A/N: Merry Linkmas! Okay, I made that up, I just wanted a reason to give you this rather lengthy chapter. Apart from me loving all of you so much. All three of you.

Disclaimer: Blah Blah no money Blah not mine Blah

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Chapter 10

Zelda

I sighed and pushed the leather bound, musty book away from me. Standing up slowly, I stretched and rubbed my eyes. Ever since I had sent my Shadow to delay the Gerudo Necromanceress I had been in the library, studying ancient texts. And yet I could not find what she would want with the Crown of Shadows. It was all so terribly frustrating. I sighed again and clapped my hands together. Immediately my maidservant entered the room.

"Send for Link." I said absently, my mind still on the problem at hand.

"M-m-mistress," the girl began, "the Hero is not in the castle. H-he's with your Shadow and the Gorons."

"Hmm, well as soon as he," wait, what? "Did you just say that Link is fighting the Gerudo's undead army? My Shadow was supposed to be making a last stand to stall them as long as he could! What in Nayru's name is Link doing there?!"

Before my maid could say anything through her shaking mouth, the door was violently kicked open. In strode Link, supporting what appeared to be my unconscious bodyguard. The half-dead Sheikah in question, leaning heavily on Link, attempted to stand and gave a salute.

"Reporting for duty your Highness," he said with that infernally cocky smile. "I regret to report only completion of half the assigned objectives. I held off the Gerudo until he left but regretfully, and despite my best efforts, did not die in the process. Naturally, the suicidal last stand that you ordered me to undertake was a failure. If it would please her Royal Majesty, I have a knife, knives, on me and would be too happy to fulfill her wishes here and now."

I must admit so many emotions and thoughts were rushing through my head that I did not, until later, think to wonder if my Shadow's obvious sarcasm was an insult towards me. As it were, I could not help but to run forward, pushing the Sheikah out of the way and grab the Hero of Time.

"Link! You fool! What in the Goddesses' name were you doing? You could have gotten yourself killed!" I shouted, ignoring the thump of a body hitting the ground.

"Uhm, now that you mention it Zel, there's something I need to talk to you about. See, I almost was killed, but," Link started to say.

"But you just had to be the hero; you just had to walk off with a pound of courage and an ounce of wisdom!" I interrupted, taking no notice of the stream of muttered curses coming from the hard, marble floor.

"I couldn't let him die there!" Link shouted back at me.

"So you're gonna let me die here?" Came the quip from the ground.

"Because both of us were there," Link continued. "The Gerudo was fought off and nobody had to die."

"That's ok, I can help myself up, the splint around my leg is just there for decoration, not like it's broken or anything."

"Well, everything did turn out fine," I said. "The necromanceress did not get the Fire Key, correct?"

Swearing profusely, my Shadow managed to stand up. "Everything is not fine, Princess. The only reason we are still alive is because the Gerudo overestimated his own strength, and I did surrender the keys to make him go away. For now at any rate."

"Why do you keep saying 'he' and 'him'?" I asked. "We are talking about the Gerudo."

"So am I," the Sheikah said slyly. "Hey, did you ever figure out what a Gerudo necromancer would want with the Crown of Shadows?"

"Well, no, not yet." I said with a sigh. "I think the artifact has to do something with her arcane magic, but it is not as if we have any scrolls on necromancy lying around here."

"Yeah, be kind of weird if we did," he responded. "I know that the Crown has certain properties which may be useful in necromancy, not that sure exactly what, but there is a certain tale among my people… They say that whoever holds the Crown, can freely travel between this world, a land of perpetual dusk and strange creatures, and the Sacred Realm."

"That is an interesting story, if it was true… Just think of the possibilities for research!" I exclaimed. "But what could the Gerudo want with the Sacred Realm?" My Shadow gave a wolf-like grin revealing pointed teeth. "Ganon!?" I shouted, finally making the connection. "She wants to release the King of Evil! I thought that Nabooru had shown the Gerudos how evil he was!"

"Very good your Highness" the Sheikah said softly, still with a feral smile. "But you lack a key piece of information. Link, right when the necromanceress resurrected Volvagia, did you notice something about the back of her hand?"

"I don't think so…" Link said slowly, struggling to remember. "Wait! I know! She had the Triforce on her hand! How did I forget that!?"

The truth had suddenly dawned on me. "A gateway between Hyrule and the Sacred Realm… A Triforce mark on her hand… There is but one piece of the Triforce not in this room." I spoke slowly, trying to force my mind to accept the reality. I pointed at myself, "Wisdom". I pointed at Link, "Courage."

Link suddenly spoke up, "Wait, how could the Gerudo have the Triforce of Power? Ganon had it."

"Link! Ganon is somehow possessing or controlling the necromanceress!" I shouted at him. Nayru's love! The boy sure could be daft at times, he was sure lucky he had me to put together information for him.

"Now, this does not change the plan of action overmuch," my Shadow said rather business like. "Most desirable outcome would be to somehow exorcise the poor girl and keep Ganon from exerting anymore influence in this plane. Solution two: it would probably be easier to force another fight before she, he it, whatever has time to raise more Stalfos. Keep the enemy's forces to a minimum and we can spend our efforts directly trying to fix her problem."

"What problem would that be exactly?" Asked Link.

"She is breathing, right?" the Sheikah replied simply.

"Um, I would think so…" The Hero said confusedly.

"There you go, a problem," came the quip. "Let's fix it."

Did you like it? Hate it? Let me know! I realize now that this came off a bit of Zelda bashing... cough MalonisbettersotakethatallyouLxZshippers /cough

I updated my Bio, you might want to take a look at that. I also made a forum here, check it out!

That's all I really had to say. No real clue when another chapter might be coming out.

BurningBoy