AN: Thanks for following so far! We gotta get some more plot out of the way before we pop those bottles open! ;)
Chapter 3 – Three of Pentacles
Despite the fact that evening had well and truly set in, Hyrule Castle Town felt remarkably bright and loud. Perhaps it was a combination of the city's torches and meandering noise level as most of its citizens were either returning home or heading out. Either way, it was a stark departure from the otherworldly serenity of the Twilight Realm.
The atmospheric differences in the world of light were going to take some time to get used to, once again.
'Was this the right place? I'm sure I came down this way… it was so much easier without all these people around…'
Some of the pedestrians couldn't help but notice the striking young man with a lost expression on his face, scanning the buildings with his eyes and nearly obstructing the path.
He wore a tunic of soft green and a matching hat, which only seemed to add to the messiness of his sand-coloured hair. At first look, one might have mistaken him to be harmless, yet strapped to his back was an exceptionally well-crafted blade and a weighty shield. His eyes were an uncanny shade of cerulean, which nearly offset the rest of his gentle face.
'Lost, are we?' taunted a mischievous voice in the man's ear.
"Not now!" he growled quietly, so as not to appear even madder than he might've liked.
'It's not that different here at night. I mean look, they even light the way for you stupid Hylians to see where you're going.'
"That's not the problem! I just can't remember which building it was, I know it was around here somewhere!"
'Take the next left… I swear, you're more useful as a wolf. Maybe you ought to consider making the change permanent.'
The swordsman quickened his pace, ignoring the imp in his shadows. He knew that it was in both of their interests to find the bar as quickly as possible. Afterall, she needed his assistance to get anywhere in the world of light, as unwilling as he might've been at times.
"… Look at this clown."
He looked up to see a peculiar group of citizens sizing him up from across the pavement, interrupting his thoughts. The one who spoke was another young warrior roughly his age – a dark-haired girl – who wore steel-plated gauntlets and leggings over a tight blouse and embroidered pants. Her eyes were fixated in disgust.
Next to her was a slightly older Hylian whose eyes were a darker shade of indigo, framed by round glasses and warm, copper hair. His clothes were undeniably flashier than his colleagues, comprised of a white under-blouse and black ribbon tie.
"Oh dear," he tsk-ed, glancing at the swordsman's clothes. "Pray tell, where did you buy that outfit, Mr. Hero? Would you be so kind as to put in an order for me, next time?"
"Wh-What?" The swordsman choked for a moment, taken back by their audacity.
Did these strangers... think he was in some costume?
The older man accompanying them had the look of a vagabond, downplaying his rough exterior so as to blend in with his surroundings. "I don't believe some of the buffoons who travel here to perform," he muttered as they continued down the walkway.
"They must really be desperate to draw an audience at that actors' inn." Shad concurred.
'Hahaha!' the shadow cackled into the swordsman's ear. 'Even your own people think you look silly, Link!'
Link bit down on his tongue as he stomped in the opposite direction. "I don't care!" he said aloud. "I'm here for Ilia! I need to make sure that she's still here, and that she's alright." The warrior in green immediately recognised the turn in the road ahead, in addition to the vines, which grew sporadically along the walls and fixtures of the buildings.
He could also hear the night market from the adjacent main street.
This was it.
Analysing his surroundings, Link then followed a worn staircase leading down into a hidden square.
The scholar opened the door to his quiet abode, dimly lit by a single string of lanterns near the kitchen window. "If you'd both be so kind as to wait for me… I must see to it that nothing else befalls my work on this awful day."
Ashei and Auru kept inoffensively to the doorway of the house while Shad disappeared, collectively stacking some of the books he'd littered along his counter-tops in the process.
Looking around, one would've noticed that the home was remarkably bare, even for a bachelor. Apart from the odd hand-written note stuck to a chair or tower of books, there was a single vase of flowers on the dining room table and a series of impromptu bookshelves, which ran chaotically along the walls. A pair of cats' eyes glowered menacingly from the other side of the windowsill, a 'stray,' which had obviously found a way to manipulate the peculiar scholar into providing the occasional dinner.
Auru waited until Shad's rustling grew faint before asking, "Did something happen between the two of you earlier?"
"… No. I mean not really, what gave you that idea?" Ashei lied, casually reading through the notice which had been shoved under the door.
"I can still sense some tension in the air. Both of you seem avoidant, for a start."
"Well, look, it was nothing serious. I arrived early yesterday and asked Shad how his research was going. He said he'd hit a couple of roadblocks and that he's on notice from his landlady."
"What did you say?"
"… I told him he was being ridiculous," the warrior shrugged, now shaking a nearby empty wine bottle upside down.
"And did you think that was a helpful assessment of the situation?" enquired the older man, wittingly.
"No." Ashei faltered. "Hey, don't get me wrong. I wasn't trying to be malicious or anything. I just want him to get out there and succeed. He's given up so much to have gotten this far, I've never known anyone to have dedicated so much of their life to something that may or may not yield results."
"You know that this was his father's research, too."
