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.


Soul Secrets

Chapter 49


The shocked silence left in the wake of Sheik's announcement lasted for an impressively long time. Maybe it was the residual shock he was feeling himself, but Sheik took a small pleasure in watching the expressions on the others' faces.

Kaura, having never been particularly religious, looked impassive. She could probably live with Speil being the Sage of Light, even though it'd never make up for what he'd done in the past.

Zelda looked utterly confused, probably finding the idea of making Speil, a being of shadow, into not just a Sage, but that Sage, even, completely perplexing.

Link just looked angry, his eyes flitting from Sheik to Speil, his hand clenched around the handle of his sword, itching to have at his dark copy. He didn't buy the story, not at all...or his heart didn't. But judging by the way he kept looking at Sheik, there was clearly some sort of inner struggle going on.

The silence was broken by the princess, who had to sit down, her brow knitting with irritation. "It's never simple with us, is it?" she asked no one in particular. "Everything just gets more and more complicated, while the world falls to pieces around us." She rubbed her thigh, hissing with pain. Kaura fished a small vial of red potion out of her bag and handed it wordlessly to her former student, who drank it down eagerly. The pain would be dampened considerably. "So...assuming I even believe what you're saying, Sheik," she said, looking at him with narrowed eyes, "why? Why would the Sages make it take Rauru's place?"

"I don't know," Sheik replied honestly. "I don't have all the answers, merely what Speil showed me."

"How did he do that, exactly?" Link asked, glaring down at the shadow in question. Speil had passed out, it seemed. "Show you it, I mean?"

"I have no idea," Sheik said, pointing to his newly acquired bandaged wound. "He bit me, and then I...saw and heard it all. As for why...I can only assume that he was the only choice they had. They never managed to re-establish the connection to our world properly—and there was no one else to do it." He fiddled with the medallion. "But that isn't the important issue here...or the most important, anyway."

"Then what is?" Kaura asked. She was crouching down by Speil, taking his pulse and vital signs.

"This," Sheik said, indicating the medallion. "The medallion isn't just Speil's Sage medallion...but a key."

"A key to what?" Zelda said, still rubbing her thigh. It must have been killing her the entire evening. She'd probably forgotten to take any of her painkillers for it.

"To reactivating the Master Sword. I cannot be sure of the details, but from what I understood the medallion will infuse the sword with power, unsealing the enchantments that allows it to manipulate time—the same enchantments that were sealed away when Link chose to not return time to its original state after we defeated Ganondorf." Sheik frowned. "Suddenly, Ard's message doesn't seem so strange. He must have known...somehow."

"Or perhaps it was just a desperate plea," Zelda said.

"Doesn't matter," Link said. "Because it won't be necessary. We'll win this fight, defeat the Sun, and free Ard. It's hardly the first time the odds don't look good, and it won't be the last."

Sheik and Zelda looked at each other. Something had definitely changed in Link since they'd both seen him last. "Link," Zelda said carefully, "the other times things have looked grim, we still had an army at our backs, and a visible enemy to fight. Right now, we're outnumbered and nowhere near equipped to deal with a siege. We're not fighting an enemy nation, either—our own people, controlled by someone who refuses to fight fairly, are attacking us. I'm at my wit's end, here. I don't know what to do...and the ideas I have come up with are..." She glanced at Sheik again. "Well, they are unwise and cruel...and not something I wish to become known for."

"So...you're just giving up?" Link asked in disbelief. "You won't even try?"

"It's not about trying, Link," Sheik said. "Unless the rioters are dissuaded by the approaching royal army, they will attack the castle. We don't have enough defenders to hold it, and should those walls be breached, which is likely not only because of the cannons, but also—"

"Cannons?" the Hero of Time asked. "What cannons?"

"You don't know?" Sheik asked, eyes wide. "Didn't Tira show you...?"

"I...I don't know," Link said, shaking his head. Was that what Iari had removed? His memory of Tira showing him the cannons? That would make sense, at least when taking Tira's anger into account, but then... "I can't remember," he said. "There is a...a blank spot in my memories—I don't know what it contained, but the Sun leader wanted it..."

"He removed your memory?" Kaura asked. "That's...impossible."

"It's not," Link said, shaking his head. "Iari has the power to manipulate people's minds. That's probably what he's been doing to Castle Town, and..." He remembered the undead villagers of Blackbrook. "You saw it, Sheik. When you rescued me. The symbol on the villagers' foreheads that you told me about..."

