A/N: Thank you to Norkix, SuccessfulFailure23, Guest and (yaaaay!) alwaysingirl for your reviews!

Norkix: Thanks for the review dude! And I'm true to my word: you shall get a mention :D And yep, 'tis fixed. Cursed be fast fingers :/

SuccessfulFailure23: Thanks man! Sorry I kept you waiting for so long... But yeah, expect to see a lot of meanie Bokoblins doing bad things to each other and our heroes. Hoo boy!

Guest: Thank you! :)

alwaysingirl: Aieeee you're here! Thank you for reviewing my new fic! And I promise I'll get to yours soon! And yeah, Link is a great character who, oddly enough, I think doesn't get enough recognition for how cool he is. Wielder of the Master Sword man, come on! Thanks again! :D

Whoops, it's that time of day when I say thanks to Norkix for making my story a lot more bearable than it could be. If you like it, blame him! (And read his stuff too)

IV – Eon Part 4

Soon after forging our alliance, Link finally got the fire going and we ate breakfast together. I was of the opinion that my portion was too small, but I wasn't one to turn down hospitality when it presented itself. As soon as we had finished, the sounds of rain began to drum on the entrance of the cave, so Link moved his horse inside and fastened the rope to a small rock formation near the entrance.

Link and I talked more about our mission – what it would involve and the implications of it. Link was right: the location of the large stash of aevium could mean the end of Hyrule and mankind as we knew it.

The only question was what the Bokoblins were thinking of doing with it. Now that I thought of it, when I saw the group of Bokoblins in the clearing, it seemed as though they were still learning what was possible with aevium. It was really like a race between the Bokoblins and Hyrule's scientists… human versus beast. A race of researchers trying to unlock the secrets of this powerful new weapon.

One thing I learned during my recon duties was to never underestimate the Bokoblins' intelligence. Although some favoured brute force, others used cunning strategies to get what they wanted. In that way, they were sort of like us. Some of us liked to use brute force, while others were a bit more intelligent with their methods.

"So," Link sighed, clearing his plate from scraps. "Now we just have some business to take care of before we can go out and start investigating."

"Business?" I inquired, feeling an instinctive unease in his tone of voice.

"Yeah, official business." Link rolled his eyes. "It's tiresome really, but if we're going to set out and do this, we sort of need clearance from the Royal Family."

I was confused at this. After all, Link being the hero he was, I was sure he didn't have to answer to anyone, and he could follow his own agenda. Part of me wondered why he wanted to join the Hylian Guard for this reason, unless he didn't know his wings would be clipped.

"Since when does the Hero of Twilight need permission to save the world?" I mused jokingly. Link shook his head.

"It's official stuff. Business stuff. If you're part of the Hylian Guard you have to report your actions and findings to the Royal Family, otherwise you'd be off the team. In some cases, if you had set off on a particularly political expedition, you could be arrested for treason."

I was stunned at this. The fact that one could be arrested for investigating dangerous movements - even movements that could undermine the security of Hyrule herself - had never occurred to me.

"Well, that's absurd!" I exclaimed. "Surely if it's in the interests of Hyrule's protection…"

"Actually something happened a long time ago," Link said with a sigh. "Someone from the Hylian Guard had gone and made trade relations with another race without first consulting with the Royal Family. Why he did that, we still don't know."

"Trade?" I asked. "Trade for what?"

"We're not sure, to be honest with you. We never got the items promised. Turns out he had opened an avenue for the Moblins to get into Hyrule Castle. The princess – queen, rather – was lucky to get out alive. But many men lost their lives that day."

Link flicked his hair from his forehead, scratching it as he drew his hand back. He was really uptight about the whole situation with the Hylian Guard and the Royal Family, but I needed answers and information. I decided to press on.

"So how did they get in?"

"Well, usually with trade relations we have a team designated to handle negotiations, but they rarely go out to the other races. Normally, they come to us, with a certification of trade from; guess who?"

"The man from the Hylian Guard?"

"Yep," Link nodded. "Turns out, back then we didn't need the queen's signature for the certification of trade. Men from the Hylian Guard had enough authority to get anyone in or out without the Royal Family catching so much as a whiff of monkey business."

The information was slowly clicking together and forming a beautiful, complete picture. From all the events that had transpired during those times, it could be concluded that the man from the Hylian Guard was actually a spy for the Moblins, albeit a human, working for months or even years with the Hylian Guard. Probably for money, the poor fool.

