Chapter Twelve: Leaps of Faith

"What business have you in Ikana Kingdom, land where only the dead roam? This is no place for one as full of life as you. Or do you say that you wish to join the dead?"

—Sharp the Composer

The door opened to a pitch-black hallway. Link took a tentative step forward onto rough tile, Kafei following close behind.

The tile that Link stood on crumbled to dust. "Wait!" Link yelled as he grasped the narrow ledge under the door, but it was too late. Caught by surprise by the shout, Kafei slipped, and he could do nothing but try to catch himself on the doorframe as he plummeted. He missed. Hanging on by one sweaty palm, Link stretched out his right hand, grasping Kafei's arm by a narrow margin. Link's shoulder jerked painfully, but he managed to hold on despite the pain.

"You all right?" Link ground out through his teeth. He hung from the end of a narrow ledge, Kafei dangling below him with feet precariously placed on some rocks that jutted out of the stone wall.

"Y-yeah," Kafei said. "Nice catch."

"Can you climb? I can't pull us both up one-armed."

"I'll have to, then." He laughed. "Not much of a choice, is there?"

"Can you reach my pouch? I have about three lengths of rope. Tie it around my waist as best you can. It's not the best solution, but it'll work. I hope. You'll have to climb up and around me." There was a long period of silence as Kafei fished in his pouch for a rope. Kafei tied the rope in silence as Orella hovered about them nervously and Leaf rose towards the doorway to give them more light. He looked down and stilled, grasping Link's arm so hard that his hand started tingling. "Kafei?"

"Yes, Link?"

"You okay?"

"I-I think so."

"Take as long as you need."

Kafei took a deep breath. He secured the other half of the rope to his waist. He climbed up slowly, fingers barely finding purchase on the small rocks of the wall. Slowly, he made it to the top of the ledge, pulling himself over the doorframe and back to solid ground.

Link held on tight to the ledge with his left hand. In a panicked second, he switched it to the rope. He couldn't move his shoulder; his right arm couldn't hold a grip. Link shot a quick prayer to the Goddess that he would be able to hang on. He used his feet for leverage as Kafei pulled him towards the open door. The friction of Link swinging back and forth began to fray the rope as it hung over the edge.

Noticing this, Kafei braced his feet against the hard stone of the Tower and pulled with all his might. Link shot up in a flash as Kafei fell back and hit his head hard on one of the statues. The momentum caused Link to fall over in front of the door, painfully jarring his right arm as he tried to catch himself. He cried out in pain.

Link reached inside his pouch with his good arm and chugged down half a red potion. Immediately the torn ligaments in his right shoulder began to knit, and he felt better.

He held out the other half to Kafei who waved him off. "I'm fine, Link. It's just a little bump. We need to conserve our items, and besides, I'm well equipped to take care of myself."

"Let's try that again?" Link half asked. "Not my finest moment. It's been a while."

"Yeah, can't wait," Kafei said. Both of them moved back towards the open doorway.

"Leaf, Orella, could you fly down the hallway slowly so we can see what we need to get through?"

Orella bobbed shakily. Leaf just said, "Sure thing, Boss."

Leaf brightened his aura. His eerie red light shone down the hallway illuminating tall, thin statues that lined both sides. Link couldn't tell if Leaf's color was causing it, but the eyes of the statues looked as red as Kafei's. There were marked differences to these statues as well, compared to the ones outside which were short and blockish. The ones outside looked like a child's facsimile of the real thing. These stood humanlike. As if they could move if they weren't stone. From what he could see, they had uniquely carved faces. Strange.

Orella flew after him. Her golden light confirmed Link's observation. It showed figures in tight clothing, some male, some female. The one at the end of the hall differed. The longhaired figure stood tall, with wings outspread, clothed in a loose robe that fell to her ankles. The sculptor had made every detail intimate. Even from here, Link could see the wrinkles in the robe, the impressions of the veil across its face. Whoever had carved the relief had been skilled.

