He knew instantly that he was dreaming, the colors being nothing like they were in the waking world. He found himself sitting by a steadily-burning blue fire under a red tree before a familiar-looking house. It offered a second floor, and the hill was built up on one side to encase part of the building in cool earth, creating a natural cellar. A wooden trellis-like structure overhung with vines protected the front door and a few small windows dotted the sides he could see. It took him a moment to realize that it was Link's house— his house now, for all intents and purposes.

When he looked back to the fire, he was startled to see the same imp he'd glimpsed in a previous dream lounging on the other side. Their lone visible eye was red like that of a Sheikah but surrounded by fiery yellow-orange the same color as the spiky hair peeking out from behind an odd, gray helmet covered in the same markings adorning their limbs and ears.

"I am as powerful as she is, you know," they said in a voice that was like nothing he'd heard before. It sounded like a full moon at midnight: both dark and light at once, earthen and ethereal, old and new, chains and freedom and utterly unique. "Just… not right now. Not like this." They sounded… melancholy.

"Who? Like what? What?" the Shadow asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"Her. The other one."

"'Her' who? Other what? I don't know any other imps."

"Not another imp, no."

"Then what are you talking about? Who are you?"

"I'm going to keep helping you, as I have been, and in return, you're going to help me."

"That doesn't answer any of the questions I asked and actually raises another: you've been helping me? How?"

"I'm sorry. I cannot say."

The Shadow frowned. "You won't tell me?"

"Not 'won't'; 'cannot'."

"Oh. Uh, okay." He paused. "Is there anything you can say?"

"You are not like him."

"Who?"

"I cannot—"

"Right, you cannot say. Yeah, I got it." He let a sigh loose; it plumed animatedly in front of him in lazy yellow swirls. His eyebrows shot up. "What the fuck? That's never happened before."

The imp snorted, a soft cloud of lilac that nearly hid their shrug. "This is your dream; I'm just visiting."

"What are you doing here? I've seen you before, but… I don't understand how. I've never seen an imp other than you, never while awake, and there's only been one other person to visit my dreams, and she's a very powerful being."

"I know."

That brought him up short. "You do? How?"

"I heard you tell the Sprite. Navi."

"What? How?" he asked again, bewildered.

"I cannot say," they said, and they both sighed, peach dancing with chocolate in midair. "But she is who I meant."

"Who, Navi?"

"No."

"Fi?"

"Yes."

"You're as strong as the Goddess Sword, the Blade of Evil's Bane?" he asked, incredulous.

"Yes." They raised their chin indignantly.

He stared for a long moment, thinking. "Did I imagine you?"

"I sincerely wish that, Shadow Link. And I know you don't believe me, but I am real, and I am powerful— enough for this, at least."

"For what? You know my name?"

"To speak to you like this— he doesn't know it's possible," a silver snicker snuck out. "And I know almost everything about you; I have been with you since before the beginning."

"What does that mean?"

"I watched you come into being."

His eyebrows shot up, then snapped together. "How can that be?"

"I cannot say." That strange voice sounded frustrated.

"Fuck," he sighed, tight little swirls of orange this time. "Okay, let's start small: what can I call you? Don't want to just keep calling you 'the imp' in my head."

The imp frowned. "My na—" They halted, sounding as though they had no choice— their voice simply… stopped. "It's M— ugh!" The voice cut out abruptly again. A foot stomped in exasperation. "I'm fro— I'm not fro— Look, I'm a pr— aaaaaarrrrrgggghhh!" a long, infuriated bellow complete with jagged scarlet lightning bolts firing into the sky ended the stilted tirade.

The Shadow watched the show, impressed and thinking. "Okay. Your name starts with an M, you're something that starts with a pr, and you're as strong as Fi."

"When I'm as I should be, yes."

"Can you tell me what else you should be like?"

"Tall. Beautiful. Capable," came the immediate response.

"Of what?"

The singular eye blinked at him once deliberately and they smirked, one small, sharp tooth peeking out. "Whatever I wish."

"Okay," he agreed, still more confused than anything.

"I miss my legs most, I think." They held one limb out to frown down at it, then looked up, wry tilt to their lips. "Well, other than my powers, of course."

"But, uh… you have… legs?" The Shadow tried. He didn't have a problem with lower limbs as a concept— his own seemed well-built and quite satisfactory, he thought— but the legs of others certainly had made a habit of inspiring confusion in him lately. "Are you supposed to have more of them? Like a spider?"

