Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda, its characters and locations are all property of Nintendo. Any and all OCs and original locations belong to me unless specifically stated to belong to someone else.

Sanguine Shackles
Chapter 10
The Pen is Mightier

How people managed to sleep in Ravana was beyond Link. It had been difficult enough out in the woods, with the humidity and cacophony courtesy of the wildlife, but here, in the city, with the trapped heat of the day lingering in and among the buildings in addition to his own increased body temperature, he found it absolutely impossible. Ayla, clearly used to such environment, was snoring up a storm in the room adjoining his.

Lucky you, he thought, staring at the cracks in the ceiling, counting them over and over again. The window was fully open, but the breeze that blew into the room just added more heat. He missed Sheik—he missed him in general, but right now he missed Sheik because his lover was always cold, as if countering Link's own overactive furnace of a body. It would certainly have made it easier to sleep here if he had a freezing Sheikah cuddling up to him.

It was a relief when the first light of dawn crept over the horizon, and the sounds of the city waking up started to echo through the streets. The hours of darkness were not the time to wander around in Ravana, Ayla had told him, and Link was in no hurry to test that warning, so he'd stayed put in his sweltering hotel room. Now, however...

He got out of bed, washed up in the floor's shared restroom, and got dressed in the cleanest set of clothes he had. Hopefully, Abbas would have their new outfits ready today—Link could only imagine how much more comfortable the thin, airy getup the tailor had worn would be in the heat down here. He went to fetch his weapons, but thought better of it when he remembered the ugly looks he and Ayla had gotten from the watchmen as they'd walked around the city armed to the teeth.

I already stand out too much as it is, Link thought, leaving his Zukov and silver-grooved sword by the bed, out of sight. He kept his knife in his belt, though, not wanting to take the chance on being caught out without a weapon to defend himself with. He went for the door, pausing as he remembered something important.

Went out for a bit - will be back soon.

-Wolf

Hopefully Ayla wouldn't be too upset with him leaving without her, but Link was going to melt and explode if he had to stay in this room any longer, and he didn't want to wake her up too early (because damn, Ayla was scary if she wasn't allowed to sleep in on her days off). He slid the note under her door, and left the hotel.

She'd talked the place up a little more than it deserved, in his opinion. The building was clearly on the older side, in dire need of certain repairs, but at least the interior was reasonably clean, and the bedding hadn't been used before (which was always a fifty-fifty sort of thing, according to Sheik). The staff was...well, not necessarily rude, but not overly welcoming either. Ayla apparently preferred it that way, because it meant they didn't ask questions as long as you paid your bill.

I could never live down here, Link thought as he aimlessly wandered the streets and alleys around the artificers' quarter, already feeling a sweat breaking out, even before the sun had started its relentless heating of the air. I'd go insane from the heat.

There weren't many interesting things to see at this time of day—the shops and workshops hadn't opened yet, so the artificers' quarter was mostly empty save for a few carts delivering materials to the shops. Realising he'd walked in a circle, Link expanded his plodding route and soon enough found himself in streets he did not recognise. This part of Ravana seemed a little older than the artificer's quarter, the buildings and streets made with different materials and cobbled differently, more roughly. The streets themselves were narrower, too, clearly not made for the large carts and carriages that trundled up and down the other parts of town.

He found a small square with a bubbling fountain. There was a giant mural on a wall on the opposite side of the square, seemingly depicting a war between several cities, heroes rising and dying, and ending with several sets of men and women shaking hands. He took a moment to enjoy the very detailed painting, wondering if this was showing the time before Ravana and the other city states in the region had made peace with each other.

Any further theorising was interrupted by the sound of a door opening, coupled with a ringing bell. Link turned his head, spotting the glass door that had opened, and a woman flipping a sign on it to say Open. It was the first one he'd seen written in Common down here, and he felt drawn to it. He entered the shop, and his nose was assaulted by the musty smell he'd come to associate with old books and paper, the sort that hung around Sheik's library back home in the Sanctuary.