Still, Link looked for a switch or something they could use to get across. Nothing on the walls but those strange statues dotting the alcoves. Link, however, was an old hand at this. "Orella, fly closer to the ceiling."

She obeyed, sending shadows away to reveal a high relief. An eye. Not just any eye; the symbol of a Shiekah, teardrop and all. Link wondered what one was doing so far from Hyrule. He unslung his bow, taking steady aim at the pupil. He let the arrow fly. The shot hit true, and the relief turned red.

The room around them shook as rusty gears turned. The statues fell, their flat backs falling level with just the barest hint of a gap between them.

"Kafei, don't—" Link said, eyes still upward, but Kafei stepped forward boldly, ignoring him.

Link dashed in, lifting him bodily and setting him down to the side next to him. Not a millisecond second later, a cutting blade fell down, sliding through the air with a sharp metallic sound. Kafei's eyes widened, his heart pounding in his chest.

"Careful, Kafei," Link said. "Dungeons like to guard their secrets. Look, they're all along the gaps." Leaf drifted up so they could see the mechanisms more clearly.

"H-H-How can you be so cavalier about death? " Kafei said, his voice shaking.

"You get used to it after a while," Link shrugged. "It grows on you. I hate to be so blasé, but it's true. It's not like I value my life any less, but the danger hardly feels threatening anymore. There are patterns. Judging by the structure, this temple probably has four levels, and a large anteroom. One or two basement levels, at the most. Spikes, blades, switches, probably some sort of guardian—"

"You really are different." Kafei was looking at him, eyes troubled. "You take this so easily. How much have you gone through that no one has seen?"

Link shrugged again. "Look, I know we were arguing out there, and I know you wanted to drop it, but I don't think you can. I don't think you should."

"Link—"

"No, no, I get it. I haven't be honest with you. And it just nearly got you killed. And to tell you the truth, I should have told you a long time ago."

"Here?" Kafei asked, raising his arms, gesturing to the room. "Are you sure it's a good time?"

"Why not?" Link asked. He edged carefully to the door and took a seat. Kafei followed him, sat down beside him. "There's nothing here. We're safe, for the moment. Now's as good a time as any. We have to trust each other here."

"So," Kafei asked.

"So," Link parroted.

The question burned on the tip of Kafei's tongue. "What's the deal with that mask? Why do you have it? How did you know the Oath? You explained how you got here, but there were things you couldn't have known, couldn't have picked up. Not in three days."

"You think I could politely ask the demon mask to let the Giants go?" Kafei stared at him. Just stared. Link looked down at his dangling feet, rubbing the back of his neck. "You were there when I got it."

"I was?"

"Yeah. The moon ate me. There was a tree in the meadow. It was perfect paradise on the surface. And four little children." Link shuddered. Kafei quirked an eyebrow. Link hardly broadcasted his weaknesses. Must have been something else to affect him like that.

"They wanted to play hide and seek. I was the demonand had to find them. I gave up my masks as payment for each game. It was like stripping me down to who I was. All these faces I wore to different people, all gone. Until nothing was left. Nothing but the bare bones of who I am.

"I know masks are a big deal here, but the metaphorical…you wear a mask for so long, you forget who you are.

"And then the kid with Majora's mask gave me this, saying 'Let's play good guys against the bad guys.' And gave me that mask. I used it to defeat the demon. It was never the Skullkid's fault. He was possessed. The kid called me the 'bad guy.'" Link laughed, a bitter thing. "And when the moon disappeared, my masks returned, and the Fierce Deity mask remained. I can only use it in times of great peril."

"And you can control it?" Kafei asked, low, urgent.

"It is difficult," Link admitted, "but I can. It's a power unlike anything I've ever felt. It's righteous, but it's angry. So terribly angry."

"Masks…they bother you, don't they?"