"No," a soft, sky-blue laugh billowed out of their nose, "but they used to be about twice as long. I was really proud of them, too. Lots of squats and lunges." They frowned down at their legs again. "Now I look like I've skipped leg day for years. All that hard work erased in an instant by— argh! Damn it!" They again stomped the foot that was connected to the offending leg, sending up bright red animated sparks.

"I don't know what any of that means," he admitted.

The imp snorted, a quick spike of emerald. "No, you wouldn't. You're so young in so many ways."

He shrugged and nodded because she wasn't wrong. "What do those markings mean?" meaning the teal, nearly-glowing symbols on their legs, arms, and ears.

"They're characters of the ancient language of the Tw—" another gusting, irritated sigh filled the air with burgundy. "They help focus different aspects of my powers… when I'm not like this," they finished bitterly.

"What's keeping you… like that?" He watched them very purposefully roll their eye up, then to the left and back to the right before refocusing on him. "The helmet… thing?"

The imp nodded, smiling mischievously. "Not as stupid as I thought."

He frowned. "Hey." He took a good look at the helmet. "I suppose you can't just… take it off, huh?"

A lime-green snort. "What do you think?" The imp looked at the fire, thinking. "I need to figure out a way to get you to guess what I need you to know," they said, chin resting on their hand which was braced with an elbow on their knee.

"What, like riddles?"

"Yes, exactly," they said, clearly pleased. They clapped their hands, sending little gold stars sparkling out and looking expectantly at him. "And I've already given you the first one, I think."

"What? When?"

"I am M—, pr— of the Tw—, and I am as strong as your other visitor." They nodded, satisfied.

"You're 'M—, pr— of the Tw—', and you're as strong as Fi. That's it, that's my clue?"

"Yes."

"And you're not an imp, you're tall and beautiful with legs."

They huffed out a tiny, pale green laugh. "Yes."

"And you want me to figure out who you are from that, and then help you take the helmet off and get back to how you should be because you've been somehow helping me?"

"Yes." They nodded again for emphasis.

"Goddess damn it."

He awoke with the imp's laughter a rainbow in his ears and on the insides of his eyelids, staring up at the plain ceiling above the bed, wondering if everyone had to deal with this kind of bullshit.

He thought over his dream while he tried out the indoor facilities, Navi giving him privacy while she flitted around the house, exploring. The water from the taps in both the washbasin and the curtained stall ran hot almost instantly, so he decided to jump in and clean the grit of the road from his body, the soap on the small shelf leaving him smelling pleasantly woodsy and faintly sweet. His arm hurt where he'd bruised it yesterday, and he let the hot water beat on it for a moment, mildly fascinated by the odd sensation of pleasure-pain the soft pressure elicited as he turned the riddle over in his head.

I am M—, pr— of the Tw—, and I am as strong as the Goddess Sword.

Okay. So the imp was not an imp, they claimed to be tall and beautiful— which made him think female, but he was still new to all this— and as powerful as Fi, and they needed his help to remove the helmet from their head and return them to their true form, whatever that was.

And, after that…?

He shook his head; he couldn't worry about after yet. He would ask Navi if any of that meant anything to her first, he decided, since he couldn't just speak to Fi whenever he wished.

He hadn't brought any clean clothes with him, having not planned on bathing, so he gathered up what he'd worn into the washroom and padded back to the bedroom naked, holding his discarded clothing bundled in front of himself, thinking about how nice it was to have a space that was just his own, where he could do what he wished.

He heard Navi giggle-snort from her spot on the windowsill near the bed just before a knock on the door startled him into nearly dropping his pile of clothes.

Navi streaked down to sparkle next to his shoulder. "Who can that be?"

The Shadow shrugged, frowning. "I have no idea," he said, as he turned toward the door.

"Hey! Wait!" she hissed.

But it was too late. The Shadow had already turned the knob and began to pull it open.

"Oh, Hylia—" she started softly, bolting up and out of sight of the door.

"Well, hello, there," drawled the man on the other side, bald pate glinting in the morning sun. The gray hair tufting out from the sides of his head held up a piece of bright pink fabric twisted into a rope and tied into a bow that sat jauntily above his left eyebrow, set off by a matching earring and pair of loose-legged pants. A yellow tiger-striped collar topped his blue tunic, open over a bare, muscular chest. His stomach and calves were bound in some sort of light gray fabric, and he wore a utility belt with a hammer hanging from a loop on one side and an overflowing pouch on the other. One hand curled into a loose fist at his hip, expectant look on his face melting into confusion as he took in the Shadow.

"Uh… Link?"

The Shadow sighed inwardly. Here we go again. "Not quite."

