With the opening to the throne room once again completely blocked by the shelf, Link and Zelda found themselves in complete darkness. Link unhooked his lamp from his belt and willed it lit again.

The Queen – Princess, he mentally corrected himself, she said not to call her Queen yet – briefly touched his arm. "No light!" she whispered urgently. "Someone could find the secret passage yet and follow us in here. We MUST be invisible!"

The thought washed the shock of her touching his arm clear out of Link's mind. If someone did find the entrance to this passage, Aghanim would probably send an army through after them. Link couldn't imagine that army NOT finding them, so the Princess and himself would either be taken – absolutely not acceptable since that would lead to the Princess' death and doom for all of Hyrule – or they would have to fight their way to safety, potentially injuring and killing several of their pursuers. He hurriedly shut off the lamp and they were in complete darkness again. "Do you know the way?" he asked in a whisper.

"Right," she breathed.

Her hand closed on his arm and Link felt his cheeks flare as his heart started hammering. He'd been holding her close to himself earlier, to pretend she was his prisoner, but this wasn't the same thing at all: she was touching HIM. He clenched his jaw: this wasn't the time to lose his mind over such a small thing, she needed him to help her reach safety.

She pulled gently. "This way," she breathed. "But quiet as you can. Listen. Can you hear them?"

Link listened as he started creeping along, matching the rightful Queen's – Princess, call her PRINCESS - pace. His eyes widened in the dark: she was right, there was some shouting coming from the throne room or just beyond. They walked as quickly as they could on their tippy toes.

Zelda eventually changed their direction, turning left.

"I'm following the wall," she explained in hushed tones. "Just keep following me."

In stark contrast to her making him drink that emergency dose of red potion, this new order was supremely easy to follow. "Always!" Link whispered, doing his best to convey the full strength of the word in a barely audible whisper.

The darkness was so complete that he could not see anything at all, which made the Princess's touch and her voice the only things Link could sense at the moment. His heart wouldn't stop hammering and he couldn't stop listening to her breathing or focusing on the feel of her hand on his arm. This was ridiculous, he was being extremely unprofessional, it was shameful: he needed to get a grip, and quick. He took a deep breath, hoping to smell something and give his brains something else to think about than the Princess. A light floral smell nearly hidden under the sharp scent of stress sweat hit him and fury filled him: the Princess had been so afraid, so terrified, for so long, that he could still smell the fear on her. How unfair were the Goddesses that this had been allowed to happen?

No. No, he was the one being unfair: the Goddesses weren't responsible for all this: Ganon and Aghanim were.

His renewed anger was the focus he needed: the Princess, the last member of the Royal Family he was just as good as already sworn to protect, was in very real danger from a demon and a traitor. They had to escape, and he needed to stay alert so that he could help if it became needed.

The chance to do just that, something concrete to do to help, wasn't long in presenting itself: they had company. Rats and snakes were darting and slithering around, smelling the potential prey that they were. Link kicked at them when he felt things brushing at his ankles. As far as heroics went, keeping small animals away wasn't much, but he certainly wouldn't have wanted the Princess to get herself bitten.

"Princess Zelda," he whispered, "watch your step. There are rats and snakes and who knows what else around... kick if you feel something by your feet, ok?"

"Will do," she replied in a breath. "Thank you for the warning."

Saying so, she suddenly stopped. "We're at the far wall," she whispered. "Can you hear anyone? I can't anymore."

Link strained his ears, listening intently. Come to think of it, he hadn't heard any noise from the castle in a while. Right now, he could hear the rats and the snakes, and water in the distance, but no footsteps or voices. They were still alone and the sounds from the castle proper seemed to have stopped or at least moved away from the throne room.

"Nothing," he replied softly. "Do you think they know about the shelf? Is it a SECRET secret, or more like a 'anyone who lives here actually knows' secret?"

"It's a secret to everybody," Zelda replied, still whispering. "Only my father and myself knew." Her voice caught and she paused briefly before continuing. "I'm just not sure Aghanim won't be able to find it. I'm turning left to follow the wall."

