Chapter 20: Regretted Treachery

"Well, well, if it isn't Sir Calintz," Malon said with a wry smile. "What brings you to my ranch?"

Calintz shifted his feet nervously. Dealings with Malon had always been uncomfortable for him, and on a few occasions he was surprised that he came out unscathed and as much of himself as he had been before meeting with the woman. "I am here to check in on Ciel and Chris," he said authoritatively, strengthening his posture to make it look more official. "However, it is early and I would understand if they have yet to rise."

Malon gave him the most seductive smile he had ever seen on the woman's face and felt a wave of unease run through his nerves. "You came to see me, didn't you?" She laughed when his eyes widened with shock and she ushered him inside. "I'm just kidding. I know that you knights are early risers. Take a seat, I'm cooking breakfast right now and it'll be done pretty soon." She went into the kitchen and disappeared from sight, leaving Calintz alone in the living room. "Just make yourself at home in there."

Instead of taking a seat in one of the comfortable looking sitting chairs, he took one of the wooden chairs from around the table and, turning it around so his sword would not get caught in the hole of the back, sat down just outside of the kitchen where he would be out of the way, but within respectable earshot distance so he could carry on a conversation with Malon. "I take it you all arrived without incident?" he asked.

"Oh yeah," she answered, tossing potato shavings into a skillet so she could make something to complement the rest of the meal. "That boy Kenji was a big help, but Ciel and Chris needed a little bit of instruction to get into the groove of things. Chris spent most of his time talking to a cow, which was quite frightening, but I've seen worse on a ranch."

Knowing he was going to regret it before he said it, he asked, "What about Ciel? How is she doing?"

Malon looked over at the knight and smiled. "Found yourself a woman, did you?"

"Why does everyone say that? Seriously, I heard that three times the day I met Ciel. What's the big deal?" Calintz watched as the woman cracked five cucco eggs with one hand in a matter of seconds, waiting for an answer.

"You're kind of naïve, aren't you, knight?" He asked her what she meant and she just shook her head and chuckled. "You're a really good looking guy, Calintz. On top of that, you're a righteous knight whose goal is to safeguard everything we hold dear. Any girl would be lucky to have you." She paused and carefully picked out the words for her next sentence. "You take your job very seriously, and that's respectable, but people often wonder if you ever get to do anything enjoyable, or at least something you like. I know I speak for a good handful of people when I say that we hope you'll find a woman so you'll have someone else you can serve in a different way. While we all appreciate what you do for Hyrule, it would be nice to see you serve a woman you really care about. Y'know?"

"That's it? They think I take my job too seriously?" he asked, astonished that it was something that he thought was stupid.

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

Keeping a hold of his temper, Calintz said, "I decided when I became a knight that the day I found a significant other would be the same day I put down my sword. I don't want to start a family just to go out and die for my country."

Malon reached into her sink, grabbed a spatula, and flung it at the knight, hitting him in the forehead. "By the time you set your sword down you'll be too old to even have a family. Take some advice from a woman who once loved a knight. Don't be so stupid as to wait for all the problems in the world to cease. You'll die sad and lonely."

"You're one to talk," said Talon as he walked in through the kitchen door, walking over to peer over his daughter's shoulder to see what she was cooking. "You're in your thirties and you've yet to find a man who you want to settle down with."

With a precision that was frightening, Malon tossed an egg over her shoulder and hit her father in the face. "We've been over this, dad. I haven't found the right man yet, but I am looking. It should be easy now. I'm in my prime, so there's got to be someone who wants me."

Talon went to a basin of clean water and cleaned his face off. He looked at Calintz and gave him a wink. "Maybe you should just marry my daughter and get the whole mess over with."

"Don't listen to him Calintz," Malon said sternly. "Find yourself a young and healthy girl who has a nice personality and you hold onto her for the rest of your life. You deserve someone who can appreciate you for who and what you are. Stay away from girls like me who are sarcastic and will make fun of you whenever we get a chance."

Calintz stared at the two with a bland gaze, his grey eyes narrowed just slightly to show his indifference to the advice. "Thanks for the love advice, you two. I really appreciate it," he said sarcastically.

"Sir Calintz?"

The white haired knight turned and saw Ciel descending the stairs to the second level, and out of habitual respect stood up hastily, knocking the chair over. "Miss Ciel. How goes your morning?" Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Malon and her father mocking him, but he ignored them to preserve his constitution.

Ciel reached the bottom of the stairs and went to Calintz, offering her hand to him. "I just woke up, so not well. I always look awful in the morning."