Sheik frowned. The villagers' minds had indeed been blanked, but he'd been sure it was through some nefarious potion or something, not...direct manipulation. "How do you know this?" he asked, giving Link a suspicious look. Compared to the last time he'd seen Link, his husband was now completely clear-minded, and there were no visible signs of a headache either, which had haunted Link since the day he'd been brought back from Blackbrook.

Link hesitated. "Garrett told us. Me, Akia, Nikal and Eren. We..."

"Who the hell is Garrett?"

Link took a deep breath and explained it all as best he could. What the man had said, what he'd done, what had happened at the old Rinir mansion... By the end, Sheik had his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

"And when were Nikal and Eren planning on telling me about this man...or whatever he is?" he asked. "This strikes me as the sort of information that could have been useful since the start!" He snorted. "I should have known something was off when they brought him here." He looked at Speil. "Far too big a coincidence...but no, I was too focused on him, rather than the events that led him here."

"Don't be angry at them, Sheik," Link said. "Without Garrett, I'd still be...hurt."

Sheik shook his head. "I'm not angry at them for getting you healed, I'm angry that they have kept potentially vital secrets from me! From what you've told me about Garrett, he is clearly dangerous...and how do we know he's not secretly working with the Sun?"

Shape shifter...immortal... Sheik ground his teeth at the thought. Such an enemy would be impossible to find, much less kill. And if what Garrett said was true, then the leader of the Sun, whose heart Sheik had driven his sword into, was not only alive and well, but probably in the city as they spoke, at the forefront of this uprising.

"Where are Eren and Nikal?" he asked. "They have some explaining to do..."

"Upstairs," Link said. "Sheik, don't yell at them, please..."

Leaning against the wall, Sheik found energy for little else but shaking his head at the hopelessness of it all. "What good would it do?" he asked. "The damage is already done. If they'd informed me from the start, we might have been able to stop the Sun, but now..." He sank to the floor, shutting his eyes. He was tired...so damn tired. His heart skipped a beat, as if it sensed his distress and wanted to add to the misery.

"Hey," Link said, crouching in front of him. "Don't give in to despair—we're not beaten yet."

"Close enough to it, though," Sheik said, grinning humourlessly at him. "We're alone...no Goddesses...no Sages, except a twisted mockery of one...surrounded by enemies we cannot see or bear to fight...and only one option has presented itself so far, but..."

"I won't turn back time," Link said. "Not yet. We haven't reached that point of desperation. We can still win this."

"Even if we do, what's the point?" Sheik asked, suddenly feeling the weight of it all bearing down on his shoulders. "The world is still dying—we don't know how much longer we can survive on what little food we can grow...and Zelda's war—that is approaching as well!" He quenched a sob, refusing to let it be heard. "We ruined it all, didn't we? We did everything wrong. Feror should have been allowed to destroy us, it—"

The slap was firm and painful, but it had the intended effect. It caused him to freeze, and look at Link with surprise. His husband's face was a mask of determination.

"Stop that right now," the Hero of Time said. "I have no intention of admitting defeat to that mad bastard, and neither should you! Goddesses, Sheik, since when were you a defeatist?"

Sheik chuckled humourlessly. "I'm not...I'm just being realistic. If you won't turn back time...then our defeat is almost guaranteed."

"As long as we still draw breath, there's hope! Ganondorf, Feror, Lumina...Sheik, every time we thought we'd been defeated, we found a way to bounce back and take the fight to the enemy. True, we're facing difficult odds, but we'll find a way this time too!" He put his forehead to his husband's, grinning. "Hey, it's us, right? We make the impossible possible, as long as we've got you, the brains, and me, the brawn." Seeing a small smile appear on Sheik's face, he pressed on. "And then there's Zelly, who's there to keep us in check whenever we try something too stupid for words." The princess grinned at that. "And Kaura, who...well, she's mainly there to scare the crap out of us, but also to give the sort of advice only a woman of her age—"

"Hey!"

"—and wisdom possibly can!"

Sheik looked up into his husband's face, and saw nothing but absolute certainty looking back. That was what made him a Hero, wasn't it? His ability to take any situation, no matter how bad, and somehow convince everyone involved that he knew what he was doing and that any challenge could be overcome? Sheik had never been able to understand how he did it...but that was between Link and the Goddesses, he supposed.