Link followed her movement even as he felt the blood drain from his face. A secret known only by the Royal Family themselves, and circumstances had forced Princess Zelda to reveal it to him, a complete nobody she barely knew. He'd been surprised she even knew his name, and the fact still made his heart flutter in a very distracting way.

Goddess! How much stress was that forced sharing of such a secret causing her? She was already in a horrifying position, running for both her life and the future of the Kingdom, having just stumbled into her father's mutilated corpse, crawling away in the dark with the rats, with nobody actually competent to protect her... and she had had to reveal one of the Kingdom's best guarded secrets, one on which the very safety of the Royal Family depended on in times of crisis!

He had to let her know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the secret was still safe. He braced himself: nothing would do but the most serious of oaths. He needed to swear on the Golden Goddesses, and swearing on any one of them was never done lightly. Swearing on Hylia was commonplace, but not on Nayru, Farore or Din. Kids who did it got punished for it. Adults knew better than to do it. You heard or read of such oaths in tales: Link didn't think he'd ever heard anyone swear in the name of any of the Golden Goddesses in real life.

But then, he'd never heard of anyone needing to do just that nearly as badly as he did now. There was nothing else to be done: any lesser oath would be an insult to the gravity of the secret. He took a deep breath.

"I swear on Farore's courage, Nayru's wisdom and Din's power," he recited.

Unseen in the darkness, Zelda's eyes widened.

"Neither torture nor temptation will ever cause a word of this secret to pass my lips!" Link continued emphatically, or as emphatically as he could with hushed whispers. "Not as long as I live and not even in death!"

Zelda uselessly turned her eyes towards his voice. He sounded completely serious and ernest; he was in fact seriously swearing, on all THREE Golden Goddesses, that he wouldn't reveal the secret passage even under torture, and that his soul would keep the secret as well in the afterlife. Swearing on even just one Goddess was something people did not do, it was considered far too serious. But on all three of them? It was madness! It was… it was above anything else incredibly noble. That he'd be so determined to keep the secret he'd been, out of necessity, entrusted with…

"Thank you," she said sincerely. She took a deep breath to get her mind back on the task at hand and resumed trailing her hand on the wall.

Link's mind had not quite recovered from the softness of her voice thanking him when she spoke again.

"I found the stairs," she announced. She guided his arm to the right and he found himself touching a railing. She let go then. "They go down. Watch your step."

Link nodded uselessly and they started down, slowly. "The guards might not remember we even went in the throne room," he whispered. "They forgot about me every time they lost sight of me on my way to the dungeons."

"That would be ideal," the Princess said. "This is the last step. I'm stepping one more step ahead."

Link's foot hit the floor immediately after. He had a moment of panic: the Princess had let go of his arm in the stairs, and he had no idea where she was now.

"Extend your arm forward please?" Zelda said.

Her voice came from right in front of him. He extended his arm, as requested, and felt her fingers brush his forearm. His eyes widened and his heart started hammering again. He clenched his jaw: he was a knight in training, he was better than this, he was a soon-to-be professional, he could handle this. The touch trailed down to his hand, sending a shiver all the way to his spine, and her hand closed on his. He swallowed and took a deep breath.

"That IS your hand, right?" Zelda asked with a nervous chuckle. "I'm not holding hands with someone or something else?"

"It's me," Link said. "The stairs twisted... do you think it would be safe to use my lamp now?"

"I'm not sure," Zelda said. "So... no. Let's continue like this. To the right again, I'm going to follow the wall again."

Link felt himself pulled to the right and followed, feeling utterly useless and wishing he knew more about this passage so that he could guide her. He was little more than a burden right now. Shared rat kicking duties not withstanding.

He chased the thought from his mind: it didn't matter. The Princess would soon be safe, and she'd be able to tell him what he could do for her next. The thought that she would have no use for him once she was wherever this secret passage led was not one he could bear: there HAD to be something he could do to help her reclaim her Kingdom and defeat Aghanim.

They soon came to another stairway – once more announced by the Princess who again guided his hand to the rail - and started down, the Princess in front and Link following.

