A/N: Ah scene breaks, my beloved! How I've missed you.

Welcome to Midna being the meanest tour guide you ever did see.

There's this slowed + reverb version of the twilight realm theme that I listened throughout most the drafting (and editing) of this chapter. I'd highly recommend listening to it if you can track it down. Really sets that "something is very, very wrong with this place" kinda feel.

Updated 11 June 2023. 'A child under 3 circums' changed to 'A child under 3 orbis'.


The Light Invasion

PART II - LIFT THE LIGHT

Region by region, dungeon by dungeon, trial by trial, Link and Midna build a fragile trust.


Chapter 14 - A Realm of Ceaseless Daylight


"Welcome to Luce Prima," Midna announced. "The capital city of Twilux."

It was a world that existed in nothingness. A world with nothing in it.

Three straight-cut mountains of obsidian, the middle taller than the rest and a rival to Hyrule castle, were fixed on a backdrop of the purest white. Before it was a circular courtyard, where two askew orbs flickered.

All around, a few more drab grey structures were fixed in the sky, but just over the edge, a whole other world sprawled. Plateaus of spindly, leafless trees and shrubs floated above more islands of blocky dwellings, and below that was an enormous plain of long grey grass, resembling the hide of a wolf. The edges of that island stopped shy of the blindingly white abyss.

A colourless realm of fractured land, devoid of life. No Twili stared down their nose from the mountain's balcony, nor did they rake away the blanket of leaves in the parks, nor did they bustle through the streets below, nor did they sweep their scythes through the grain. There wasn't even a team of guards to defend the one link between kingdoms at war. It was just… nothing. A dust-covered skeleton picked of all its flesh.

But this wasn't right. It couldn't be. This place was the twilight realm for Din's sake! Where was the orange sky, the rolling black clouds, the ascending particles? Where was the twilight that had besieged Ordon two weeks ago?

The answer was blindingly clear. Even if Midna didn't spout her conspiracies about a light invasion, even if the sages didn't confess to giving passage to the light spirits, Link would've known, because the very air, the very tingle on his skin, was all too familiar. This was the light that was missing from his world, that dried his clothes, nourished his crops, and set his skies aglow. The only difference was something impossible to place. It was like sipping from the creak and tasting something that shouldn't be there at all, or feeling the presence of a monster under your bed no matter how many times you checked and saw the empty space beneath. But was it connected to this oppressive light, or was it just the natural essence of this realm?

Regardless, there was something very, very wrong about what the light spirits did here; they weren't captured and dragged here by envious Twili. There was nothing enviable about whatever besmirched these skies.

"I told you." Where Midna was almost nothing but a snarky voice in Hyrule, here she was a whole being to behold. Every edge of her helmet and curve of her form was visible. Especially that sickeningly gleeful smirk. "'Oh, but the Twili were the ones who stole the spirits!'" she mimicked cruelly. "'Didn't you listen to the charming and oh-so-handsome prince? The Twili want the spoils of our light. They want it to spoil their skies, their crops, their very flesh-"

"Stop!" Link snapped. "Just stop talking..."

She was cut off like a screaming soul smashing against the bottom of a valley. All of this 'light' was too much to bear. Did it sting his eyes, or did they weep because everything Link thought he knew had been mangled like the goats of Ordon?

The prince was wrong. The prince had founded this war on a lie, or a misunderstanding. Yeah, it had to be a misunderstanding. After all, it made no sense for Fabian to send the spirits here and doom his beloved kingdom to an eternal night, and even if he did, how would he convince the light spirits to follow his word?

Link wandered down the courtyard. Each step kicked up nerves like dust. Back in Hyrule, it was almost a certainty that you walked upon miles of solid ground, but here the line between ground and endless expanse was paper-thin in comparison. Each step could give way under him, so he didn't look down. If he did, every crack in the cobblestone would cause panic. Instead, he let the enormous slate of obsidian draw him in: the structure that came the closest to challenging the brutal white sky.

"Watch it!" Link froze mid-step. Half an inch from his raised toe was one of those flickering orbs. A dim, sputtering light cocooned in silver angles and curls.

