"What are you doing, little Hylian?" Ashai's voice startled him, and he turned as she sauntered up to him, surprised. Riju let him creep on the roof of her palace—the Sand Castle, the Gerudo jokingly called it—when he couldn't sleep, but he hadn't thought anybody else knew about it.

She dropped down beside him, chuckling while he scrambled to find his slate and chalk.

Couldn't sleep.

"Nightmares again?" He hesitated for a moment before nodding. She put an arm around his shoulders, leaning into him with a sigh.

Screaming, shapeless figures. Voices he thought he might recognize, if he could hear them clearly. Guilt. His dreams were more a collection of sounds and feelings than a true dream, but they were horrifying nonetheless.

I am worried.

"About what?"

Whoever I was before I died wasn't strong enough to save anybody, even myself. How am I any different now?

It wasn't what he meant to write, but it was something that weighed on him heavily. He didn't remember anything about who he was. What Impa had told him in Kakariko had horrified him, and though she'd said she was sympathetic he couldn't believe her. Why dump all of that on him—how badly he had apparently failed, that he was the reason Hyrule was in ruins—if she knew what he'd been through? What he was going through?

"Chief Riju's been looking through old records, from before the Calamity, for that very reason."

He froze.

"Lady Urbosa kept journals—every important figure must, especially those that deal with foreign affairs. She wrote extensively of how suffocating your people were, to you and the Princess. She said you stopped talking entirely because of the pressure. Princess Mipha of the Zora apparently refused to take on the mantle of Champion if the Hylian King didn't turn you over to the Zora at one point, to get out of that. That's something you probably didn't know, right? You were raised with the fishfolk." She added with a smirk, nudging his side.

That was more information than he knew what to do with. He'd been absolutely fucking terrified for a moment, that Riju didn't trust him or, worse, thought him as much a failure as he did himself.

The Zora, though? He'd heard of them, but he'd yet to see one. Their Domain had been inaccessible since the Calamity to all but the most determined travelers, Barta had told him once. A tingle ran down his spine—hope? Excitement?—and he knew immediately that he would be heading there after Vah Naboris was stopped. Maybe they knew something of his past. Or could, at the very least, answer some questions.

Why? What's that got to do with it?

Ashai rolled her eyes, and sat up. She should, he realized a little belatedly, be teaching her cooking class. Had she come up just to tell him that?

"Have you ever noticed how spectacularly horribly you do under pressure? Hylia's sake, when Leena grabbed you the other day and I thought you were going to pass out!"

I thought she found out! She grabbed my ass! He scribbled furiously, jabbing the slate at her as she laughed.

"Leena wouldn't touch a voe with a ten-foot pole, and it was an ass. It isn't like she's the first vai to grab you there." She was not wrong, but that didn't make the heat burning on his cheeks go anywhere.

He never knew what to do when anybody hit on him. Ashai had had to rescue him from the creep camping out in front of Gerudo Town more times than he could count, and though the vai in town were not at all creepy they were just as pushy. It was confusing. He didn't know who knew he was really a voe and who thought he was a vai, and Riju had ordered him to keep it under wraps—she was terrifying when she'd been disobeyed.

"Anyway, you won't have to deal with that this time. It's still a burden, but we're not going to treat you badly for what you're doing. And…we're prepared to fight with you. If anything happens. We held off the Calamity once, and we can do it again. Chief's orders."

Link pressed his face into his hands at that, squeezing his eyes shut. She pressed a hand to his back, rubbing it reassuringly. It took a moment to get control of himself, to fight back the tears stinging at his eyes, the relief that brought him.

He wasn't sure about her theory about the pressure being his downfall, but…it felt true. That was one thing he'd never been able to understand—why feeling like he could breathe, since he'd been awake, had been such a strange feeling. The ability to rest—being ordered to rest by Riju—rather than thrown at the next task like Impa had tried to do meant so much to him. Helped ease his nightmares somewhat, though he still had them nightly.

He reached for his slate again.

Didn't Lady Urbosa die because of me?

"No, sweetheart. She died at the hands of the Calamity. Never forget that. You're one of us now, little Hylian."

She stood, pulling him up with her. Smiled a sharp sort of smile, looking behind them, towards the cliffs that hid Hyrule Castle from their view.

"And the Gerudo always get justice."