"And now you know. Everything has to be checked vigorously and with no bias. We have a team of people who hear out the requests of the men from Hylian Guard and refer them to the Royal Family." He shook his head in frustration. "You know, we never did catch that guy."

My eyes bulged. "He's still out there?"

"Trust me, he's been near the top of our list for the past ten years. Not the very top, though. That would be the aevium issue."

I nodded slowly, allowing the information to come together in one final effort. A spy got into the Hylian Guard, allowing trade relations with a group of Moblins, then left as soon as things got heated. It was likely an assassination attempt on Queen Zelda.

"That's pretty much it," Link said, packing his stuff into a pouch. "We try to keep our eyes open for those issues. Though I'm very sure something major is gonna go down soon."

"Just from your gut feeling?" I asked.

"Last time I had that gut feeling, the kids of Ordon Village got captured a couple weeks later." He tapped his nose and winked. "Let's just say I have a knack for finding trouble."

I nodded slowly, wondering just what exactly I was falling into. It was a bit late for second thoughts, though.

We chatted a little more before Link finally decided it was time to go. We had to travel to Hyrule Castle to talk to the Royal Family and get the go-ahead to set off on our little side mission. Link was pretty confident about his chances, probably since he knew Queen Zelda well.

We exited the cave, enthusiastic about the day ahead. Link told me we would go about the town after we finished our business with the Royal Family, something I was very excited about. I had only been to the town as a kid, on rare occasions, but the splendor and glory of the buildings there overwhelmed me, a simple boy from a farm town. Perhaps that's how my parents felt on their first visit. It wasn't hard to see why Hyrule Castle Town was the most sought after place to live.

Link walked up to his horse, giving it a pat before checking the saddle. It let out a snuffle of greeting to us.

"I forgot!" Link exclaimed suddenly. "I never introduced you two, did I?" Link held the horse's reins in a way that looked as though it was facing me. "Azelon, meet your trusty steed, who may even save your life one day, Angwen."

Angwen threw his head back at the mention of his name. A delight to meet you, Sir Azelon, I voiced in my head. Well, maybe I didn't know enough about horse body language to know what that motion meant.

"Come now. The saddle will be enough to hold us both," Link said. I nodded and waited for him to put his stuff on and swing his legs up onto Angwen. It was definitely one of the bigger horses I'd seen. It was a struggle for me to lift my legs onto the stirrups, and Link had to help me on. Then again, I was a little shorter than Link. Yeah, that's what it was.

We set off, Link already seeming to know the precise route to take. Most of the snow had melted due to a rain shower last night, with only small piles of slush remaining. As we entered the forest – 'a shortcut, although a little tough to manoeuvre', Link said– I felt a great calm wash over me, dulling all my senses but sound. Angwen walked slowly, her metal shoes crunching softly in the snow. Birds in the trees flitted and sang, their early morning chorus slowly bringing musical colour to the grey morning. Besides these there was no other sound. The air was perfectly still, almost unnaturally so. Memories of recon missions in the snow swept through my head. It's funny how the brain associates stimuli with memory and emotion in this regard. The stimuli were laid out to me now, and I had always felt calm during the recon missions.

I remained dazed for a little while before I heard Link let out an exasperated sigh.

"Is something wrong?" I asked tentatively when he didn't elaborate.

He kept looking straight ahead, the only clue to his expression being his slow breathing. I couldn't see his face to know how he felt.

"Look, Azelon," he said in a low voice. "I need to know that I can trust you. I mean, not only is this whole situation important for the world, but it's important to me."

I was somewhat taken aback. A wave of indignation travelled through me, offended that he didn't trust me. But I realised that it was true. Link barely knew me. He had only known me for half a day. And this was a serious endeavour, something which neither of us could screw up. Still, I didn't know how to respond.

"I'm telling you that you can," I said slowly, searching for words, "but something tells me you need to me to show you. Somehow."

Link looked back at me, eyes hardened for a second. They softened gradually as they studied my face. I tried to look as serious as possible, but I wasn't very good at forcing facial expressions.

"Not exactly. Trust is a bond. Bonds rely on work from both or all parties. So I'm going to entrust you with some information about this mission." He paused, then added, "Personal information."

He looked back forward. From the way he rotated his shoulders I could tell that craning his neck caused them to ache a little.

"How much do you know about the Queen?" he asked, facing forward.

"Not terribly much. Just what went around in the news. I know of her marriage, some business deals and alliances. That's just about the extent of it."

"Right. The news doesn't say much else besides, huh?" The question was rhetorical.