Link didn't answer. He just stared at the veiled statue at the end of the corridor. "What they hide, what they show—Tell me, Kafei, they hide our faces, but they also show truths, truths we'd rather keep hidden." He took a deep breath. "That mask and I, we are not so different, no matter how I lie to myself."

"You're not the only one who feels that way, you know," Kafei said. He grabbed the amulet under his tunic.

"That's the Pendant of Memories," Link said, recognizing it on sight.

"Yes, the Pendant of Memories," Kafei agreed. "I wished to give it to Anju as a reminder of our time together, so she would never forget my love even when we are far apart, but it is much more than that."

"More?" Link asked.

"It is so my people will never forget the horrors that happened here, so long ago that my ancestor's ancestors cannot recall. Even now, my kindred walk the earth. I can feel them, restless in their sleep. This land is truly troubled."

"Your kin?"

"You asked me here, Link. Have you forgotten already?"

"You never told me why you were so hesitant."

Kafei looked the cut on his palm. The blood had stopped welling, but it didn't take much to cause it to flow again. He smeared it on the scarab looking pendant. It rose in the air, glimmering, projecting the scene that both fascinated and rejected Kafei.

Link watched the massacre in silence as it played before him. "I understand." He picked up a pebble and threw it into the abyss. It was a long time before he heard the faint clatter that signaled the end of its descent. "You who do not fear the dead," Link began. "When I came here the first time, that's what they referred to me as, the ghosts."

"It seems to me you don't fear much of anything," Kafei said.

Link hmmed. "I fear enough. There's more, you know, to the story. You saw the end, the transformation into that form. You never saw the others."

"More transformations?" Kafei crossed his arms.

"You wouldn't remember it, but when I first came to Termina, I'd been cursed into a little Deku Scrub form by Majora, my magic bound. I was blinded, confused. Tatl had been an enemy. Skullkid trapped us together in a partnership of convenience. Desperate days. I was so confused, without my horse or my ocarina, lost in a strange new world. Three days passed. The moon was falling; trapped in town, I couldn't do anything to stop it. On the eve of the Carnival, I raced to the top of the tower, determined to face the mask, to get my horse or my ocarina back. I got it back, but there was no time. The Moon was tearing the world to pieces."

"Wait, I was there. You stopped it," Kafei said.

Link shook his head. "No, I didn't. Not that time. I played the song that opened the Door of Time, and everything reset."

"What are you saying?"

"I wasn't telling you the whole truth. I reordered time, more than once. It was the only way I could get everything done."

"You knew the password to the Bomber's Hideout. That's how you knew the Oath, too."

"Yes," was all Link said.

"The one I remember, that was the last one, then?" Link nodded. "Goddess," Kafei breathed. It explained so much. How he knew things, how he knew them… "Wait. How many times…?" Kafei couldn't bring himself to finish the question. Link looked down, wouldn't meet his eyes.

"You and Anju? At least four, not counting the time I accidentally killed Sakon, or the times that it didn't work. The rest? I don't even remember. A dozen? A hundred?" He shrugged.

"Sakon? You killed him?" Kafei didn't like him, but he wouldn't wish death on the man. And if he had killed him, he would have never seen him at the Curiosity Shop, and would have never been able to follow him back to his hideout.

"It was an accident," Link held up his hands. "It's not as if it was permanent," he muttered.

"You said other transformations," Kafei continued. He would remember the rest to ask about it later, but he wasn't going to miss his chance now that Link had finally, finally, opened up.

"I did." He reached into his bag, pulling out the others. "Deku, Goron, Zora. The souls of those who have walked beyond, their essences held in these masks." He lifted the Deku. "I don't know his name but he was the son of the Deku King's butler." He brushed some dirt off the Goron mask. "Darmani the Hero. Goht killed him." He reached for the last mask. "Mikau."

Kafei gasped at the name. "The guitarist for the Indigo-gos!"