"Yeah but it goes further than that," Ashei said, guarded. "I didn't have to follow my father and take up the blade. I could've just as easily kept to myself, made a decent living, or moved into the city for –" The tittering laughter of a small group of noblewomen, decked out in their frilly attire, came in through the windows as they passed.
"… For the culture," the warrior clarified, "But I wanted to use my strength. I wanted to see where it could take me, and once I saw what I was capable of, I went and found a cause – our cause, which is worthy of my blade. And I see him trying to do the same by choosing this… precarious path."
"You have your talents and he has his. The world of books is only as deep as our limited understanding of the world, and our knowledge of the ancients slips further from our grasp each day," Auru surmised. "It'll take no small amount of effort and perhaps even a stroke of luck to prove Shad's thesis. But if he does, I imagine he will be the first in a long line of academic successors."
"If anyone out there can do it, it's him." Ashei shrugged. "Maybe my job is a bit more clear-cut, I haven't met any foe I haven't been able to engage with in battle."
The scholar tilted his head in bemusement, leaning against the kitchen table.
"How long were you standing there?" she hissed in embarrassment.
"Long enough to take heed of your backhanded compliments. Please, neither of you stop on my account."
"Don't let it get to your head."
The men exchanged a knowing smirk. Extracting compliments out of the hostile warrior was a game not easily won.
"Well, it looks like my business here is done," the scholar concluded graciously. "So, onward to Telma's Bar, then? I have a hunch we'll be seeing Rusl soon."
On an ordinary night the business of Telma's Bar would have already hit peak levels. All that stood between the quiet inside and the chaos of the street was a small 'closed' sign hanging over the entrance. In contrast, Link noted that the door was in fact slightly ajar, and that a warm light radiated from all the windows of the building. His hand then lingered, a little too long before he dared to let himself in.
Surely once Ilia saw him, she would understand.
She wouldn't have to be afraid anymore.
'This is it…' he told himself. With a heavy sigh he knocked and pried it open further.
"H-Hello? Anyone here at the moment?"
The swordsman noticed the tall red-haired woman with a bronze complexion, notably the bar owner he'd seen earlier, and the feeble doctor below her. They were hunched over a small and unconscious Zora boy who had been carefully laid to rest upon a table.
Next to the doctor was the ash-blonde girl he'd been searching for all of this time. And her eyes were full with tears.
"… Ilia!" the swordsman gasped.
"Why do you keep sending me patients that I can't treat?!" scolded the old man.
"I don't care about what happened to me! But you must be able to do something about this boy! Doctor – please, he'll die…!" Liza cried.
"There's not a thing I can do for the Zora! And the ones who come to the market haven't been here all week. The only practitioner I know who has experience with non-Hylians is in Kakariko Village."
"Who? Tell us his name!" Telma demanded.
"Renado. He's a shaman – not from any medical school around here! And if you ask me, you get what you pay for."
Link's mind clicked into gear. Renado? He knew him well, and he'd just come from Kakariko to free the Lanayru Province from the Twilight Realm.
"Doctor! Please!" the barmaid cried. "You can't leave him like this!"
The older man pushed past Link who stood innocently in the doorway. "Get out of my way," he grumbled, before slamming the door for the second time that week.
Liza finally glanced at over at the green-clad stranger with a dejected look on her face. "Sorry, mister… the bar's closed for the night," she said dismissively.
"W-Wait…!"
The girl was unresponsive.
Link's eyes widened in shock as the gravity of the situation dawned on him. He'd needed to see her, to make sure that she was okay. And now that he'd found her, she stood before him with the indifference of a stranger in her eyes.
What had happened to her? How could she forget him – the farmhand that she'd grown up with – the only boy in the village her age – her best friend?
Was she mad with him? That seemed unlikely, as Ilia was never the type to shy away from speaking her mind.
Maybe she'd chosen to forget…
The ghost of the Bulblin general's blade lingered in Link's shoulder joint, precisely where he'd had his sword arm sliced off in front of Ilia. If it weren't for the light spirit of Ordona he'd have died, then and there, without the luxury of time to find his lost friend. And at this moment here in the bar, not even a scar served as a reminder of the trauma, only his memory.
Ilia.
"I'm so glad you're safe!" he wanted to say – he wanted to grab her and cry the way he did when he'd saved Colin and found the rest of the children from Ordon village in safe hands – but instead he swallowed the words.
How could he have failed her so terribly?
Instead he found himself apologising in return, even if he didn't deserve her forgiveness.
"I…. I'm sorry."
Liza barely acknowledged the swordsman, turning her attention back to the Zora boy whose breaths had grown increasingly shallower with time. "… There isn't anything more we can do for him, here," she said softly.
Prince Ralis!
Link remembered seeing him before, struggling through the town gates, dizzy with exhaustion. Glancing upon him now, he was surprised at how quickly the child's condition had deteriorated in a short period of time. This could have easily been any of the children from Ordon village.
But luckily, there was still time for him to keep his promise to Queen Rutela.