I said nothing, watching the back of his head. He wasn't wearing his trademark hat, which was part of his costume, based on old Kokiri ensemble. Instead, his head was covered by his sandy hair, which was greying at an alarming rate for his age.

"Okay, I'll tell you another reason why this mission is so important to me. The aevium will help me considerably when I get to a special place. You won't have heard of this from the news about my adventures, but I was with a dear friend throughout them. A friend who's now gone from this world."

My instinct was sympathy. The euphemism was clear.

"Oh… I'm very sorry, Link," I said softly.

He looked back at me quickly and beamed. My confused face asked the question I didn't verbalise.

"You think she died?" He laughed lightly, a beautiful burst of sound amidst the windy silence. "No, she's not dead at all! I mean she is literally no longer in this world."

"Oh! Right…" I was still confused.

"See, people know of the Twili now that I encountered and dealt with them. Some people still don't believe they exist, and those that do know nothing of them. But I can tell you everything about them. After all, my companion through the adventure was a Twili."

My eyes bulged. Link said things so calmly and normally that any random passerby wouldn't give what he said a second thought. He travelled with… a Twili… Magic users powerful beyond measure; rarer than diamond to see, much less encounter.

"Um, I'm sorry to interrupt," I said raising a hand, "but you're saying you travelled with one of the most elusive race known in Hylian history? And you're saying this like it's no big deal?"

Link smirked and looked at me with mischievous eyes. "Azelon. I'm 47 years old. I'm the so-called Hero of Twilight. I've met and dealt with the Royal Family. You can't let everything I've done or have yet to do surprise you, because you'll just have permanent lockjaw."

"I know. I get that. It's just hard to get my head around it. I haven't exactly had an adventurous life." I frowned a bit at saying that. Yeah, what exactly was I gonna do with the rest of my life?

"Oh, you will, don't worry about that!" Link exclaimed gleefully. I perked up at his voice, feeling a rush of excitement, hope and anticipation.

"I don't know how long this mission alone is going to take," he carried on. "There's so many things that we have to do. Maybe even things that I don't know about. But I picked you for a reason, and you're going to enjoy it no matter what happens."

The conviction in his startling eyes bored into me for a few seconds. Yeah. What had I been doing? What was I going to do? Was my job going to save the world? No. This was. I needed to take this opportunity by the horns and stop worrying. Unless, of course, I had to fight off Bokoblin generals, in which case… no thank you. I could do the cooking and cleaning, Link could do the fighting and dying.

I chuckled to myself at that little joke, before I remembered that Link was going to teach me some moves. Meaning he expected me to see some action. Great.

"Right," Link said, "So my point from before was that I need aevium to get to a special place. A specific kind of aevium. You see, there's more than just the aevium that stops time. There are different colours of aevium that are more powerful than the rest and have different effects. The colour is just a way of showing the different levels of energy."

I nodded along with his words, remembering my science lessons back in Hogsnest and wondering whether a teacher from that little town would be knowledgeable enough about this stuff to have taught us. At least we have the anatomy of a pig firmly memorised.

"One of these kinds is red. Well, not really red, more like a... pinkish-brown? I don't know. But that isn't important. What's important is that this type of aevium can, for a limited amount time, reverse time in an area."

My jaw dropped without me noticing. I really did have to get used to this.

"Back in time?! I mean, how? Oh, this is so weird and amazing at the same time," I sputtered, head spinning from imagining all the possibilities. And apparently there were more types of aevium.

Link nodded and empathised with my amazement. I had a feeling this is how he was too when he first discovered it, but he's now so used to it it's just another tool to him, like his sword.

"Yeah, we… only have a little bit of that one. The blue one that stops time is the most common type of aevium. But we're trying to get as much as possible back from the Bokoblins whenever we find it, all while trying to get to… let's call it The Land of Time." He looked back at me and grinned widely. "That sounds pretty good actually."

So there was aevium to stop time and go back in time. I could barely fathom the fact that that existed, let alone the science behind it. Maybe it was magic? Those that knew of the Twili had said they were powerful magic-users, after all. To think that this magic was here all along, though, gave me chills. That such a powerful magic may not just exist, but it exists very close to us.

I recalled the reason Link was telling me about the red aevium.

"So why do you need this red aevium? For a noble reason I hope, and not just to steal and play about," I said with my mother's scolding voice. Link laughed it off exactly as I had before. Not exactly the most effective scolding voice, then.

