Back at the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab, the rest of the Rising Sun Company was preparing to leave. "It was good to see you, old friend," Robbie told Link.

"It was good seeing you," Link told Robbie. "Call me if you need me."

"I'll keep working on weapons for you," Robbie promised.

Annette warped to the Akkala Lab from the Hateno Lab. "I offloaded the code to Purah's system."

"Which rune did you choose?" Link asked.

"Magnesis!" Annette demonstrated by attracting a number of rusted weapons to a point in the air, then threw them at a destroyed Guardian, breaking its shell.

"I don't think mine can do that," Link admitted.

"Purah said she wanted me to test out an upgrade," Annette told him.

"If your weapons start having problems Annette can't fix, you come right back here," Robbie told Link.

With that, they got going.

They decided not to stop at the East Akkala Stable, instead taking another route. Along the road, they found what looked like some sort of vendor's stand.

The vendor was a short, dumpy, bald man. He wore a ragged purple cloak and had painted his face charcoal gray, save for the fangs he had painted beneath his mouth. "Oh, it's just humans," he said, disappointed. "One Hylian...the rest of you must have some foreign ancestry with those rounded ears. There's nothing wrong with that, of course."

"Who are you?" Edelgard asked.

"Me? My name is Kilton," the vendor said. "This is my shop, Fang and Bone. I used to have it set up at Skull Lake, but I wasn't getting any customers, so I decided to find a new location."

Mercedes thought for a moment. "Maybe you aren't getting customers because nobody can tell what you sell from looking at your shop."

"That might be part of it," Kilton admitted.

"So, what do you sell?" Mercedes asked.

"I'm a monster researcher," Kilton explained. "Do you like monsters?"

"I think we'd like them more if they didn't constantly try to kill us," Felix cut in.

"You know what? That's fair," Kilton said. "I love monsters, but I know they have to be admired from a distance. Anyway, I've been studying monsters for some time. I've created a lot of interesting things based on monsters. For example," he took off his purple cloak and held up a white linen one. He put on the white cloak and extinguished his lantern. In the low light, he vanished.

"This is the Poe Cloak," Kilton said. "It lets you turn invisible when the light level is low."

"That's brilliant!" Mercedes said. "How many do you have?"

"At the moment...just the one," Kilton admitted. "But I take commissions! If you give me a time and place to meet you, I'll make more Poe Cloaks for you in record time!"

"We could meet at the construction site at Lake Akkala in three weeks," Link suggested.

"Perfect!" Kilton said. "In fact, I'll even throw in a bonus for you!" He gave Mercedes several bottles of something purple. "Monster extract. Cook food with it, and it gives the food a flavor that can't be beat!"

"Thank you," Mercedes said cautiously.

"There is the matter of payment, of course..." Kilton said. "Thing is, I don't need rupees. I have plenty of those already. But I do need research materials. Monster parts, to be exact. I'll give you store credit for any parts that are hard to come by, and you can use that to buy the cloaks!"

Link fished the horns of the Lynel from Shatterback Point out of the Korok Pouch, along with a few Guardian parts. "Will this do?"

"Yes!" Kilton agreed, taking the parts. "See you in three weeks!"

The Rising Sun Company left Kilton behind. "What a strange man," Ferdinand said when Kilton was out of earshot. No one thought to disagree.

The company eventually had to stop for the night. If they continued on, they would end up falling asleep on their feet and would be too exhausted to set a watch.

Link had been one of the ones to take the first watch. When his shift was over, he fell asleep quickly.

He dreamed of Hyrule Castle, caught in the grasp of Calamity Ganon. Once a symbol of Hyrule's prosperity, the castle had become a place of malice and monsters.

Ganon's power permeated the castle, save for one place. At the epicenter, the upper room of the central tower, there was a warm golden light that drove away Ganon's influence.

Link instinctively knew what he would find at the center of the light. Sitting still in the center of the room, a look of pure concentration on her face, was Zelda. She hadn't aged a day since she faced Ganon a hundred years ago, and her eyes glowed with the same golden light that filled the room.

Link said nothing. He couldn't afford to distract her. But he did put his hand on her shoulder, simply to let her know that he was there. Her head lifted slightly. She looked at him, and whispered his name. "Link."

"I'll stay here with you until morning," Link promised.

Zelda's expression didn't change, but the light around her glowed brighter. She knew he was there, and that gave her strength.

"I'm going to save you, Zelda," he promised. "Just hang on."

For the rest of the night, he simply sat with her, holding her hand. While he was at her side, he felt...at peace.