Calintz took the hand and, instead of shaking it like he normally would have, bent down and kissed it. "You should give yourself a little more credit. You look exceptionally pretty today."

"Are you feeling okay?" Ciel asked, raising an eyebrow. "You've never said anything about the way I look before." Looking over at Malon, she scowled and said, "Did you put him up to this?"

Malon shook her head and smiled. "That is all him."

Reaching up with her hand, Ciel gave Calintz a soft smack on the cheek. "Wake up and quit dreaming about prettier girls. It's me you're talking to, not a supermodel."

Calintz frowned as the girl walked away from him to help in the kitchen. "Just accept the damn compliment."

"Come on, Ciel," Malon said as she threw some meat into another skillet. "He came all this way just to see you, so be a little nicer to the man." She gave Calintz an exaggerated wink and started humming to herself.

The girl turned to look at the knight, her antennae bouncing comically. "Is that so? Well he's seen me so he has no business remaining here," she said with an uninterested tone. "Honestly, Sir Calintz, you should really manage your time a little better so you're doing something more productive than 'seeing' girls. I'm pretty sure that the queen would disapprove of your behavior."

"Ouch," Talon said, laughing. "I aint heard a hide tannin' like that in nearly twenty years."

Mortified, Calintz could only stand there with a traumatized look on his face. Zelda, you owe me big time for this. While he found Ciel interesting and actually quite attractive, he did not have any sort of feelings for the girl. Despite this, having all three of the people in the kitchen teasing him was far from enjoyable, and, not being used to such treatment, could think of nothing to counter or shake off the comments.

In order to avoid any further torment, he started to move towards the door, picking up his chair and placing it back at the table as he did. "Where yah goin', Mr. High and Mighty Knight?" Ciel asked, poking her head out of the kitchen to look for him. "Leaving already?"

Looking back over his shoulder, Calintz said, "Not entirely. I just need some fresh air."

Ciel shrugged, tilting her head to the side as she did so. "Alright. I'll give you a verbal whippin' when you get back then."

Stepping out into the morning air was quite stimulating for Calintz. Taking a deep breath of the chilly air, he looked out at the pasture where the cattle were grazing contently. Sitting on the fence and talking to one of the cows was Chris, still dressed in his pajamas. Calintz wondered what a teenage boy talks to a cow about and meandered over to see.

"Well, there's this girl back home, her name's Izumi. She's Japanese and really nice, although she's a bit of an oddball. I can see myself marrying her someday."

"Moo."

Chris laughed and said, "I don't see why you can't come. Mom would laugh, that's for sure."

"Good morning, Chris." Calintz said, hopping onto the fence to sit next to the short boy. "How long have you been out here?"

"Long before you got here," he answered, scratching his cow behind the ears. "Ciel talks in her sleep every now and then, so if I wake up too early on one of those mornings when she does I'll never get back to sleep because I'm stuck listening to her talk, and I can't tune it out either because I have A.D.D."

"You have "add"?"

"Attention Deficit Disorder, it's an acronym. I can't focus on things very easily, and it's really hard for me to ignore stuff.

Calintz nodded his understanding. "So, did you hear anything embarrassing this morning when Ciel was talking?"

Chris looked up at the knight with an inquisitive stare. "Why?" Calintz explained what had transpired in the kitchen and asked if Chris knew anything that he could use against the blonde girl. "Nope. Even if I did, you'd never be able to get under her skin," he said, stretching. "Ciel is like an armored fortress. Words do nothing but bounce off of her. Even if something embarrasses her, she can shirk it off and get you with something worse. It's kind of a talent of hers."

"I'll just have to find another way to get back at her then."

"Be careful," Chris warned. "If you go too far she'll hurt you."

Calintz spotted three horses approaching from a distance and hopped off of the fence. "Thanks for the warning. I've got to go attend to something, so have fun talking to your cow." Running down the dirt road leading up to the ranch, Calintz intermittently used Farore's Wind to cover more ground, but was careful not to focus too far ahead to avoid intersecting with a horse and splicing them together. As he got closer, he could make out Zeke's face and gave a sigh of relief. He's all right.

"Zeke, it's good to see you're okay," Calintz said as he approached the group, turning when he was next to Zeke and walking alongside the horse. "You gave us all quite a scare."

Zeke frowned and looked down at the knight. "Who told you something happened?"

"Enigma came to warn us that we might be attacked in the future and wanted us to fortify the castle."