Gods, he was tired. How long had it been since he'd had some proper rest? Not that long, surely, but with everything that had occurred since he'd last risen from bed, it felt like he'd been awake for a thousand years. Still, despite his exhaustion, he felt his smile widening in the face of Link's unending optimism.

What the hell, he thought. It's not like things can get any worse, right?

"We need to get the Master Sword back," he said. Link frowned, but Sheik held up a hand. "We may find a way to win this after all, but I still think we ought to have a backup plan...and I, for one, cannot stand the idea of that bitch walking around with your sword!"

Link slowly nodded. "All right," he said. "If we can find her, we'll get it back."

"Somehow, I don't think finding her will be an issue," Sheik said. "She'll come to us, sooner or later."

They fell silent then, and Sheik could tell that for all his talk, the Hero was exhausted as well, and Zelda was doing no better. It had been a long day for all of them...and it would be longer still.

Kaura stood up and surveyed her patients, and sighed. "If there ever was a more fitting moniker for you three than The Moronic Trio, I have yet to hear it. I have never seen a more depressing example of communication problems...to think of all the issues you could have resolved immediately if you'd just speak to each other every now and then, and not just blab about absurd pleasantries." She grabbed Link and Sheik by their shoulders and hauled them to their feet. "I'm going to blame your current stupidity on exhaustion, however, and as your personal physician—yes, for all three of you—I am ordering you to get some rest. Or at the very least eat something."

She ushered them towards the door, ignoring their protests. "Don't argue," she barked. "You have an uprising to handle, and sitting down here isn't helping matters. Eat, sleep, make plans, I don't care what you do, just don't do it here! Bugger off!"

"But the shadow—"Zelda began.

"Knows better than to trifle with me," the physician said. She pointed to the bruise beneath her eye. "Believe me, this is nothing compared to what I can do to him."

"What do we do about it?" Link asked, some coldness seeping into his voice as he glared down at Speil.

"That is something we can worry about later," Sheik said. "He's not going anywhere."

Link didn't look convinced, but nodded. "Fine." Before they filed out of the room, however, he made doubly sure that Speil was securely chained to the wall, giving the shadow a hard stare before following the others. "Don't trust anything he says," he told Kaura, who simply scoffed.

"How stupid do you think I am?" she said, practically slamming the door in the Hero's face.

"That was rude," Link noted.

They said nothing as they trudged through the cellars and ascended into the castle proper. The noble children were still there, but now the soldiers who were to be their escort had joined them. It was a depressingly small group, in Sheik's opinion, less than fifty men and women to protect the thirty-or-so children. They would have to do, though, being about half the forces stationed at the castle, including Prince Leonthal's men. If any more were assigned to the protection detail, there'd be no way to defend the castle from the rioters, should they break through. Their only hope then would be that the city watch could maintain control, which they had already proven they couldn't.

Hopefully, the escort would prove adequate until they met with the royal army, who could spare more manpower to ensure the children got to the safety of their families' estates in the country. The man in charge, a captain by the name of Rowan, saluted when he spotted the princess and her companions.

"Your Majesty," he said. "We are ready to move on your command."

"Thank you, captain," she replied, surveying the children and soldiers. "I am sorry that your stay here has to be cut short," she told the kids. "But it is for your own safety. These soldiers will protect you on the way home."

One of the children, a girl Zelda evidently recognised judging by the small smile on her face, somewhere around twelve, raised her hand. "Your Majesty," she said timidly, "we've heard about the city, about the riots. Do you think our parents—"

"I'm certain your parents are safe," Zelda lied through her teeth. "Getting out of the city is difficult right now, but I'm sure they'll be right on your heels very shortly. If there are any other questions, please direct them to Captain Rowan. He will be happy to answer them." She smiled broadly, but Sheik could see how exhausted she was by the way it didn't quite reach her eyes. "This is where our paths separate...for now. When the unrest dies out, you are more than welcome to return to the castle. Farewell." She looked to Rowan. "Captain, it is time."

Rowan saluted again, and barked an order. The soldiers quickly organised the children into a single line, which they formed a protective circle around, and quickly marched out. Zelda watched them go, her face a mask of worry.

"Who was she?" Sheik asked.

"Lyna, the heir of House Rocklin," she replied. "She wants to be a knight."

