Twenty-four

A thought made me pause on the bridge over the gorge between the plains and Castletown, and I frowned slightly in thought.

"What?" Link asked.

"Just trying to figure out how to explain how we're getting around so fast... I'm not complaining about the convenience, since this is going to make life a lot simpler, but... You know how long it typically takes to get here from Kakariko," I said, absently worrying a hangnail. "Someone's going to notice, and probably pretty quickly at that."

"Oh..." now Link looked worried as well. "What... what should we do?"

"I'm not sure. I admit, I like the usefulness of it, and I'd really rather not take a lot of time on this, now that it feels we're on the downward side of things." After a moment I sighed. "Well, I suppose I can just be mysterious about it. They're used to that, at least. Come on, we've got a letter to deliver."

"You... you're sure?"

"Well, it's the most straightforward option other than outright saying magic," I said dryly. "Though I suppose no one would really believe that either."

I heard Midna snicker, and Link, though uncertain, nodded.

We threaded our way quickly back through the early evening crowd to Telma, who looked surprised to see us again so soon. Link smiled shyly, then scooted off to talk to Rusl; it wasn't hard to guess that he found Telma intimidating, and he didn't want to suffer the inevitable disappointment.

"Not going to see Shad yet?" she asked, smiling wryly.

"Been and back," I replied blithely. "Got something for you."

"Oh really?~"

"Yup. Letter from Renado.

I passed over the envelope; Telma made a gleeful noise as she opened it and read. I did my best to keep a straight face as her expression went from eager and delighted to thoughtful, and then finally annoyed.

"All this writing and he doesn't bother to mention a thing about me?" She tsked. "Honey, now that's what I call just plain rude. Well, I suppose there's no accounting for male foolishness, and it is good to know more about Ilia's situation. I'm happy to lend a hand!"

"Great. So, what else can you tell me?"

"Well, the first person to bring Ilia here was that fool of a doctor," She frowned a little, tapping her nails lightly on the bar. "But getting him to talk about her is probably an exercise in futility without some help."

"What sort of help?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why, the tab-paying kind, of course," she said with a sly grin. "He's run up quite the bill here, and hasn't bothered to pay it. So why don't you take him this invoice, and see how well it works?~"

I blinked, then snorted a little as she proffered a piece of paper.

"You are a devious woman. All right, let me... he owes how much?"

"See?" And Telma grinned a bit smugly. "Put that in his face, and let him think you're coming to collect; he'll be more than happy to talk about the girl instead of the debt he owes me."

I shook my head a little.

"Clearly, you have been around me too long," I said dryly.

She laughed a little, and waved me on.

I thought about leaving Link to talk to Rusl, but Ilia was his friend, and it wouldn't have been fair to cut him out of the investigation, so I waited until he was finished before catching his attention and motioning that it was time to go. He nodded, and quickly caught up as I headed out of the room, sparing a moment to stroke Louise before leaving.

"So, where now?"

"Now we go visit the old grumpy doctor and give him this," I said,proffering the invoice.

Link caught it up, and his eyes went wide.

"That's..."

"Yup," I nodded a little. "Given that he's not exactly the most popular person in the city for treating injuries, he doesn't make as much as he wants, but he certainly runs up a tab like no one's business. Telma thinks if we wave this in his face, he'll be more than willing to talk about Ilia instead of how he's going to pay."

He shook his head after a minute, his expression somewhere between awed and appalled. I smirked a little, and took the invoice back, folding it neatly and tucking it into an inner pocket of my tunic.

The doctor's place of business was really more of a small, shabby warehouse, reeking of medicines and things left improperly sealed. At the sound of the door, the old man hobbled out and gave the both of us a once over from his stooped height and thick glasses.

"Ah, I see it's the pair that so nobly helped the Zora lad, for nary a single rupee," he said, somewhere between sly and irritated. "Just what is it you need? Physicals? You have money, right? Or perhaps the young lady would like to trade... tips with an old codger?" There was a pause. "...speaking of young ladies, that girl Ilia didn't happen to say anything about me, did she?"

I glanced at Link, who had gone still and was now staring very hard at the old doctor.

"Actually, we're here to give you this," I said, stepping forward to hand over the invoice.

To my silent pleasure, the doctor lost quite a bit of color and staggered back, dropping the paper onto the ground.

"Geh! Are you trying to give an old man a heart attack?!" he demanded. "L-Look, I can't pay this off just yet! Telma's plainly hired you both to strong-arm me, but it, she... she has to wait! If I had been able to sell off that small statue the girl had, I'd have the money, but someone stole it from me!"