"Yet you're naked and perky in his house."

"My house."

The visitor drew himself up indignantly. "Now, see here, Mr. Not-Link, I beg to differ. I sold it to him myself; helped him furnish it, too, and I keep an eye on it for him when he's out savin' the world, or whatever he's off doing."

"He's not saving anything anymore. He's dead."

"What? Noooo. I don't believe it," the man exclaimed, shaking his head quickly.

"Doesn't make it any less true," the Shadow shrugged.

"All right, smarty-pants, what makes you so sure, then?"

"Well, I killed him."

The man eyed him for a moment, the Shadow returning the favor. "I don't believe you."

The Shadow shrugged. "Okay."

"What?" His quick acceptance had obviously thrown the man mentally.

"Okay, you don't believe I killed him. It's fine; you don't really have to. He is dead, though. And I am claiming this house as mine. I need a place and I hear ownership of this one just opened up. And oh, look— I'm already inside."

"Naked."

"Naked."

The man's face grew contemplative and he pressed, "What if I said 'No'?"

"'No' what?"

"No, you can't just have Link's house because you killed him."

"Who's going to evict me? You? Who the hell are you?"

"Oh! Allow me to introduce myself: my name is Bolson. I am the luminary, president, architect, and design lead of Bolson Construction. My name is Bolsoooooooon!" he finished by singing, gratingly off-key.

"Bolson."

"Yep." He popped the p.

"Of Bolson's Construction? That Bolson?"

"I sure am, sonny," he said, winking.

"Oh, wow. Imagine that: Bolson of Bolson's Construction right there in front of me. That's just great," the Shadow said, and then closed the door firmly in Bolson's face, dropping the lock in place before turning to head up the steps and dress himself at last, ignoring the insistent knocking that began again almost immediately.

Navi trailed behind, giggling, "Hey, remember when we had that talk about bodies? I probably should've mentioned that most people find it impolite to interact with others when one or both parties are not fully dressed." She snickered, "Although, he didn't seem too bothered by it. Had a hard time keeping eye contact, from the looks of it."

He shrugged; he couldn't care less what other people's hang-ups were. Besides, he was in his own house and hadn't planned on either taking a shower or interacting with anyone— he couldn't help some random person knocking on his door. He was fully dressed by the time the knocking ceased, Bolson obviously having taken the hint at last.

Fully dressed, the Shadow grabbed his pack and gear and headed downstairs to take stock of his new place. He wandered the rooms, taking mental note of the pantry which was roughly half-stocked with non-perishable goods and the cellar which was about a quarter full of preserved meats, fruits, and vegetables, and some dubious-looking vials of liquid that Navi swore were very effective elixirs. The cupboards were nearly bare, holding just one plate, bowl, cup, and set of silverware, and there was also one small pot, one frying pan, a spatula, and a big wooden spoon.

It was perfect.

As he worked, Navi trailed along with him so he took the opportunity to tell her about his imp dream. She thought for a long moment, a perplexed look on her face. "Well…" she said at length, staring, unseeing, at the sky out the window above the door. They'd finished their tour in the main room with the dining table and impressive weapons display. "My first thought is of the 'tw—' part: my mind wants to leap to 'Twilight', which would naturally lead to Midna, the Princess of Twilight— which also seems to fit the rest of the clue perfectly."

"Huh. You might've done it on the first try. Good job; that's great." One side of his mouth curled up in her direction approvingly.

"No, Shadow Link. No, it isn't." Her face was set, serious.

"Why not?" he frowned.

"Because Midna is a Twili and the ruler of the Twilight Realm. If she is an imp in your dreams, she is not at home where she needs to be." The worried tone of her voice got to him more than anything else.

A memory popped into his head. "At Impa's, you said that you'd visited the Twilight Realm."

"I did, yes. But it has been many years— it was my first destination after Ganondorf was defeated last time." She twinkled contemplatively for a moment. "Come to think of it, Midna would fit the imp's description of their 'true self', as well: she's definitely very powerful, and she's also tall and gorgeous and she has this long, fiery hair and smoky red eyes and soft, pale blue skin and legs for days—" she broke off, blue glow flushing the palest pink at the edges in… he fumbled for the word embarrassment.

"It sounds like you have a crush," the Shadow smirked.

Navi rolled her eyes. "Of course, I do. Everyone has a crush on Midna," she assured. "You would, too, if you met her. She's amazing."

He tilted his head. "Is there a way we can check on her?"

"Not without a Twilight Mirror."

"What? But you said you vacationed there."

