I collected a few small shells on the beach, looking them over as I waited for him to finish washing. When I looked over again, Link was talking to two Zora guards that popped up out of nowhere. Between them was Ruto again. My heart leaped into my chest and I ran forward, splashing into the water. Ruto looked over at me with a cold stare, and refocused on Link, smiling warmly. Oh. So that's what was going on. I swam up reluctantly, lagging behind Link. "We have reconsidered your situation in this time of danger, and are happy to provide room and board for the both of you."

Link smiled with relief. "Thank you, Lady Ruto." She smiled at him and the guards each handed us a bulky mask. "These will help you to breathe underwater until we get to the palace. Some sections of it are in open air, mostly guest bedrooms." I remembered them.

We both murmured our thanks before slipping on the masks. They fit over our nose and mouth, and a large round apparatus on the front was what gave us oxygen. The Zora dived down and we followed them. Now that the sun was out, I could see much better. We swam downward through cloudy blue water, Link lagging behind because of his stinging wound. Ruto swam up and grabbed his good arm, smirking at me and dragging him alongside her. I narrowed my eyes but kept going, keeping up the best I could.

When we got inside the palace, a sprawling coral thing that was half-white in death, Ruto gestured that we could take off the masks. She looked worse in the light. Her skin was mottled with sores and white fungus, and she limped slightly as she walked. The few others we saw milling around the palace looked the same. Ruto lead us through the hall to the guest rooms. "You can stay in any of them that you wish." She was speaking to Link. I frowned. "But for now, I would appreciate if you could join me in the main hall. I want to ask you where you went and why you came back."

It took some time. Ruto hardened her gaze when we explained about the Sacred Realm and the Master Sword. "Prove it," she issued.

Link frowned. "We can't, the swords are on the beach."

Ruto threw up her hands in irritation. "Then go get them!"

Link stood up, and she shook her head. "No, you."

I turned and glared at her. "Excuse me?" Ruto frowned and folded her arms. "No. Send guards to get them."

Ruto and I stared at each other for a few moments, until finally, she conceded. "Very well." Two guards headed back towards the palace doors, and we continued staring at each other.

"Ruto, you have to believe us. You and I have known each other for so long, why would I lie to you?"

Her expression softened. "Zelda, I am bitter. Do you see what is happening to me? My skin, my eyes, my people? There are less than thirty of us left, and we still do not have a cure." She sniffed and cried. "I am sorry, I'm so sorry, Zelda. When you disappeared, Ganondorf promised… he promised a cure if I would only sign off our oceans as part of Hyrule. He… he swore to me we would have a cure." She wiped her eyes with her hands. "I refused. I told him I would rather we die and he take my father's lands by force. That he would have to wrestle them from my dead hands."

I reached across the table and grabbed Ruto's hands. "We will find you that cure." Link rubbed his shoulder, squeezing and flinching in pain. Ruto looked over to him. "Are you alright?" I bit my lower lip. "He got hit with a poison arrow on our way here." Ruto frowned. "You should have told me." She got up and walked around to Link's back, studying it. "I'll see if my doctor can help." Ruto walked off. I reached over and squeezed Link's hand, and he looked at me with a small smile. "It's going to be alright." I pulled my hand away reluctantly and folded my hands together. Ruto was back first with the doctor, an old-looking Zora who was mostly healthy except for some mottling around his lips. He nodded to the both of us and crept around behind Link, studying the wound. "Pah. It's bad, but nothing that can't be cured." I closed my eyes in relief. "He'll need to bathe the wound in hot salt water three times a day. The hot water will keep it clean, and the salt will draw out the poison."

I stood up and thanked the doctor, hugging him with tears in my eyes. Ruto smiled. "Well then, let's have some water put on to heat. Here Link, I'll escort you to the bathrooms. Zelda, you can stay here and rest. I know you've had a long day." She led Link away. Even though she had apologized and seemed truly remorseful for treating me so horribly, I was still appalled at her brazen attempts to collar him. The joke, I figured, was on her; Link seemed impassive towards sexual advances. He certainly had been at the balls we attended. I sighed as I reminisced on that. What a foolish girl I'd been, and still was. I sat up when the guards returned, carrying our swords, bags, and Link's remaining clothes. I thanked them, putting the items in a neat pile on the table, and picking up the Master Sword. It was not as heavy as I thought. I held it out in front of me, looking the blade over, trying out slow swings and thrusts. Despite its lightness, my arms soon grew weak, and I set the revered blade back down. Ruto came back and nodded at me. "If you wish, you may bathe too." I shook my head. "I feel clean from the water." She nodded her head once and sat back down at the table with me, stopping and looking at the Master Sword. "So it was all the truth."