A book shop—specialising in old ones, apparently, judging by the worn looks of the wares lining the shelves of the small, cramped floor space. Shops here apparently liked keeping things small...or maybe this was all they could afford? He pulled a random book off the closest shelf, and quickly realised he had no chance of reading it because the language was one he'd never seen before (linguistics was more Sheik's hobby than his) and made to put it back.

"Good morning, and welcome to The Pen is Mightier!" a bright, loud voice announced, punctuating the silence of the place, startling Link so badly he dropped the book on the floor, where a small cloud of dust erupted either from the book itself, or the carpet. He didn't want to know which. "How can I help you today?"

The woman from before, a red-haired Hylian with soft, blue eyes, was looking at him from behind a counter wedged into a corner (really more of a plank balanced on two tall piles of books), giving him the biggest smile he'd ever seen on a person. She was dressed in a white suit jacket with blue edges, and a matching skirt of a modest length, ending just below her knees. He smiled in return, nodding, wishing not for the first time that he could reply in kind. He bent down to pick up the book, frowning when he saw a few sheets had come loose from the binder. He turned back to the woman, intending to give an apologetic gesture (and pay for the damage), but she simply shook her head.

"Oh, don't worry about that!" she announced just as loudly from before. "The books on that shelf aren't rare, and no great loss! I'll fix it up later, if you'll just put it in that bin!" She gestured towards a small crate by the door, in which there were several other books that had clearly not been treated well. Still frowning, he did as he was told, and by the time he was done, she'd emerged from behind the counter and stalked up to him, still smiling. "As I said, welcome to my shop, The Pen is Mightier. As my first customer of the day, you get special service! My name is Navina, but you may call me Navi!"

Link blinked, his mind stumbling over the name for some unfathomable reason.

"Is there anything in particular you're looking for today, sir?"

When Link just continued to stare at her, her smile diminished a little.

"Hey, are you listening?" she asked, before gasping with widened eyes. "Oh, I didn't mean—I'm sorry if you're deaf and I just offended you—wait, how can you hear my apology if I...oh...bugger!"

The exclamation jogged his head back into action, and Link shook his head fiercely, pointing to his ears and giving her a thumbs up, which alleviated her panic a little (but only so much). He then pointed to his throat and mimicked speaking, shaking his head.

She caught on quickly, luckily, and nodded. "Ah, of course, my apologies! Would you like something to write on?" Link nodded, unable to stop himself from smiling as she more or less hurled herself back behind the counter, fetching a pen and some paper, with another book for a writing surface. "here you go!" she announced, handing it to him.

Link wrote quickly.

Good morning - my name is Link. Nice to meet you, Navi. I am not looking for anything in particular - just browsing.

"It's very nice to meet you too, Link!" Navi said, shaking his proffered hand. "Would you like a tour of the place, or do you just want to roam the aisles on your own?"

A tour would be nice. Do you have a fiction section?

"Of course! Please follow me!"

Navi, who seemed to be around thirty, did not appear to have an internal volume control. Speaking, walking, writing—all of it was done very loudly. Even her pointing made sound, somehow, maybe by way of cutting the air itself with her sharp nails, which, when Link looked closer, were very likely able to cut someone's throat with a single swipe. The rest of her looked quite harmless, but those claws...

"...and this is where you will find what fiction I have on offer!" she concluded the short, efficient, and very audible tour of her little bookshop, waving to a single bookcase where several dusty-looking tomes made their home. It was full of gaps and empty sections. "Admittedly, most of it is folklore and old legends! Novels and such aren't really what my regular clients are after!"

Link smiled and nodded. Novels weren't what he was after anyway. He wrote on his paper again.

I'm rather interested in old tales and folklore from this region. Particularly, do you have anything on shape-shifting or blood-sucking creatures?

Every place had its own variations and observations on werewolves and vampires, he'd quickly discovered after Sheik had spent an evening lecturing him on the subject in the library, supported by Ascal's copious notes. That particular session had ended on the supposed mating habits of werewolves according to a nearly blind historian from some tiny village in bumfuck nowhere...after which Link gave Sheik a physical demonstration of said habits, and as it turned out the theory was nowhere close to practice!