Link nodded. "The Gerudo pirates stole his and Lulu's eggs. He was fatally wounded when he tried to save them. This is what the Song of Healing does. I told you, with that Gibdo mask. Pamela's father had enough life in him it stripped the hurt away. That's why it was so strange when I played it for the wolf. I was fully expecting a wolf mask. Not…whatever that was. That's not how it's supposed to work." Link spread his palms "Anything else?"

"No, no, I'm quite all right," Kafei said. "You've given me a lot to think about." It explained almost everything. How he knew things, the expansive list of colors Kona gave him. To have had that many souls touching your own was something else. Kafei wondered how he was still sane.

Link rose to his feet. "Let me know if you have more questions. C'mon, let's get started. We still have a whole mess ahead of us. We good?" Link held out his hand.

Kafei shook it. "We're good."

"Let's go."

They picked their way through the falling blades until they reached the platform with the statue. The room branched off into three pathways, leading left, right, and up. The middle path was a staircase leading into darkness. Link tried the left door and then the right. Both locked.

"Middle it is then." With Leaf and Orella guiding them, they made their way up the staircase. Link stepped on a switch, and the torch on his left sparked into full flame, illuminating the room.

Nothing there, save a ledge on the other side of the room. No decorations on the walls, save for golden squares within squares and skulls with dark red eyes. Link unslung his bow and aimed, but the arrow bounced off the walls and down into the abyss. His keen eyes did note how one arrow didn't follow the ricochet, veering off to the side. He smiled.

Link pulled out a strange purple object, looking through its clear lens, before it magically disappeared. He shone with a barely perceptible aura. "I see the way we are supposed to go. C'mon, follow me." He started to lead them towards the abyss, preparing to jump.

"Link? There's nothing there," Kafei said, bewildered.

"Sure there is! C'mon," Link pulled on his wrist. "Let's jump!"

"Ow! Hey!"

"C'mon, take my hand," Link said.

"Link," Kafei began, taking a step back.

"I'm serious. Don't you trust me?" Link said. "We talked about this. Have a little faith."

"It's natural to have doubts, Link."

"It's also natural to overcome them, Kafei. You followed me this far. Don't think about it." With that comment, he took his hand and jumped. For a moment, Kafei experienced weightlessness, his world paused, and then they landed safely on a platform. An invisible platform. Kafei stomped his foot, peering at the abyss which lay underneath them. They followed the jagged trail to the other side of the wall, stopping only to grab a key hidden in a chest in a small cut in the wall. Link put away the strange object and grinned. "See?"

Kafei gaped. "I should have known," he muttered, shaking his head. "I have a new philosophy now. If I don't believe you, then I should believe you."

Link grinned. "There's a reason they call it a leap of faith. Sometimes you just have to believe. In others, in yourself." Link looked down. "I've known that for a long time," he muttered. "I'd just forgotten."

"What's that little glass?" Kafei asked.

"This old thing?" He pulled it out, handing it to Kafei. "It's the Eye of Truth. Shows things hidden to the naked eye. Lets you see illusions."

Kafei held it reverently. "It looks like the shrine they found at the burnt out home of my grandparents," he said. "A crying eye." He looked through it, seeing the white stone pathway. Exceptional.

"Huh? It's the Shiekah symbol. Something you're not telling me, Kafei?"

The word sent a jolt directly up Kafei's spine. "Sheikah?" he repeated. "What's that?"

"Who," Link corrected. "A tribe of Shadow warriors. They guard over the Royal Family in Hyrule. They were nearly wiped out in the Civil War. It started long before I was born and ended a short time after."

"Do you think it's possible some may have fled here?" Kafei asked, wonder in his tone.

"Who knows? It was before I was born. There are gossip stones here, and I found another mask of truth here, so it's very possible." Link opened the door into a room with a small tree—whose leaves touched the ceiling-and a puddle of water in the floor. "Because that's not ominous at all. Be ready, Kafei."

Kafei drew Shadowheart. "What is it?"

Link grinned. "I don't know yet but we're about to find out. Aren't you excited?"

"Ecstatic," Kafei said flatly.

