Linebeck turned towards the counter again. He opened the cabinet above him and removed a bag that held half of a loaf of bread. He bent down and opened the hatch on the icebox.

"We're going to have the last of the carrots and celery tonight for soup," he began. "Don't eat too much though, you won't be able to fall asleep." His voice was full of worry, and Link sensed it.

"Linebeck, is something wrong?" He got out of his chair and hurried to Linebeck's side, eager to cook.

"Nah, I'm just tired, that's all. It's been a long day. Anyway, can you set up the fire pit?"

"Sure." He got to work taking firewood and kindling from the pile and putting it on the deck to take outside. After the residents of Mercay received more and more sailors at the dock, they decided to put in a few fire pits to lessen the damage done by fires without any barriers. The fire pits weren't very far from the docks, just a short walk near the coastline.

Link ran back in, received the flint from Linebeck, and ran back outside. He hefted the wood and crept across the ramp onto the dock, trying not to trip and drop anything. The night air was chilly and sharp, and the stars shone brightly above him as he wandered by the coast. At the pit, he set the wood and kindling down. He picked up the flint from the top of the pile and inspected it.

"Do you remember how to use it?" Link jumped back and almost fell on the pile below.

"Jeez Linebeck, you scared me! Give me a little warning next time, okay?" Link gasped.

Linebeck chuckled, patting Link on the shoulder. "Sorry, kid. Anyway, do you remember how to use flint?"

"Yeah." He put the kindling into the bottom of the pit and struck the pieces of flint together, eventually creating a spark. He crouched down and blew on it gently, feeding the flame. After a time, he gradually increased the number and size of the pieces of wood he added until the flame was of the desired size.

"Good work. Step back now." Linebeck placed a large pot of the broth and vegetable mixture on the top of the pit. "Do you want to get Sparkles?"

"Yeah. Be right back." Link jogged back to the ship and into the kitchen. "Ciela, you in here?"

"Bedroom," a tiny voice called out.

Link walked into the bedroom and noticed Ciela flipping the pages of his journal.

"These are some freaky dreams. Anyway, do you need me?"

"Dinner is being made on the pit tonight. Do you wanna come out with us?"

"Sure." Ciela floated over to him and rested on his head. Link sauntered out of the ship and was greeted again by Linebeck.

"I see you got Sparkles to come out with us."

"Yep."

"Might as well kick-back until the soups done."

The two of them sat down next to each other, the fire not providing as much warmth as they desired. Ciela rose up and sat in the air as close to the fire as she could, all three slightly shivering.

"Ugh, on the day we decide to use the pit, it just has to be cold," Link complained. Sure, he was used to the cold, but he still didn't like it.

"…Do you want my coat?" Linebeck glanced over at Link, taking off his coat.

"I don't mind the cold too much. Keep it." Against Link's objections, Linebeck wrapped himself and Link up in the coat and moved closer to him, putting his arm around his shoulders.

"Thanks," Link mumbled. He's being awfully nice to me. Is he worried about me or something?

"Welcome."

Link's eyes fluttered a bit as he let out a big yawn.

"Sorry kid, but you're not falling asleep just yet. You still have to get your things after dinner."

"I know." He rested his arm on the captain's chest and pressed his head near his hand. Linebeck smiled warmly and pulled Link in. Ciela flew over to the two and sat on Link's head, the three of them enjoying the warmth of each other.

After a while, Linebeck rose and crept over to the fire, checking on the meal.

"Looks about ready. I'm going to get some bowls and spoons. Wait here." He walked to the ship and disappeared inside.

"Link, something seems… wrong to me about Linebeck. I don't know why, but it's like he's trying to keep something from us. Stress, maybe?"

"That's what I've been thinking. Whatever he's feeling, it's about tonight, for sure. I wish that I could convince him that nothing is going to happen me when I sleep."

"I wish so too. Ah, here he comes now."

Linebeck came back with two wooden bowls, three spoons, and a ladle. He handed one of the bowls and two spoons to Link and took the other set for himself. He dipped the ladle in the pot and took it to his mouth for a sip.