"Stole it from you?" I asked, bending down to retrieve the invoice. "Really?"

"I spilled some medicine on it, and that made it reek! Well, no one will buy something that smells so terribly, so I put it on the balcony upstairs to dry out, and someone stole it from there!" he squawked indignantly. "Who goes around stealing people's things like that, I ask you? What a world! You always have to be on your guard, eh?"

Unimpressed, I raised an eyebrow, and stared him down. Link was scowling, just a little, unintentionally playing the silent heavy, which was really quite amusing.

"E-either way, neither the money, nor the carving are here, so I can't repay you!" He huffed, trying to sound indignant and just sounding petulant instead. "Now, if you don't mind, I have work to get back to!"

The doctor shuffled back into one of the small rooms and pointedly yanked the curtain across the doorway to block us out. I snickered a little, then nudged Link and jerked my head slightly to indicate he should follow me.

"He keeps the medicines in the back," I murmured, "and we might get lucky enough to find a lingering scent. It can't have been too long since he had it."

"You want me to try and track it?" he asked, turning from irritated to eager in a matter of moments.

"If you can, yes. He doesn't do many medicines, so it shouldn't be that hard to find out which one is the one we need..."

"What if he comes out?" Link asked, suddenly worried.

"He probably won't, not until he hears us leave," I replied with a smirk. "Because we're reminders that he owes a debt. Still, if we actually track the statue from the smell of the medicine, maybe I'll pay some of his tab for him. Maybe..."

Link snorted a little, then triggered the transformation to wolf; Midna refrained from jumping on his back, though she did emerge from his shadow to witness what was going on.

It wasn't hard to find where the medicine had spilled; along with only making a few medicines, the doctor was notoriously terrible at cleaning up. To be fair, he was an old codger, who probably ought to have been retired, and it did help us. Link sneezed several times as he snuffled around the medicine scent, then looked up at me with a firm nod.

"All right then. Lead the way."

Midna dove back into my shadow this time, and we headed out of the doctor's office into the waning daylight. At least with fewer people on the street there were fewer people to frighten, but there were still plenty who saw Link in his wolf shape and panicked, despite the fact that I was walking calmly alongside, and he offered no threat to anyone.

I have to admit, watching people scatter before someone so harmless is kind of funny.

The trail led back to Telma's, to my surprise, but not into the bar itself. Link's tail wagged as he saw Louise out in the courtyard; when the cat glanced at him, I decided to stay back and just watch. Animals can speak with other animals, after all, and while I could have shifted to the sand cat—I did consider it—I decided to stay as I was and just rest until they were done talking.

When they were finished, Louise patted Link's nose lightly with her paw, then padded back to the door to be let into the bar. Link trotted over to me and changed back with a faint sigh.

"So?"

"So, Louise took the statue, but then it got taken from her by some skeletal dog things," Link said, pulling off his hat to run his fingers through his hair. "She said they're around at night, in a big pack, outside the southern gate, and that to get it back, we were going to have to thrash all of them."

"Ah. Stalhounds," I sighed a little. "Well, better they take the statue than the cat; Telma would be very upset if anything happened to Louise. And they're not too difficult to shatter..."

"So we go and wait for nightfall outside the southern gate?"

"Precisely," I said with a nod, getting to my feet. "Let's get to it then. It's almost twilight as it is."

He nodded, and we quickly made for the southern gate, fortunately not too far from the bar. It was considered the 'official' gate into the city, so there was much landscaping done before it, and impressive stonework, some of which had banners hanging down. At the foot of the steps, the stone was worn away into the packed earth road again, and it was there we waited as the sun descended beyond the mountains, draping the world in a soft darkness.

The first stalhound didn't poke its nose above the earth for several long minutes, but when it did, it was rapidly followed by another dozen of the beasts.

"...um, Raiha?"

"Yes?"

"How do we beat them?"

I smirked, then handed him the Water Medallion before conjuring flames into my palms."

"...oh."

"If I accidentally start some fires, that will come in handy. Now. Let's deal with some wayward pups, shall we?"

Yes, I was annoyed; I liked Ilia, to be fair, but this felt like a side-trip that possibly could have waited until after everything was dealt with. Naturally, my wants did not supersede the reality of the situation... and in the end it was necessary to handle things this way, but it was still an irritant to me.

