-Link, Geoffrey-

While the rest of the group waited patiently for their turn, Link approached Geoffrey. "General, may I ask a question?"

"Certainly," Geoffrey said.

"You are an Englishman, a man far from the west, right?" Geoffrey nodded. "Then how did you come to be in Lord Ouki's service?"

Geoffrey chuckled. He tilted his head up in memory and smiled widely. "Ah, now that is a grand question. As one might imagine with that man, first impressions are as grand as the last, as crazy as the first, and one is always left questioning their accuracy. Questioning whether he is serious or in a joking mood. Or in my case... whether he was bluffing or not."

"Sounds funny," Link smiled. The others listened as well, hearing a story coming. When the topic is the Great Bird of Qin, one cannot help but be enraptured.

"Oh, it was. It was." Geoffrey laughed at some memory, then frowned briefly as he remembered something darker. "I still remember it as freshly as when it happened. You see, I was what my people would call a 'crusader.' I marched to take back precious land from the Muslim Horde that had invaded. We were bitter enemies: my people suffered under their Jihads for five hundred years with little resistance until then. Unfortunately, we fought on their terrain. There, they could use speed and raiding to their advantage, and we were but a mass of heavily armored, slow men... It did not go well. I was captured, tortured, enslaved, and finally sold to a merchant... for the price of an onion."

"An onion?!" Link gasped.

"Just an onion."

"Did these people think so little of you?! That's almost insulting! You're worth at least a city or two!"

Geoffrey laughed. "I am glad to hear you value me so highly that you would sell me for so much! But that was the normal price at the time. They captured and enslaved so many young girls, young boys, and women that the price fell to only an onion. It was a dark time for me... for all of us. But I was taken east by my new master. It turned out it was a Gerudo that bought me. I was placed at the helm of a Gerudo slave army, and we marched against Qin."

Link gasped.

"And there... as we crossed the border, there was no army. Even if there was, it would have only been a minor skirmish. We would be little more than a bug bite against a full army. Yet the Qin did not resist with a single soldier. Instead, as we came closer to a city, there was a single man on the road. The army stopped and watched him because they saw he was a very strong man simply putting on an act. He was juggling."

"Juggling," Nabooru grunted. She crossed her arms. "You cannot be serious."

"I make no joke, but only say what I witnessed," Geoffrey insisted. "Ouki Mitagi was juggling nine balls on the road. He stood unarmed in front of us, blocking the road, and juggling exactly nine balls."

"It had to be a distraction..." Link mused.

"That, too, is what I thought," Geoffrey admitted. "Our army stopped and there was a great murmur. At that time, Ouki Mitagi was still among the Ki family, known as Ou Ki, and he was much younger. He was about your age, young man." Geoffrey looked to Link. Link's eyes widened. "And by then, Ouki had earned himself enough reputation as a commander to at least be heard of by the commander of the slave army. Now I don't know if you know this, but juggling is very difficult. It takes great practice, and even then, not many men can juggle more than three balls. Ouki juggled nine. This feat alone caused my fellow soldiers pause, for if he could juggle nine balls, when they could not even juggle two, then how skilled was he in other things like combat? Was this a trap? Was this a distraction? Where was the army? In the end, we fled back to Gerudo."

Nabooru burst out laughing. "Cowards!"

"A second time we came out to fight Qin, this time with a full army of one-hundred thousand and a general at the lead. We crossed into Qin, and once more, there was no resistance. We came to a fortress to take it... and wouldn't you know it?"

"Ouki was juggling again?" Link asked.

Geoffrey shook his head, laughing. "No, no. Ouki was there, yes, but he had set up a table outside the gates of the city. He left the gates wide open and sat at the table, drinking tea as we came closer. There was not a single soldier on the walls, no army outside, and the peasants within were going about their business as usual. Confused, the general sent a few of us forward as emissaries to meet with the enemy commander. I was lucky enough to be among them. We approached, and Ouki greeted us warmly and loudly. He asked that we sit with him, drink, and discuss the terms of our surrender."

"Oh, this has to be a trap. This is obvious," Nabooru smirked.

"Exactly. There was an obvious trap. The strategist of the Gerudo army whispered amongst us that the army of Qin was hidden amongst the civilians, or were circling around to entrap us, or wanted us to take the city because it had a weakness only the Qin knew about. During all this time spent whispering amongst ourselves, Ouki watched and continued to ask that we drink tea with him. The emissaries said we would not, as it may be poisoned.