They didn't have to wait long. A hidden door opened in the wall and one of the square squat statues popped out. The stone around it broke, and the small wiry figure inside uncurled itself with a hiss.

"Leaf, you have any idea what that is?"

"What do I look like? An archive?" Leaf huffed.

"Orella?"

"I'd call it a Dancer." She swooped in closer, dodging its flailing arms. "I think their heart is where they're vulnerable." Her glow dimmed. "Sorry I don't know more."

"It's fine. Thanks," Link said, drawing the Gilded sword. He jumped down from the ledge. He rolled his neck and jumped at it. His sword bounced back.

"Plan two." He slowly circled around the rock-and-wire automaton, slashing at it, testing its defenses. It seemed impenetrable as it deflected every blow. He bashed it with his shield, knocking it back, but it still stood up and spun towards him, as inexorable as ever.

Leaf flew down and divebombed the Dancer, spinning and spewing fire at it. It confused it enough for Link to fish in his bag and pull out a bomb. He sparked it with quick manipulation of his magic and sent it careening towards the figure.

It exploded, showering the room in rock. A smaller figure jumped out of the rubble, and cracked its whiplike appendage at Link, catching him in the neck. He dropped his sword, struggling to keep it from choking him.

Kafei made an aborted movement to jump down, but Link kicked out, catching it in the face. It dropped him with a hiss, and Link fell back, doing a handspring to keep from breaking his neck. He picked up his sword and creepy looking shield and sheathed them, reaching into his bag for another bomb.

He threw it, and again his aim was true as it cracked to show a pulsating purple mass surrounded by a third stone and wire figure. This one was mostly wire, and it squeaked in rage as it attempted to trap Link in its hold again. He was too smart for it this time, and as it sent tendrils out his way, Link thrust once, twice, thrice into the heart, killing it.

"Well, that was fun," Link said, wiping the sweat away with the back of one gauntleted hand.

"You and I need to talk about your definition of fun," Kafei said.

The wall the figure had appeared from remained open. Link pulled out a worn map from the pieces of a broken chest. It was cradled in the arms of a skeleton. He pulled it open. Well, he hadn't been wrong about the layout, but he hadn't been quite right either. Three floors, and one underlevel. The first anteroom they were in stretched the entirety of the dungeon. He climbed back up, and soon they were on their way.

Link didn't know if he'd just been out of practice for a while, but the whole thing seemed absurd and suspiciously empty. Most of the other places he'd been in had the thread of something alive. Not this one. Even the castle and the Tower had been lively. In a given sense, anyway.

Kafei followed along in silence. He stuck to his conclusion he'd made earlier; here, Link was in his element. He didn't show this side to the world, and for good reason. There was a spark in his eyes as they worked their way through a myriad of rooms, each one more difficult than the last. Kafei had little to do. Link really meant it when he said he wouldn't let anything harm him. Link did most of the work and with ease. Rooms of fantastic monsters, of deadly traps, nothing seemed to faze him.

Kafei didn't have that luxury. He was sitting on three soul-searching revelations, one right after the other. The first had him cursing his own stupidity. The whole time Link had been here, he would have been able to answer the questions Kafei had about the shrine, about his heritage. He could have known sooner.

The second was the revelation about the masks. He clutched at the chain of the pendant, frowning. It really tied into the third. Kafei had let it blow past him, but what did it mean? Transformation masks, a time loop, dimension crossing, it all seemed strange and unbelievable. Magic was one thing, but this was beyond that, something in the realm of the Gods and the Great Fairies, more than a mortal man should know.

Chosen by the Gods indeed. And to think, this was the man that settled for being Captain of the Guard, when he had done so much more. So much good.

The transformations where a little easier to understand. He'd seen it at work, after all. But moving backwards through time…What wasn't he telling him? The times that it didn't work? Kafei thought back. How would it feel to repeatedly fail? To try and try and try again, knowing nothing you did would stick? What was the drive to keep going? Then again, if you messed up there would be no consequences. If you wanted to be cruel, no one would ever know. What was the reason he didn't meet his eyes?