And of course, undead things burn quickly. Link obligingly doused everything down once they were all taken out, and we sorted through the remains until he let out a yip of triumph, and pulled a statue out from one of the stalhound's innards.

It was hard to make out the details in the moonlight, but I knew the symbol that topped the little wooden statue, and it took a great deal of control to not immediately snatch it away from him. A Sheikah eye was prominently carved, and a myriad of other Sheikah symbols.

"...we have to take this to her now," I said softly.

"But it's late, and-"

"Now, hero," I said emphatically.

"...why?"

"Because this?" and I gently took the carving from him, trying to hide the fact that my hands were trembling with suppressed emotion. "This came from a people that are dead and gone. Or they should be. And not the sort of should that is they have to be dead, it's the sort of should where they dwindled and died out, and if there's a survivor..."

If there were still Sheikah out there, somewhere...

I know now that only old Impaz was left, and she has recently joined the last of her kin, but the idea that there might still be a community of Sheikah... At the time, the thought was electrifying. How they could have changed, how they could have made something more of themselves than just shadowy bodyguards for the Royal Family...

"I have to know."

Link bit his lip uncertainly, and hesitated for a long minute, emotions flickering across his face that I mostly ignored as I held the little statue.

"This is a token of friendship," I said quietly. "I haven't seen one in a long time. Not since I last saw the few remaining members of the Sheikah people. I owe them, Link. I owe them a debt that I can never possibly repay. Please. If there's someone, anyone, still around."

"Do... Do you think...?"

"She was rescued by the person who gave this to her," I said firmly. "Your Ilia wouldn't just take something, right?"

"Right!"

"So that stands to reason that this might well jar something loose that she's been suppressing."

That seemed to decide him, and swiftly we were whisked through the night to Kakariko. I didn't wait for Link to change back—he could catch up soon enough—I was eager to hear how Ilia had received this little statue.

Fortunately, it was not so late that everyone was asleep, though they seemed startled to see us again so quickly. Ilia practically jumped a foot when I thrust the carving under her nose.

"W-what is this?" she asked, taking it from me.

"You tell me," I said firmly.

She looked down at it, and her eyes went wide. The statue dropped from her hands and I caught it before it could hit the floor, passing it to Renado as Ilia clutched her head, suddenly very pale. Link anxiously moved up to her side, though he hesitated to touch her.

"I... I remember something," she stammered. "I... I was confined somewhere. Yes. And I was saved by the person who was confined with me. When they.. helped me get free, they gave me the statue."

She jolted and suddenly jerked upright, just barely missing clobbering Link with her head.

"That's right! But... but that means that person is still in trouble!" Her excitement became frustration. "Oh, what is wrong with me?! Why can't I remember where that is?!"

"I remember!" Gor Coron said abruptly. "Lady Raiha, isn't that..?"

I nodded briefly, though everyone else looked both startled and befuddled.

"A long time ago, there was a tribe of people who were the guardians of the Royal Family," Gor Coron elaborated. "They lived in a secret place, hidden among the mountains, and very few people actually ever met one."

"Or if they did, they soon died," I put in dryly. "Unfortunately, they were not really meant to deal with the prolonged wars, and they dwindled into nonexistent a few centuries ago."

"Yes," he said with a grave nod. "Lady Raiha can lead you there, can you not?"

"I can, but there's a rockslide blocking the way in," I said with a frown.

Ilia's hopeful look faded, and she glanced down.

"Oh, do not worry, little human," Gor Coron said with a chuckle. "What would be a trial for you is no hardship for we Gorons."

He turned, and nodded to Darbus, who nodded back with a grunt of agreement, then stomped his way out the door,shutting it heavily behind him. Renado winced a little as dust was shaken from the rafters, but Gor Coron seemed pleased.

"Darbus will go ahead and start working to clear the slide," he said. "No doubt he will be mostly finished by the time you get there!"

"Thank you, Gor Coron," I said with a faintly relieved sigh. "Right, there's not much we can do now, except get some sleep. Yeah?"

Renado nodded a little, and rested a comforting hand on Ilia's shoulder.

"Darbus is a powerful Goron, and should clear the slide easily enough," he said with a faintly encouraging smile. "And with Lady Raiha and Link the situation should be safely handled."

I nodded, and grinned a little when Ilia glanced at me.

"He's right. We've got this. If your rescuer is still there, then we're golden."

Link, not really knowing what to say, just patted Ilia's other shoulder comfortingly. After a moment she let out a long breath, and managed a shy, still somewhat anxious smile.

