"I can't believe she shot us down," Taryn heard barely half an hour after the confrontation with the three knights ended. He and Evei had left the bench now and were strolling through Kakariko, enjoying each other's company, when the voice of the dark-haired knight reached their ears. The pair quickly stopped short and backed up to the wall of the building that separated them from the voice. Taryn peered around the corner as the speaker continued: "She must be under their spell too. Something has to be done!"

The blond knight had a suggestion: "We still haven't sought the Hero's aid. The true Hero, I mean. He'd take up our cause, for the good of Hyrule."

"He married a Zora, even though he belongs to Her Grace," said the auburn knight, deadpan. "Do you honestly think he'd listen to reason?"

"There is no way about it," said the dark-haired one. "We, the loyal soldiers of Hyrule, must take our country's survival into our own hands. We'll spread the word around that the Gerudo will make their move to destroy us during the battle we all know is coming, and that they've lulled many of our comrades into trusting them. Trust me, there will be some who will come around."

"Oh, I have an idea!" the blond schemer exclaimed. "What if, around the end of the battle, if they haven't turned on us like they're supposed to, we were to kill one of our traitors and say it was a Gerudo? Our comrades would shake off their spell and exterminate them. Along with all the other traitors who come to their defense."

"This whole plan would cause division in the ranks," reasoned the auburn man, "and I doubt Her Grace, or the Hero, would take too kindly to it. But, I suppose, this army's grown too soft over the years anyway. I'll go with this, provided the boy from earlier is left alive, at least for a time, so he can be properly punished for his unrepentance: we should force him to watch us execute that she-serpent that he's always hanging on."

Taryn - who was, at this point, wearing Eryc's sword - had heard quite enough. Evei had warned him against anything reckless, he knew, but these three had crossed the line. "Then who are the real minions of Ganon?" he challenged, stepping into the open, his brother's sword drawn. Evei shook her head as she watched him disappear around the corner. She probably should've tried to keep her boyfriend from acting like this, she knew, but she had heard the knights' plot just as he had, and, frankly, would've had no qualms about doing the same as Taryn.

The knights started upon realizing they had been overheard. Then the blond one bristled at the question. "Certainly not us," he replied hotly.

"Oh, really?" Taryn questioned sarcastically. "You want to cause division in this army, wipe an entire people from the face of the world, and kill your own countrymen. That doesn't sound like something an enemy of the Shadow would do."

"By accepting Gerudo thieves to live among us, our countrymen have sided with the Shadow," the dark-haired knight growled. "There's still time for you to come back. You'll join us, or you will die when we cleanse this army."

"Where'd you even get that sword?" his auburn companion inquired with a sneer. "That's a Hylian Knight's weapon. They don't give those out to the ranks - especially not to traitors."

"It was my brother's," Taryn snarled in response. "Eryc was braver and more loyal and more honorable than just about anyone else I know. He was a finer knight than any of you could ever hope to be. He gave his life at the palisade, fighting with all he had."

Though the blond knight scowled again at the insult Taryn had thrown, the auburn one softened his tone somewhat. "I grieve his loss as well; the loss of any such soldier is a tragedy. But if he was so honorable, then you must understand that he wouldn't wish to see you consorting with our enemy."

Taryn's expression only darkened at that. "Eryc trusted the Gerudo from the start. He was there when the Hero was captured. I'll bet he was there when he returned, and when our allies arrived, he told me we'd all learn from each other. If he were here, he would stop you himself."

The dark-haired soldier shook his head. "Then he too must have fallen under their spell. We are Hylians. We are the Three's chosen people. They placed us above all others, and when lesser beings start to get delusions above their station, it is our sacred duty to remind them of their place: beneath our feet. That's what we did to the Shadow Folk in the Civil War, and it's what we'll do to these thieves now."

"And what's this about lesser beings?" came a booming female voice from somewhere above, startling Taryn and the knights alike. All turned their heads upward to see Impa crouched on the roof of the building from behind which Taryn had come. The knights paled as she leapt catlike to the turf and fixed them with a steady, icy gaze. "We guarded the sacred places before you Hylians even came to the Surface," she said. "We were enemies of the Shadow. But my people were killed in the Civil War. I will not see another slaughter like that, and I'll go down to the Dark World before I allow the chosen people to start one."

Her voice, despite the fact that she wasn't shouting, carried some distance away, and now several armed soldiers, Hylian and Gerudo alike, came running to investigate the commotion. Stennel was among them, Taryn noticed, and Impa asked him, "Is there a prison in this town?"

"Aye," came the blacksmith's reply. "Who's in trouble?"

"These three," Impa ordered, indicating the three antagonistic knights, "need some time to re-think the way they perform their duties."

The blond knight stepped forward, taking issue with the statement, hand dropping towards the hilt of his sword. But Impa suddenly became a blur of motion, and when she came to rest again, his hand found nothing. Impa's curved shortsword was out of its scabbard now, pointing to each of the three of them in turn. All three of their swords were on the ground with their belts; Impa's sudden movements had been to cut the belts off their waists.

Fanatical as these three were, they were not so brazen as to think they stood a chance against their Shiekah general. The auburn knight was the first to surrender, hands going to the back of his head. His fellows followed suit, and were escorted away by some of the watching soldiers as the rest dispersed.

Evei finally emerged from behind the building and walked towards Taryn, who she could see was now trembling from unspent adrenaline and nervousness. His brother's sword had fallen from his hand and was lying on the grass, leaving both of his hands free to return her embrace upon hearing her approach. After perhaps twenty seconds in her arms he finally stopped shaking and melted even further into her embrace.

After a while, he finally turned back to thank Impa for her intervention. But the general was already gone.