Midna swooped to Link's front with her fists on her hips. "Am I allowed to speak now, Mr Important Hero, so I can tell you about the sacred object you almost kicked?"

A sacred object that someone had left lying around where anyone could trip over it. Link opened his mouth to point that out, but Midna jumped on the silence like a cat to a mouse. "It's called a sol, and it's like the sun of your world. So how about instead of kicking them around like balls, you put them back where they belong?" She jabbed a thumb at two small divots in the ground circled by etched runes.

How strange that this very important 'sol' was at Link's feet and the other one only a breeze away from plummeting over the opposite edge of the courtyard. "If they're so important, shouldn't someone have put them back by now?"

Midna's jaw dropped like Link had just called her mother a whore. "Put them back? Put them back? How?"

The answer was stupidly obvious. "If there are other Twili around, they could've put it back. Why didn't they?" It was also very odd that nobody had nicked these supposed 'suns'.

Midna pinched her nose with a sigh. "Can't believe I have to explain everything." She drew herself upright with a deep breath. "Okay, you know how things pass through me in this form?" She plunged a shadowy hand into his chest. "I can't pick up or even touch most things. It's like trying to slice fruit with only the shadow of a knife, so I can't lift the sols and neither can anyone else here. Until you get rid of those pesky light spirits, we're stuck like this."

"But what about your weird floaty powers?" Link regretted it as soon as he said it.

She raised a finger. "First of all, never say that again. Second, levitation doesn't work on sols. They have a will of their own."

Free will? Those strange orbs had free will just like him? And even if he could wrap his head around it, that didn't explain how they were immune to levitation magic. "I don't follow…"

Midna facepalmed. "I can levitate a pebble just fine because a pebble has no thoughts, instincts, or agency of its own. I can levitate myself because I want to levitate. I can't levitate you because your thoughts, wants, and desires get in the way. Unless you're really good at clearing your head of all thoughts and inhibitions to become a ragdoll, I can't levitate you. I can't cast any spell on you. It's literally impossible."

No. That wasn't at all consistent with what Link had witnessed. Link didn't consent to being snared by shadows. He didn't consent to being turned into a wolf. Ordona didn't consent to having their light stolen. If all it took to resist dark magic was to think, Boy I sure don't want to be cursed by dark magic, then several awful things would've never happened! "But Zant-"

"Zant's an exception to the rule, okay! No one knows why. He just is…" Midna trailed off, turning away from him. Trembling hands squeezed her forearms tightly, as if she wanted nothing more than to shrink into herself and disappear. She released herself with a shudder, and when she turned around, it was brazenly obvious that shadows couldn't cry.

"Look, just put the sol back and I'll explain the rest," she said dully.

No point challenging her further. She hadn't broken a promise yet, and he needed to trust that she would keep far bigger ones down the line. Might as well start with the little things.

Link lifted the sol, no lighter than the ceramic pot he would take to the river to fill. Set on his shoulder in much the same way, he began the cautious stroll to the closest divot (and Midna insisted that he go slower because "If you let that thing drop even an inch then so help you-")

"So sols don't feel things the way we do," Midna began. "We don't totally get the theory behind it, but it's something that's in tune with our land. The ebbs and flows of the wind, the rock, the water, and the sky. It powers the patterns of life and death and rebirth, and it reaches out to gently nudge the balance whenever it tips."

Link gently set the sol into the divot. The runes around it lit up, but they too flickered. "Why is it an orb?" Link asked as he strode to the next sol.

"It's not the actual sol," Midna explained. "More like a conduit of its power. We use these orbs to funnel the essence of the sols into something usable that powers our cities, magic, and art. Like an energy source."

"Energy source?"

Midna pinched her nose. "How do I explain this to someone who's greatest technological marvel is some rusty old spinner... You know how you need to keep stepping on that thing to make it move?" Link nodded. "It's powered by movement, and you're the source of the movement, so you're the energy source."

"But these sols can't move on their own." Link hefted the second sol onto his shoulder; a well-timed illustration of his point.