He looked back on that time in a new light, all the little things that didn't make sense, all the little things he knew, finally slotting into place. What had he been thinking, he had wondered at the time, seeing the strange little stoic-faced boy in the meeting in the back room. So quiet, so serious, so tired…The only person who cared, his only chance to be reunited with his love. How many times had he witnessed that scene, only to fail later?

The mechanics of it hurt his head. Kafei felt relief at the distraction as they came to a stop in front of an ominous looking door. Link pushed it open slowly.

They saw nothing but eyes. The whole room was covered in them. Murals, statues, carvings, wood reliefs. Some looked like they'd been done in rudimentary finger paint, by someone with no knowledge on how to hold a carving knife, while others looked like they had been done by a master artist. They moved into the room cautiously. It appeared empty, but there was a door on the far side of the room. That door had to lead to the information they needed. They'd investigated every other room at this level on the blasted map.

"Kafei," Link said, voice low, urgent. "I think you need to leave the room. Now!"

But it was too late. The door slammed shut, nearly catching Kafei's hand.

A figure dropped down from the ceiling. He wore tattered, bloodstained purple, and a silver helm tarnished with age. A Garo. An honest-to-Gods Garo.

"I defeated you, Garo Master!" Link shouted. "Three times!" Link had already drawn sword and frightening looking shield. "You can stand down. We all know how this is going to end."

Not just any Garo. The Garo master, Kafei thought. Four is death.

"Agessss," it whispered. "Agesss I have been trapped here, under the cowl of these men of Ikana. No longer."

It jumped in front of Link. "You who do not fear the dead…" It unsheathed one sharp thin blade from its left sleeve and slashed it in Link's direction.

"Kafei, something's different," Link said. "It isn't like last time. Be careful."

Kafei felt eyes boring into him. "You who bear the taint of the tyrants," It unsheathed another blade from its right sleeve and did likewise in Kafei's direction.

"You shall join this blood-soaked land." It stalked forward, slow methodical. "We who were peaceful once before they came!" It struck at Link, who jumped out of the way. The blade shaved a chunk of hair from his head. It was deathly sharp. He thrust again and the sword bounced out of the Garo's hand, landing with a clatter against the wall.

He brought the other sword down and Link twisted to parry, catching the hem of the figure's long, dusty robe. The tip of the sword caught the edge of the Garo's leg, and Link saw fresh blood. This one's not a phantom!

"They stole our land! Stole our masks!"

The long thin blade in the Garo's hand slashed down as fast as lightning. Distracted as he was by the revelation, Link had no hope of being able to dodge in time, even with all his skill. He avoided the strike that would have cleaved his head in two, but the sharp tip of the blade caught the right side of his face and tore the skin viciously. He dropped his sword and fell to his knees, hands clutching his right eye. Blood poured from the wound as he grunted in pain.

Leaf fluttered angrily at its head. "Pick on someone your own size!" He spewed a line of fire, but it just mixed with the circle the Garo already had surrounding the battlefield.

"Forced us out of our homes! The betrayers! Treasonous not once, but twice!" He cut down to finish Link off. Kafei spared no time to glance at his fallen friend; he couldn't. He dashed forward and raised Shadowheart to block the hit. CLANG!

The impact pushed him back three or four feet. He tried to recall the lessons Viscen had given him. Strike, thrust, parry. He was small and light. Speed was his friend. Except he could do no more than try to keep himself alive.

Each brutal strike forced him back; he managed to guard against each hit, just barely. It was a bit of good, as at forced him away from Link, who had staggered back to his feet, bloody hand gripping the blade, blood pouring down to mar the edge of the shield.

Orella could do nothing as she buzzed around frantically, trying to heal his wound. She could grow back a surprising amount of skin, and she could return a faded lifespark, but she could not regrow parts of the body. Her magic deadened around his eye; the strike had completely ruined it. She was not going to give up.