"I'm sure she will be." Sheik looked around, noticing how empty the entrance hall was. The servants were doing their best to occupy themselves, but they looked worried. There were no guards—they were manning the walls and the courtyard. About fifty proper defenders, and twenty non-combatants. Bad odds considering the thousands who could potentially be assaulting the keep. He spotted Nikal and Captain Rinir by the main staircase, looking deep in conversation. Link was watching them, frowning. Sheik knew why, and strode over to them.

"Master," Nikal said, her eyes widening as she straightened up. Captain Rinir nodded.

"Lord Sheik."

Sheik nodded to her. "Captain Rinir, good to see you again."

"And you, my lord."

"I think we can dispense with the titles, however, on account of us being family."

She looked surprised, but nodded. "I suppose so...Sheik."

He gave her a smile and turned his attention to Nikal. "We have a lot to discuss. About a certain friend of yours."

Her shoulders drooped. "Yes, Master."

"Where is Eren?"

She froze, her eyes darting towards the castle gates. That was all Sheik needed. "Don't tell me he went out there," he said. "Don't tell me he was that stupid!" He hardly even noticed that he was already walking towards the gates, his hands automatically checking his weaponry and equipment. Only his swords and a pair of daggers. Hopefully that would be enough. Nikal and Capt...Akia ran after him, with Link bringing up the rear guard.

"I tried to stop him!" Nikal said. "He wouldn't listen. Master, his family..."

"He's walking right into a damn trap," Sheik barked. "If anyone recognises him..."

"Sheik, what's going on?" Link demanded.

"Eren went into the city on his own, I'm going to get him back," Sheik said curtly. "And I'm going alone. Anyone else will just slow me down." He abruptly stopped and turned around to face them. "Make sure that someone knows us at the gate."

Akia and Nikal nodded and remained stationary, but Link followed him all the way to the gates, which took an annoyingly long time to open.

"You called her sister," Link said as they walked through the barricades being erected by the watch.

"We're married," Sheik said nonchalantly. "That makes her my sister-in-law. Does this bother you?"

"No," Link said. "I just didn't think you'd accept her that quickly."

"I've decided to take a new approach to familial relationships," Sheik said. "Seeing as I've lost one family member today, I see gaining another as a purely positive thing." He paused at a street corner, close to where the city watch had erected the barricades that now separated the parts of the city controlled by the rioters and Princess Zelda.

Link hesitated, his eyes wide. Had he forgotten, in all the excitement, that he wasn't the only one who counted friends and family, adopted or otherwise, among the fallen Sages? "Impa...Sheik, I'm sorry—"

"Not now, Link," Sheik said, clamping down hard on the tightness in his chest. "There is no time for it."

"When will there be, then?"

"When this is all over," he said and, after a moment's consideration, pulled down his mask and kisses Link lightly on the lips. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have a wayward boy to find."

"Don't be too hard on him, all right?"

Sheik rolled his eyes. "You spoil them." He studied the street ahead, noting the many obstacles and barricades. "Hm, seems I'll be taking the aerial route. We'll be back soon." With that, he took a running start and began to climb the façade of the closest building, quickly shimmying up to the tiled roof.

Link remained there until he could no longer see his husband jumping from roof to roof, and then he went back to the castle. Zelda was waiting for him in the entrance hall, along with Akia and Nikal.

"Let's go to my study," the princess said. "There's something I need to tell you."

Link shrugged, and followed them. Whatever news Zelda had, they couldn't possibly be worse than everything else he'd heard that day. Once seated in various parts of her study, Link, Akia, and Nikal watched the princess pace around for a bit, seemingly collecting her thoughts. She went to her desk and picked up a piece of paper, reading its contents. "I will confess, I'm not sure what to think about it, or even if it's true. The leader of the Stargazers' Guild certainly believes so, but he and his fellows have always been...imaginative. On the other hand, I have seen the phenomenon for myself, and that part of it is certainly true..."

"What is it?" Link asked. He wasn't sure how many other surprises he could take, or how much more he could worry about without running out of room.

Zelda took a deep breath. "Have you ever truly looked at the stars...?"


