Chapter  9 : Confinement

Ghirahim placed Link in one of the several secure rooms in the building he had created for powerful hostages-ones with strong magic or who were otherwise dangerous. Zelda would end up here, too, once he caught up with her again. He hadn't seen the Sky Hero do any powerful magic yet, but he was supposed to be one of Hylia's most powerful champions. It wouldn't hurt to be cautious.

After he set Link down on the bed, he turned to the three guards behind him, addressing the highest-ranking guard in the center. "What is your name? You are up to the task of guarding the Sky Hero, I hope?"

"I am Darrow. Yes, my lord," the demon said. "I will make sure your prisoner does not escape."

"Good. Please make sure to confiscate any items he has," Ghirahim said. He had already taken the Goddess Sword and placed it in a special chest. He didn't imagine for a moment that the containment spells would prevent Fi from escaping if she wanted to, but since she had agreed not to attack the demons herself, Ghirahim guessed she would probably just wait for Link to retrieve her. She'll be waiting a long time, Ghirahim thought, smiling to himself.

"Of course, my lord. Do you have any other instructions for me?"

"Oh, certainly," Ghirahim said. "Make sure you keep a triple guard on this room. Do not keep the keys on your person or anywhere near the door—I will teleport food and any other necessary items in and out myself. If he starts making any loud noises, you should check through that small grated slot in the door to see what he is doing—that will be the most dangerous part-although I do not think I have left anything in the room that he can effectively use as a weapon through that slot, I could be wrong. Notify me as soon as he wakes up—that won't be until tomorrow morning, as I have had one of the sorcerers place a small sleeping spell on him. Also, if he makes any trouble, one of you is to notify me at once—if I am not available, fetch Orynx or—Ferrik. Understood?"

"Yes, my lord."

At that moment Ghirahim heard a loud thumping sound in the distance, as if a giant was banging on an enormous drum. The earth shook slightly. "I suspect that sound is the sound of the Sheikahs attacking our shield over the pit. I should go and give them my regards."

Ghirahim left the guard to finish confiscating Link's items and teleported to the pit. Looking over at the Sheikah temple on the other side, he saw the cause of the loud noise—two enormous, thick vines were banging incessantly on the shield. Sharpening his vision so he could see his enemies more clearly, he examined them. He saw the Sheikahs' leader directing the vines, flanked by ten of her soldiers. But they all appear to be looking into the pit. None of them have noticed me yet. I'll just have to attract their attention, I suppose.

Grinning, he projected his voice across the pit. "Tala—what are you trying to do to my shield? Beat it to death with your gardening project?"

He saw all of the Sheikahs direct their attention up to him at once. Better. I do love being the center of attention. And from the looks of shock on their faces, I'm guessing their friend Impa hasn't yet informed them that I'm still alive. How absolutely delightful. He laughed, drawing the sound out until he finally paused to catch his breath.

The vines stopped hitting the shield, and instead began hovering above it, waving lazily. Ghirahim saw one of the Sheikahs hand Tala a small gem, and then he heard her project her voice across the pit. "Lord Ghirahim," she said. "It seems you have as many lives as a cat."

"No, just a single one that's going to be a lot longer than you will try to make it. Say, guess who I caught today?"

He saw the Sheikahs tense—several drew their weapons.

He spread his arms. "The Sky Hero!"

Much to Ghirahim's disappointment, the Sheikah soldiers seemed to relax at this news.

"That is unfortunate," Tala said. "I am sure he fought bravely, however. And I am guessing he prevented you from capturing Hylia."

"Yes, he fought very bravely. He is no coward, I'll give him that. And he did buy your Goddess some extra time. But she is not safe from me yet. I have soldiers scattered all across this land. Wherever she goes, I will find her."

"Oh, good," Tala said, her voice becoming cheerful. "I was worried you might have already figured out where we are taking her next. But from what you've just told me, I suppose not. And oh, it seems you weren't trying to deceive me there. Has anyone ever told you that you are remarkably easy to read when you are gloating?"

Ghirahim scowled.

Tala only smiled. "Do not think you will catch up to her so easily now, demon lord. There is no one faster than Impa."

Link floated through blackness. A bright white light filled the darkness, slowly clearing away to reveal...wave upon wave of rolling grass.

He was in a field at midday, and the area was dotted with tents and strange, lithe four-legged animals that people rode like Loftwings. He realized he couldn't see himself. He also realized he wasn't standing but was rather floating along, his line of sight following two figures.