"Oh my sols, if you refuse to take another step until I've thoroughly explained the entire theory of thermodynamics, I'm throwing you over the edge."

He set the sol into the second divot with a chuckle. "But you can't use magic on things with free will."

Midna slow clapped. "And look who just got top marks on their exam."

"What's an exam?"

"We do not speak of exams!" Midna hissed.

Now that only made Link more curious. "But-"

"Trust me, the fate of our worlds doesn't rely on you knowing what exams are. Can we please get a move on?"

Typical Midna. She still owed him an explanation on indoor plumbing. He'd have to follow up later. "Alright." He gestured at the wide and barren edges of the courtyard. "If you find a bridge, kindly point it out."

Midna rolled her eye as she floated past him. "You think you're so clever, but you don't even know the laws of thermodynamics."

She stopped above a rather uneventful patch of stone near the edge. A square with squiggles and angles feeding into a circle, much like the stone gateway between realms. "Here's your 'bridge'," she said, folding down two fingers on each hand in an odd little gesture.

Link trudged over to this definitely-not-a-bridge to wait for nothing to happen, but when he planted his final boot upon the stone, blue light traced the lines and lifted him.

His legs went as flimsy as a piece of hay. He was standing on nothing, nothing, but a few lines of light, and that sheer platform of nothing carried him over the unflinching and endless expanse of white below. And then the platform flickered.

"Are you sure this thing's stable?" he asked tentatively.

Midna was rubbing her hands up and down her forearms. "Maybe not. The Light Invasion may have shocked our systems."

"What?" The platform flickered again. "And you're gonna let me fall to my death."

"Hey, it's not like there was any other way down!"

"I don't care. You should've warned me!" Part of the platform disappeared under his right ankle. Link spun his arms and regained not-so-sure footing.

"Okay, okay! Uh..." Midna zoomed around Link in circles until she halted before him with grabby hands. "Give me your shield!"

As he fumbled with the item on his back, another patch vanished. Link snapped in his left foot before it could plummet.

"Hurry!" Midna screeched. As if Link wasn't hurrying! He shoved the shield at her. "Throw it up."

"Huh?" And lose it to the void?

"Just do it!"

Link tossed the shield spinning upwards. At the peak of its arch, orange lightning caught it and offered the straps. He seized one just as the last patch of light cut out. Link plummeted, his arm went taut, and he was dangling, dangling, dangling above the endless white. His palm was sweaty, his strap was thin, but his grip was iron. If he slipped, if it snapped, then he would fall for days or weeks, through an infinite void as he slowly wasted away from thirst, hunger, or the sheer terror of nothingness rushing past him.

Slowly, the plains of black grass, ferns, and shrubbery inched beneath Link's suspended boots. He was drawing closer to a dead garden devoid of colour. Not even brown. As he was threaded between the leafless trees, their spindly branches raked the only blip of green in this world: his tunic.

When his feet touched down, he let go of the shield and gripped fistfuls of dried grass. It prickled his knees and forehead. Solid ground was beneath him. Solid ground was beneath him. Sure, so was an infinite sky, but don't think about that. Think about the grass and the dirt and the smell of dried sap and... something burnt... and rotten...

At the base of a tree, mere metres ahead, was a discarded picnic. A crumpled black blanket littered with dried leaves. Smeared plates with half-eaten slices of mouldy peach. A baby bottle of curdled milk on its side. But most sinister of all was the corner of the blanked that had been flipped over a mysterious lump, stained with rotten juices.

Don't you dare think it. Not even when you approach, not even when you pinch the corner, and not even when you peel it away. Don't think about the smell or the sound of unsticking or the stiffness of the fabric because you don't know what it means. You don't. You don't.

You did.

Holes had eaten through the pudgy black flesh, exposing patches of yellowed ribs. Short, tufty hair had been fizzled into brittle coils. And where the skin hadn't rotted away, it was shiny and peeling, like the poor little thing had been thrown into the flames.