Eren stood in front of what had once been the impressive city holdings of House Layr. The bricked walls that surrounded the property had been torn to pieces by cannon fire, along with the rest of the house. The household guards, men and women Eren had known well before he agreed to be trained by Master at Kakariko, lay dead among the rubble. Some had had their throats cut or been stabbed to death, while others had been ripped apart by the cannons. There were no signs of his father or brothers, and Eren could only assume they had been captured by the rioters. The alternative was that they were buried somewhere in the ruins of the house, and that was... He wouldn't entertain the thought. They had to be alive. They had to!

But where could they be? He'd seen numerous other noble holdings in similar states along his route, but the people responsible were nowhere to be seen. He continued on his way, running along the streets, hoping to spot something that would guide him. He soon came across a group of rioters who, upon running out of nobles to harass, had taken to breaking the few intact windows of their estates, standing among the bodies of both slain rioters and guards. One of them spotted Eren, and grinned.

"Hey kid!" he shouted. "Wanna throw? Satisfying as hell! The bastards thought they could get away with killing us, but we showed 'em!"

"Where is everyone?" Eren asked, panting. "I'm looking for a friend of mine—"

"Fountain Square," said the man, throwing another brick, hitting the corner of a window with a loud whoop. "'s where they've taken the nobs. Quite a show, really, but pretty gruesome. Bet you anything your friend's there—everyone else sure is."

"Why aren't you?"

The man paused, looking at Eren with narrowed eyes. "I don't like the pompous arses, but beheading 'em isn't the best option, in my opinion. Could've sold 'em to the princess, for one, and...hey, where're you going?!"

Eren couldn't listen to what else he had to say. Beheading? Were they actually executing the nobles? He ran as fast as legs would take him, his lungs fit to burst at any moment.

As he ran, he wondered why he was so worried. He'd never been close with his family—his brothers had tormented him, and his father had been indifferent to his existence, being a more or less useless addition to the family, since he already had an heir and a backup. He'd refused to let Eren go with Master, but Eren had a feeling that was less parental worry than it was prejudice towards the Sheikah. Maybe he'd been worried Eren would go native?

So why was he running to find them, to save them? Was it simply for the fact that they were family? Most likely... Without family, you were alone in the world, after all, and who could honestly say that was how they liked it? His thoughts went to Nikal. She was alone. Her family had been murdered during the war with Ganondorf, and the life she'd led afterwards had not sounded like the sort one would want to.

So that was it, then? He was running to his father and brothers' rescue for that reason? That he didn't want to be the only Layr left? He rounded a corner and saw the burning remains of what had once been the Merchants' Guild house, along with the rising flames of the pyres, and the spikes driven into the ground by the entrance to the square, the heads' faces frozen in masks of terror and agony. He nearly threw up at the sight, as well as the approving roars from the crowd gathered within. To think how far the citizens of Castle Town had fallen...but then, who wouldn't, with someone like Iari influencing their minds. As he watched the familiar faces of the noble families of Hyrule, he felt guilty for wondering why he was running so fast. If being family wasn't good enough a reason, then what was? Saving a life, any life, was good enough.

Taking deep breaths, Eren steeled himself and entered the square, picking his way through the crowds. The bodies, whose heads had been placed outside, were burning on the pyres, the air filled with the smell of charred flesh and boiling fat. His stomach continued roiling, but he forced himself to push forward. He had to know, had to see...

The captive nobles had been corralled together, surrounded by the rioters, who were jeering and mocking them. Most of the captives had fear in their eyes, having watched what happened to their friends and peers, knowing they were next. Eren tried to see if his father or brothers were among them, but there were too many protestors in the way, and the nobles were all huddling together, trying to escape the rocks that were thrown.

He didn't have to look, though, for the words of the man apparently in charge of the show spoke loud and clear. "Brothers and sisters, we are joined by his lordship, Eric Layr!"

Eren's head whipped around, looking at the stage. His Father, bleeding from his mouth and nose, was being led up on the platform. He looked furious, struggling against his captors' grip, but they were strong and burly men, more than capable of wrestling the wiry and slim Lord Layr with them. Someone had roughly sheared off his beard, and Eren thought his father looked practically naked without it, his chin remarkably weak-looking. His clothes were torn and dirty, evidence of his rough treatment at the hand of the rioters.

His heart beating wildly, Eren made his way to the front of the crowd, looking for an angle of attack, some way to distract them, anything...but finding none. There were too many armed guards, some even armoured, and every angle was watched. Even if he went straight for his father, they'd never make it out of there. And his brothers, what about them?