"Yep, it's ready. Dig in," Linebeck said, stepping back to let Link have the first bowl. Link sat up and moved over to the pot, picking up the ladle. He carefully dumped its contents into his bowl a few times and sat back down to eat, filling a separate spoon for Ciela. He raised the spoon up and let her drink. Once Linebeck had his bowl, he sat down next to the boy, staring at him feeding the fairy and himself at the same time.

"The soup is really good, Linebeck. It really warms you up!" Link complemented in-between sips.

"Glad to hear, kid."


Once finished, the three retreat back into the ship after putting out the flame, empty silverware in hand. With the things in the sink, Link and Linebeck went into the bedroom to get ready for the night. They grabbed their night-clothes and stood back to back as they undressed and dressed. They took their day-clothes and folded them up to wash later in the morning, placing them on the nightstand.

"Okay Ciela, you can come in now!" Link called out. The fairy rushed into the room and floated next to the men.

"…So, how is this going to work?" The fairy asked.

"We're going to let Link fall asleep like normal, but with his things on. Once he is asleep, we have to stay awake to keep an eye on his body. If the damage done to it becomes severe, we wake him up and keep him up. We're not going to risk his safety after that. Now Link, go get your things and put them on. Go grab a potion too."

Link nodded and swung open the doors to the closet, putting his sword on his back and hooking his shield to it after he put on his quiver. He removed his boomerang from the bottom of the closet and hooked that onto his shield. Then he sprinted out of the room and into the kitchen, opening up the cabinet labeled "Link's elixir" and took one of the bottles out, a purple one. How am I supposed to take this with me without breaking it? I'm going to have to put on my belt and hook this onto it. He turned around and returned to the bedroom.

"Uh, I'm going to have to put on my belt, too."

"Why?" Asked Linebeck.

"I can't put the bottle anywhere else, or I'll break it fighting. I need to hook it onto my belt."

"Fine, fine. Here." Linebeck handed Link his belt, and he put it nice and snug around his waist. Its official, I look like an idiot. Link hooked the bottle to the front of his belt.

"Now I'm ready, right?"

"Not yet."

Linebeck wrapped his arms around the boy, holding him for a few moments.

"Good luck, Link," Linebeck said with a twinge of sadness.

"Thanks." Linebeck released him and placed both of his hands on Link's shoulders.

"It's time."

Link nodded and crawled into the bed, not putting any blankets on himself. He lay flat on his back, wincing a little as his sheathed sword poked him in the back. Linebeck went over to a table where a candle was lit before so they could see. He blew out the candle, and the room fell into darkness. The only light was coming Ciela's bright frame. Linebeck felt his way back to the bed and sat down on its side, staring at the boy protectively. Ciela flew to the opposite side of Link and floated there, trying to illuminate as much of his body has she could. Link closed his eyes and took slow breaths through his nose. He wished he could get into a more comfortable position, but that would interfere with their plans. He needed to be flat with his arms out a little. This would make checking for any sign of injury easier. Finally, his breathing evened, and the two who watched him were sure that he was asleep.


The fog that surrounded the glassy world arrived again. Link felt his back and assured himself that he had everything he fell asleep with on.

"Heh heh. Seems you've figured out the tiny flaw in our predicament. By the way, that belt really suits you!" The voice cackled.

"Reveal yourself, doppelganger. I'm not afraid of you." Link drew his sword and removed his shield.

"Whatever you want!" The figure appeared again, his arms folded over his chest. "But do you really want to fight me? You won't wake up either way…"

"You're pretty sure of yourself… er… is there anything I can…uh…" Link scratched the back of his head.

"Seriously? Just call me anything you want. Like I really give two shits."

"Fine then, Shadow. I've drawn my blade…" Link got into a fighting stance, grinning. "…Now draw yours."

As if on command, Shadow drew his blade and rushed towards Link with the blade pointed in front of him, ready to stab. As he got close, Link jumped sideways and watched Shadow fly past him. He stopped himself in his tracks and crept towards Link, standing in front of him.

"Like that's going to work. I'm used to surprise attacks like that."

"Hmph."

The two raised their blades and struck them together in mid-air.