"I did. But I am sworn to stay with you and you would need a Twilight Mirror to go, so we cannot. I know of no other way." Ever the optimist, she prattled, "But now you have a possible answer to the riddle of the imp— or something to talk to Fi about when next either of them visit your dreams." There was a little tinge of… something in her voice at the very end.

"Navi, are you… jealous of them?"

"Well, I… guess a little bit?"

"You talk to me all day!"

"I didn't say it made sense! You'd be jealous, too, if you were stuck dreaming about sleeping. Sometimes I wake myself up from boredom."

He snorted, shaking his head, then turned his attention back to the room around them. He nodded to the large, glowing red, oddly-shaped blade hanging closest to him. "What is that?"

"That is a Great Flameblade. It's a two-handed weapon, made by Goron smiths. It's actually quite useful to have— it will easily start a campfire with a touch of the blade to wood and keep you warm simply by wearing it on your back. It will also set fire to enemies, but it's not the strongest of blades for battling, in my opinion. You're better off with your dark sword for that."

Did the sword just vibrate at his back… happily? He shook off the thought as fanciful. "I've no need of either if I just stay here." He smirked. "Except, maybe, to intimidate Bolson."

It was her turn to sigh. "That is not your path."

He scowled, feeling petulant. "Fuck the path."

"At the very least, help the imp so we can find out how they've been helping you, assuming that's true."

"How? I can't really do anything until either the imp or Fi visits my dream again, right?"

"Not necessarily. We could head to Hyrule Castle and visit the vast library there. On the way, we may continue on your quest to pass yourself off as a mercenary instead of a Hero." She twinkled at him when he didn't answer. "Your big idea can't just be to stay in this house for the rest of your life."

He tried not to flinch as the thought occurred to him— finally— that he possibly hadn't thought very far beyond 'get to Hateno' and that, in the grand scheme of things, that wasn't much of a plan at all. Then he remembered something else. "Well, Kampo said that the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab might be able to upgrade the bombs for me— maybe that goes for the rest of the runes, too, and the Sheikah Slate. Could head there, I suppose."

"There you go. And now that we're in Hateno, we can light the Ancient Furnace and use the Towers to travel Hyrule in a blink."

He nodded in agreement, somewhat glad to have an objective once more, and asked her to explain the rest of the displayed items.

Next to the Great Flameblade hung the Great Thunderblade, forged by the Royal Family of Hyrule using lightning from the Hyrule Hills, and beside that was a Great Frostblade, forged with ore found in the permafrost of the Hebra Mountains.

The wall of bows offered up a Great Eagle Bow of the Rito Champion from long ago, Revali, which could fire three arrows at once with incredible speed, a long-range, Gerudo-made Golden Bow, and an Ancient Bow that was reminiscent of Epona's riding equipment.

"You should take that one," Navi advised. "It fires arrows in a perfectly straight line, and if you can find some Ancient arrows, pick them up— they'll destroy a Guardian with one hit to the eye. Also, all Ancient items— including Epona's saddle and bridle— are collapsible, will float in water, are impervious to fire, and will not attract lightning like your metal weaponry may."

"Wait, what?"

"You should know, however, that while the Ancient shields can deflect lasers the same as yours can," she gestured to the shields on display: a large circle, a rectangle large enough to fit his entire body behind, and one that resembled an eye, all glowing the same electric blue of the Guardians, "their efficacy depletes with each use, whereas yours does not."

"Okay, but go back to the lightning bit—"

"I will not allow you to be struck by lightning," she vowed solemnly.

He felt oddly… touched, deep in his chest. "Okay." He thought for a moment, turning back to the displayed weapons, thinking. "The Flameblade and the Ancient bow might be good to have." He mentally discarded the other two swords as better ornaments than weapons; he could do the same things with the elemental arrows he already had. "What about the long-range one? Should I take that instead of this one?" he asked, taking the Lynel bow from his back.

"The Golden bow's main feature is distance, so it has a mini telescope on it to see far away, which the Lynel bow does not have. However, the Ancient bow also has a scope, and the Lynel bow is quite a bit stronger than the Golden one."

"Okay," he said, thinking over the information. "I'll keep this one," he said, returning it to its spot on his back.

"As you wish. I would advise you to stop at the shop in town and stock up on arrows while we're here."

"First I'd like to see the outside of this place in the daytime, then head to the Ancient Tech Lab."

She sparkled in agreement and flitted out of sight as the Shadow unlocked the door.

And was met with the surprised faces of Bolson and another, less-flamboyant man in similar attire of more muted colors and zero tiger stripes. Both immediately raised large iron hammers to their shoulders, but the Shadow didn't miss the flash of disappointment in Bolson's eyes as they took in his state of readiness.