"Sisters, help me!" Two of the fairies that Link had bottled flew out and held hands with Orella, joining their power to hers, but it was no use. The eye was useless, the tissue loose and a danger to his health. All they could do was to stop the bleeding.

The figure had moved closer to Kafei, Link at his back. Kafei needed to choose between fire at his back or certain death at his front. "Kafei!" Link ground out. "You must disarm him!"

But how could he? He didn't have a shield or anything to work with. Charging into Sakon's hideout with a hope and a prayer was one thing. This was far different. As the Garo Master moved within striking distance, Kafei saw his death reflected in the tarnished helmet.

He spread his feet, swallowed. He narrowed his eyes and raised his blade. He would go out fighting. He pushed off from the ground to dodge the next strike. Speed was his friend. It completely surprised him when he flew over the top to land on the other side. His body felt weightless, the push effortless. The Garo turned ever so slowly, but Kafei had already jumped back, slowly leading him away from Link.

The fighting became easier the more he did it. Kafei moved faster, and at times, the Garo cast his head around, puzzled. A little more maneuvering around, and there! Blade meeting blade with as much racket as possible to disguise the thuds of Link's footsteps, and Link thrust at its shoulder.

The blade passed through. The Garo fell to its knees, helmet down, looking at its gloved hands. Link watched with one hard blue eye, covered in blood.

"To die…" it began, and then coughed and fell over.

Link looked ready to fall over himself. His shield hung low on his right side. He was using his sword as a makeshift cane. "Take his helmet off," Link said, using all his strength. His face shone pale in the dim light of the room.

Kafei nodded, and moved closer to the prone figure. He held his sword aloft, ready for anything.

The figure didn't move, so Kafei knelt beside him, and reached for the clasps on the silver helmet.

He took it off.

Shocking white hair emerged, attached to a pale face. A masculine jawline, thin pointed ears. Bags under the eyes, dark purple that spoke of sleepless nights. Scruffy, ill-groomed facial hair. Crow's eyes that spoke of middle age, but lacked the heavy lines of someone older. Mid forties or early fifties, at the most. Certainly not the centuries he spoke of, though age could be deceptive.

He breathed still, shallowly. Using the rest of the rope, Kafei tied his hands and feet. He didn't look that injured.

Kafei stood from his side and walked over to Link. Pointless, really, to ask if he were okay. He took the sword from Link, cleaning it off as best he could, and sheathed it for him. He wrapped Link's arm around his neck, and they hobbled to the wall, where he helped him down gently.

Kafei took out a canteen of water and began mopping up the blood. "It doesn't look that bad?" He offered.

Link laughed. "I was careless." He smiled, but it was broken, twisted as only one side of his mouth rose. Bitter. It made Kafei shudder. "Thanks."

"Yeah. You, too."

With the blood cleared away, Kafei assessed the damage. The right eye itself was gone, leaving a gaping healed socket, marred by a thick purple scar. A nasty wound. Orella flew around Kafei's head anxiously.

A groan sounded from behind them.

Kafei drew his sword and held the tip right at the man's throat. "Who are you?"

"Anju," the man whispered. His eyes fluttered "Pol?"

Kafei narrowed his eyes and pressed the tip into his throat. A bit of red bubbled out. "I won't ask you again. Who are you?"

The fog seemed to clear from vibrant blue eyes as he spoke. "Tortus."

It's been over a year, I know. I lost a big part of my draft when I lost my computer and the first ten or so chapters are in sore need of rewriting. It gives me a headache thinking of the massive rewrites this needs to make it shiny. I've only done quick edits to mesh it up with Hyrule Historia and Skyward Sword. I haven't even played a Link between Worlds yet, ugh. I was young when I started this, the first chapters reflect that. and I've learned so much since then. It still gets likes and faves and reviews and PMs occasionally, though, so I'll finish it for you guys.