Evidently, that was the wrong thing to ask for, as Navi's smile faded a little around the edges, and her voice came out a little quieter than usual. "Ah, you're one of them, aren't you?" she asked, touching his arm. "Before anything, I just want to say thank you." At Link's confused expression, she smiled a little wider. "You people risk your lives out there to keep the rest of us safe and in ignorance of the horrible monsters that roam the world."

You know about us?

She read the note and nodded, looking around in an exaggerated conspiratorial manner, like someone was listening. "I've had a few...run-ins with your organisation over the years, usually about research. Just a few months back a whole group of them came along and purchased every single book I had on mythological creatures, particularly of the...blood-sucking kind, like you asked for. Is there something special going on?"

Just interested in what local scholars think about it, and legends, Link wrote, unsure of how much information he could share with her. The Grand Hunt was, after all, not supposed to be an overly visible thing, even to those in the know. With any luck, the remaining vampires of the world (barring one particular individual, of course) would be wiped out with no great fanfare, and completely unbeknownst to the population at large. I'm new to the city, and curious about it.

"If you say so," she said and winked, again, in a way that was in no way subtle or inconspicuous. Covert operations were definitely not her area of expertise—Link found that a little endearing. "Well, as I said, this is all I have at the moment, and I...oh, wait!" She took off towards the backroom door, waving for him to follow. "I just got something in!" she offered as an explanation. She went through the door, still waving at him. "Come on, come on!"

Link followed her cautiously, stepping through the narrow doorway while pushing the door open wider, and—

"Watch out!"

A pile of books, previously carefully heaped up behind the door, cascaded down, threatening to bury him under a mountain of words, but he managed to jump out of the way just in time. A final, gigantic tome of a book landed at his feet.

"Lucky, that," Navi said, staring at the pile of books at their feet. "Third volume of Miyamoto's Hyrule Historia;certainly no joke for the toes. It'll snap your femur at the right angle, even. Or is it the wrong angle?" She shrugged and, with no further mention of the mess Link had—accidentally—created, she pulled him further into the backroom, which seemed to be reserved for her own personal study area, as well as a workbench she seemed to use for restoring books. On her desk was, predictably, a pile of books, but these seemed to be newer. "It's right here," she said, pulling one of them from the pile. "It's not an official textbook," she said. "More of a journal or diary, written by someone like you...er, or in your profession! Dates back decades, at least!

She practically thrust it into his chest, and he was nearly forced back by the force of it. He took the worn journal and opened it, finding page after page of neat writing in the Sheikah language. He couldn't read it—Sheik was trying to teach him, but their sessions were too far apart due to their differing schedules to make any proper headway. All he could do at the moment was write his and Sheik's names (inevitably outlined by a heart).

The writing in the journal was sometimes paired with illustrations of weapons, tools, and...and...

A sketch of a lycanthrope—and not the type you found in fanciful tales, all sleek and perfectly proportioned. This was the sort of misshapen, freakish brutes Link had helped Sheik take down on the night of their first meeting—a dreadful facsimile of a wolf-man, bones and muscles forced into a wolf-like form, but clearly utterly wrong. This, coupled with the writing, proved that this had once been a hunter's journal.

"Good stuff, huh?" Navi asked, seeing his wonder. "I can't read much of the Sheikah language, unfortunately; they're notoriously cagey about teaching those outside the clans. All I was able to was deduce the name of its owner: Rama."

All in all, Link thought he did quite well at hiding his reaction to hearing Sheik's grandfather's name, as well as the fact that he was holding the man's journal. The journal of the man who had, with his jealousy (at least according to one source) started a fight that had resulted in first his wife's death, and then the destruction of the Studio years and years later. Really, if all indication he gave about how extraordinary this find was to widen his eyes a little and draw a sharp breath, then he was willing to pat himself on the shoulder.

Good Link, good!

"What do you think?"

He gave her a smile he knew to be just a little too crooked to be genuine, and nodded. Where did you find this?

