Shrieks pervaded the room as Link kicked open the door to Ilia and Bo's house. His face was dark, his eyes gleaming with a sort of hurried madness. At his one side was Shad; at the other side, Rusl. And in his arms, limp, bloodied, and white, was Ashei.
There was something sad in the way that he carried her. His grasp was delicate yet desperate, as is customary for a man who is carrying the woman he loves. He had one arm around her shoulders, her head lolling to the side, lips parted, black hair cascading down against his chest. His other arm was under her legs, her sandaled feet dangling down toward the floor, limp and unmoving. And his face was so drawn, so frantic…
He crossed the room in two strides, and the townspeople that had fled into the house when the brawl had broken out parted to two sides as Link hurried up the staircase and deposited Ashei onto Ilia's bed. Her face was bleach white as the blood rushed from her wound, a dark, dark scarlet color as it pooled against the white sheets. Once her body was safely on the mattress, Link kept hold of her hand, and his gaze, fraught with distress, didn't leave her.
Shad and Rusl had helped him to take Ashei's body off of the scene of battle without interruption from soldiers. A glance out of the window showed the mangled bodies still laying face-up in the crimson grass, and Shad had to tear his eyes away from the scene. Brutality, all of it. What was the world coming to? Link had fought to save Hyrule, had fought and had driven himself mad fighting, and for what? For this. For more fighting, and more brutality, and it occurred to Shad in that moment that Hyrule would never be saved. Hyrule would always be at risk, would always be under another enemy's gaze, because Ganondorf had brought it into the limelight during the dark days, and now it was the subject of every conqueror's dreams.
He was shaken free of his thoughts as a pair of arms wrapped around him. He turned to see Ilia, still in her wedding dress, holding onto him as if he were the only thing keeping her up. He wrapped an arm around her absently, and turned back to Link, whose face had fallen into his hands.
Link's hands slowly drew down his face and dragged along his neck as he took a deep breath, tears brimming around the edges of his eyes. Rusl's hand landed on his shoulder and he glanced back at Ashei, whose breathing was shallow and rapid as she drifted in and out of consciousness. The world seemed to vanish around him; stupid, stupid, so damn stupid of him to allow this to happen to her…
He gulped. "What do we do?" he finally asked, urgency in his tone. His heart was racing in his chest and he could feel the room go tense, the group at a loss for a solution. When a few seconds of silence had passed, Link clenched his fists and threw his head back. "WHAT DO WE DO?!" he cried, and he grasped Ashei's clammy hand in two of his own, squeezing absently as the world shook around him. But there was still silence, and nobody knew; nobody had an answer.
We need a miracle, Link thought.
There were further screams from downstairs and then footsteps thundered up the staircase. One of Rasire's knights stood before them in full armor, and Link drew the stolen sword instinctively. The soldier shook his head rapidly.
"No, please!" he gasped. "I'm not here to hurt you!"
"Then why are you here?!" Link demanded, realizing how difficult it was to form words through the lump in his throat.
"I'm here to ask you for help—"
"Absolutely not," Link said, turning away.
"Please—"
"My decision is final."
"I can help you save her!" The soldier cried. Link turned immediately to him, dropping Ashei's hand. He pointed his sword directly at the man's face.
"Are you lying to me?"
"No, I—"
"Because I swear to Farore, if you are lying to me, you will regret it until the end of your days."
"I'm not lying!" the man cried. Link's sword lowered a little and the man glanced fearfully towards Ashei. "…May I?"
"Go ahead," Rusl said, pushing Link to the side as the soldier plowed through.
He glanced at the slash in Ashei's side. "…Remove her garment. I need to see the wound."
Ilia stepped forward and unfastened the laces on the red dress, pulling it off of Ashei's body and exposing her stomach and shoulders, her chest still covered by some undergarment. The slash in her side was long and dark, and she was losing blood quickly.
"Just as I thought," the soldier said, and turned. "You'll want to bandage her up," he said directly to Ilia, who nodded curtly and ran downstairs to grab supplies. Then he turned to Link, who was skeptical.
"Why are you helping us?" Link asked, still refusing to sheathe his sword.
"I told you, I know a way to heal her wound," the soldier insisted, and then he put his hand forward, exposing for the first time how bloodied and mangled it was. "Look, my hand's been diced up," he remarked. "I need to heal it, but I'm going to need help. I figured I could help save the girl, too, but I'll need one of you to go with me…"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Link demanded.
"Fairy water!" the soldier finally cried. Link narrowed his eyes.
"Water from the Ordona Spring isn't strong enough to save her!" he cried, disappointed at having gotten his hopes up. But the soldier only shook his head.
"I don't mean the water itself, I mean the source of the water; I mean the fairies!"
Link's eyebrows knit together. "The fairies won't be any help, they left a long time ago—"
"No, they didn't." It was Shad who had spoken, and all attention in the room turned suddenly to him. His eyes had grown wide with epiphany. "Well, they may have left, but they're not the source of the spring's healing properties," he said. Now the entire group was confused.
"Then what is?" asked Rusl.
"It's more than likely that there's a deposit of ordealium chloride somewhere at the source of the spring."
"Ordealium chloride?" asked Rusl.
"Uh, yeah. Um. Ionic bond," Shad provided, but the entire room was confused. Exasperated, he rolled his eyes. "Please tell me you know at least something about Chemistry."
"Chem… what?"
"Didn't any of you go to school?!" Shad cried, and he beckoned for the group to come forward. "Ordealium is an element that's usually found in an ionic bond with chlorine. It's a sort of… well, a sort of powder. You know how salt dissolves in water?"