"However, I said, in my broken dialect, 'I will drink with you.' I sat at the table. Ouki said, 'Do you not fear it is poisoned as your masters do, blond-hair?' I shrugged, poured myself a drink, and spat it out as soon as it touched my lips. I yelled, 'This is poisoned!' My masters believed it to be true, decided it must have been a trap, and fled. The whole army turned around behind me and fled to Gerudo."

"Ouki poisoned you!?" Link gasped again.

"Yes!" Geoffrey yelled. "That was the worst tea I had ever tasted in my life! No man should ever suffer under such a vile concoction!"

Nabooru's eye twitched. "It wasn't poisoned... it just tasted vile."

Geoffrey continued, "Ouki said, 'Sir, that was a brilliant move. See how you are free now. Your masters have fled, believing you to be dead. Go where you wish.' I told Ouki, 'I was making no attempt to free myself, nor was I making a joke! This is the worst drink I have ever tasted! It amounts to poison! If you will allow me, I shall show you a proper drink!' And right then and there, I prepared tea as I knew it from my homeland to the best of my ability. As you can understand, the ingredients were not quite the same. I served it to him, and Ouki looked at me questioningly, perhaps contemplating if I was reversing the plot and poisoning him. He drank it anyway, and he gasped, 'This is poison!'"

"You poisoned Ouki!?" Link exclaimed.

"No, no. Please, just listen. Ouki said, 'This is poison! It burns a lust in my soul that desires more! Give me more!' So I served him more, and he drank it. He then demanded more. I made him more tea, and he drank it all again. He drank as a man addicted until it was coming out his nostrils. He said, 'I am a cured alcoholic for fine wine, and poisoned upon the need for the blond-man's tea! Sir, I must know your name!' I told him my name, and he said, 'Sir! I insist that you serve me!' I agreed. I said, 'Look, my masters have fled from you. I am far from home, believed dead by all who I have ever known except you. Give me a home, and I will serve, if only to save you from that wretched thing you called a drink, my lord.' Ouki said, 'Serve me at your wish, to act and do as you wish, but you willmake me this tea! We shall share it around the world and build an empire with it!' I told him he was drunken with the tea, and he agreed.

"I asked him, 'Sir, Lord Ouki, I have heard of your reputation from the Gerudo... and you have stopped two armies now. The first I saw was on the road where you were juggling nine balls, and the second is now. I ask you, how grand was the army you were setting up against us? Was it encircling us, preparing an ambush? Is your army here in the city, preparing to fight from within?' At my words, Ouki laughed. He said, 'Sir Geoffrey! There is no army. There was never any army. It was me, only me, both times!' In that moment, I was so amazed I swore my allegiance to him while he drank tea like a drunkard. Both of us laughed at how he had fooled the largest nation in Hyrule... not just twice, but thrice!"

Everyone listening gaped at Geoffrey. The witches, Nabooru, Link, even the Elder Fae could not believe what was said. Geoffrey smirked.

"Three times!? When was the third time?" Link asked.

"That would, admittedly, be later in our time," Geoffrey smiled. "But if you want, I shall tell you. You see, we were hired out by Gorondis as a mercenary army. In return, the wealth would be paid to Qin. Gorondis was having a sea war with the Gerudo at the time, and since Gorondis does not border Qin, the benefits to help outweighed the risk. When we heard of it, Ouki and I wished to deal a blow to the Gerudo that would help cement our reputation. We agreed and made the journey. Then we found out... the Gorons had no arrows. Trees were too scarce in their land to spare on war.

"Thankfully, Ouki had a plan. He asked the Gorons to make scarecrows and cover the boats with a roof. The Gorons did, and Ouki and I sailed out with an army of twenty men sailing ten large boats against the Gerudo. We came near them while under a great fog to make the scarecrows seem like our men. The Gerudo quickly saw the fleet and shot arrows at us. Ouki ordered for us to sit there and do nothing. During this, Ouki closed our boat's door, sat with me, and drank my tea while arrows flew at the boats. I remember... I never saw him more relaxed in all my life than when he was in danger and drinking my tea.