"I'm not entirely sure, to be honest," she said. "Found it in a large box of miscellaneous items in the market. Came from up north, apparently. Some place called...er...White-something. Whitehill? Whitepeak?"

Whiteridge.

He almost dreaded showing her the paper. Her eyes lit up.

"Yes! That's it! Whiteridge! Someone moved down here and brought a whole bunch of stuff—sold most of it, apparently. I didn't really ask, I was just intrigued by the writing, really. I was waiting for one of you to stop by again so I could hand it over, so...there you go!"

He nodded weakly, slipping the journal into his pocket. Thanks. I'll make sure it reaches the right hands.

Those hands being the writer's grandson, that is.

"Glad to hear it!"

The doorbell rang again as another customer entered the store, and Navi perked up. "Ah, duty calls!" she said. "I'd love to talk to you some more, but..."

He nodded and gave her a smile, shaking her hand again.

"Feel free to keep browsing—maybe you'll find something else that catches your eye!" she announced as she led him out of the backroom and closed the door behind them, apparently ignoring the mess Link had made. "Don't worry, that was bound to happen sooner or later. Should have cleared that pile weeks ago," she assured him as she spotted the new customer, her smile growing to the same degree as it had been at first. "Good morning, and welcome to The Pen is Mightier!" She announced. "I'll be with you in a second!"

Link, not wanting to take up more of her time, quickly excused himself and left the shop, abandoning the new customer to be sonically assaulted by its very kind, but loud owner. By now, the clocks were striking eleven in the morning, and he decided it was time to wake Ayla lest she sleep the whole day away. He wanted to get the journal safely into his pack, too. He touched the cover nervously as he walked, keeping his fingertip on the leather. If he lost this...

As it were, Ayla was already awake and on her way out just as he reached their floor.

"There you are," she said, grinning. "Had a nice walk? Find anything interesting?"

Link prided himself on his ability to keep the Beast in check, to not let it override his actions with its own basic instincts. Unfortunately, this sometimes resulted in a reduced ability to keep secrets. Not big secrets, like Sheik's vampirism, of course, but the smaller ones...well, those were sometimes let slip by accident.

Found a bookshop, he signed. And what I think is Sheik's grandfather's journal.

Failing to keep the secret was, in hindsight, worth it just for the look on her face. "What?!" she exclaimed. "How did you...where did...when did...how!?" She pushed him inside her room, slamming the door shut. "All right, tell me everything."

He relayed the story quickly and broadly.

"The Pen is Mightier?" she asked. "Never heard of the place. Other hunters have been there, too, looking for books on vampires? Makes sense, I suppose—since a Grand Hunt has been declared on them, we'd need as much information on them as we could find, even if it'd mean filtering the dregs of folklore." She touched the journal carefully, opening it on the first page. "It definitely belonged to someone named Rama, but..." She hesitated. "I'm not sure if I should read this. It's not for us, after all."

You can read it? Link asked, surprised.

"Mana taught me," she explained. "Wasn't easy, but I managed." She looked at him. "I'll admit, I'm curious as hell about this, but...what will little brother think?"

Link shrugged. He honestly had no idea how Sheik would react to someone else reading his grandfather's account before him. And now that he knew that Ayla could read it...well, his curiosity was almost as hard to rein in as the Beast on bad days.

We can think about it? he suggested. We're meeting Abbas soon.

"Right, right," she said, nodding. "We can decide what to do with it when we get home after dinner tonight." She paused. "You realise we might have another account of what happened with Ascal on our hands, right? If this was written around the time he married Rivea, or when Impa and Iana were born..."

More than aware, Link signed, giving the journal a look.

"Right, putting this away until we've decided, then," she said, stuffing the journal into her pack, in a hidden pocket. "You realise little brother's going to kill us if we read it before him, right?"

You, maybe, Link signed. He loves me.

Her stricken look, like the one from before, was priceless.

To be continued…

I really couldn't resist putting Navi in the story, albeit in a slightly different form than usual!