Link didn't like this arrangement: if they came across trouble, it would find her first. He couldn't have that. It was lucky no trouble had found them yet, he should have insisted she let him take point from the start... had he really been THAT distracted by her presence? Was he really THAT bad at this? He scowled at himself – if he'd been distracted, it stopped now.

"Princess…" he whispered as they stepped out of the staircase to another dark room. "You should stay behind me. You can guide me with whispers, or taps, but I really should stay between you and whatever is down here."

She sighed. "Might as well," she said. "I don't know the way anymore from here. I knew right is right and then again, but I can't remember the rest of the poem. We should be close to the sewers by now, that's all I know."

He noticed she hadn't whispered. "Do you think it's safe to use the lamp now?" he asked. "It would make it a bit easier to find our way. If you think it's safe."

She took a second to answer. A rat tickled Link's ankle before he chased it with a kick.

"Yes," Zelda said. "I still can't hear anyone coming after us and by now, they won't hear us from within the castle unless we really scream, and they won't see our light even if they find the secret room behind the throne room. There's no point being invisible and silent at this point, we're better off being as quick as we can."

Link pointlessly nodded and willed his lamp lit once more, this time leaving it on his belt. It only brightened the area immediately around them, but it was certainly better than nothing. Now that he could see enough for it to be safe, he drew his uncle's sword and turned to the Princess.

He wanted them to hold hands again. He could feel his magic weakening, which meant the lamp would not last that much longer, and they could find themselves in complete darkness again. He took a deep breath to work up the nerve to make his request. "If you would, please, Princess?" he said, extending his free hand towards her. "The lamp is powered by my magic and I can already feel that it's going to run short soon. I don't want to risk being separated in the dark."

He was shaking as he said it: she'd been holding his arm or his hand for most of the way here, but it had been her own idea. He felt outrageously presumptuous even asking she do it again, but it did feel necessary.

She took his hand without hesitation, sending his heart into overdrive again.

"Sa..seh…straight?" he stammered. He felt his cheeks flare up at how ridiculous he sounded.

"Let's go," Zelda agreed. She didn't know where the door was, but straight was as good a direction as any right now. She was glad he'd asked to hold her hand again: the feel of it was reassuring. She knew the feeling was nonsensical: strategically, keeping his hands free would be much smarter. Right now, however, she didn't have the willpower to reject the illusionary comfort. It wasn't like it would take that long for him to let go if need be, anyway.

Link started forward, positioning himself a step ahead of her. He scanned the room as he went, keeping an eye out for any hazards. There were rats and snakes here as well, but nothing of concern.

They found a door at the far end of the room. Link grinned: that would be one more room between them and potential pursuers, one room closer to safety, one more door to hide their light and dim their voices and their steps. He sheathed his sword and grabbed the handle.

It didn't budge.

Link's eyes went wide. A locked door meant they were stuck here, with nowhere to go but back to the castle where Aghanim waited to sacrifice the Princess to his Dark Lord Ganon. A locked door was death for Princess Zelda and ruin for Hyrule. He had failed, he had probably walked right by a key and missed it because he'd been too focused on the Princess.

He tried the handle again, with the same lack of result. "Oh no…" he said. He could feel panic gripping him and he had no idea how to stop it. It wasn't like it mattered if he panicked, they were stuck here either way, weren't they? He kept trying the handle and pulled on it with all his strength, but it wasn't moving at all. "No no no please Hylia NOOO!"

"Hide and seek!" Zelda exclaimed suddenly. "Right is right and then again, hide and seek and… and something! I don't remember but it doesn't matter! It means the key is hidden in this room! Let's look for it!"

Link stopped trying to force the handle and looked at her, eyes wide. His legs almost gave out in sheer relief as his growing panic was snuffed out as quickly as it had built up. How was she managing to think so calmly? The answer came easily: she was just THAT smart. He nodded and they stepped away from the door, this time looking around much more intently.

The room they were in was shaped vaguely like a cross. Possibly out of habit by now, Zelda went to the right. They didn't walk long before the light from Link's lamp revealed a chest.

Zelda held her breath: this had to be it. What else than what they needed to escape would be in a chest down here? She knelt down and hurriedly opened the chest. She sighed in relief when she saw the key inside.