A baby. A dead baby. A dead Twili baby. Someone's child had been thoughtlessly exterminated by the guardian spirits of Link's realm. This child hadn't seen their second birthday, hadn't learnt how to walk, and hadn't learnt how to write their own name. This child didn't even get to make a single memory from the very short life they had lived.

Imagine if it was Uli's baby. No, don't imagine that. Don't. But why was this child dead? How many more? How high did the corpses stack? Gods, this was just like the plague. Worse than the plague.

Link retched again, but it was the first time he noticed. 'Yesterday's' lunch of bread and cheese splattered upon 'last night's' jerky. The lurching and coughing was all that kept him from drowning in the memories of his friends and parents hacking up their blood until their veins ran dry.

When the last chunk was expelled from Link's throat, there was nothing inside the cavity in his chest. On good days he hid it away, cluttered it with hopes and dreams of adventure, but sometimes the precarious stack would topple, and the gaping void of nothing was relentless and cruel in being felt.

This wasn't the plan. Leaving Ordon meant escaping the plague and loss and filling the cavity with a strong and sturdy joy for life that couldn't be knocked down. How could he have imagined that he'd encounter new plagues like this?

"Are you done yet?" Link jerked his head up. Midna was draped across a tree branch with a face of stone.

Was Link done being horrified by the rotting corpse of a child? Was he done being trampled by the hunch that this wasn't the only one? He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and rolled his head back. There was only sky fractured by a few coal branches.

"How many others?" he husked.

For too long, Midna was silent, and then... "Thousands. Tens of thousands. A child under three orbis is as rare as rubies now."

"And this one." Link didn't bother pointing. His arms were lead. "They were just left here."

"If you think the parents wanted to leave their child screaming and crying to death, you're dead wrong." Midna floated from the branch and pointed at the stained cloth. "They couldn't bring their child into the shadows with them, but they tried to use the shadow of the blanket to shield them. Looks like it worked a little. You should've seen how scorched the other children were."

For others it was worse? "But the body is still here..."

"The light came like that." Midna snapped her fingers. "There was only time to find a wide enough shadow or get shrivelled alive. I've never seen the –is it lightning?– of your world, but imagine if it struck everywhere at once and never flashed away."

That did put things in perspective. The Twili were living in lightning, or the shadows of it at least. They had for weeks and they would for weeks more. Just as Hyrule was living in darkness and drought.

Hyrule needed the spirits back, and Twilux needed to be rid of them. Link didn't know where he would find them, but a dead baby wasn't the key, so why linger? Let the poor thing rest in peace.

Cobblestone paths curled between the trees and shrubbery. The plants were arranged across the plateau like dried bouquets. There were shrivelled buds dangling off wilted branches. Everything about this place had been sucked dry.

A dozen or so blocky estates with their own dead gardens floated around the same level as the one upon which Link wandered. Midna gazed forlornly at one in particular with high walls and grand gate posts but no gates. Her home, perhaps?

Midna found another platform that would carry Link to the grid-like streets below, but he refused. Never again.

"Then how do you suggest we get down there, genius?" she snarked. "We can't do the shield thing again. You're heavy." (Link was actually quite small for his age, as the burly Fado kept reminding him.)

"Let's find some rope," Link said. "I could climb down that way."

"You really think they just leave rope lying around here?" She flung her arms wide to the wasteland as if it were an extravagant ballroom. "The Gardens of Luma? Just having things like rope lying around?" Well, they did leave a dead baby lying around. "This isn't some trashy farm. It's tended to by the royal family and the nobles. They keep this place immaculate."

"Sorry, I didn't realise rope was of great offence to you," he bowed with a flourish, "twilight princess." Midna gasped sharply. Oh, that insult would never fail to sting her. "But if platforms are out, and shields are out, then what do you expect me to do? Levitate myself?"

Midna threw back her head. "Urgh! I'm too tired for this. Just stomp around until you pluck up the guts or figure something out. Maybe you'll find a friendly Twili in the shadows just itching to help an invader like you." She dropped into Link's shadow with all the drama of a slammed door, leaving him with his slack jaw. Him? An invader? Who was only here because a native Twili called Midna demanded it? Nothing made that sour imp happy. Not even betraying his comrades to honour a life debt.