Two people walked in front of him, and one of them was him. Or rather, the person looked like him, but was clearly someone else. His hair and eyes were the same color, his face the mirror image of Link's, and he had the same lean build. His doppleganger even wore the same Knight's outfit, except that it was black, a color Link had never seen on a Knight before. But what was really different about him was that he was speaking to the person walking beside him, a woman in black armor with a red eye of truth emblazoned on the chest. Link didn't recognize her. She had intense golden eyes and her deep red hair was cropped to be nothing more than a patch of fuzz covering the top of her head. Link turned his attention back to the man who looked as if he was his twin.

"-the demon females are rather flirty, too. Did you know that a few of them told me today that they loved me so much they just wanted to eat my heart out? And I do mean literally eat my heart out." He took the sword slung over his back out of its scabbard and ran his fingers along it. "I had to explain to them—using the Goddess Sword—that my heart was already taken."

The woman chuckled. "No temptation for you, then, eh?"

The man's eyes widened as if in shock. He put a hand to his chest. "Did you even doubt for a moment, Aly? I am a devout man." He gave her a wide smile. "When I worship before the Goddess, my mind is as pure as-"

"Oh ho ho! Is that what you call it, Eldren?"

"You wound me with your insinuations..."

Link jumped up to a standing position and reached for his sword and shield. They weren't there. Then he realized he was standing on a bed. Checking his belt, he saw that all of his items had been taken.

Link tried to remember what had happened. He recalled the dream, of course, as he always recalled his dreams, but filed that away in his mind to be examined later. What was important was what he had been doing before...

He recalled evading the demons in the forest temple, careful not to kill a single one of them as Fi had advised. Then he had encountered Ghirahim again. He hadn't expected that—he had thought that the demon lord had died the previous day when the Sheikah boy had stabbed him. He had fought with Ghirahim, trying to make sure the demon lord didn't get to Zelda. He remembered that his adversary had broken his shield. Still, he had continued to fight. But he must have lost, he realized with a sinking sensation. Still, as long as he was alive, he could try to figure out how to escape and find Zelda again.

Link walked around the room. It was fairly large, and contained several armchairs, a table, and even a bookshelf. He saw a diamond-shaped window as well, although when he went up to it to examine it, he realized it was not made of glass but some sort of transparent stone that was as thick as the walls.

He walked up to the door and tried to open it. It was locked. Link turned away from the door, but at that moment, a slat in the door slid open and Link turned his head to see black eyes in a red face looking in. "So you're finally awake, eh?" The slat closed again.

All-in-all, the place didn't seem too unpleasant. But it also seemed impossible to escape from.

A few minutes later, there was a flash of diamonds and the demon lord appeared in the large red armchair in front of him. "I was wondering when you were going to wake up," Ghirahim said. Link snarled at him. Ghirahim gave him a bright smile. "Now, you're not going to be a sore loser, are you?" He disappeared again. "I have some questions for you," his voice said from directly behind Link. "Of course, I do recall your friend said you never speak. That's very inconvenient." He whispered those last words in Link's ear.

Link acted almost instinctively. He turned in one fluid movement and punched the demon lord's nose.

"Ow!" the demon lord backed away, putting a hand to his face. "How dare you!" He growled. He drew his sword and pointed it at Link. "Do you want to fight me again?" Link shook his head. He didn't know what he had been thinking. He knew he would have to be cleverer than that to escape from here. He had just felt so fed up with everything that had happened lately. With the world. With himself. Some hero he was turning out to be, trapped like this.

"Then don't do that," Ghirahim said. He resheathed his sword. His expression dismayed, he felt his face. Then he ran his finger down his nose, trailing yellow diamonds. "I'm very attached to my beautiful and quite perfect visage, and I would be most upset if you ruined it."

Ghirahim walked back over to Link, standing in front of him, leaning forward so their faces were only inches apart. Link wondered if the demon kept standing so close to him in order to intimidate him, or if he simply had no concept of personal space. Either way, Link still felt less afraid of him now. Maybe because of the amusement he had felt on seeing Ghirahim obsess over his face. The demon lord did have a rather attractive face, with captivating, lustrous brown eyes... Link felt his own face heat as he wondered where that thought had come from. Ghirahim was still his enemy!

The demon lord pressed something into Link's hand. Looking down, Link saw that it was his bottle of pumpkin soup.

"Is this something you can eat?"

Link nodded.

Ghirahim's white lips curled up in a smile. "Good. That was simple, then. I think I will start with yes or no questions."

He stepped back a few paces and crossed his arms. "But first, please eat some of your food, since I don't know when I'll be able to feed you again. Don't know what you can eat, you see."

As Link drank his pumpkin soup, he considered his options for escape. Obviously, he couldn't wait until the demon lord entered or left—he would probably leave the way he had come—by teleporting. There was the slat in the door. It was usually covered, and had a grate over it as well. It might be difficult to force open from the inside, but he thought he could manage it. The guard would surely notice that, though. How was the window connected to the walls? He doubted he could break it, but maybe if he could weaken it from the sides...