"Got it!" she said, picking it up. "Let's go!"

She looked up to find Link trying to see inside a pot that had been next to the chest.

"There's something in here, too," he said.

He flipped the pot upside down and shook it. Sure enough, something rattled inside. Zelda tried to think of what it may be: it made sense that this would also be something they might need, but what exactly, she had no idea. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to want to come out.

"Maybe reach in with…" Zelda started.

CRASH!

While still holding it upside down so that whatever was in it sat near the too narrow mouth, Link had just smashed the bottom of the clay pot against the nearest wall, shattering the bottom of it.

"Sorry if I startled you, Princess," Link said sheepishly. "But I got it! Whatever it is?"

Zelda took a second to calm her heart down: she HAD been startled, and she dearly hoped they really were too far to be heard from inside the castle.

Link was examining the small green bottle that had been in the vase, holding his lamp up to it. The light was getting rather dim, showing that Link's magic was really starting to run low.

Zelda grabbed the bottle, eyes wide. "Could it be…?"

She removed the stopper and sniffed the content: the only way to describe the smell was 'green': a mix of grass, pine and lime. What really sold it, however, was the effect when inhaled: a strange sort of buzz in her head. She grinned and handed it back to Link.

"It's green potion!" she exclaimed. "Drink it! It will make your lamp last longer!" An idea struck and she pulled her hand back just as Link was reaching for the potion. "Wait. How much magic DO you know?"

"I'm just starting to learn," Link's said, pulling his hand back. "I can use tools like that lamp, that's pretty much it. I was thinking too, it'd be better if YOU had your magic back than me. It's exhausted from the calls, right?" he asked, pointing at his head on the word 'calls'. "They stopped."

Zelda nodded, her eyes on the small bottle. "I know a handful of spells," she said. "I will drink this. Keep the lamp a bit longer: this is such a small dose that it will only restore a bit of magic so it's best I save it until you're almost completely out yourself."

"Yes, Princess," Link said with a quick bow. "Besides, if we run into anything dangerous, it's better if I can fight without worrying that you won't be able to use the lamp if I die."

Zelda had thankfully already swallowed the potion, else she would have choked on it. Her eyes widened as she met Link's. She was absolutely not prepared to face the possibility of his dying for her. She probably should have been, but the mere idea was almost enough to bring tears to her eyes.

"I… I think we're safe for now," she said. "There shouldn't be anything dangerous down here. Besides, I will need you once we're out, so I need you to do your best NOT to die. All right?"

The announcement that he would definitely get to keep helping her once they were out sent Link's heart into overdrive again.

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "Yes! I will be careful. You can count on me, Princess! I will do anything you need me to!"

She smiled. Link's heart started hammering harder.

"Thank you," she said softly. "Let's get going."

They made their way back to the locked door, Link in a sort of happy daze he couldn't work out the willpower to get out of. Zelda tried the key and the door opened easily.

Their joy at putting another room between them and the castle was tainted by the smell that slammed into them.

"The sewers," Zelda said. "This is the right way. Unfortunately."

Link looked around, resisting the urge to pinch his nose: chances were good that the smell wasn't going away anytime soon, and he was better off keeping his hands free and getting used to the stench.

The door had led them to one side of a tunnel that stretched as far as the lamp's light could show both to their right and to their left. The lamp could only light a few steps around them, so that wasn't saying much, but it still left them not knowing which way to go.

The floor was softly slanted, keeping the waste water in an indoor river of sorts that didn't reach the edge of the tunnel, allowing people to walk on the sides, if awkwardly due to the narrowness and the slant, without getting their boots in the sewage. Link extended his arm forward to see the far wall. He could barely make it out, but a deeper darkness indicated that across the water was a third way they could choose: a different tunnel meeting this one right across from the door they'd just gone through.

He turned to the Princess.

"Do you know which way to go?" he asked.

She pinched her lips, breathing a bit fast. "Right is right and then again… hide and seek something something… water? Something about duty first…" she groaned in frustration. "I should KNOW this! I used to recite this from start to finish, no problem! Why is it not coming to me now?"