"I see." He was relieved to hear that Enigma had gone to warn the castle, that gave him one less thing to do when he finally returned to the castle, but it also meant that he had failed to save Maiya. "Did he say anything about Maiya?"

Calintz nodded. "He said that the Knights of the Seeking Eye were put on the job of rescuing her, but I told him to go back because we all know what cowards the Seeking Eye are." He went on to explain the condition of the castle, saying that everything was well and in order. "With the exception of the attack warning, everything seems to be transitioning smoothly."

"That's good to hear," Zeke said, cataloguing the information for future reference. "How…how is my mother doing?" On several occasions he had spoken to Calintz about many of his issues and it felt odd to ask the man about the person who caused him so much grief. For some reason he was pleased to hear that she was well and happy, but he ruined it for himself by thinking that she was happy because he was gone from the castle.

"What is for breakfast?" Sakura asked from behind Zeke, groaning when her stomach growled with such intensity that the prince could feel it.

"Who is this?" Calintz asked, having not noticed the girl before.

"This is Sakura," Zeke said, explaining how she was once a fairy and had recently become a human with the help of a great fairy. "I've kind of adopted her into my family, so I hope mom will be accepting. We don't know exactly how old she is, but I'm guessing that in human years she would be around the same age as myself."

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you, Sakura," Calintz said, smiling up at the girl. "And for your information, Malon is preparing a lovely meal of bacon, eggs, grilled potato shavings, and cooked ham. It looks delicious."

"Now that you're bigger, you're going to need to eat a little more than you have been," Zeke said, patting the girl's hand. "But try not to over eat or you'll get sick."

"Food sounds really good right now," Kenji said dazedly. "And after that, I'm going to take a nice long nap."

Zeke laughed, but only halfheartedly because he felt bad for the Harper. "Poor Kenji hasn't slept in nearly five days now. It's a wonder how he's still alive."

*

"Prince Zeke, I am honored to have you in my home," Malon said with a bow. "You've arrived just in time for breakfast too. And Kenji, you look horrible. Did you get to sleep at all last night?"

"No, ma'am. We ran into some trouble at the castle and I never got the chance to sleep." Kenji slumped into a chair at the table and picked up a fork expectantly.

Zeke gave Malon a hug and smiled cheerfully. "It's nice to see you, Malon. I haven't seen a familiar face in almost two weeks." Malon pushed him into a chair at the table, muttering something about him being too thin and going about placing food on the table. Turning to Sakura, Zeke ran her through a brief lesson on table etiquette, telling her that she had to use silverware instead of her hands, among other things. "Try not to burp, and if you do excuse yourself."

"Why? Everyone does it. It is a normal bodily function."

"Because it's polite." Zeke gave the girl a pat on the head and smiled, trying to encourage her. Teaching Sakura about manners was like déjà vu for him. When he was thirteen he taught his sister Faye the same things, thinking that if she was impolite that his mother would start to hate her too, but he quickly learned that manners had nothing to do with his mother's dislike for him.

"So you're Queen Zelda's son?" Ciel asked, taking a seat across from Zeke. "No offense, but you don't really look like your mom." Zeke shrugged and explained how he took after his grandmother who also had red hair and green eyes, but this was not the only thing the girl seemed to think was odd. "How old are you?" He said that he was seventeen as of a week before. "How old is your mother?"

"She'll be thirty-four in a month. Why?" Ciel furrowed her brow as she tried to do an equation in her head, but Zeke realized what she was getting at and sighed, doing it for her. "She was a month shy of seventeen when she had me. I was born to a teenage mother who wasn't married."

Ciel was horrified by this and quickly apologized for her insensitive questions. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…I had no idea…" Zeke held a hand up and silenced her instantly.

"It's quite alright. It happened and there's nothing that can be done to change it."

"Yes you did, Ciel," Calintz said as he took a seat next to her. "I told you on the day we met that Zeke and I shared that in common. It's great to know that you were paying attention." They shared a scornful gaze that drew laughter from Talon and Malon, who took seats on both ends of the table.

Zeke stared at the two curiously. Calintz seems to like her. The two stopped looking at each other, but Ciel punched him in the shoulder when he looked over at Kenji. Ciel pretended to be innocent, but Zeke wondered how that would help her when it was obvious that she was the one who hit him. Calintz laughed at something Kenji said and stretched his back, smacking Ciel in the back of the head when he was bringing his hands down. It was hard not to laugh.

Is that proper table etiquette? Sakura asked, using their special connection that Zeke was surprised they still had.

