The Waters of Nayru
Chapter 52: Payment Rendered
By, Frank Hunter

Even when all of Tydus's begging and reveling fell silent, Rigo still did not open his eyes. He still did not move at all, making every effort to remain as apparently dead and silenced as possible. The ruse had been a simple one. It wasn't difficult to fake death when he felt so very close to it anyway. But he wasn't sure that Nabooru had succeeded in her portion of the plan. Not until the big man walked right up to him with slow, thundering steps and jabbed him in the shoulder, hard, with two fingers did he do anything.

One eye squinted open and then the second. The cold, white face of his enemy stared down at him, but the eyes were different. The violence, the madness. At first glance, they appeared to just be gone.

Rigo let his eyes slide closed again and didn't move. He just asked a single question out loud. "Is it you?"

The answer came in Tydus's booming, superhuman baritone, but that didn't matter. The tone, the sarcasm. It was right. It made him smile.

"It sure as hell ain't the Happy Mask Man."

Rigo let out a deep breath with a chuckle that made his bruised and battered insides cry out in pain. He stopped. He thought that maybe he'd just lay there for a few days, let the silent serenity of the place envelop him, and not leave until it had nourished him back to health.

"I didn't wipe you out too bad, did I? I figured you needed to make a more stirring impression on him. You know, instead of just cowering behind the stairs?"

"I was trying not to get dead."

"Well you're not dead. Get up."

Rigo sighed and struggled to push himself into a sitting position. "A few minutes wouldn't be the end of the world, Nabooru."

The spirit just smirked down at him and backed off a few paces, giving Rigo room to breathe. It was so incredibly surreal to see her playful expressions on that face that he had hated for so long. Even her posture was so awkwardly feminine that the sight of it would have been laughable in just about any other circumstance.

"He fell for it just like we thought? You told him you were Nayru?" he asked as he struggled to his feet.

"It doesn't exactly work like that," she told him. "If I'd said I was Nayru, it would have been a lie. And magically, it would have been treated as an agreement between myself and the goddess. I would have been representing Nayru as an envoy in any further conversation. Any deal made with me, would instead have been open to her, and I didn't really trust her to show up in the flesh and resolve the situation herself."

"You didn't tell me this problem when I asked your advice," Rigo said.

"Because there's a work-around. I just talked, and let him go ahead and think whatever he wanted to think. Never claimed to be a goddess. Never said I could do anything for him. Never spoke an untrue word throughout the conversation. Not my fault if he misunderstood the deal when he gave me permission to take his body."

Rigo just tried not to laugh again. She really was devious. He thought about Tydus, knew the man was still in there somewhere. Realizing what had happened, and how he had been fooled. How Rigo had beaten him.

"So there's only one thing left to do then, huh?" he asked. "How do we kill him?"

"You don't, kid."

Nabooru's response was like a slap in the face. Rigo felt his heart rise in his chest, anger taking over at the response.

"What do you mean we don't? He killed hundreds of Gerudo. He almost killed me, and he would have done worse. He deserves to die for all of it. You don't honestly think we should bring him back to Hyrule…"

"He's not gonna die because I'm not sure he can, kid. The Waters are incredibly strong, and if the Master Sword wasn't enough to break this body, then I don't know of anything you can get your hands on that would be. Unless you're planning to just chop at my head with the sword until it splits like a tree, and I personally don't want to sit here while you do that. It sounds painful."

"So what, then?" Rigo asked tentatively.

"I do have a suggestion you may enjoy just as much," Nabooru said. "Something that will make sure that he pays for his crimes, and that benefits us both."

"What is it?"

"I'd suggest," she offered, "that you and I just call ourselves square."

Rigo was caught off guard. "You and I? Square? What are you talking about, Nabooru?"

"When we met, Rigo. You remember, don't you? You made a promise to me that, if I agreed to help you take back the crown of Gerudo, you would help me with an errand that needs running."

Rigo's throat clenched. He did remember. He'd never found out exactly what that errand was supposed to be, but he had given his word.

"That promise is its own binding agreement. I saved your life in the Spirit Temple. I redelivered you to your people. And, I helped eliminate the threats standing between you and your throne. It's taken longer than I anticipated, but I've upheld my end of the bargain. Now it's your turn."

"What is it you need from me?" Rigo asked her.

"Nothing anymore, kid. You've given me this." Nabooru gestured to her body. Tydus's body. "This body is stronger than anything I could have hoped for. With it, I can handle the problem on my own."

"And how long is that going to take?"

"Some time," Nabooru answered, pointedly not giving any more of her task away. "Though depending on circumstances, I may just hang onto the body until its mortal death. If it dies, that is. With the Waters, I don't know if it will."

"What happens to Tydus if you do that?"