"A good, clean fight. No tricks, just your wits and smarts." Link said, staring at Shadow clean in the eyes. "If at any moment either of us wishes to stop for a minute, then we shall. We will not be barbarians about this. Shall we begin?"

"Ah, we've already started."

They slowly brought their blades down and inched backwards. The fight began with Shadow running in and doing a vertical slash. Link blocked this with his shield, then did a horizontal slash that nicked Shadow's tunic. Anger washed over Link's counterpart as he did a combo of vertical and horizontal slashes. Link put his shield up, but the swift kick of Shadow's foot brought it down, letting him get a good cut across Link's chest.

"Gah!"

"Does that hurt, hero?"

"Not at all!"

Their fighting continued, With Link getting more beat-up than Shadow was.


"Linebeck! Link just got cut again!" Ciela shrieked, flying over to the new wound.

"I got it, Sparkles. He's okay for now."

More wounds appeared on his arms, and a deep gash on his leg. As a reaction to this, Link's body twitched. Something was keeping him from waking up.

"Lineb-" Ciela began, but was interrupted by Linebeck.

"I know!" Linebeck got to work, warpping Link's leg in a bandage. "I'm not waking him up until I see something worse than that, fairy."

"Fine!"

For a few minutes, no wounds appeared. Linebeck and Ciela rested, but still kept their eyes on Link's body.

"He must be winning!" Ciela exclaimed.

"Or they might be taking a break, who knows."

A new wound appeared on Link's cheek, and the two quickly jumped to work again.


Link staggered and almost fell down, the gash on his leg paining him severely. Even with the appearance of bandages, the pain didn't disappear. He rubbed his cheek and looked at his hand, smeared with blood. Link looked up just in time to dodge another one of Shadow's jumping attacks. He rolled around him, ready to do a parry. Link sprung up and struck the desired spot: Shadow's back. Shadow yowled in pain. Link laughed, something he usually didn't do.

"Now you know how I feel, Shadow!" Link teased through gritted teeth. He was tempted to drink the potion on his belt, but he willed himself not to.

"Th- this doesn't hu- hurt at all! Shadow shuddered as he almost tripped over himself. "This is n- nothing!" Shadow fell onto his side, hissing from the pain in his back.

Link felt a little bad for Shadow. He wasn't going to give up. Link had to practically force him to take a break so Linebeck could bandage him up back in the real world. Link frowned and slowly crept over to Shadow, still in a defending stance. He knew his tricks.

"…Are you okay? We can take a break again, you know." Link stood a little far back from Shadow. If he got too close, he could be struck in the leg again.

"I don't need your sympathy! Get out of my face!"

"Jeez, Shadow, you don't have to yell."

"You can treat me as nicely as you want, but in the end, one of us is going to be dead, and all that niceness will be wasted." Shadow groaned and turned to his other side, not wanting to look at the boy in front of him.

"So? That's common courtesy. I don't attack every enemy I see, unless I have too." Link sat down and propped his injured leg up, assured that Shadow wasn't going to strike anytime soon. "Anyway, how did you get in my dreams?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because I asked."

Shadow shuddered again and turned over to face Link. "…A mishap with the Dark Mirror."

"The what?"

"Agh… the Dark Mirror is a portal from the Dark World, where I live, and the Light World, where you live. I kinda watched you through it. From the start, I hated your guts. I wanted to end your smiling. When I tried using the Dark Mirror for the first time, I got stuck in the Realm of Dreams, the place between the Dark and Light Worlds. When you have a nightmare, it's basically some shadow beast that got stuck in the Realm of Dreams. On the day that you first started having dreams about me, that's when I got stuck. It was fun toying with you there, but when I realized that I could never get back to either world, I…"

"You got scared and started to act tough. The truth was that you wanted something to do, and you started tormenting me through my dreams. When you realized that we had to fight, you hurt me, convincing me that I should bring my weapons with me into the Realm of Dreams."

"You're smarter than you look. You see, once a shadow being gets stuck inside the Realm of Dreams, they can never return back to either world, like I said before. Knowing this, the being has two choices: waiting out their lives inside the Realm of Dreams, or killing themselves. Light beings such as yourself can go into the Realm of Dreams, and safely return when they wake up. Me? I can never wake up."