No, but they're probably settling an argument or something they had earlier. It's all right as long as they're not disrupting anyone. Sakura voiced her confusion over it, but started to laugh after Ciel had offered to serve Calintz something and purposefully dumped it in his lap.

They are funny.

And so breakfast went with everyone getting a fair share of laughter with their meal. If asked, they would say the best part of breakfast was watching Calintz push Ciel's face into the bowl of scrambled eggs, and then seeing Ciel smile up at him sweetly with egg all over her face before jumping on him and taking him to the floor where she proceeded to try and hurt him.

"That's enough, children," Malon said, stifling her laughter with her napkin. "Finish eating before you pummel each other please."

Calintz and Ciel returned to their chairs, looking away from each other. Calintz turned his attention to Zeke and asked Zeke about his wound, switching his informer's name with Enigma's. "I heard from Enigma that you got hurt. He made it sound like it was pretty bad, but you appear to be fine."

Zeke grinned and stood up, lifting his shirts and chain mail to expose his middle. "Maiya and I got into a tussle a couple days ago and she accidentally put a sword through me." He pointed out the sword's entry point and then turned around to show where it exited his body. "It was the single most painful thing I've ever experienced. It hurt so much that I couldn't even scream."

Everyone at the table grimaced and begged him to put his shirt down. "Your mother won't be too happy to hear about that," Malon said just soft enough to avoid Zeke hearing her.

After everyone had finished eating, Zeke pulled Calintz aside and asked if he would do him a favor. "Calintz, I don't plan on returning home."

"What are you talking about? You need to finish your mission."

Zeke shook his head. "There's something I feel I need to do, and I need to get started immediately. I can't tell you what it is, but it's important."

The white haired knight sighed and crossed his arms. "What, do you want me to deliver the Master Sword to your mom for you, is that it?" The look Zeke gave him was far from comforting, and he felt a strange emotion tugging at his heart. "Right, Zeke?"

"Actually, I want you to deliver Purity to mom," he said, scratching his head. "And there's something else."

*

"Stupid Calintz," Ciel mumbled. She had been given the task of washing the dishes, and she relished the task because she could pretend that the food on the plates and silverware was really just colonies of a million white haired knights that would die if scrubbed. "Oh no," she said in a quiet high pitched voice that she used to represent the imaginary Calintz colonies. "Ciel's scrubbing us to death. Woe is us for putting her face in the egg bowl. What were we thinking? How could we have angered the Goddess Ciel who is the greatest being in all of the land?"

"Now she's talking to herself. She must be losing her mind."

Ciel turned around and saw Calintz standing on the edge of the kitchen. "What do you want?" she asked, flinging water at him when she pointed her finger at him. "I'm a little busy if you haven't noticed. Go do your knight stuff and leave me be."

Calintz scowled. "I wanted to say good bye because I have to leave," he said, his voice lined with irritation. "I thought you'd want to know."

"What do you want, a hug or something?"

Throwing his hands in the air, Calintz growled to release some of the anger he was starting to feel. "Why did I even bother?" He turned to leave, but Ciel called him back.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, casting him a cold stare. "Get over here." She waited until he was within arms reach before looking up at him with a smile. "It was nice seeing you again," she said quietly so only he could hear her. The expression of confusion on his face made her laugh, and because of that she gave him a hug. "You're so much fun to mess with."

"You were just playing around?"

"Yup. Got a problem with that?" She gave him a playful stare and said, "Whenever you're not too busy at the castle be sure to drop by. You can help me with whatever Malon has me doing." Turning back to do her dishes, she looked at him and said, "What are you still doing here? Get going."

Calintz shook his head and headed for the kitchen door. "I'll be seeing you soon."

"Later, babe," she said with a toothy grin. After he had left, Ciel sighed and smiled. "Stupid Calintz."

Zelda sat up straight when she saw Calintz standing in the entrance of the throne room. "Sir Calintz, what news do you have for me?" she asked, smiling in anticipation of a good report. Because of the guards stationed in the throne room, she chose to speak formally to the knight, but her smile was one that only someone she knew very well would see. As he came closer to her, Zelda noticed that something seemed off. The white haired knight was distracted and appeared quite troubled. Normally apathetic, if Calintz was disturbed by something then good news could not be further from his mind. "Sir Calintz, what's wrong?"

Stopping at a safe distance from the queen, Calintz bowed low. "I'm sorry, your majesty, but my news is not good." His lips moved, but no words could come. Instead of speaking, he threw a bloodied tunic and a broken sword to the ground at Zelda's feet.

