-Zora Cavern, Link-

"We should leave here before we make things worse for ourselves." Link said.

This dimmed Ruto's excitement. "But... I." She whispered. She pouted slightly. It was rather cute, but Link just shook his head and started through the exit. Sighing sadly, she clasped the metal firmly around her jaw again and followed. Link waited just outside the hiding spot and, to her surprise, helped her step out.

"You should probably return to Prise. He can protect you right?"

Ruto nodded. Her eyes conveyed worry.

"Then have a good night and don't fret, I'll be careful." Link smiled. "I'm used to getting in trouble."

Much as he wanted to comfort her, he knew he was screwed. Link watched her enter the hole leading to where the Siren stayed. Link could return to the barracks, but felt it was dangerous at that moment and he didn't want to further impose on Len. Rather, Link returned to the hiding place and sat in a corner to sleep. He would face punishment the next day. His triangle briefly shimmered on his hand.

Link woke and marched to the barracks. His head was high but his heart was low. He knew he was in for it. The Zora parted quickly from him as if he was cursed and the atmosphere was ominously quiet and grim. His heart fell with each step.

He was prepared to be grabbed and thrown before the centurion publicly. What he was not prepared for was for Ruto to be laying there unconscious and bloody.

"What the-" Link felt his heart chill. She wasn't moving. Long fresh scars painted her back.

"Quiet!"

The centurion kicked him in the mouth. He had a whip of cords in his hand. Fresh blood caked its ends. Link grit his teeth and resisted the hold on him. He was lifted off the ground and forced into the wall. His shirt was torn off, exposing his back as he was held by two warriors.

The centurion yelled words in Zora. Words Link could not understand. But the message was clear. He was a public example. The centurion grinned proudly at the spectacle he stood in the middle of.

The first snap of the whip was for show. The next made contact and Link yelled out. There was a second. A third. The centurion stopped and said, "Beg, huma. You attacked your greater unprovoked. Beg and I might have mercy."

Link huffed breathlessly. He had never known pain like this before. It took a moment to focus his thoughts.

Perhaps it was foolishness, perhaps Link just isn't that bright, but he said, "Thank you, master... you hit so good... May I have another?"

Someone laughed.

Instantly a fourth snap cracked across his back leaving a bloody swath, a fifth. Link was whipped a total of ten times.

With each snap the centurion grew more and more angry for Link did not beg for mercy. Link did end in tears, but the tears were of pain and anger. He saw Len watching with dread before turning her head. He saw Prise being physically restrained from interfering as Ruto was kicked around. Not a sound left her nor did she react, filling Link's heart with dread. He had seen the stillness of death enough times now to know it. The warriors all enjoyed the spectacle and the rest... the rest were indifferent.

Just what was wrong with these people?!

At last Link was dropped to the floor, limp and bloody and sobbing. The centurion stood by expectantly. What he had wanted though, he did not get. Link was not sobbing... he was laughing. He was laughing like a madman.

"What is wrong with you all!?" Link yelled. Link raised himself on his hands and knees enough to be able to look people in the eye. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU! She is your princess and you treat her like a slave! She lays there dying and not one of you will touch her! Not even those sworn to aid! We are children and you are so full of pride that you get off of torturing us. You are so afraid of your Sirens that you are becoming what you fear! Monsters!"

Having enough, the centurion stomped down on Links back, pinning him to the ground. He yelled something and a shell of salt water was brought.

Link very quickly learned salt water exposed to open wounds is both a method of cleanliness and torture. His mind blanched and he saw white searing pain. Link yelled out in agony until blood escaped his mouth. Every muscle in his body quivered as if electrified. All that remained of thought turned to prayer. He prayed that anyone who was listening would. His natural stubbornness kept him conscious no matter how he wished otherwise.

The triangle on his hand shimmered.

Link awoke screaming painfully in the hiding spot.

Link fell on his face, dizzy and delirious from pain. His muscles from his head to his waist continued to shake violently as they clenched and unclenched themselves, rebelling against the treatment they had been given. Link released a bloody scream as a spasm clenched his chest tightly against his still-healing ribs.