"I am wondering," Ghirahim said, settling down in the armchair again. "What are you thinking? What goes on in that head of yours, Sky Hero? But ah, I am getting ahead of myself. I should try something simpler first. Do you know why the Sheikahs and the demons are mortal enemies?"

Link shrugged and shook his head.

Ghirahim smiled. "You're just here to help your friend, then."

Link nodded, although there was something more to it than that now. At first, he had just wanted to find Zelda and return to the sky. But he had met the rock person, and then some strange, almost birdlike creatures that hid by pretending to be plants. When he had helped them despite his worry for Zelda, he had felt something in him change. He had never understood Pipit's attitude about being a Knight before. To Pipit, being a Knight should be it's own reward (although of course recognition with a raise in salary was not discouraged in any way). He was always saying that the smiles of the people he helped were all the thanks he needed. Link thought that maybe what Pipit actually felt was how Link had begun to feel—that he needed to help those people so that they could smile again. But even if he hadn't taken a Vow of Silence, he didn't know how to say that without sounding ridiculous.

"I see," Ghirahim said. "I suppose—you're new here, after all." His eyes suddenly brightened. "You know, let's just skip the rest of the questions I had planned and see if we can't find out what goes on in that head of yours, Sky Hero." He rose, seeming to be filled with a sudden manic energy. Some sort of necklace appeared in his hand. It was a green stone carved into the shape of a diamond. He held it out to Link. "Here. Take this."

Link hesitated. What if this was some kind of trick? Both Fi and the Sheikahs had warned him that the demons liked to trick people into doing their bidding. He tilted his head at Ghirahim.

"I said, take it," Ghirahim's eyes flashed with impatience, and he moved the necklace closer. "You'll need it where we're going, unless you want to suffocate."

Link examined Ghirahim's expression. The demon seemed to be sincere, and Link trusted his ability to read people, even if he didn't trust Ghirahim. He took the necklace and put it on, tucking it under his uniform.

Ghirahim held out his hand. "Now, take my hand. I want to show you something."

Link looked between the demon lord's outstretched hand and his face. Warily, he stretched out

his own hand and grasped the demon's. Ghirahim grinned. With his other hand, he snapped, and the world around them dissolved and shifted until they were standing amidst an entire crowd of demons. Link gave a startled yell.

"Oh, so you do make sounds, then?" Ghirahim said. "Don't worry, Sky Hero. No one here will attack you. Unless I ask them to." He released Link's hand.

Link looked around, and realized with a sinking feeling that they were at the bottom of the pit he had seen in the dream he had had in Skyloft.

"I wouldn't recommend trying to run, though. You wouldn't get very far. Please, follow me."

Link stayed close to the demon lord, watching the demons around him cautiously. Many of them cast sidelong glances at him before bowing to Ghirahim as he passed. They stopped in front of a crevasse in the floor of the pit. It was about as long as he was, although it's width would make it a tight fit, even for Link. Also, white energy crackled all across the small gap. Two demon soldiers stood on either side of it.

"I will be taking a short trip to the Lower Realms with the Sky Hero," Ghirahim said to them. The two soldiers looked between Ghirahim and Link. One of them spoke.

"As you command, my lord." They moved away from the small rip in the ground. Ghirahim placed a hand over it, and the crackling white energy faded.

"Now, it would be ever so troublesome to try to climb down there," Ghirahim said. "And entirely unnecessary." He held out his hand to Link again.

Link frowned, his heart sinking. His mind mulled over what Ghirahim had called the place earlier. The Lower Realms? He supposed that if the demons had been sealed underground, there must be some place there where they resided. But to think of actually entering that sealed-away place filled him with an unreasoning dread.

Ghirahim gave him an amused smile. "What's wrong, Sky Hero? Worried I'm going to drag you down into an eternity of torment? I promise I'll bring you back here, to the surface. I just want to show you what it's like, in our imprisonment."

Link searched his face, but didn't detect any trace of deception. He took the demon's hand again. The world shifted. They stood in a dark cavern, a single beam of sunlight streaming down the center of it. In that single beam, Link saw some grass and moss. He walked towards it, curious. Ghirahim grabbed his arm. "Look, but don't touch. Those are the only plants you will find growing here, in the Lower Realms. I won't have you treading on them—they are more valuable than any amount of gold to us." He gestured around the cavern. "This place is called the Breach. It is the only place in this realm where one can see sunlight." He looked down at Link, smiling. "But surely you want to see the rest of this realm! Let's visit the capital, shall we?" The view shifted in that way that Link was quickly becoming familiar with, and then they were standing in an enormous crowd of demons, one that dwarfed the previously overwhelming-seeming crowd he had seen in the pit. There were more demons here—more people—than he had ever seen in his life. The population of all the Hundred Isles, if they all gathered on the main island of Skyloft, wouldn't be this large. The demons around him seemed to ignore Ghirahim and Link.