At least he was free to wander around for rope. Of course this place would have rope. Why wouldn't they? Seemed like a helpful backup to have on hand if the floating platforms broke down.

There were other picnic blankets discarded under the trees, but Link didn't dare investigate. Sure, they could be tied together if Link collected enough, but one more child corpse would have him on his knees again, heaving over a years-old wound that never quite healed.

Even after lapping the whole plateau, which was as wide as the castle estate, Link was empty-handed. Midna was right: there was no rope here. He would have to chance the platform, but only when Midna was rested enough to be his lifeline. Horrible as she was, at least Link could count on her to keep him alive, unlike the Larkson twins.

Had the scout team made it to the mirror chamber by now, only to find a sultry statue and five stubborn sages? Had they already turned back so they could report Link's treachery to Prince Fabian and Queen Zelda? Gods, what would they say about him while he was gone?

From around a tree, the platform carving came into view again, and sitting atop it was the golden wolf. It wasn't snarling at him if that counted as progress in this hot-cold relationship of theirs. Perhaps it was safe to approach and finally learn a thing or two about this mysterious guide.

With only two steps to go, Link reached out a hand to be sniffed, but the wolf crouched and growled. Link froze, his breath caught, and he slow backed away.

The wolf pounced into Link's chest, and the branches and floating islands dissolved into the sky before he hit the ground.


Link awoke on a surface smoother than the marble of Hyrule Castle with no sparks of pain in his skull. He cracked open his eyes, and... oh great goddesses above. It was the sky. A daytime sky overcast by fluffy white clouds. Sure, there wasn't a peak of that dearly missed blue, but it was the very sky that Link and all of Hyrule missed so much that it ached.

But why was it here? Actually, where was 'here'? He should get up first. Sus the place out. Find the light spirits.

His palm shifted along a carpet of mist or... more clouds. More clouds?! Link leapt to his feet and twisted left and right. A sky and 'land' that were just the same. The sacred realm? That wolf had killed Link! But why? Was he executed for deserting his team? Was Midna screaming at his corpse to get up? How was Link supposed to save Hyrule now?

There was panting. From behind. Link whirled around. In the distance was Hyrule Castle, and mere metres away from him was the golden wolf. It howled to the heavens and summoned a pillar of light. Link shielded his eyes, leaving cracks between his fingers. When it faded, there were scraps of torn fabric and chainmail hanging over ghostly knees.

It was a stalfos warrior. No. Not quite. Link had fought stalfos in the Arbiter's Grounds, but there was something different, more noble, about the garb of this warrior and how he carried himself. His skeletal face was hidden under a golden helmet with three snapped ivory protrusions. There were cracks in his breast plate, and red curls of peeling paint. Ivy grew on the round shield on his right arm, while he held a dented yet sturdy sword in his left.

A lefty, just like Link.

The undead warrior took a defensive stance, sword raised behind his shoulder as he glared at Link from behind his shield.

Link cracked his sword from his sheath, but the warrior didn't relent his defence. Another battle where Link needed to make the first strike? Well, technically the wolf had struck first. Link flew in with a high stab for the head.

Slash.

Link was on the ground. Heaving like the air had been cleaved from his lungs. He clutched his wound. There was no wound. No wetness on his tunic. No red staining his hand. The pain was fading like cuts and scratches in Ordon Spring. How in Hylia...

"A sword wields no strength unless the hand that holds it has courage." It was an echoey tone, clear as water and yet as breathy as a trick of the wind. "You may be destined to become the hero of legend, but your current power would disgrace the proud green of the hero's tunic you wear."

Link got to his feet and stared down that motionless mouth. Who gave him the right to lecture the Bearer of the Triforce of Courage about courage? What was he? Some hero's shade?

"You must use your courage to seek power and find it you must," the shade continued. "Only then will you become the hero for whom two worlds despair."