"He'll be along for the ride," Nabooru said. "Indefinitely." A vague expression darted across her face, and then a huge, dark smile appeared there. "You should hear the threats he's throwing my way now. The pleading he's doing for his life. He's not happy about this."

A chill ran up Rigo's spine. The thought of being where Tydus was. Trapped. Immobile. Nothing more than a passenger in your own mind for the duration of your life. Possibly for all of eternity. It was worse than he could imagine. And as much as he hated Tydus, how could he wish such a fate on anyone?

Nabooru had never shown the most compassionate moral compass, but this was downright scary. It was something he maybe should have expected when he offered up this plan to give her control of Tydus's body in the first place. Maybe it's something he should have concerned himself with back when he took her bargain to begin with. But it was too late for that now.

He thought on it for a moment longer, but he knew what this suggestion really was. "You're not really giving me a choice here. Are you?"

"There's always a choice," Nabooru said. "If you refuse to square away, then I get control of your body instead. Tydus goes free, and you go deeper with me into the Sacred Realm right now. That's where I need to be. And like I said, this chore has been delayed for too long already."

Rigo's heart was beating like a rabbit, trying to come up with some third option, wondering if he could talk Nabooru out of this immediate reprisal. But even if he could delay her, what could they do with Tydus? How would they kill him, or at least keep him from causing any more harm? There was no easy answer. And any answer only worked if Nabooru was willing to continue playing nice. He suspected she'd done so for long enough already.

"This is the way we do things so that all of this ends, kid. You have other things to see to right now." She nodded toward the green heap on the floor across the room. Rigo looked over at the unconscious Link, worrying for the first time that he might wake up and see them talking like this.

"And you have your people to get back to. With all the death and loss they've seen, they need a King now more than ever. And for what it's worth, I think you're more than up to the task." She smiled at him, warmly and genuinely. "Go to them. Lead them. Help them flourish again. That's what you need to do. Let me go."

Rigo deliberated for another long moment, but in the end could come to no better conclusion. Sending Tydus deeper into the Sacred Realm. Letting Nabooru keep control over him. Albeit cruel, it seemed the safest form of incarceration possible. And there really didn't seem any other reasonable way.

"Are we square?" Nabooru asked him simply.

Rigo took a breath and let it out one more time before giving his answer. "Yeah. We're square."

Nabooru seemed to sway on her feet for a moment, fluttering her eyes and allowing the reality of it to wash over her. She was free, for the first time in…Rigo didn't know how long. Between her death, her binding to the gloves, and the deal with Rigo, it must have been a very long time.

When she was ready to move again, she turned her back and faced the hall in the back, beyond the confines of this room and the battle they'd had. She faced deeper into the Temple of Time.

"I'm not one for long, sad goodbyes," she said, glancing back at him. "Just, good luck, Rigo."

"Yeah," he answered. "Yeah, you too. Will I ever see you again?"

She let that smirk, that irritating smile fill her face one more time. "Only if you're lucky." And she made to go.

Rigo turned to Link, tried not to watch Nabooru leave. Tense as the circumstances around her parting were, she had been a companion for so many years. It was strange to think that she was going. That she wouldn't be back.

He tried putting it out of his mind, wondering instead whether he'd be able to rouse Link or if he'd have to try to carry him, when the deep voice came once more from behind him.

"Kid, listen," she said."If I can give you one more piece of advice. If you want to hear it, I mean. Ganondorf, as King. He really failed because he cared more about building power for himself than he did about building it for his people. A strong leader isn't so concerned with his own strength. His own abilities. It's not about whether you can wrestle a lion, or channel fire through your bare hands. It's about whether your people can feed themselves. Whether they can defend themselves. Whether they are content with their lives. Those are the real measures of a King.

"Never forget that you owe everything to your tribe. Your crown would mean nothing without them. So give everything in yourself to them. That's your job, now. And that's what it means to become a true legend. And I want to hear your legend long after you're gone, so make sure you get it right."

Rigo struggled for words, but he had nothing to say to respond to her. All he could think to do was to ask fruitlessly for her to stay, to offer her help in leading their tribe. But she couldn't. And that would be childish. He wasn't a child anymore.

He watched as she turned a final time and left the room, the heavy footsteps falling away and soon evaporating into nothing, leaving Rigo alone with his thoughts and his pain and the new burden that he now had to carry, which would bloom the instant he stumbled out of this strange place.

He turned to Link and ambled his way over to the unconscious Hero. The man was sprawled across the floor, out colder than a Goron icebox.

I bet he weighs a ton and a half, Rigo thought, clearly and openly, wishing for his humor or anything to relieve the tension. But there was no answer from the back of his mind. There wouldn't be, he guessed. Ever again.

The silence in his head was so alien.