Link swallowed. It was pretty clear that Zelda had been taught some kind of rhyme or poem that included directions for using the secret passage, and she was beating herself up for not being able to remember it all perfectly after being tossed in the dungeon to be sacrificed in the morning, nearly dying and by so doing dooming the whole Kingdom, and finding her father's corpse, all thanks to a man both she and her father had trusted completely.

"Your Highness…" he started, intent on telling her that with the night she'd had, it wouldn't be fair to expect her head to be at its best.

"Pride yields to duty… pretty sure that's in there…" she said. "I think we go forward. Right through the muck. If we could avoid it, pride wouldn't have to yield to duty."

Link's eyes widened: even when not at her best, her mind still had enough sharpness to remember what they needed to know.

He offered his hand again. "I still don't know when the lamp will go out completely," he said sheepishly. "It feels harder to keep it on."

"Yes, it's dimming," she said, taking his hand. "When it gets too weak, I'll ask you to pass it over."

Link's mind didn't supply him with an answer, focusing instead on the renewed feeling of her hand in his.

She started walking forward. Link followed, stepping right into the sewage water after her to reach the tunnel that met this one right across from their position.

Zelda barely held back a scream of frustration when they found themselves, for the fifth time since they'd entered the sewers, at a dead end.

She'd been holding the lamp for a while now, having taken it from Link three dead ends ago. It had flared brighter in her hands at first, but it was now at the level it had been for Link when they'd first lit it, in the 'hide and seek' room.

She turned around, jaw and fists clenched and eyes cast down. She didn't trust herself to speak, but Link could see as well as her that they needed to turn around yet again.

"We're bound to run out of wrong ways to go sooner than later!" Link said enthusiastically.

She looked up to find him smiling and giving a thumbs up.

It was sweet how much he believed in her. Even though…

Even though she had forced him into an impossible situation with her calls and put his very life in danger. Even though she had scarred him for life by making him kill Sir Tagon and cause his sword teacher's death. Even though she'd gotten him so hurt he'd barely been able to walk or talk from the pain by the time she managed to get him a red potion. Even though she couldn't remember the way out, even though they'd probably wander this labyrinth until the stench straight up poisoned them or Aghanim found them and this ended up being all for nothing because she couldn't remember a stupid poem!

The fact was, even though they'd made it here, it seemed like all was lost. The instructions had been vital, and she didn't remember them. The quest to stop Aghanim and Ganon was already, for all intents and purposes, over. They were going to be caught before they found the exit because they were never going to find the exit and Aghanim would eventually be able to locate them with his magic.

Believing in her might be sweet, but mostly, it was a mistake. She couldn't keep deceiving Link like this, it wasn't fair. He'd never see his fifteenth birthday, he would be dead before he saw the sun or breathed fresh air again, whether it happened a few hours from now or more. He deserved to understand that she'd doomed him for nothing.

Her lips started trembling and her eyes flooded. "No," she whimpered. "We're not going to run out of wrong ways to go. We're not going to find the exit. I'm sorry, Link. I'm… I'm so…" She didn't manage another word, a sob escaping instead. She threw her hands on her mouth, horrified at her display, but her chest just heaved harder, her eyes overflowed and her knees gave out.

Link just managed to catch the Princess before she fell on her knees in the sewage they were wading in. He didn't have permission to hold her like this, and it wasn't the only way to save both their lives this time, but he didn't really mind if she got angry with him: it was better than letting her fall on her hands and knees in the filth.

He swallowed. She was a dead weight, shaking and trembling and sobbing like a child. He couldn't blame her: the exhaustion of the night was just catching up to her, and she was angry with herself for not being able to find the right way to go, and she was probably still scared Aghanim would eventually find her. He'd had his own moment of panic at that locked door forever ago, much to his shame: as a knight in training, it was his job to stay strong no matter what.

He wished there was something he could do to make the Princess feel better. He really did believe they'd find the way out eventually, even if they ended up having to feel their way around in complete darkness, so he wasn't worried about that so much, but he couldn't stand to see her so miserable. It wasn't fair, she had never done anything to deserve anything bad at all happening to her. The Princess was Hyrule's beacon of light and goodness, she was their pride and joy, she was so kind and so smart, she was like a beautiful flower blooming in a field, she should have been happy, she should have been safe, and she should still have had a father.