"Excuse me Mr. Handsome Swordsman, would you be a dear and help me with these towels for the boy?" Telma interrupted, drawing a hesitant Link into the kitchen. Though they were just around the corner, she'd hoped that the stove, running basin and the counter-tops would muffle most of their conversation.
"Uh, yeah – sure… I'm sorry to barge in like this. You're Telma, right?" the swordsman floundered, grabbing the back of his neck.
"Aren't you astute for an out-of-towner?" the proprietress winked. "Yes. I'm the owner of this bar and that's my employee, Liza. I can see that you know the girl by another name."
Link abruptly caught a bucket filled with cool, fresh water and two towels from the bar owner.
"Th-That's right…"
"May I ask what business you have with her? You're not some spurned ex-boyfriend are you?" the woman teased.
"N-No!" Link yelled, turning slightly red despite the weight of the situation. "Never! I'd never harm Ilia, she's my sis – my friend. I came all this way to check if she was still safe – I saw her with you and I just wanted to be sure."
Telma regarded him with folded arms, eyeing the swordsman skeptically before leaning in to meet his eye-level. Her face finally softened. "Well Mr. Swordsman, I'm just making sure you're on her side too. She's been through a lot, hasn't she?"
Link averted his eyes, shamefully.
"I… I couldn't get to her in time… after they took her away from our village… it was my fault."
The bar proprietress turned the taps at the basin off.
"Honey, whoever did this to her wouldn't be standing in my kitchen now checking on her wellbeing. You might've already guessed by now that she can't remember a thing about her ordeal, or about who she was before it."
Link felt his eyes begin to sting and he shuffled uncomfortably.
So, it was true…
He swallowed.
"… That explains why she doesn't want to talk to me."
"I get the impression that she was important to you, and that you do have her wellbeing at heart," Telma said, keeping her voice low and calm. "But I wanted to ask you… not to spring this on her just yet. At the moment Liza and this boy need all the support they can get. If you can wait until this ordeal is over… and win her trust as her friend… then we can work on restoring her memory together, with her on board. I promise."
The swordsman nodded once, slowly. And then he closed his eyes, feeling his fists clench in a quiet rage. "… You should know that I stopped them. The ones that did this won't be able to harm anyone, ever again," he said softly, tempering the subtlety in his own voice.
"Well, well. I'm glad."
Telma wasn't entirely sure what to make of this stranger. If what he was saying were true, then he certainly had the skill to back up the curiously formidable equipment he carried. 'I wonder if he might be up for some extra work…' she contemplated.
The pair returned in silent accord to the main floor of the bar, where Link placed the bucket and towels next to his old friend.
Liza began gingerly soaking the fabric and dabbing it along the Zora boy's forehead.
"We need to find Renado in Kakariko Village. How far away is it?" she asked.
"It's across the plains to the east. But if what the soldiers are saying is true, there are hoards of monsters out there at the moment. Nobody's traveled that way in weeks," Telma said grimly, shaking her head.
"Is there anyone in this town who can get us there? We need to leave tonight!"
The bar owner watched Link with a roguish glint in her eye.
"I can do it. I can get us there."
Liza looked up, aghast. She regarded the swordsman with her full attention for the first time. "Can you, really? Please, at this rate the boy won't make the night! I don't have a lot of money but we'll make it up to you, I promise."
Link reigned in his look of surprise. He couldn't recall a time in which he'd seen Ilia so intense in her determination, and she was indeed a remarkably determined girl.
"You'll have the lives of three people in your hands, you know." The proprietress reminded. "Are you sure you've got it in you?"
The swordsman turned his attention to the sickly Zora boy, who was muttering quietly in between shallow breaths.
"M… M-Mother… Mother…"
"Yes. I can get us safely to Kakariko. I'll even introduce you to Renado, I know him, he's a good man," he promised.
Link nearly fell backwards as Liza rushed towards him, grabbing his hand and squeezing it tightly.
"Thank you so much! You have no idea what this means! Who are you? What's your name?"
"… Link. My name is Link."
Liza seemed to go still for a moment, before a warm smile washed over her face. "Mr. Link, it's nice to meet you. You have a kind heart."
The swordsman fidgeted in response, conscious of the sweat gathering in his palms.
"N-No problem, Ili – I mean, Liza…" he clarified.
"Don't go thanking him until we get there safely. And let's get packing, honey. We need to get going now if we're to give this Zora the best chance." The proprietress advised, throwing a measured smile of approval to their new bodyguard.
Link exhaled slowly, turning his mind to the campaign ahead.
He was no longer an innocuous farmhand from Ordon village. He had tasted violence, traveled from the realm of light and taken the form of a beast to protect those he cared for. He knew he could not fail Ilia again. If it came down to it, he would give his life to ensure that their mission was a success.
"I'll be able to guard you from horseback. How do you two plan on managing the trip?" he enquired, tactically.
"I'll drive. I've got a horse and cart ready to go at the stables," Telma assured, sweeping her effects into a bag.
"And I'll protect the boy!" Liza declared with a fist. "Telma, get me the crowbar!"
Link whistled once, just under his breath.
... Just what kind of place was this establishment?