"My lord," said the speaker mockingly. "A pleasure to see you here."

"Bastards!" Lord Layr shouted. "Murderers! Fucking cowards!"

"Such crude words, and coming from a man of your station," said the speaker, pretending to be horrified. "What would your family say?"

That infuriated the aging lord even more, and he sputtered. "My sons," he moaned. "Murderers!"

Eren looked at the pile of bodies below the stage, the ones that had yet to be put on a pyre. The two on the top...their colours were Layr colours...

The devastated look on his father's face was all Eren needed as confirmation. He'd arrived too late. The two spikes currently being paraded around in a circle by the edge of the crowd... It was like someone had stuck a knife in his heart and twisted it. He'd hated them, despised them...but they were still his brothers!

Lord Eric Layr studied the crowd in front of him with his tear-filled eyes. "You'll regret this," he said. "By the Goddesses, you'll all regret this!"

"The Goddesses aren't there, my lord, haven't you heard?" the speaker said. "There's no one there to hear your prayers."

The lord was allowed to fall to his knees, his strength failing him. Eren tried to get closer, but the crowd was getting even more excited now, and the bustle was getting worse, making it almost impossible to move. "The Sheikah will kill you all," the lord said, barely audible, but Eren heard it. "The Sheikah...and my son...will kill you all!" Lord Layr climbed to his feet, his anger growing. "They'll do the same you've done to us! Your heads will line the highways all the way to the border!" His eyes searched the crowd again, and by chance...or fate...they met Eren's. His father looked confused for a moment, then recognition hit him, and the lord looked horrified. "No..."

Father...

"Enough," the speaker said. "Your time has run out, my lord."

Eren held his father's gaze as the lord was forced to kneel at the chopping block, the executioner's axe held high. Whatever thoughts went through the elder Layr's head as he neared his final moment, Eren didn't know, but he hoped that they were not of disgust for his son's chosen life. There was a wry smile on Lord Layr's mouth, but Eren wasn't sure if it was because he was happy to see his only living son one final time, or if he simply hoped to have his death avenged.

The execution was mercifully quick. The axe fell, and his father was dead. Eren felt numb, watching the speaker taking hold of his father's head and holding it high, while his body was unceremoniously added to the pile below, on top of those of his oldest sons. Eren felt the bile rising in his throat, and knew he had to get out of there. Fighting his way through the rioters, he emerged by the edge of the square, leaving it at full speed.

He failed to notice several men following him.


Sheik paused as he looked down upon the ruins of the Layr estate. Eren would have come through here, he knew, but there was no sign of his student anywhere. In the distance, he could see several buildings on fire, along with much activity at Fountain Square. Perhaps that was where Eren had gone next—the rioters would have had to do something about the captive nobles, unless they had been killed in their homes.

Please... he thought. Be okay.

He shook his head, trying to ignore the exhaustion that was permeating his body, and leaped to the next roof.


His throat burned, his stomach having emptied itself the second he'd found an alley to duck into. Eren panted, waiting to see if there was more, but he was apparently done. Crawling away, he rested his forehead against the cool stone wall, his eyes shut tightly to ward off the tears. He'd hated his brothers and disliked his father, but now...they were gone... He growled with frustration and anger, clenched his fist and, with a cry of despair, punched the wall as hard as he could. It hurt, but that was good. It needed to. He managed two more hits, but then the pain became too much, and he fell against the wall, cradling his now bleeding hand. The tears were gone, so his plan had worked.

"Well, well, well," an unfamiliar voice said at the mouth of the alley. "If it ain't the little Lord Layr himself!"

Rising to his feet, Eren watched as five men entered the alley, each carrying a weapon of sorts. Two had daggers, one a butcher's knife, the fourth a sword and the fifth a vicious-looking axe.

"That's your title now, ain't it?" the man with the sword asked. "Now that your old man's dead? Thought I recognised you in the crowd..."

Eren looked around. The alley he'd chosen to throw up in was a dead end, and there were no easy footholds on the walls around him. What a fool he'd been, not even checking to see if anyone was following him! He regarded the men approaching him—none of them seemed to be trained soldiers, but the alley wasn't particularly narrow, which meant he couldn't isolate them. Untrained fighters were dangerous in groups—Eren could easily handle two or three, but five?