He knew how much it hurt to have lost his uncle, so he knew how painful it must be to have lost her father. And it was on top of everything else!

He suddenly realized he had pulled her up and was now hugging her.

He froze.

When had THAT happened? He tried to pull away, but her arms tightened around his back. Her head was dug into his chest and although she was still crying, she seemed to be calming down.

He gulped. And then he took a deep breath: now was the time to boost her courage.

"Princess…" he said softly. "We WILL find a way out. We got to. We didn't see that many paths so far, we'll find the right one sooner or later because there can only be so many wrong ones."

"We don't know that… if I just remembered the rhyme…" she said.

Her voice was thick and wet, full of hurt and guilt.

"You did remember a lot of it," Link said. "I can't believe you did, to be honest, after everything? You're amazing."

She groaned and pulled away slightly, looking up at him. "This rhyme was drilled into me since before I could talk!" she cried out. "Father and I used to say it together daily! But then we just… stopped." She paused and her eyes shifted to the side and downward. She stepped away absently, crossing her arms with two fingers of one hand on her lips in a thoughtful pose. "A few years back… we stopped. Why…? Father… and me too… did feel that with Aghanim on our side, we were safer than we'd ever been, but…"

Link tilted his head, trying to ignore how awkward his arms now felt, just hanging loose at his sides. "I wonder if he used magic to make you feel like that," he pondered. "He could have, couldn't he?"

Zelda sighed. "Maybe," she said. She shook her head and glanced at the lamp. "Let's go. If you're right and we are to find an exit eventually, I really would rather sooner than later, and definitely before we lose our light. I'm… not sure we will, I'm really not." She glanced at him, her lip trembling slightly again. "But for Hyrule's sake, we must keep trying."

"We WILL find a way out, Princess!" Link said again. "I know it!"

Zelda nodded. In their positions, maybe a bit of hope wasn't such a bad thing to have.

They turned back the way they had come, and when they reached the last fork they had encountered, took the path they hadn't tried yet.

Link's optimism was soon validated: they found the exit at the end of the next path they took. Zelda nearly cried in relief at the sight of the door. She put her hand on the handle and took a deep breath. "From here on, the path is easy. Dearest Hylia," she breathed, "please don't be locked…"

Link was not about to allow himself to panic for a mere locked door again. "If it's locked, I will break through it even if my bones break first!" he said vehemently. "I will NOT allow a lock to keep you in here any longer, Princess!"

Zelda's heart leapt. Another grandiose statement said with not a hint of irony or deception. He meant every word of it, again. She tried the handle, praying once more for the door not to be locked, but this time because she really didn't want Link to hurt himself on it.

The door opened without difficulty. Fresh air and light washed over them: the room beyond was brightly lit and free of sewage.

Link caught his first good look at the Princess since the dungeon and his relief turned to fury.

When he'd last seen the Princess in decent light, he'd been in so much pain and so focused on escaping the castle that he had filed away what he'd seen as "Not Dangerous, Just Get Her Out of Here Already". He'd filed it away so well that he hadn't thought of it since.

Now, though? They were very nearly out, they weren't being followed, it was just a matter of getting to wherever this secret passage led. He couldn't work up a sense of imminent doom anymore: the first part of his mission, rescuing the Princess, was done or as good as. Which left room to worry about non life threatening things like the dark circles under her reddened eyes, and the dust caked on the skin dampened by her tears. And most of all, the bruise on her cheek.

Aghanim and his puppets hadn't been content to capture her and terrify her, they hadn't been content with killing her father, they hadn't been content with throwing her in a dungeon and telling her she and her Kingdom would die at dawn: they'd HIT her.

"Princess…" he heard himself through a snarl. "Who was it? Who…"

She blinked at him and tilted her head. Link already knew Aghanim was behind this, so why ask? And why was he looking suddenly so angry? "What… do you mean?" she asked.