"What sort of power?" Link asked, a little sharply. Sure, he didn't do so well in his battle against King Boargorak, but the shadowbeasts, bulblins, undead, and Death Sword? Beside a few hiccups, he was doing remarkably well.

"If you do find true courage and wish to save Hyrule from the horrors it now faces, then you will be worthy to receive the secrets I hold!"

The warrior danced about the clouds in a series of slashes, thrusts, rolls, and flips that were pinpoint and utterly mesmerising. If he were surrounded by enemies, several would've fell before they had the chance to counter. If Link had known swordplay like that, he never would've lost the battle against Boargorak. He could still learn those techniques and win a dozen more future battles that might otherwise be his demise.

The shade's sword finished shy of Link's neck, but Link's cheeks ached from the wideness of his grin. "Are you gonna teach me all that?"

The shade let his sword arm fall to his side. "No."

No? After all that showing off and talk of power, it was... no? "But-"

"As I said, your current power disgraces the tunic you wear, but I don't just mean your swordplay. I mean your mind."

His mind? Now hold on a moment. "Is it because I let Midna tempt me away from my comrades?"

"I will not tell you the right side of history. A true hero will figure it out for himself."

Wasn't Link's whole job as the goddesses' chosen hero to follow the will of the divine? They were the highest moral authority of this world, and Ordona was their messenger. Now he was just supposed to figure out 'the right thing' on his own?

But the goddesses hadn't requested that Link join the army. They also didn't tell him to follow the stowaway in his shadow. He had a predestined path, true, but it was he who chose who would walk it with him. Only time would tell if he had made the right call.

"So what now?" Link asked.

"Go back to the physical realm. Observe, reflect, and if you see me again, you'll know your path is less clouded by lies."

As everything faded to white, the shade's voice echoed through the void one last time. "A sword wields no strength unless the hand that holds it has courage. Remember those words."


Midna didn't care about Link. Not one bit! She didn't care when he turned white with terror and passed out immediately after. She didn't care that his breathing was as shallow as a puddle, or that she couldn't check his pulse in her shadow form. She didn't care if Link the Person died! Nope, but she did care if Link the Blue-Eyed Beast couldn't wake up and save her realm before the Hyrulean army wormed inside another way.

Never mind Link the Person. Never mind that he ordered a double bed at that inn so she'd have a comfortable place to 'sleep'. Never mind that he smuggled her into Castle Town rather than casually abandon her at the boundary. Never mind that he called for her in the desert while she refused to show. Never mind that he did the impossible thing she asked of him: betray his comrades and his kingdom for her.

Sure, maybe there were one or two nice traits that he had. Maybe she'd feel a twinge of melancholy if he departed the mortal realm, but this storm of panic over losing him was about how she'd eventually lose her people. Nothing more.

But... he was going to wake up, right?

Midna levitated another leaf and lightly tickled his nose. Nothing. As usual. Wait, a twitch! A sniff! Link's eyelids scrunched and fluttered open, glazed by the horrible white sky. He was awake. Oh sols, he was awake!

Link propped himself onto his elbows with a groggy groan. When he rose to look at her, Midna snatched the hands over her mouth into fists at her sides. "What the hell just happened?" she scolded. "I leave you to figure things out on your own for less than an hour, and then you randomly collapse? Like, if this is a regular thing for you, you could've told me! We could work around it! We can't have this happen when we're being attacked or trying to get from one island to the other or– Stop looking at me like that!"

He had the most detestable grin spread across his face. "Didn't realise you cared so much."

"I don't!" Midna screeched. "You just happen to be my realm's only hope, okay? That's the only reason I'm freaking out, so don't freak me out!"

Link's grin never faltered as he raised his hands in surrender. "Whatever you say, princess."

He needed to stop calling her that. Every time he uttered the p-word, her heart jumped over the edge. Yes, he was joking, and what a stroke of luck that was for Midna when the sages brazenly exposed her identity to this soldier, but if he kept saying it, her subjects might not see the humour. They'd see the truth: their pathetic princess reduced to an even more pathetic imp.

Urgh, she was too drained to bicker about name-calling with Mr Important Hero. There was a more pressing question here.