"I've put an enchantment on us, so no one will notice we are here, but they will unconsciously avoid us. Otherwise," he grinned, "These are not disciplined soldiers. If they could see you here, I might not be able to stop some of them from tearing you apart."

As they walked down the wide road, demons streaming around them, Link looked around himself. The entire area was filled with fires in a thousand braziers and pits. Smoke made the air all around them a haze. He found that the necklace worked perfectly, however—he could breathe even through the thickest smoke. There were buildings made out of colossal stalagmites with doors and windows carved into them. All along the road, there were smaller dwellings and what appeared to be shops and stalls constructed of stone. The demons went about tasks that were familiar to Link. Working. Playing. Buying things from shops. There were buildings made entirely of enormous crystals. Ghirahim gestured to one of these buildings in the distance, larger than any of the others. "That's the palace," he said. "I'll take you to see it a little later."

He turned away from the building and walked towards an area with fewer buildings. Link stopped for a moment to watch the demons milling around the marketplace, trying to see what they were buying. There were mushrooms, and some kinds of unidentifiable meat...

"You might want to stay with me, unless you'd like to get lost here." Ghirahim chuckled, looking at something in the distance. "You wouldn't last very long, I warn you. The concealment enchantment on you works for demons, but not for—the others in this realm."

He turned his head towards Link. "So, what do you think so far?"

Link spread his arms out, trying to show that he thought the place was impressively large.

Ghirahim tilted his head. "I'm fairly sure that I have no idea what you're trying to express right now. Look at me? Flying bird? You need a hug?"

Link shook his head and sighed.

Ghirahim shrugged. "Ah, well. Couldn't have been that important anyway, or you would have said something."

Link gave him a sharp glare. Ghirahim grinned. "Do feel free to break your Vow of Silence at any time. I won't tell anyone!"

Link's attention moved to the enormous metal fence he saw in the distance, with the fires flaring all around the bottom. A seemingly endless crowd of figures stood on the other side of the fence.

"Ah, I see you've noticed our destination," Ghirahim said. "But before we arrive, let me tell you a tale that every demon knows, but perhaps you have not heard. Once," he began, as if reciting something he had spoken many, many times, "demons lived peacefully on the surface with the other denizens there, and the Lower Realms housed only monsters and creatures of unspeakable horror. No Sky Realm existed either. This state of the world persisted until the two beings, Hylia and Demise, came into conflict over who should be the supreme ruler of the surface. Thus began the war." Ghirahim kept his eyes on the metal fence in front of them as he spoke. "The demons, as you might have guessed, lost that war. So Hylia sealed all of us here, as punishment for challenging her supreme rule. Even the ones who surrendered were marched here, to be locked away—forever."

Link shook his head vigorously. Certainly Hylia would never do anything so cruel and petty! Even if the demons had done horrible things in the war, she wouldn't have just trapped them here for—vengeance. That went against everything she stood for. There must be something that Ghirahim didn't know.

"You shake your head, but why else do you think we are here? Hylia did not simply put us back where we came from, and seal us away from her favorites. We are not creatures of the caves, of darkness! We are creatures of light!"

He gestured ahead of them. "Almost there. This is the Eastern Boundary Gate." As they moved closer, the figures on the other side of the gate became clearer. Their motions were jerky, as if they moved on strings. And then Link realized there was something horribly wrong with them. They all looked dead, and yet they moved. The dead ones looked like demons, Sheikahs, or some amalgam of cobbled-together parts from both. All moved around each other, paying one another little mind. Their eyes, when they had them at all, stared emptily, yet hungrily at those beyond the gate. He realized with a chill that the creatures could see him, sense him. Some of them moved toward Ghirahim and him, but were stopped by the fires burning on both sides of the gate, the strong metal bars, and the long fire-tipped spears some of the demon guards on their side shoved towards those trying to climb the gate. The fires ranged in color from orange-red to a dazzling white.

"Say hello to the redeads, Link!" Ghirahim smiled brightly, gesturing towards the creatures. "You remember I said the Lower Realms weren't empty before we got here, right? Oh, no. We have our lovely friends here to keep us company in our land of eternal night!"

The creatures were horrifying to watch, but Link found he couldn't pull his gaze away from them. Whatever it was that explained how the demons got here, whatever it was that Ghirahim didn't know about how that had happened, Link realized he didn't know it, either. Somehow, he would have to find out. The demons didn't deserve this. No one did. With a sinking feeling, Link realized that Zelda had been wrong when she had said they had an entire world to save. They had three.