miro had paid attention to it. She certainly noticed it when they first met, but the color of the wrapping blended in so well with the rest of his outfit that she quickly forgot about it. "The only other person who knows about it is my sister."
The strip of linen that covered his right hand had been there so long that he oftentimes forgot it was even there, which was exactly what he wanted. After seeing the worn out condition of the bandaging around his right hand, no one would have guessed that they used to be white. His left hand peeled off the end slowly, and each layer removed revealed a dirtier, sweatier layer underneath the rest, revealing the golden glowing piece of skin on the back of his hand.
Replicating the shape of the Triforce, the mark illuminated the iconic three triangles forming the larger triangle and a smaller, inverted one in middle. Upon seeing the familiar shape, Miro Miro gasped, "Is… is that the mark of the Goddesses?"
With utter contempt behind his voice, his answer was as short as death, "Yes…"
His boiling response was beginning to scare Miro Miro. Every fairy remembered what it looked like when it last appeared over a hundred years ago. Miro Miro was dead sure she was staring at it once again, it so strongly resembled the Hero's mark that it triggered ancient memories, "Are you sure, it's not the mark of the Hero?"
"I'm sure," his eyes glowered with hatred, "I'm dead sure."