"The one emotion he bore was sadness. When one arrow made it between planks in the roof, flew in, and destroyed his tea cup, Ouki was done. At that point, he called for a retreat after a full day of arrows raining on us. We sailed back to Gorondis as the Gerudo cheered their victory. We returned home with, I do not exaggerate, five hundred thousand arrows. They were arrows generously donated by the Gerudo that we used against them the very next day. They actually ran out of arrows themselves after only a few hours, and we had many left to go. So we defeated the Gerudo a third time."

Geoffrey finally finished his long tale. He smiled at the looks of shock across his audience's faces. "Didn't I say first impressions are as grand as the last, as crazy as the first, and one is always left questioning their accuracy?"

-Zelda, Malon, Sarah, Ganondorf-

Sarah placed Zelda back on the floor and Ganondorf stooped down to look at the fox. He looked her over carefully as Sarah explained what happened. When she was done, Ganondorf could not help but chuckle.

"Of course," He said. "Link had to go and give her a Majoran mask... and from a salesman of all people..." Ganondorf pondered the facts and looked down at Malon, who sat at his knee.

Ganondorf inwardly grimaced. Could it really have been the same man? He thought.

He also could not help but compliment the man. "This salesman has studied our art well and is learning quickly if he found a trick only rumored among us. My mothers are right. This is beyond their skill. It is beyond anyone's skill and is meant to be permanent."

"But you can undo it?" Sarah hoped.

Zelda looked up at him, and Ganondorf met her gaze hesitantly. "I don't know. I have never tried to undo a mask this strong. I may not be able to."

"May you at least try?"

"Why?" Ganondorf questioned. "I make no argument with what you may have heard. I am a demon. I was born in a ritual, created unnaturally. I bear the mark of the Triple Goddesses on one hand and the mark of the Twilight Pantheon on the other. I became the demon I am in battle with Ouki Mitagi. You should not trust me. You should leave me. Find a new, proper home for Malon. Let the evil of the Dragmires die here... lost and forgotten like the holy relics in the prison above my head. Though you have given me a moment of sound mind back, it does not change what I am. It does not change what has been opened... and what is coming." Ganondorf looked down shamefully. "A great evil has stirred, and I cannot stop it. I cannot stop what I am or even close the door that has been opened inside me."

"Because... aren't you her friend?" Sarah asked. She was uncertain what else to say. She could not debate philosophy or life. She was a common girl, and all she knew was that they had come for a single reason. "Zelda didn't come all this way to meet with a king of a clan. She could have sent an emissary to meet on her behalf if you were just an ally. Zelda hasn't left the palace since you helped her take it... until now, for no other reason than because you are her friend."

Ganondorf stared at Sarah. Her words, the idea of friendship, washed over him. He closed his eyes in rejection. "I don't have friends."

"Funny, neither did she until she met you and Link."

"Shut it, girl. Must you always know how to answer me?" Ganondorf groaned.

"I will until you at least try! I will persist!"

Ganondorf studied her again before chuckling. "Any who call you but a simple girl knows nothing. You would stand before me, look death in the face, and make a deal with the devil for your princess. I am impressed, by a serving girl, no less. Very well, you have won me over!" Ganondorf called Zelda to approach. "I don't know if you understand me, but I will try what I can."

Zelda stepped forward and sat in front of him. Ganondorf breathed in and out. "You people are far too trusting..."

He put a hand over Zelda's face, closed his eyes, and focused. The mark of the Triple Goddesses on his hand lit, as well as Zelda's mark. Though they did not see it, Link's mark also lit. Ganondorf shuddered. He did not start immediately because he first wanted to calm himself down. That was a difficult thing to do, more difficult than ever for him. His thoughts conflicted with the thoughts of the monster beneath his skin. The thirst for blood and fire grew until he could hardly distinguish it from his real thoughts. It took great will, and a little prayer, before his focus could turn towards properly helping her.

For a brief time, Ganondorf's thoughts properly focused, and he turned his power towards Zelda. He touched her face, grasped it, and pulled. At first, what he grasped was her face, but then there was a snap of something breaking off of her. The thing in question was like a giant white scale, but it disappeared in smoke as quickly as it appeared.

Zelda shuddered, no longer having fur to cover her from the dungeon's chill. She still wore a thin nightgown from before the night she changed. Ganondorf opened his eyes and stood. "Welcome back, Princess."

"Thank you, Lord Dragmire," Zelda said slowly. She flexed her jaw, popped her neck, and struggled to stand on two feet again. "Thank you for returning me to my real form. I assure you, I will make sure the court hears of your aid. I had come to meet with you and see to your wellbeing, as a friend like Sarah said. It gladdens my heart to see you are alive, but I am also sad to see your heart is so sick."