"No, don't worry. I know how rare red aevium is and I wouldn't misuse it. But, basically… that friend that I was telling you about? The Twili? I need to use it to see her again. See, that thing about her being gone from this world? It's basically true."

"So…" I tried to wrap my head around things. "She's from the sky or something? You met her when you went there?"

Link chuckled softly. "No, it's kind of complicated. She's sort of from another dimension, to put it plainly. A world completely opposite to ours."

Putting it plainly didn't really help. I still didn't get much of what Link said so I simply nodded to let Link explain.

"Well, basically, the only way to get to this dimension is through a magical mirror. The Mirror of Twilight."

I nodded. Yes, I vaguely remember hearing about that.

"But, for some reason I don't understand…" Link carried on, his voice becoming melancholy, "she broke it just after she left. Completely shattered. I didn't get a word of explanation for it."

The melancholy caused the air around to become heavy, dragging us to the ground, causing us to feel sadness. Coupled with the grey air and dead trees surrounding us, I could tell that this was someone Link cared for a lot.

"I'm really sorry, Link. I'm sure she had a good reason," I said softly, patting him on the back.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "I know. She wouldn't have done it for no good reason. She wasn't that type of person." He sighed and rotated his shoulders again, shaking Angwen's reins. I just noticed he was unconsciously weaving in between the trees, even when he was looking back at me.

"But, the Mirror was totally destroyed. And for thirty years I haven't got any answers. That's the reason why I want to get enough red aevium to go back in time long enough to fix the mirror, enter the Twilight Realm and talk with her for a long while. But it'll take a lot of the aevium to do that."

He sighed and leaned back slightly to avoid getting a twig to the face. I digested everything he had said. From his thoughts and actions, I could tell that he was very fond of this companion he once had. To go thirty years without seeing her must have been hard. To top it off, the reason why was never spoken of. Perhaps if there was a reason for what happened, Link could have moved on. I had some idea of how strong he is from what I'd heard of his adventures, but seeing him in front of me, back upright with authority, made me realise that he was much stronger than anyone had made him out to be.

"We'll find that aevium, Link," I said reassuringly. "And I'll help you in any way I can."

Link shook his head slowly. "Listen, that part of the mission… it's my own. It has nothing to do with our joint mission. Besides, the queen may not approve of it, so I don't want you to get in trouble."

"Link… look at me," I said with a quivering voice. He looked back, neck stretching further than before. He was listening well.

"You saved my life. I don't care whether it was for a higher purpose or mission or whatever. Bottom line. You saved my life. I hate owing people, no matter who they are. So I'm going to help you in whatever way I possibly can."

Link's eyes softened as he grinned again. I had never dedicated myself to anyone, but someone as just and brave as Link, for a noble cause such as this, made me feel like it was mandatory. Not just because there were lives on the line, but answers to a man's grief. That almost made it twice as important as before.

"Thanks, Azelon. This is so important to me," Link said softly. I smiled back. Whatever happened, I couldn't let him down.

We had been walking for about an hour by this point, weaving through the dead trees. Their branches reached out to us like claws, never quite reaching the necks of their prey. I broke off a twig from a passing branch, feeling it in my hands. My nose took in the still air, full of water vapour and the smell of earth. Beautiful, if nothing else. Winter was my favourite month for this, amongst other reasons.

The fog was somewhat thick, but soon the trees began to thin. Eventually they stopped altogether and we were out in a field, a river to our right and a bridge crossing the river on our left. Soon the fog of the morning seemed to lift, revealing what was probably one of, if not the grandest building in all of Hyrule.

Hyrule Castle rose in the distance in all its majesty, bustling markets and residential areas safely nestled under its wings. The Hylian Crest, multiplied many times over, dotted the walls of the castle and the outer walls, with gold forming the Triforce.

"Wow…" I breathed involuntarily. I knew I had been here before, but that was years ago. Since then, work and renovations had gone under way to improve the buildings and make the castle even more stunning.

"I know," Link said wistfully. "Nothing quite comes close, huh?"

"Yeah," I replied instinctively. Of all the things I've seen, yes, nothing comes close.

"Well…" Link mused, "I can think of a sight that might just about have the majesty of Hyrule Castle."

I was surprised at this.

"What would that be?" I asked.

"The queen of that castle herself. And we'll get to see her. Come on, Angwen."

Link shook the reins and Angwen took off past the bridge. After that I didn't notice anything. I was too busy trying to still the roaring blood in my ears.

Queen Zelda. I get to meet… Queen Zelda.

What a start to a morning.