Link did not know how long he laid there with water running across his face. He did not know how long he shook and quivered and screamed and whimpered. Time had changed for him. At some moments it extended on for seemingly days, and at other moments it passed in the blink of an eye. At last he felt he could move his fingers of his own volition, and he struggled on shaky arms to raise himself. He coughed violently. He put a shaky finger on his lips and drew them away to find redness.

Slowly, Link raised his hand and touched his back beneath his shirt. He flinched as he felt it. The wounds were still there. His clothes had repaired themselves, but his body...

Link had never in his life experienced such pain before. It was beyond anything he could imagine. It was no wonder his body was acting up. In his mind what the bastard had just done to him was immoral. It was beyond mere punishment or torture... it was as if he got off on it. And from the looks he saw on the other Zora...

They were messed up. They were so afraid of the Siren, yet obeyed, while the Siren were afraid of them as well, and acted as leaders. The Zora were afraid of their masters just as much as they were afraid to be anything but the servants. While Link did not fully grasp it, Farore had put into their very souls the place they wished to be, and so the Zora were drawn to follow the Siren just as much as they were afraid of the Siren. It was a twisted circle where the rulers and those ruled were equally enslaved to their place.

Link wanted to run out and bash every one of their heads, but he knew he couldn't. He was weaker than the centurion at his prime, and Link was wounded. Well... now his recovery would only be set back further.

Not only was Link weaker, but he knew that he just could not grasp them. The Zora were more than different. Their culture, their problems, their social structure, all of it was completely and utterly alien to him. The only thing Link could grasp was that their Warrior's pride was similar to that of human nobles who easily get offended. So even if Link wanted to do something about it, what could he do? Just go and tell them to think like him? Something told Link it wasn't that simple.

But what was simple is that Link had used his power again. This was self-evident to him. He felt it. He had started getting used to it against Zant, though he could not control it consciously. Either the power had a mind of its own, or Farore had him going through it like a mother telling her child to take his first baby steps; because this time Link felt he had triggered it somehow without actually going through the process of nearly dying.

Though it sure as Realms felt like he was.

No matter what, though. Link had used his power. He had stepped back in time. From the light outside, it was still night, and Link was in Ruto's little hideout... so it was still the night before.

Link crawled his way out of the hidey hole and stumbled his way to the Siren's hole. He stopped and put his hands on the wall to catch his breath. Blood flowed gently down his back from where the lash wounds were and his body rebelled against any form of movement. He wasn't cold, but his teeth chattered. After taking a deep, painful breath, Link continued on into the hole.

Link came across a cloth wall and a series of beads. Link didn't know what the Zora procedure was for this, as at home he would have had a door to knock on. He couldn't very well knock on beads. Shake them maybe? Meh. Link brushed them all aside and entered.

Crystals on the walls collected light and reflected it dimly, creating a weak green glow. There was no one in the first room. There were another set of beads further in covering two other passages. Link explored briefly and found one passage lead to a room where the older Siren slept floating in a small pool. Further exploration revealed Ruto to be sleeping in a similar pool, her face-clamp sitting to the side. At least she got a reprieve from the painful device at night.

'They have a thing for politeness... I should do this properly. Don't want them thinking I'm a thief.' He thought.

Link stepped outside the older Siren's room and beat his knuckles on the stone. At first the Siren did not stir, but after doing it repeatedly the Zora opened his eyes and briefly fell into the water before quickly, smoothly rising out. The Zora was confused as he walked towards Link, and upon seeing the boy his composure darkened.

"Huma." The Siren whispered. "What is the meaning of this intrusion?"

Link gulped. The Siren's gaze was not at all welcoming. "I apologize. For us we typically knock on doors, but as you don't have doors... I don't know what to do to gain your attention." Link leaned against the wall. His legs shook.

The Siren studied him. His eyes roved up and down. Link's weakness did not escape his attention. "And just why would you want my attention? You have done enough today. Unless you want to attack me now too."

Link chuckled darkly. 'Of course, he knows.' "Because they are going to kill her, and I don't want her to pay for my mistakes."

His eyes widened, but just as quickly they narrowed. "I don't believe you."