We left quickly the following morning, walking out of the village like we were going to catch up on foot, and then warped to Eldin Bridge to cut our travel time. I wasn't too worried about beating Darbus there; a Goron roll is faster than any human's walking speed, let alone a horse at full gallop. And again, Gorons are somewhat bizarre beings; they need little sleep, don't necessarily need to breathe, and eat rocks.

I do love them for all their strangeness.

The canyon beyond was packed with bulbin archers, and we spent a good ten hours dodging arrows. The sun was just starting to descend as we finally made it to the tunnel that lead to the Sheikah hidden village, and I was somewhere between anxious and excited; were there people beyond this rock wall, or would we just find a ghost town, the last already gone?

The tunnel was mostly cleared when we reached it, Darbus having plainly been hard at work ever since he'd arrived. With one final, mighty punch the rocks that blocked the pathway were launched out the end of the tunnel, and Darbus dusted his hands off proudly.

"There is the hidden village, Sister," he said. "But I would tread warily; those little monsters that were on the way here, I suspect they are within the village as well."

"...I wouldn't be shocked," I replied, peering out into the growing gloom. "Well, we'll just have to inform them of the futility of settling into this place, won't we, Link?"

"Right," he nodded firmly.

"Since you are prepared, and strong enough, I will return to Kakariko," Darbus said. "Fight well!"

And her curled into a ball, and rolled back along the path. Link blinked, and pointed after in some mild shock.

"I know, it looks a bit silly when he does it," I said with a shrug. "But it's the fastest way for a Goron to travel."

"...just when I think I'm getting used to stuff," Link mumbled, shaking his head.

I snickered a little at his expense, then pulled my bow out and caught up an arrow.

"Let's go inform these bastards that they walked into the wrong town, shall we?"

His face settled into familiar lines of determination, and he drew his sword with a nod.

We split up to cover the village, Link taking all the bulbin we found on the ground while I shot anyone who decided that roofs or balconies meant safety. The buildings were run down, with broken glass and boards covering what was left of the windows; lucky for us, not so much for the bulbin. The only house in decent repair was the one at the farthest point from the entrance, which had a small garden that had somehow managed to avoid being ruined.

When the last of the bulbin fell, and silence once more had the run of the village, that well-kept door opened, and out walked a short, white-haired old woman.

My heart sank; she was all that was left of the people who had trained me? This tired old woman and... I blinked as cats seemed to stream out of the house. Lots of cats. Despite my disappointment, I had to smile. I've always had a soft spot for cats... Disappointed or not, this old woman plainly loved them as well, to bring them inside and keep them safe from the roaming bulbin.

And she had rescued Ilia. Even old, she still had Sheikah skills, and no matter how rusty, they had to have been used to get Ilia to safety.. Sheikah have always been shadow-walkers, more spy and bodyguard than front-line fighter, and really, was it fair of me to be sad about this woman being the only survivor?

I shook off the melancholy abruptly; I had no right to judge here. I had thought them all dead. Just one alive, somehow, was a gift.

"Did the two of you come to rescue me?" she asked. "Please forgive me for not opening up the door!"

"No, it's all right," I said gently. "With all the bulbin around, it's more sensible to stay indoors..."

Several cats meandered my way and twined around me, purring quite loudly. One industrious kitten even hooked her way up to my shoulder, and stuck her nose in my ear. Link did not escape their attention either, and he seemed quite happy to crouch down and pet the ones who purred at his feet.

"My name is Impaz," the old woman said after a smiling moment. "I am the last human survivor of this lonely village. I was named after a great leader of ours, who built this village after opening Kakariko to everyone... Unfortunately, it fell into decline, and then those creatures tried to take it over. It's been a terrible time..."

"I'm sorry," I said quietly. "I should have known..."

Impaz seemed to study me thoughtfully for a long moment, a slow recognition creeping over her face. While I admit to being hard to embarrass, it's not impossible, and the look of awe that stole across her expression made me glance away.

I have done many things in my long life... but I am proud only of a few. I am not comfortable with people thinking of me as a heroine. I am not. Heroes and heroines do things because they are the Right Thing To Do. I do things because I have no choice, or because I know that later it will come back to bite me in the ass.

Fortunately for my comfort, she then turned and scrutinized Link.

"Are you... would your name be Link?" she asked tentatively.

He blinked, then nodded.

"Ah, I hoped so!" She looked, when I glanced back again, very anxious. "Then, did you save that nice girl?"