"A sick heart from a sick soul..." Ganondorf whispered. "I am cursed."

"I know a thing or two about curses."

"Do you?" Ganondorf raised an eyebrow.

"Yes... I never told you. I've never really told anyone, though it is not a secret. I was born shortly after the battle of Chouhei."

"I know little about it, though the name sounds familiar. Many Zhao I killed spoke of it in their final moments."

"It was a quick battle that ended in a terrible tragedy. A Qin general forced a Zhao army of four-hundred thousand to surrender. After they did, he then buried them all alive."

"He..." Ganondorf's eyes twitched. For a moment, Zelda saw his fury return, but she did not fear. Fury was a thing she was well accustomed to, especially when the topic was Chouhei.

"I was a hostage in Zhao at the time. As Zhao mourned, Ryo- not yet a Chancellor- rescued my father and left my mother and me behind," Zelda explained. "As one can imagine... Zhao turned their anger on me and my mother. I was... cursed... by Chouhei. The Zhao used the event as an excuse to torture us, chase us to the outskirts of town, and beat us at every turn. I survived by wrestling dogs, and fighting, or fleeing from men to steal handfuls of rice. There was not a day where Chouhei was not in my ears or the dead were not at my back."

"You were a young girl... how could you be blamed over the general's actions?" Ganondorf asked with his rage barely restrained. "This is injustice!"

"Next time you meet a Zhao, you are free to ask them. But as a man so closely used to anger, I think perhaps you understand why."

"Because you are the closest, easiest target," Ganondorf solemnly agreed.

"Indeed. Anger can be all the same. It is... difficult to escape the trauma. I am cursed to this day. In my nightmares, I see the dead claw at me: those from Chouhei and those who my future conquests would someday kill. In my wakefulness, I see rotting corpses and demons chase me, demanding retribution and my life. Zhao would wage war with all of Qin for no other reason than to kill me. I am Chouhei to them as much as I am the Ice Witch to Qin. My first friend, Chancellor Impa, walks on her toes around me as if I were fine glass. And my mother..."

Zelda closed her eyes, taking a moment to calm herself. "Once the jewel of Qin, she gave herself over to men to survive. Curses for me were always on her lips. My own brother hated me. My ministers plot against me. Even you... when we first met... demanded my blood for the sins of my fathers."

Ganondorf did not argue the point. He had indeed done so, and so played a role among the people who made her life difficult.

"I am cursed, Ganondorf, like you," Zelda concluded.

Ganondorf gave a deep sigh before speaking. "I will acknowledge you are cursed as well as I am, but your curse is not like mine. Power is a burden. It is a shackle for those of clear conscience and divine purpose. It yokes the responsible, tasking them to make impossible decisions. Power awards neither friend, nor ally. If the price of conviction is misanthropy, then the weak truly deserve a ruler. You are guilty of nothing but living-" He stopped, hearing his own words.

Zelda reached out and took his hand. He did not stop her. He was too busy pondering his own thoughts to be bothered by her touch. He suddenly lost his will and was curious as to what her thoughts on the matter were.

"It's not what I expected," Zelda mused.

"What?"

"Your hand. I would have expected it to be more... sinister, evil, or monstrous. Perhaps it would have claws, black or red scales. But your hand is warm and soft around the callouses and scars. For a demon, your hands are amazingly human. You are a human, Ganondorf. You know what a demon is for us humans? It is a parasite. Holiness can exist unto itself, but evil cannot. It uses us as its vessel. It acts through us because it cannot survive on its own. A demon is not all you are, Ganondorf Dragmire, unless you surrender to it. So fight the parasite and find a way to purge it from you entirely."

Ganondorf said nothing. He retracted his hand and looked at it for himself.

Seeing he had no more words, Zelda said one last thing, "And be wary of your warden. That man who is far behind us. While you may not know what has happened since my arrival, know he is not to be trusted. He has tried to kill me twice now, and I suspect he will try a third time."

Ganondorf's eyes widened. He briefly looked past her to the Guardian, who stood at the dungeon's opposite end. Ganondorf clenched his fist angrily and glared.

He said, "I do not dare hope, Princess... for what hope is there for me? But I will say at the very least... that I will consider your words... and the friendship you offer."