Still not dead.

Chapter 19

It was 4:30 in the morning, and Link sat in the lobby of The Last Homely House with a cup of coffee. His free hand rubbed futilely at his forehead in a failed attempt to dissolve his pinched drowsiness. He had not planned to be conscious for another three hours.

From the back of his hand, Ganon's wrath flooded out. Today, the battle started.

He glanced up as Aghreal passed by. Her brow furrowed over sharp eyes as she strode through the lobby. She greeted him with a nod, before moving past the reception desk and out the front doors. He was thankful she had not passed close enough to see his trembling hand.

"Got another pot ready in five minutes," the receptionist said, rolling a tray of food into the room. He was a balding, older fellow with a hunched back, and did not seem at all put out to be working the graveyard shift. "Running low on sweetener, though. Soldiers sap us dry when they take leave up here."

Link nodded aimlessly, his mind elsewhere. He could not cut past the doubt. The little muscle he'd built had vanished during his quest for the Master Sword, and the spirit of the dead hero had not stirred in days. Zelda would be able to reassure him, but the Princess had vanished, likely captured by the Gerudo.

He finished the rest of his coffee in a single, burning gulp and went outside to talk to Aghreal. Perhaps she could put him at ease.

He found her standing rigidly outside the motel, feet planted before the single cracked street that ran through the town.

"You're up early," he said.

Aghreal twisted back to look at him, arms crossed. "Hylians have a gift for stating what is obvious." Her scowl cracked as he approached to stand next to her. "Am I doing it right?"

Link sighed. Gerudo humor.

She turned her gaze forward. "I've been doing some research." Her voice dropped into a rapid, pinched cadence. "Since the fighting started, this town has seen its assault rate rise by twenty-three percent. Rape by nearly two hundred."

"The Gerudo have gotten around the army?" Why hadn't there been any of news of that? Surely they would have heard it on the radio, at least.

She gave him the same level stare she had when he got the order of operations wrong.

"The Hylian soldiers-!" Link said.

"You are surprised?"

"But... they're Hylian."

"And thus morally superior. Right."

Link blushed. "It's just... I mean, why do you think they'd go around attacking civilians? They're-"

Irene stormed out of the motel, cup of coffee raised to her face in mid-gulp. She swore. "The hell's the point of being a morning person if every other blasted imbecile is gonna be awake and ruin it?" She wore a dirty-brown tank top, with her hair tied back in a tail.

"Morning," Link replied, faking an over-bright grin.

"Well if you're going to stand around making me miserable, you can at least bloody well help." She stormed to her car, muttering all the way, and flung open the hood.

"We were trying to have a conversation." Aghreal said.

"Oh, don't mind me then. I'm just making sure we have a desert-worthy vehicle. Since, you know, we'll be driving through a flaming desert. Talk while you hold shit."

"You have no toolbox for this task?" Aghreal said.

"Somebody stepped through it."

Link cringed.

"Or, hell, if you wanna abandon me to do it all by myself, be lazy, that's cool. Ain't my quest."

Link and Aghreal exchanged glances.

Irene positioned them by the hood of the vehicle, then grumbled her way to the back and began pulling out tools.

"Think about which people dropped out to enlist when the fighting started," Aghreal said. Most of them had been seniors, so Link didn't know anyone who had actually decided to become a soldier. But he and Desi had attented every one of Rusl's recruitment meetings. The most common attendees—besides himself—had been Mike and Groose.

Aghreal continued. "Now take thousands of people like that, keep them in a small area, put them in charge of themselves, and destroy their morale. Is this result surprising at all?"

Irene sidled past, distributing tools en route. Link ended up with a crescent wrench, a small mallet, and a soiled cloth.

"What's the hammer for?" he asked.

"Hitting stuff." She gestured them back and began to jack up the front of the car.

Link turned back to Aghreal. "Makes sense, I suppose. I see what you're saying. But... what's your point?"

"Do you not care? These monsters would be our allies. Are you just going to condone this? There must be justice."

"Okay. Justice. How would we do that?"

Aghreal exhaled, keeping her gaze locked on some unknown point beyond the motel. "That's what I came outside to ponder."

"Here's what I think: If the military wants to cover things up, there's not a lot we can do to stop them. But I know Zelda, and this is something she would care about more than you. And she can do stuff. Like, princess stuff. So we just have to rescue her, and then she can fix..." He gestured vaguely at the dying town. "This."

"Wrench," Irene demanded, from beneath her car. Link lowered the tool into her protruding hand.

"I am trying to decide whether that is a brilliant deflection, or if you merely follow the simplest idea."

Link shrugged. "Good ideas can be simple."

"You'd know all about that," Irene muttered. "Gimme the rag." She held out the wrench, and Link made the exchange for her.

"I am uncomfortable with ignoring problems, Link," Aghreal said.

"Catch." The rag flew from under the car, and Link caught it on the head of the mallet. Irene pulled herself out from beneath the vehicle and began tinkering with components inside the hood.

"You ignored negative arithmetic, and we spent weeks ripping apart your foundations," Aghreal continued. "If we ignore an issue of this scale..."