He sighed. "What?"

"We're here to show you that you can't just have Link's house," Bolson asserted.

"Hey, uh…" New Guy said uncertainly.

"Guys. You don't have to do this." He pulled his sword. Even not glowing, it was a rare sight, and it caught the men's attention. "It's not going to end well for you."

New Guy eyed the sword, then turned to Bolson. "I'm out, boss. I'll be over there if you need me," he said, indicating the fire burning brightly in the morning light.

"What?!" Bolson reached out to catch and hold the other man's forearm. "Karson, you can't run away!"

"Hey, you didn't tell me what was up, you just said you needed me, and you're my employer and I need this job, so I came. But I was at the dye shop last night visiting my girlfriend, and some customer came in talking about a gray guy with red eyes who rides a freaking Stalhorse and has taken down two Hinoxes and a Stone Talus and a Guardian this week, not to mention dozens of Bokoblins and Moblins and what-all other monsters. I don't want any part of that, boss— he sounds like someone we'd want on our side, honestly. So you do whatever you feel like you gotta do; I'm on a break," the man, Karson, said, shaking off Bolson's grip to stalk over to the fire, where he promptly sat looking pointedly away from them on the grass and lounged back as if he'd been there for hours.

Bolson snorted and shook his head. "Good help is so hard to find nowadays. Especially when we require all our employees' names to end in 'son'."

The Shadow blew out his breath forcefully, amused, and shook his head. "Look, can I put my sword away? You seem a decent fellow; I'd hate to kill you."

Bolson sighed and nodded. "You seem a decent fellow; I'd hate to die." The Shadow smiled slightly as he resheathed the dark blade, moving to lounge against the doorjamb as Bolson confided, "I just feel bad, I guess. I swore to protect Link's house and now his professed killer is living in it and there isn't anything I can really do about it." And then he seemed to deflate a little. "And Hudson up and moved to Tarrey Town and got himself a lady, and Karson's got a girlfriend, and then there's me. And I thought I really had something with Link, you know? 'S why I offered to watch the place for free for him. Well, also 'cause I live just there," he pointed to the nearest house, just across the wooden footbridge.

The Shadow felt his eyebrows go up. "Link spoke to you?"

"Oh. Well. No. Not really," Bolson admitted reluctantly.

The Shadow snorted.

"But we had a— a thing." He raised and lowered his eyebrows a few times suggestively.

The Shadow raised one eyebrow and kept it there. "No, you didn't."

Bolson sighed. "No. We didn't."

The Shadow sighed, too, straightening out of his lean. "Look, I tell you what: I'll give you the same deal you had with him, okay?" He watched Bolson perk up. "You watch my house for me while I'm away. I'll even pay you for it; how does that sound?" Without waiting for a reply, he took out his pack and grabbed out one of the sapphire chunks the Talus had left behind. "You can start today."

Bolson's eyes widened comically. "What? For me?"

"Matches your eyes," the Shadow said offhandedly, then, glancing over at Karson, "and your company tunic." Bolson's eyes were extremely soft and… wavery when the Shadow looked back, and he needed to head off whatever was happening there. "Hey, would you mind showing me around the place? You know it better than I do right now."

Bolson tried obviously to pull himself together. "I would be honored… uh…" He squinted at the Shadow. "What's your name, anyway, Not-Link?"

"Shadow Link."

Bolson blinked. "A little on the nose, don't you think?"

The Shadow shrugged. "It was originally just 'Shadow', but I was reliably informed that Shadow Link was better."

Bolson nodded in easy acceptance, then ran his sapphire across the bridge to his house while the Shadow began walking the perimeter— it was easy enough to pick out since the property sat on a low cliff face sandwiched above Firly Pond and below Ebon Mountain. He was back within two minutes; the Shadow barely had time to take in the fact that his property had its own tiny, peaceful pond complete with lily pads in the shade of an apple tree in the backyard.

The homestead was larger than he'd thought; between the smaller pond in the yard and the house stood a two-stall stable (which he currently had no need of, he thought with a quirk of his lips), another apple tree, and a small storage shed at the back of the house.

The tour ended when they came up the back side of the house and alongside Karson, still lying in the grass by the fire and soaking up the morning sun. Bolson promptly sat, also, and they both looked expectantly at the Shadow.

He shrugged and nodded, leaving them to watch over his new place as he crossed the bridge and headed down the hill into Hateno.

Author's note: This chapter and the next were originally all one, so you get two today! Yay!