"…So, which one did you consider choosing?"

"I don't know. I tried doing myself in once, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Agh… I'm a fucking pansy. Why am I telling you this, anyway? Once we start up again, one of us is going to die."

"You always go back to the 'one of us is going to die' thing. Lighten up." Link shifted his leg and drew a sharp breath. "By the way, the whole 'keeping the balance of the world' thing was a lie, right?"

"Yes and no. If I made it into your world, then the balance would be disrupted until one of us dies, and that's what I wanted. Since I'm stuck here, we're technically not together in the same world. In fact, this realm is not a world, but a mixture of both the Light and Dark Worlds."

"So I don't have to kill you?"

Shadow's head jolted up, and his eyes widened. "What?"

"I said, so I don't have to kill you. Since you said that we are not in the same world, just in a realm that has both light and dark in it, then we don't need to kill each other. You made up this entire lie just so that you could kill me."

"I made up the lie… I made it up because I couldn't stand living in this place. It's literally Hell. I wanted you to…" Shadow's face scrunched up, and Link couldn't tell if it was out of pain or sadness. When he saw the glimmer of a stray tear, he knew.

"You want me to kill you so that you can get out of this place."

"…Yeah."

Link crawled over to Shadow and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Shadow, I don't want to do this, but I can. I can get you out of here."

"Do it quickly."

"I will. Can you stand up?"

Shadow tried standing up as a bolt of pain shot through his back. He screamed and fell back down on his back.

"No, I can't." Shadow began to cry.

"Shadow… don't start. This is hard enough as it is."

"How is it hard? You killed thousands of monsters before me, and you didn't feel bad about them!"

"That's because they wanted to kill me. Whenever I had to sleep inside a temple, they sometimes found me and right then and there they beat me until I woke up. Monsters don't have feelings."

"Yeah, we don't, do we?"

"I don't consider you a monster. At least, not anymore. You have feelings, not just a motive or orders told to you by a greater force."

"Alright, I get it. Now please, please get on with it." Shadow stared up at what would be the sky and outstretched his arms. Link stood up, winced at the pain in his leg, and drew out his blade.

"Before I begin, do you want to say anything?"

"…Thank-you. Now please, quick and painless. "

"Alright. I'm going for your throat."

"Okay."

Shadow closed his eyes for the last time.


After the deed was done, a light surrounded Link and Shadow's body. Shadow's body faded into the light as the world around Link grew dark. He could hear faint voices that grew louder every second until he finally awoke.

"Finally! I thought something happened to you!" Linebeck exclaimed as he re-did Link's leg bandage.

"Did you get him?" Ciela asked, flying around Link's frame.

"Yeah, but I didn't like it."

"Why?" The two said in unison.

"Because, the truth is, he never wanted to kill me. He wanted me to kill him."

The other two sat there, mouths agape.

"He wanted me to do this because he used this thing called the Dark Mirror, a portal from the Dark World into the Light World. He got stuck in the center, the Realm of Dreams. Once a Dark World being is stuck there, it cannot leave. He or she can either live there for the rest of their lives, or kill themselves. He tried doing the latter and failed. He created the lie of 'once we meet, one has to die to restore balance' in hopes of me killing him. That failed too, and after a long chat…"

"Okay kid. I think we know what happens next. Now c'mon. Let's get you cleaned up." Linebeck picked Link up from the bed and to the privy where a bath waited for him.

"I'll let you clean yourself. Afterwards, I'm going to clean your wounds, and you can go back to sleep."

"Okay."


After Link bathed and Linebeck cleaned his wounds, he was carried by Linebeck into the bedroom and set him down on the bed. He tucked him in and wished him a good night, blew out the candle, and walked out of the room. Link closed his eyes and slept. The dream he had that night had no dark figures or a glassy world, but just something indescribable to him. He heard a voice in that dream, too. A voice that spoke to him about another world beyond the waking and even the living world. Link smiled in his sleep for the first time in days.