God Games: A Legend of Zelda

Chosen Hero

Link squinted one eye open, trying to get a feel for his bearings without anyone realizing he was awake.

It hadn't taken him long to realize he was surrounded by Yiga, and, assuming they wanted him awake to do something to him, he played comatose. He was, after all, an adept at the art of the poker face, so he just applied that principle to his entire body, remaining relaxed in spite of chains holding up his arms and chafing his wrists.

Those chains were attached to the somewhat faraway ceiling of the cave he was being held in, and besides the floors being hewn away until they were fairly even, the cave seemed quite ordinary. The Yiga guards were splitting a bunch of bananas, whispering to each other. Link rolled his eyes at that. Met one Yiga, met them all, truly.

His gaze flicked over towards the entrance- the exit, actually, that was all it was to him.

He closed his eye again and quickly relaxed his face, not wanting to risk being spotted.

"You think you're clever, don't you?" A hissing voice whispered in his ear, and Link jerked up.

A man flowed out of the shadows- he had an ashen pallor to his skin, his features were sunken and discolored with utter exhaustion, and his eyes bore no light other than the sort one sees with feverish delirium.

"The Hero of Hyrule," he growled. "Chosen by Hylia. Chosen by the Master Sword. Favored by Farore."

Link watched this man carefully. The kind of unnaturalness about him- Link recognized it, he knew it all too well. Ganondorf's darkness lurked in him, in a vessel that could not contain it, that was rotting from within.

"Little more than a boy," the man muttered, eyeing Link. "How old are you, twenty?"

'Twenty-five, you anemic ignoramus,' Link thought, but he kept his expression blank.

"Hm. Triforce of courage indeed," the man muttered. A cold smile split across his features like a chasm in an earthquake. "We'll see how long that lasts."

Link didn't let himself respond. His captor called out to the Yiga and instructed them to bring his supplies.

His supplies turned out to be a large table full of peculiar devices and solutions. Link studied them as best he could in the darkness of the cave, but nothing seemed familiar, and a knot of dread began to curl itself in his stomach.

Not a trace of it showed on his face. Even his gaze appeared unresponsive. The man glanced up at him, and seemed frustrated for a moment, but prepared a strange device- a long, slender bit of metal, with some sort of cylindrical containment unit attached and a button on the opposite end.

The shadow-man drew one of his concoctions into the device's cylindrical containment section. "Pretty little thing, isn't it?" he said. "It's capable of delivering solutions directly to the bloodstream- medicines to ease suffering, and poisons to fill your very bones with fire." He smirked and approached, and Link slid his feet under him, standing and backing away as much as he could, though he still didn't have a facial response.

His captor snapped his fingers, and several Yiga approached, holding Link still while the thin metallic piece, resembling a sewing needle in some ways, slid into the hero's arm. To the man's credit, he barely felt it- until a moment later, when sharp, deep pins and needles began spreading through his body from the injection site.

Link clenched his teeth, trying not to betray any discomfort as the poison crawled through him, the painful tingling growing deeper and spreading.

In minutes it filled his entire body, and he had to keep his fists clenched and focus on his breathing. In spite of himself, he let out the tiniest grunt of discomfort, and his torturer chuckled.

"I think that's enough for now," he said, turning towards the door with the needle in hand. "Enjoy, little hero."

Link stood there, and then knelt there, for what felt like several eternities, the discomfort incessant and almost unbearable- but it wasn't quite enough to knock him out, leaving him weathering the agony.

Finally, finally, the effects of the solution began to wear off, and Link wanted to cry from the relief.

He gave a silent sigh and closed his eyes, ready to pass out, only to hear footsteps approaching. Reluctantly, Link pried his eyes open; the strange shadowy man had returned.

"Feeling better, are we?" He hummed.

'Oh, Hylia, please no,' Link thought, at this point thoroughly done already. Nevertheless, he watched the man, face still and stoic.

This time, he affixed a device to Link's upper left arm. It secured itself painfully into his skin, and began shaving of thin layer after thin layer of skin, slowly delving deeper and compounding pain upon pain as it went.

Link was already clenching his jaw to keep eye contact with the torturer when he attached several more of the flesh-scrapers to Link's arms and legs, and then left.

Link wanted to scream, to cry, anything really; but he refused to bend to this smug, twisted creature, and so he squeezed his eyes shut and did what he did best: endure.

Astor, meanwhile, left and joined several Yiga clan members in another chamber, where they were testing various chemicals and compounds on the Master Sword in an attempt to damage it. So far, they had made no progress.

"We've tried crushing and melting too, sir," one reported to Astor, "but nothing puts so much as a scratch on it. It's like it's trying to spite us."

Astor narrowed his eyes and turned away, looking towards Link's chamber. "It is bonded to the Hero of Hyrule. As long as his will holds out, so will the blade." He walked away. "Leave it for now. I'll deal with it later."

He returned to Link's chamber. The hero was enduring the flesh-scrapers with a determination that would be admirable, if it weren't so irritating.

Still, the soul of the hero could be broken. Astor had to believe that.

Though, as Link looked up at him with the purest steel in his eyes, for a moment he wasn't so sure.