Midna planted her hands on her hips. "You still haven't explained why you passed out?"

That wiped off the grin. He stole his hat and wrung it in his hands. "Uh, there was a wolf. A golden wolf. It pounced on me and… I woke up in the sacred realm? I think…"

She pressed her fingers together before her lips. "So what you're saying is that some invisible wolf mauled you, then you died and went to the good place, and now you're resurrected?"

Link rubbed his neck and torso. "Doesn't feel like I've been mauled, but I did think that when I woke up there. Then this old spirit guy showed up and explained a few things."

"Oh really? Well, do tell me what they said." Midna yawned and lounged in the air. "Can you see that I'm on the edge of my seat?"

He cast his gaze to his lap and wound his hat tighter. "Just introduced himself as a spirit with lingering regrets. Wants to mentor me in some high-level swordplay. I named him the Hero's Shade."

What a bore of a name. "And do you have any fancy new tricks to show for it?"

"No…" Link mumbled. He yanked himself straight, falsely chipper. "Just wanted to introduce himself. Said we'd meet again throughout our journey."

Midna quirked a brow. "And then you'll faint again?"

Link wilted like a puppy who had been refused a bone. "And then I faint again…"

Urgh, getting Link to go where he needed to go when he was conscious was hard enough. Now he'd just become limp out of nowhere for some tall tale about spiritual mentors and shiny wolves? That sneaky little wolf was hiding something, but now wasn't the time to shake it out of him. Now was the time to hunt light spirits for fun and for profit.

"Well, the next time an invisible wolf is about to murder you, give me a shout and I'll make sure you don't fall into infinity. How does that sound?"

"Uh, great?"

"Great." Silence followed. Blank noise was especially detestable under a blank sky. "Let's go."

She turned around and her jaw dropped. The flickering platform that was designed to carry them to the streets below was a consistent, golden glow. "Did your wolf frenemy mention something about being a handydog?"

"No," Link said, "but that was where he was sitting before he pounced."

Midna leaned closer to the gold-lined runes. Cautiously, she extended a finger; it nipped her shadow cloak. She jerked back with a hiss. "It's not the sols." This better not be part of the invasion. "Is this safe enough for you?"

She hadn't formed the final word when Link yawned so loud that he could wake that Boargor-what fellow from death. "Actually, I was hoping we could rest a bit? It's been a long 'day'."

Midna scoffed. "It's been a long 'day' for over a decem." Link flopped back into the dry grass with a groan. "Fine," Midna relented. "Rest up, but the moment you wake, we're going after the first spirit."

"And where are they?" Link asked, shimmying his sketchbook from his satchel.

She nibbled her lip, unable to feel the cathartic prick of her fangs. "I've heard whispers about a golden light among the Silva forests, but that's all."

"Really?" He slipped out a charcoal next.

"Hey! I didn't exactly have the time to gather intel, okay? It was basically 'Get to the light realm, bring back the goddesses' chosen mutt.'"

Link chuckled, paging through his book. "Sorry you couldn't find that mutt, but I'm sure a thoroughbred like myself would be happy to help."

A laugh caught in her throat like a fishbone. He wasn't funny or witty or joking around with her like they were friends. It wouldn't be proper to find him remotely humorous. After all, he hated her just as much as she hated him.

Strange. She and that faceless drawing in his book bore a striking resemblance.


A/N: Hero's Shade: "Your chosen one privileges have been revoked. You're in time out. Go back to the apocalypse and think about what you've done!"

Link: "But Daaaaaaaad!"

Do you think the Hero's Shade was right to call Link unworthy of receiving his hidden skills? Curious to know your thoughts on that and the way the twilight realm looks under this light invasion. Was it what you expected or totally different?

Also! Last week I posted a oneshot called 'No Such Thing as a Domesticated Witch'. It's an AU in which Midna settles down with Link in Ordon and uses her magic to bolster Ordon's production rate, thus leading a rival farmer to accuse her of being a witch. If you love snarky-yet-vulnerable Midna or protective Link, then that is the oneshot for you!