I've tried to give myself a max of 7 days to update...but it didn't work out...sorry! Hopefully I will be able to update sooner in the future. Also, I've been forgetting something important-Nintendo owns Midna, Link and any other characters in Hyrule and I don't claim to own any of them. Sorry, Nintendo...


"In my world he would be called 'anarahin ah bendal', one without a soul," Midna begins softly. She strokes the sleeping boy's hair, orange a shade lighter than hers. "During the early days, when the Twili tribe was first formed, this sort of magic was used to get stronger. It was forbidden by my father as soon as he took the throne, but someone is using again."

"Zant," Link says.

Midna nods. "People would drain others' mind, their strength, their emotions—everything they were, stealing their souls. Absorbing another person's soul gives you enormous amounts of power. Some of my ancestors, they couldn't stop taking souls. It was like being addicted to a drug, living only for that moment when they gained more power."

She stops when the teenage girl walks in, chewing on her bottom lip and wringing her hands. "Is…there anything I can get you?" she asks nervously.

"No, thank you," Midna replies, keeping her voice quiet for the boy's sake. "You've done enough." It is this girl's bed the Twili boy sleeps on now, her fireplace Link and Midna sit in front of. "Can I ask your name? Some day, when times are better, we will repay you."

"It's Miri," she says, brushing a stray lock of dark hair behind her ear and smoothing her skirts. "My older brother will be home soon, but I don't think he will mind." She hesitates a moment before continuing. "Uh…how is he?"

"He'll be fine," Midna says reassuringly. "He just needs…rest, that's all."

"All right," Miri says. "I'll leave you alone now." She disappears without another word.

Midna looks at Link, stretched out on a couch in front of the fire. Without needing to say anything, he opens his arms and she goes to him, curling up in his embrace, her head on his chest. His hand captures hers and they stay like this for a while, not saying anything, just being in one another's presence, and that's enough.

"When you have no soul, you are turned into a mindless beast," Midna murmurs. "No feelings. No ideas. No notion of who you are—who you were, rather, before you lost your soul. You have one purpose—serving your master, the person who took it from you in the first place. And that's sick and wrong but they can't understand it like we can. They just need someone to tell them what to do because they don't think."

"But you…did something," Link says. "By singing that song."

"My mother taught me that song once," Midna says softly, her voice growing sad. "A long time ago. I wasn't sure I would even remember the words. I just thought that…maybe if he could remember home…he would know who he is."

Link gives her hand a squeeze. They both look over at the boy, curled up like a baby animal, so peaceful and vulnerable in sleep.

"Zant's making soldiers, I think," Link says. "From what you've told me…more power and mindless servants? It's a win-win for him."

Midna swallows and nods against his chest. "We need to find out what he's planning."