"Yes."

Ruto touched the holy blade with two fingers. "I am sorry for my doubts. But I was suspicious, after the rumors Ganondorf's army spread about how you were planning to secretly elope. He claimed you'd fallen out of virtue to Link, and had gotten pregnant by him. At least, that was what he told us fellow diplomats." I stared at her, and she looked back. "Zelda. I should never have doubted you."

"No, you shouldn't have." I was full of cold fury at Ganondorf's blatant lies. "I am a woman of my word, Ruto, and of honesty. You should have known that! You should have remembered that!"

"It's this damned disease, Zelda! I haven't been able to think clearly in years, because this Goddesses-damned plague is in my head!" Tears rolled down her cheeks. "I… I have nightmares at night, about Ganondorf making me his bride. He rapes me in those dreams, Zelda. He… and I fall pregnant by him, and the child we have is a demon. I wake up in cold sweats. I dream and I see you, and you are laughing at me as…" Ruto shook her head and refused to elaborate. I reached out and held her hands tight. "Ruto. I am here, and I am willing to help. We have to get rid of Ganondorf for good." She nodded. "I will help you anyway I can." I looked down at the table. "Thank you."

We ate fish and oysters, and some sort of salad made from underwater plants. Link had a bit of color in his face from the food and the hot bath. "Ruto, have you heard from the Gorons at all?" She shook her head, chewing. "Not in ages. Have you tried to contact them?"

"We can't go back to Death Mountain. Some of the villagers in Kakariko betrayed us to Ganondorf."

Ruto narrowed her eyes in fury and insult. "That's despicable!" She shook her head. "Stay here as long as you need, I insist. Both of you. I'll see to it that you have food and clothing, and somewhere to sleep." I thanked her. Link smiled and thanked her as well. We had to stay anyway, if only for his sake; I was unsure of how long it would take until the poison had seeped from his wound. When we had finished with our meals, Ruto again escorted us to her guest rooms. "I am sorry for having to take my leave so suddenly, but my sickness is taking its toll, and I must lie down."

"That's alright, Ruto. We completely understand," I replied, smiling. Ruto nodded and hugged us both before turning and walking slowly towards her bedroom.

I looked at Link. "How is your shoulder?"

"It's a little stiff. I'll probably wash it again before bed." We stood there for a few minutes in silence.

"I'm not tired," I said finally.

"Neither am I," Link replied. I finally opened the door to my guest room and sat down on the bed as Link followed me in and sat in a chair. "Well, what should our next move be?" I folded my legs under my body and looked at him. Link rubbed his lips with his thumb. "I say when we're all rested up, we go to Death Mountain again." I shook my head. "Why would we? We'd just be wasting our time, possibly getting caught again." He frowned. "Well this time, we just won't tell anyone we're there."

"Then why would we go?" Link shrugged his shoulders and flinched, gripping his bad shoulder. I sighed. "We have many enemies, don't we." Link nodded his agreement. "But we still have allies. The Gorons, if they have not all been killed."

"How could they help us?"

"We just need them to know we're here. Maybe it'll help them have faith, Zelda. That's what we need right now."

I nodded. Going to see the Gorons meant heading back north, past the castle. It would be risky for the both of us. If we were spotted, Ganondorf could kill us both easily. "You know we'll have to head back past the castle."

Link set his jaw, and his eyes blazed. "Yes. I am prepared to take that risk, if contacting our allies means we will have that much help for storming the castle." I stared. We had been stepping around the issue of reclaiming the castle for some time. But it was obviously our only choice to send an attack on Ganondorf. And that was why we raced around Hyrule so desperately, to enlist their help. The Kokiri had granted it. My old guards in Kakariko had sworn it, though they betrayed us. And Ruto had sworn her alliance when she took us in. "We can defeat him, Zelda." Link said softly. "We have before." I smiled. "Yes."

A silence hesitated in the room, laying thick between us. It would be a good time to tell him what I felt, to confess to him that I was in love with him, and had been since the first moment his fierce blue eyes had locked with mine. Finally, I made up my mind. "Link?" When I looked up, he had gone.