"Your cheek is bruised," Link said. His voice was lower than usual, almost a growl, and his eyes had gone hard. "Who hit you?"

Zelda's eyes widened. Aghanim had intended to kill her, but Link seemed to think the fact she'd been hit was another crime to add to the pile. She supposed it was.

"Aghanim himself," she answered honestly. "I was yelling at him. It's just a bruise, it doesn't hurt anymore. Don't worry. Please."

Link bared his teeth, realized what he was doing and forced himself to take a deep breath. He couldn't change the past, he needed to look forward. "As long as I draw breath, I will dedicate myself to making sure that vile traitor pays for that in addition to everything else!" He took another deep breath. "I'm so sorry this all happened. Even the parts that aren't quite as bad as the rest."

To his horror, Link's voice caught in his throat and he croaked. Belatedly, he realized the world had gone blurry. In the grand scheme of thing, the Princess having a bruise didn't matter, not really. As long as she was alive, Aghanim could not open the way for Ganon to come to Hyrule, so as long as she was alive, bruised or not, the Kingdom was safe. They were at that point, the point where everything was at stake, where pain for a few no longer mattered, where the deaths of Yavvo and Sir Tagon and even that of his uncle were merely sad, and not the worst case scenario by far because it was weighted against the death of thousands.

Except that it wasn't merely sad: there was no merely about it. It hurt, it hurt so much, and now that Link wasn't so afraid anymore that the Princess wouldn't escape, it seemed to hurt even more. And Aghanim hitting the Princess he meant to kill anyway, hard enough to leave a bruise, even if it was probably not at all necessary to subdue her… it just brought it all home. This was where they were, this was how evil the people they were up against were. It was completely possible that more people would die before it was over and he wasn't sure he'd care about them as much as he should because he'd already lost his uncle…

His thoughts cut short and his eyes, which he hadn't even noticed were closed, flew open: Zelda's hand was on his shoulder.

He froze: her face, with the dirt caked on the dry tears, the red eyes and the dark bags, and the bruise, was about a hand's width away from his own.

"I'm so sorry too," she said softly.

Her eyes were locked on his, and nestled in the blood shot red of her cornea were the sky blue irises, as if to show that not all that was good had yet been lost. Link swallowed and the world went blurry again. He groaned and wiped at his eyes angrily. He had to be careful not to hit the Princess as he reached for his own face, she was that close.

What a protector he was proving to be: she'd had to give him her only red potion, she'd had to take over holding the lamp, he'd been incapable of helping her navigate this secret passage, and now he was falling apart and even if the rest of the way was going to be easy, they hadn't actually reached safety yet.

"I… I'm sorry," he repeated. He gulped and took a deep breath. "I… I'll get a grip now."

Zelda pinched her lips. Seeing him so upset echoed her own feelings, and she was fighting hard not to be overwhelmed herself by the loss of her father. The only thing that was keeping her from huddling in a corner and crying forever, right now, was the thought that Link had gone through all this to get her to safety, and at least two other men had died in the process, and she could not allow it to be in vain.

Thinking of the dead and of her father among them suddenly made her wonder about Link's own 'father': his uncle, Sir Gedion, had been raising Link since he was a baby following Link's birth parents both dying in the war that had been going on at the time. She would have been hard pressed to explain why she knew this. But the important thing was that as a knight, Gedion was one of the people Zelda had hoped would hear her calls, and the thought now occurred to her that there was no way Link's uncle would have allowed his nephew, a mere guard in training, to come to her aid on his own. Not if he was at all capable of stopping him.

"Nothing about tonight is at all fair or bearable," she said. "But thanks to you, we're both alive, and Hyrule still has a chance." She let go of his shoulder.

He stood stiff for a moment, then nodded. They entered the brightly lit room together, closing the door on the darkness and stench of the sewers.

Zelda immediately started explaining that this room was connected to a secret treasury and showed him a spot on the ceiling that was actually an entrance you could access through the cemetery.

She explained next that the light was from old Sheikah lamps that never went out, babbling for a while about how much Sheikah technology had been lost but how much was still around.

Link listened intently. For one thing, he liked listening to her; and for another, he thought she was probably trying to keep herself from dwelling on what they'd just been through by focusing on anything else she could think of at all.