With a frown, Zelda picked up the tunic and ran a hand over the fabric, sliding her fingers down the length of a long rip in the front. "What is this?" she asked, bending down to pick up a piece of the sword.

"These don't look familiar to you?" Calintz asked.

She shook her head and held the sword loosely. "This looks like the type of sword you use. Unique to the warrior's of Zephyr, yet detailed with the head of a dragon that would place it in the forge of a goron." Examining the sword, she went on to say that the person who had wielded it was of good height and, judging by a few of the nicks in the blade, the person fought in a way that had probably been the reason why the blade had broken.

"Zelda, these were Zeke's."

"Really? That's interesting. How did he break his sword? Let me guess, he got too enthusiastic while fighting Maiya and didn't know that edge to edge sword fighting was bad for the blade, right?" When Calintz failed to answer, she looked up at him and studied his body language. "Are you okay? You don't look so good."

Zeke, I'm going to kill you the next time I see you. "Zelda, Zeke's dead," he shouted, his patience finally gone. "He died after Enigma left the castle to warn us. A bulbin cut him open while he was mourning the loss of Maiya, and Kenji was unable to get there in time. Your son is gone." His voice gave away on the last word, and Zelda felt all the blood in her body freeze.

"What…did you just say?" Their eyes met, but Calintz just shook his head and refused to say it again. "No…" Clutching the blood stained tunic to her chest, she was wracked with more pain than she had ever endured before. In her chest, her heart ached with such intensity that she thought it had exploded and that soon she would drop dead. Tears started to surge down her cheeks and her face started to redden, yet despite all of this she spoke with a control that astounded. "What else do you know about this?"

Unwrapping the bundle he had been carrying, he held the hilt of Purity out for Zelda to take. "He asked Kenji to make sure this was given to you."

Ignoring the sword, the only thing Zelda wanted was to hold her son's possessions. "Thank you, Sir Calintz, for informing me." Turning to the ever-present guards, she said, "Please leave me and Sir Calintz alone so we can discuss this matter in private."

"Your majesty, with all due respect, it is our job to be here," one of the guards said, shifting his feet nervously. "We might get reprimanded by our C.O. if he discovers us away from our post."

"And you'll be thrown out of my castle if you ignore my orders," Zelda said threateningly, glaring at the man who had dared speak to her. "No commanding officer is above me, and my orders are not to be questioned. Leave now, and close the doors on your way out." Her eyes followed the four knights all the way to the door of the throne room, watching them as they closed the doors. As soon as the doors had clicked shut she took a deep breath that Calintz thought would help settle her nerves, but after she appeared to be fine she shocked the knight by letting out a horrible, blood curdling scream with such intensity that the stained glass window above the throne resounded with a deafening crack that split the images on the glass's surface in half.

Calintz covered his ears to soften the shriek, but was unable to mute it entirely. The sound chilled his body and stopped his heart from beating. He was positive that this was the most horrific sound he would ever hear in his lifetime.

When her screaming subsided, Zelda's mouth was filled with the taste of blood and her abdomen and lungs hurt from how hard she had voiced the pain she felt. Weary and drained, she fell to her knees and then to her side. Calintz rushed to help her, worried that she might have ruptured an artery or a vein. She started to sob and curled up into a tight ball, wanting reality to leave her alone.

Kenji shook Zeke's hand and said, "It was a pleasure meeting you, but what, might I ask, are you going to do?"

"I'm going searching for answers," Zeke replied, climbing onto his horse and seating himself behind Sakura. "Remember, if anyone asks you, I'm dead."

"Right." Kenji paused before asking, "But what if they ask for the whereabouts of your body?" The question hung in the air for a moment before Zeke told him to be creative. "Oh, thanks. I appreciate that you're placing so much merit to my name."

"You're a Harper. Think like one. Anyway, we've got to get going." Zeke turned his horse towards the entrance of the ranch and waved farewell to everyone. "We'll make everything right after this is all over, right Sakura?"

The small girl shrugged. "I do not know what questions you want answers for, so I cannot give you an answer. For all I know you want to find the answer to the meaning of life, and that would take you an eternity to discover."

"Ever the optimist," he muttered, pulling out a map. "I don't know where to even begin, but I want to know more about the Master Sword and the Triforce. Somehow, they're both related to this whole "fourth force" thing."

"Why do you want to know about that?"