Link nodded again, for who else could Impaz mean other than Ilia? The relief was palpable, and a wide smile blossomed on the old woman's face.

"How wonderful. When she was here with me, she often tried to cheer me up by saying how you would come to help. Such a sweet girl... even as I helped her escape, she worried over me."

"Why didn't you come too?" Link asked,uncertainty in his face.

"Alas, by royal order, I am not allowed to leave this place until a certain person arrives... no matter what horrible fate is visited upon it."

I grimaced a little; that didn't sound like a Zelda order, which meant it must have been made by a past king. Given that Sheikah are as mortal as any other Hylian, it was doubtful that the order had been given directly to her, and was more likely to be an order from centuries past, and was a blanket order for at least one of the shadowfolk.

Impaz, being the last, was the only one who could obey it now.

"Oh, but listen to me blather on!" she exclaimed, chuckling a little. "I have a favor to ask of you, if that's all right? Could you please get this charm back to her? She seemed to always keep it close to her heart, but she didn't hesitate to give it up in order to protect me."

And from a pouch on her belt she pulled a small necklace, with a horse-shoe shaped wooden whistle hanging from it. Link took it and looked at it with hope in his eyes.

"I believe that it's kept me safe this whole time... and I would like you to please return it to her, with my thanks."

"We will," Link said with a firm nod, standing up. "And... thank you. Thank you so very much."

He turned, plainly eager to leave, and Impaz gave a start.

"That rod?!" she exclaimed. "Lad, that rod, may I see it?"

Link stopped short, and blinked. To spare him the confusion, I reached out and plucked the Dominion Rod from it's holder, and offered it to her.

"Ohhhh..." she breathed, studying it but not taking it. "This is the Dominion Rod, isn't it?"

"It is," I nodded.

"You two... are you messengers to the heavens then?"

Now it was my turn to blink in startled surprise.

"...yes?" I offered after a moment.

"Among my tribe, there were many legends," she said, her voice trembling slightly. "A story still lingers of a time when the Oocca people and the Royal Family were still in close contact. It was only meant to be carried when they needed to communicate with the Oocca people."

I frowned a little, thinking hard; I didn't remember this, but then, by the time I had connected again with the royal family, contact with the Oocca people had long since been dropped. And if Rauru, drifting across time as he did, had requested it from a royal family after that contact had been lost, well, it only made sense that I wouldn't have known about it.

Impa didn't tell me everything, after all.

"For generations, my people guarded a book that, by royal decree, must be given to the messenger to the heavens," she continued. "Wait here a moment, I must find it for you."

For an old woman, Impaz could move fairly fast when she wanted to. She hurried into her house, leaving the door standing open while Link and I shared a startled glance.

"Of all the things I expected, this was definitely not one of them," I admitted lowly as the sound of rummaging came out to us.

"At least you expected something?" Link offered after a minute. "I didn't know what to think at all!"

I snorted a little, and shook my head, then put the Dominion Rod back into the holder. The cats still crowded around, seeking attention, so we played with them for a little while until Impaz re-emerged, looking triumphant, with an ancient book held reverently in her hands.

"Lady, here is the book," she said, holding it out to me. "This is written in the ancient Sky language; I devoutly hope that it proves useful to you..."

I took the book with care for the ancient bindings and weathered pages; the preservation spell was almost entirely worn out, and I wanted it to remain in one piece as long as possible until I could renew them.

"I'm so glad I stayed here now," she said with a relieved sigh. "If I had not met that girl, I would not have met you two as well! It must have been mandated by the goddesses, so that I could remain to pass on this knowledge."

I kept a very straight face; while the three great goddesses are most certainly real, they have no concept of time. By their very natures, they are outside of it. This was nothing more than sheer luck and happenstance, albeit in our favor.

"What will you do now?" I asked, carefully putting the book away in one of my pouches.

"Oh, I am an old woman," she said with a smile. "And though this place is lonely, I love it very much."

"I see..."

It was a sad feeling, really, knowing that she would not leave this empty, desolate place, but after a minute I smiled mentally; I could not make her leave, but I could get help for her, to make her last years as comfortable as possible.

"When you see the girl again, please tell her thank you," Impaz said.

"We will," I said with a nod. "And I'll come back later to see how you're doing, if that's all right?"

"I would like that, yes," and now she nodded.

"Me too?" Link asked.

"And you, of course, lad," she chuckled a little. "I would be very happy for visitors."

He beamed, clearly liking the idea as well. I shook my head with a faint smile, and we headed out as Impaz turned to look over her garden.