I should have brought another knife, he thought, drawing his single weapon and trying to make himself look dangerous by flipping it around and performing flashy moves that were meant to dissuade attackers. It did little but draw laughter from the men, however.

"Fancy moves, your lordship," the sword-carrier said, laughing. "Now, why don't you put that knife down and come with us? We've got a spike ready, just for you, right next to your father and brothers..."

Eren snarled and threw himself forward, easily clearing the distance between them in three bounds, catching them by surprise with his speed. The closest man, the one with the axe, went down easily. His weapon was too heavy and unwieldy to use effectively against a fast opponent, and Eren effortlessly ducked under the clumsy swipe, burying his dagger to the hilt in the man's throat. Growling, he stabbed the man three times before withdrawing, blood pouring onto the ground. He retreated just in time to jump out of the sword-wielder's strike. Eren made to attack him as well, but the other three were upon him as well, attacking in tandem, forcing Eren backwards.

Wiping the blood of the axe-wielder from his eyes, Eren waited until the clumsy strikes offered an opening—he couldn't afford to be backed into a corner now. One soon presented itself when the man with the butcher's knife, who seemed to be quite drunk, stumbled forward and nearly chopped off the sword-wielder's nose while flailing his arm about. Eren dove between the two and struck out, cutting one of the dagger-wielders in the thigh. He felt something slice through his shirt and back, but he was filled with too much adrenaline to notice the pain. Rising, he slammed his forehead into the other dagger-man's nose, which broke and sprayed blood in a grotesque fountain-like display.

Trying to keep his attackers at bay, Eren lashed out wildly with his dagger, forcing them to stay away. If he could make it to the alley's exit, he could outrun them easily. He just had to get there, and that would be eas—

He'd forgotten about the dead man with the axe. His heel caught on one of his legs, and Eren lost his balance. Stumbling backwards, the attackers rushed forward, striking wildly while Eren could do little but roll and crawl, hoping none of the blades could reach him. He sliced deeply into the ankle of one attacker, who went down with a tortured scream that was silenced moments later, when Eren raked his dagger across his throat.

That moment cost him dearly. As he rose to his feet, he felt the second dagger sinking into his right side, just below his ribs. The pain was indescribable, his entire body seizing up in a spasm. The man who'd stabbed him grinned and twisted the dagger, drawing an agonised wail from Eren.

"Fucker!" Eren screamed, grabbing the man's shirt and ramming his dagger upwards into his chin. The man looked surprised, and gurgled...and fell over, dead. Eren fell, too, moaning in pain while trying to pull out the dagger in his side, but failing miserably. Even just touching the handle made electricity shoot through his whole body.

"Liddle shit!" growled the man whose nose he'd broken, kicking him in the stomach. Again and again, until Eren was coughing blood.

"Enough!" shouted the man with the sword, wiping the blade with the hem of his tunic. "Don't kill him—we want the people to see!"

"Is that so?" asked a stone-cold voice from behind him. The swordsman's eyes widened, and then his head simply...fell off. Eren's vision was blackening around the edges and starting to blur, but he saw the clear outline of his Master standing there as the swordsman's body fell, blood dripping from his curved blade.

"Whad...shit!" the last attacker said. That was all he had time to express, as Master was suddenly in front of him, a look of pure fury in his eyes. Both of his curved blades cut through the air in a cross-pattern, brutally beheading the last man as well. Master didn't even watch the body go down before he was kneeling by Eren's side.

"Eren, it's me," he said. "Can you hear me?"

"Master..." Eren groaned.

"Listen to me, you have a knife in your side. I can't pull it out, or you're going to bleed to death before I get you to a doctor. Can you walk?"

"...no..."

Master cursed under his breath. "All right, I'll have to carry you, then. We're in the middle of enemy territory, so I have to move as fast as I can—and that will hurt. Stay awake, all right? You have to stay awake, do you understand?"

"...yes..."

Eren felt...woozy. He could barely see his Master's furrowed, worried brows, and briefly wondered if that was a bad thing. The pain in his side was gone, though, which meant—

He screamed when Master picked him up, doing his best not to jostle him but failing.

"Use the pain," Master said. "Cling to it. Don't let it fade away, or you won't wake up! Now, let's go!"

Despite his best efforts, the pain began to fade away as the buildings and streets rushed past. Master is fast, Eren thought. It's like we're flying... His eyes began to close, and before he knew, all was dark...

To be continued...


Oh dear...