Link challenged, "I think you do. I don't claim to understand, but I'm not blind. The hatred is obvious even to me, Siren. Your position is a fragile thing. In fact, I suspect in your own way, you are a prisoner just as much as she is." Prise avoided Link's gaze briefly, confirming he was right. "You really think they won't use it as an excuse to make an example of her?"

"The princess was brought here for the purpose of escaping that hatred."

"And yet it seems to have followed. She may be a princess by blood, but that very blood is hated. She is no princess. She is a criminal and prisoner of war to them."

"Even so. What you did is on you. She played no part in it."

"You think I don't know that?" Link argued. "And do you think they will care? I know it sounds crazy, but I know they will do it."

"Have you heard their plans?"

"No."

"Then what proof can you offer?" Prise asked. "It is true, hatred is irrational and that hatred and fear has followed us here, but every Zora here swore a promise to keep her safe."

"And can't you see they are breaking it each and every day?" Link demanded, aghast. Prise was silent again. Link fell to his knees. He panted heavily. The conversation was taxing on what limited energy he had managed to build up again.

Link gulped. "Because I have a Gift like you."

"You have the Gift of Voice?!" Prise whisper-exclaimed.

"No. I have another Gift. One that lets me relive time." Link raised his hand and hoped his triangle was shimmering. To his relief, it was. Prise's eyes widened in awe at the sight of it. "One of the prices of the Gift... is that the wounds I gain stay with me." Link panted. His eyelids fell. "So if you want real proof... look at my back."

The Siren plucked a shining crystal off the wall and brought it close to Link. He did not touch him nor uncover his back. He didn't have to. "Your shirt is covered in blood!"

Link nodded. "It's mine. The bastard whipped me."

Now the Siren reached down and pulled up his shirt to look. Link hissed as the bloody shirt peeled away from his back and open air touched his wounds. "Holy Farore!" Prise whispered. "How many times!?"

"Don't know. Can't count." Link chuckled. "I may have challenged him to keep going... Then he poured salt-water on me."

"That would be why the wounds are not as bad as they could be."

"This could be worse?!" Link asked.

"You could be bleeding out. You're not. The bleeding is small."

"Well ain't I lucky, turns out the salt was him trying to help." Link said sarcastically. A moment later he flinched in pain. "Sorry."

"Let this be a powerful lesson then to know when to speak and when not to speak." Prise suggested.

He lowered his shirt, grabbed Link by the arm and helped him into one of the things resembling a chair. Link knew he needed to go and do something, but he complied and rested. The living furniture was very odd, and the way the appendages defied gravity and waved around in the air was highly distracting. The Siren sat in another 'chair' facing him.

"Link, is that Gift of yours why Ouki sent you?"

"I doubt it. Only a few know of it." Link rubbed his finger across his mark. "The princess of Qin. The king of the Majora. The Elder of the Fae. No one else."

"You know the Fae?" He asked in surprise.

Link nodded. "They have Gifts as well, only a lot cooler. Zelda shoots light arrows. Ganondorf has fire and shadow at his fingertips. Me? I go through my own personal Twilight Realm and get told 'Hey, guess what! You get to start again!'" He mocked in a girlish voice. He groaned and leaned back in the chair, exhausted. He flinched as his wounds touched something and adjusted himself. "Why didn't Farore give me something cool, too. The Fae guy can go from being this little lightfly to a huge statue centaur of solid stone, and he doesn't have a Gift!"

"The Fae do have Gifts. They are one with nature." Prise said.

"Ah, that could be considered one. Whatever... Do-" Link hesitated. "Do you believe me, now?"

"It sounds foolish coming from a child, but I doubt you would be the type to whip yourself that many times. And that mark... you have Farore's attention. So you have mine. It is against my better judgement, but for the sake of my prodigy I'll believe you."

That was a weight off his shoulders. He hoped he could depend on Len, but after what he saw... he didn't know anymore. He didn't want to be involved in the middle of the culture war, but he refused to sit down and do nothing when innocent people were going to suffer. He couldn't fix their political war. He couldn't cure their fear or hate. But he could do one thing, one small thing.

"Thank you." Link said.

"Do you have a plan?" Prise asked. Link shook his head. "Then allow me. We can solve this easily, we can save the princess, but it has to be done properly. And you are not going to like it."

Link gulped, "I'll do whatever it takes."