He still marveled that she could speak for so long and still maintain that distant, almost listless gaze. It was part of her skill at concentration. He had never met anyone who could hold onto a single idea so fervently. That was what made her such a powerful ally. But he needed her focused on the correct idea.

"If we try to fix a problem like this, we give Ganon time to invade further. We're lucky he hasn't broken past Kasuto yet." He drew on the Hero's memories like they were his own. The stench of decay and death that had first greeted him in the ruins of the Castle Town of old made him pause and recenter. "The survivors will become slaves. The dead, his fell army."

Link shook his head to clear it. The Hero had been silent for days. He had no reason to be talking like that.

Aghreal continued her gaze in silence. Irene shut the lid of her car, then collected up her tools as she passed by.

"We will return to this," Aghreal said.

Link nodded. A corner of his mind rebelled at being roped into yet another crusade, but Kasuto and Zelda held the bulk of his attention. Everything else could fall later.

Rusl stepped out of the motel with a cup of coffee. Kafei emerged behind him, leaning on a crutch. He wore the green dress uniform of the Hylian Army, similar to Link's tunic, but embroidered with his name in red thread. A small formation of medals cascaded down his chest.

"Are we leaving earlier than planned?" Rusl said.

"Kafei! I wasn't expecting you up here. What are you doing?"

He grimaced. "Finding things out. Or I was, anyway. Looks like that's changing now. Do you have a plan?"

Link nodded.

"Since damn when?" Irene said, whirling on him.

Even Rusl looked down on him with clear disapproval. "Link, clear channels of communication are one of the most import elements of an effective force."

"I only thought of it last night," Link said, forcing back an edge of annoyance. He knew he wasn't the brightest person in the group, but he did know to keep people informed, at least. Back in the orphanage, he'd been even better at that than Miss Rebecca, sometimes.

"We should wait for Flueckli, though," Link said, as if to drive his point in. "I don't want to have to go over this twice."

"Fairy!" Irene barked, storming back into the motel. "You are needed."

"While we're waiting, does anyone have a back-up?" Kafei said.

Silence.

"Thank you for waking me up, Irene," chirped Flueckli as she emerged from the hotel. "It was awfully nice of you to think of me like that."

"Shut. Up."

"Wow, everyone's already up to go. It is an exciting day. I'll bet-"

"Fairy!"

Flueckli turned a dark perriwinkle and stopped talking.

"Plan. Go," Irene said, snapping her fingers.

And everyone was looking at him again. Link took a deep breath. "Ganon, Zelda, and I are all linked through the Triforce. I feel them. I'm sure they feel me. Ganon needs my part of the Triforce. There's probably already a team of Gerudo en route to capture me. So we just have to wait, and they'll do all the hard work for us."

"That's certainly the most straightforward plan I've ever heard," Rusl said.

"That's it, I'm going back to bed." Irene turned to the motel, but had not moved a foot when Rusl growled out her name. She sighed and turned back to the group.

"We can split up," Link continued. "He might not be fully abreast on the sage situation. Half can contact the Hylian military. Explain the situation. Flueckli can act as go-between for the two groups, so they don't try to bomb the Gerudo while I'm with them or anything. You can hide from the Gerudo, right?"

"I can vanish in your cap!"

Link chuckled, then shook his head. "First thing they'll do is search me. Can you follow at a distance?"

She slowly bobbed up and down, dimming further.

"How shall we split?" Aghreal said. "Kafei should stick with Link, perhaps."

Kafei shook his head. "I'm too useful for army half of the plan. Besides, you don't want someone slowing you down," he said, gesturing at his leg.

"Guess that makes two old cripples to talk to the Army," Rusl said.

"I could just start walking south alone," Link offered. "I'd be the only one captured. I'll just draw on your strength from a distance when it's time to fight Ganon."

"Please," Aghreal said, rolling her eyes. "Only Irene would believe you dumb enough to come completely alone."

"What?"

"Besides, it will be good to see my heritage."

"Okay, I honestly can't tell. Are we joking about this?" Irene said.

Kafei raised his eyebrows. "We are all open to suggestions."

"Yeah, okay. Let's charge their hideout, set our hair on fire, and hope it's enough to burn 'em all to the ground. It's better than letting ourselves get flaming captured while the two people with any bloody fighting experience whatsoever sit it out with HQ."

"We are likely safer getting captured, in the end," Aghreal said.

"What."

"The Gerudo are fiercely loyal to their king," Aghreal said.

"And he'll want y'all alive at least until he kills me," Link finished. "He'll want y'all to feel it."

"This does literally nothing for my confidence."

"I'm inclined to agree with Aghreal. You two would be unlikely to fare well in our outpost," Kafei said. His gazed darkened. "Her especially."

"Look, they're on the move now. I'm getting some breakfast, some road rations, and then I'm leaving so the Gerudo don't find me in a populated area. Am I walking, or are you driving?"

Irene's gazed moved from person to person. At last, she sighed, deflating.

"You're my homework mule for the rest of forever after this."