After a few twists and turns, and a few staircases going back up to ground level, they found themselves in a small room with two levers.

Zelda stopped talking and licked her lips. She looked around, her eyes gradually getting wider and her face, paler.

"Princess?" Link asked. "Is there a problem? If this isn't the right place, it's all right, we'll go back. I will see you to safety, no matter what!"

"It's the right place," she said. She swallowed. "Two levers… that's in the rhyme. A trap… one of them is a trap! But… but…"

Her pitch was rising on every word. Link frowned: she was panicking because she couldn't remember the right lever. He had to reassure her.

"I can handle whatever a trap throws at us," he said, drawing his sword and smiling. "No worries."

"Power and Wisdom and Courage…" Zelda muttered, walking to one of the levers. "This one has Nayru's symbol. What about the other one?" she asked.

Link walked over and looked. The lever was adorned with the three wavy lines representing the Golden Goddess of Power. "Din," he said.

"Power or Wisdom," Zelda said.

She was breathing quickly, and she panted a bit on the words.

"The Royal Family is said to be blessed with wisdom, isn't it?" Link said. "That's probably the right one then."

Zelda whimpered, crouching and holding her head.

"It wasn't that straightforward," she whimpered. "Balance. I remember Father talking about the balance when he explained that part… why can't I just recite it!" she moaned. "Why did I let myself forget? The trap could be lava yet! Or spikes coming out of everywhere…!"

Link swallowed. There was no denying he wouldn't be able to do much about something like that, sword or not.

He racked his brains. Balance, and two out of three Golden Goddesses on the levers…

"If power and wisdom are here, maybe we need to bring courage?" he said, throwing a guess. "Er, not sure what that would look like. Maybe hit both levers? Or pull them, I guess."

Zelda's eyes widened and she whipped her head towards him. "The missing one… choose balance! That's what it was! We have to choose balance!" She got up and started pacing. "But how…?"

"You think we DO have to show courage?" Link asked. "Are you sure we don't hit them, like… a battle kind of thing? Is there a combat pose or something we have to do? It's weird though, you'd think just getting here was already showing courage, wouldn't you? I mean, braving the dark is sort of symbolic, isn't it?"

Zelda's eyes widened and she gasped. "YES!" she said. "Yes! Link! I could kiss you! You're a genius!"

Link's genius brain did not catch that last sentence, the idea of the Princess kissing him having temporarily stopped his ability to register anything else at all.

Zelda didn't notice.

"We did show courage!" she exclaimed happily. "AND wisdom! It was a maze, and there was a rhyme I was supposed to remember and interpret! Link, pull the Din lever! The only thing we haven't used is power, because we haven't needed it! That's the balance!"

Link caught his name but not the rest. He blinked at the Princess. She had found the answer, and asked him to do something, and she looked so relieved and happy, and her smile was downright radiant.

And he had no idea what she'd just asked him to do. Her off-hand mention that she could kiss him had brought visions where she concluded they had to kiss to honor the other aspect of Nayru: love. It was a shameful thought, and he really wished he hadn't had it, and he knew very well that it wasn't going to happen, but the idea had taken just a bit too long to fade for him to understand what the Princess had actually asked him to do.

"Er…" he started. He wasn't sure how to explain without making his disrespect even worse.

"I'm 100% sure," she said. "I don't remember the phrasing, but I remember now, it's power. We have to choose power for balance. People never choose power because it reminds them of Ganon and the imprisoning war, so it's counterintuitive, but that's the answer! Go on, pull it and don't worry!"

Link hurried to do as bid, cursing himself under his breath. He'd made her think he was questioning her judgement, he'd made her think she had to explain herself. He was an idiot. He was an absolute idiot. But how was he going to explain he hadn't doubted her? That would involve submitting her to his base fantasies.

"I wasn't doubting you," he settled for saying, "I'm sorry. My mind was…" he shook his head. "I'm sorry."

He pulled the lever, and the wall opposite the staircase they'd entered the room from slid sideways, revealing the sanctuary and a very surprised looking priest.