"I don't know, but it's important to me. Why else would something mythical come up twice, and from great fairies to boot? Somehow I know that this is important." Making sure to guard his thoughts from her, he said in his head, Because I want the power of the fourth piece so I can become stronger than everyone else in the land. Then I'll be able to protect Maiya, and no one will ever defeat me again.

*

As they were sitting around the fire that night, Zeke decided to look at the pictographs Orca had given him. If Roland wanted him to see them then he thought they might have something to do with the Crimson Tears, but he was wrong. The first picture was of his mother and a small baby, and they were both smiling merrily. "Sakura, come take a look at this," he said, a small grin appearing on his face.

"What is it?" she asked, sitting down next to him and looking over at the picture. "Aw, who is the cute baby?"

"That's me."

"Oh." Her astonishment was replaced with a worried expression. "What happened to you?" His face became frozen in a dumb way and Sakura laughed. "I am joking. You still look quite handsome."

Together they viewed the pictographs. Sakura was constantly commenting on them, but Zeke heard little of what she said. In every picture the focus was on him and his mother, and a continuing theme of happiness was always present. One of them was of his mother napping while he was sleeping on top of her. She was lounging on a couch and a steady stream of drool was flowing from her mouth and onto the pillow she was using while he was positioned in a similar fashion, drooling onto his mother's dress.

Another that made him smile was a picture of when he was around two. For some reason, his mother was sitting and making funny faces at him, but he was laughing so hard that his face was the same color as his hair. There were a few more pictographs that were of the same moment, but his mother would have a different funny face on.

Of all the pictographs, there was one that Zeke liked more than the others. It was not ridiculous like some, nor was it funny like others. His mother was holding him while he was sleeping, and the smile she had for her son was one of pure adoration. Setting the pictographs down, Zeke started to berate himself for ordering Calintz to tell his mother that he was dead.

"Zeke, it will be okay," Sakura said, reading his thoughts. "She will be so happy to see you when next you see her."

"If she's not mad that I lied." Zeke saw someone on a horse approaching their campsite and went to draw his sword. Having given Calintz his sword to back up his story, he was now using the Master Sword as his weapon. Even though it was a little longer than his previous blade and quite a bit heavier, it felt more natural to use it than the sword that was made for him. "Who's there?"

"Kenji, prince." The blonde slowed his horse to a stop by Zeke's and quickly moved to stand by the fire. "It's getting too cold for someone like me," he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'm used to being indoors, so this is a little different for me."

Zeke waited for the Harper to state his business, but Kenji made no attempt to explain himself. "I thought you were going to stay at the ranch until you finished composing your song," he said, sheathing his sword and crossing his arms.

"I was," he said, taking a seat and pulling a bundle out of his tunic that contained a meal Malon had prepared for him. "But that was before this got so big." He paused to take a bite from a roll, but shoved it into one of his cheeks like a squirrel and said, "I was sent to compose a ballad about the monumental moment of you going to the old castle. Unfortunately, the things at the castle have left me in a position where I can't finish the ballad. It would end with a cliffhanger, and in a teaching ballad a cliffhanger is an ill accepted ending. In order to finish the ballad, I need to go with you until we reach a point where I can put a heroic ending to my composition."

Taking a seat next to the Harper, Zeke sighed and said, "Did you make sure that Malon and everyone knew to say that I'm no longer living if anyone comes by to ask about me?"

"Of course. It wouldn't do to have them spoil your wonderful plan." Kenji clearly disliked the idea, but was not about to rebel against someone who could ruin his life. "However, I need to know all the details of your master plan before I can fully agree to help."

Zeke told Kenji that he wanted to look into the "fourth force" and other things that were related, including the Goddesses, Sri Tessla, and how it could affect Hyrule. He also wanted to know about Luster and Purity, and how they were related to the Master Sword. "I don't know where I'm going to find all of this information, but I can't rest until I find out what all of this means."

"I see," Kenji murmured, closing his eyes to show that he was thinking. "Well, I think the best place to find a lot of that information would be the Archives. We can go there and talk to Master Archivist Idarolan."

"We'll have to go under cover of night." Zeke was sure that after Enigma's warning it would be impossible to get into New Castle Town undiscovered. "They'll have guards at the main gate, and they'll be checking everyone so they can weed out anyone that may be an enemy. They'll find out my identity if we go that way."

They agreed to do more planning during their trip back and decided to turn in for the night. Kenji suggested staying up to keep watch incase anyone came across their camp during the night. Zeke agreed to take over watch during the morning hours and went to his tent. The last thing that went through his mind before he went unconscious was, The crystal will be mine.