"Yeah…"
"Well it's like that," Shad explained, "except instead of sodium, it's ordealium."
"I'm so lost right now…" the soldier said.
"Well, you won't be for long," Shad finally said, "because you're coming with me. We're going to get some ordealium chloride, and we're going to be quick about it." Shad turned to Link, who was almost blank in expression. Shad took a deep breath and rested his hands on Link's shoulders, staring him right in the eye. "I promise we will save her, Link," Shad said, and there was a bit of collective surprise as Shad took over the situation. Then he turned to Ashei, took her hand limply for a minute, gave a weak smile of reassurance—even though she wasn't able to witness it—and then turned on his heel and marched out of the room.
"Wait—I'm still confused," the soldier claimed, but Shad just shook his head.
"I'll explain it on the way. Follow me!"
They shuffled down the stairs, the crowd of Ordonians staring wide-eyed from the main room of the house. Shad glanced around the room for a brief second; after careful scrutiny, his gaze landed on Colin, who was standing off to the side.
"Colin!" he called, and the boy presented himself. "Colin," Shad said, "Do you know the woods well?"
"Yes," Colin answered.
"Good. I'll need you to be our guide." And with that, Shad, Colin, and Rasire's (apparently disloyal) soldier set out into the village.
…
When they had entered the forest and had come upon the spring, the unlikely trio split up, examining the oasis.
"Can we follow this creek up to the source?" Shad asked.
"Yes," Colin answered. "It's a ways up, though. Could take ten minutes to get there."
"How?" asked Shad. "We haven't got ten minutes."
"We could run," Colin suggested, and then sighed. "Just follow me." He ran through the side and clambered up onto a rock, leading behind the small waterfall that bordered the far edge of the spring. Shad followed, not even paying a thought to the danger presented by the great outdoors. This was about saving Ashei; nothing else mattered. The soldier followed, a frown on his face as he clutched his injured hand.
"What exactly are we looking for?" he asked as the density of the trees increased. Shad nearly stumbled over a root as he pressed forward through the undergrowth, knowing that somewhere among the trees, the fungi, the roots, the moss, the grass, the rocks, the weeds, somewhere along the banks there must have been a deposit of ordealium chloride.
"We're looking for a purple powder," Shad explained. "It dissolves in water to make what you'd call Fairy Water. It's the reason the spring has healing properties… you'd call it magic, but what you call magic, I'd call an advanced form of science."
"How does it heal people?" Colin now asked. The soldier shrieked from behind them as Colin stepped on a twig. Shad scoffed.
"Some soldier you are," was all he said. The soldier narrowed his eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean, book boy?"
It means I've spent the past year in the company of real soldiers, Shad wanted to say, and you're just a big coward. But he just shook his head.
"Never mind."
But there was something about the soldier that definitely did harbor a sense of cowardice, and Shad was aggravated by it. All this time he'd thought himself a coward, but men like this soldier often reminded Shad what it meant to discern between a bombastic attention-seeker and someone who held real courage. And this man was definitely the former. Still, he had offered to help Ashei, and that was more than Shad could have prayed for.
"Fairy water heals people," Shad now explained, "because ordealium is a key element in an amino acid called triftine. It bonds with other amino acids to form a powerful, fast-acting protein... it accelerates the process of mitosis... divides the normally 24-hour replication time by itself. It takes less than an hour for the body to replace badly damaged cells, and that makes it hard to bleed to death. The body repairs itself almost immediately under the protein's influence; I mean, until the triftine has been used up, that is."
Colin and the soldier just blinked in severe confusion.
"What...?"
"Oh, just forget it!" Shad cried, and marched on. But just as he was marching in his fury, his toe caught on a root, and he went plummeting straight into the creek that they'd been following. "Yuck!" he cried, drenched from head to toe. He stood up immediately, trying to wring out his jacket as the water rushed around his ankles. He spotted a cut across his palm and frowned. "Darn it- wait-" His eyes widened as the cut vanished immediately. His heart sped up and he glanced back and forth.
"It's somewhere around here!" he cried, his palm as good as new. "Look for a purple powder!" He stumbled across the creek, stepping up onto the bank and glancing around hurriedly. Where was it, where was it...?!
"IT'S OVER HERE!" someone cried, and Shad glanced over to where Colin was jumping up and down. Sure enough, concentrated onto one side of the bank, just hidden under a sheet of foliage, was a pile of sparkling purple powder. Shad's eyes bugged out of his head and he retrieved a bottle from where he'd been keeping it at his belt; he filled the bottle to the brim with ordealium chloride and then corked it, and then he filled a second bottle, because you really never could be too sure with these sorts of things.
He fastened both bottles to his belt and turned around, putting his best game face on. "We're not done yet," he said. "Quick- let's return to Ilia's house."
...
And so they returned as rapidly as they could, retracing their steps through the forest and rushing down the dirt path that led through the village. They had almost made it when they were stopped in their tracks.
"Where do you think you're going?!" It was Rasire. Of course. His arm was in a sling from where Link had broken it; behind him, a mass of soldiers had gotten to work cleaning up their slain men. Rasire was fuming.
"Let us through," Shad said, and Rasire just laughed madly.
"Oh, sure. Of course. You and the child can go right along. But you-" he faced the soldier that had forsaken him- "What do you think you're doing?!"
The soldier gulped. "I just thought- to heal my hand-"
"Run away again and I'll break the other one!" Rasire barked. "Now go help clean up those bodies! Four of your comrades lay dead and yet you assist the enemy!"
"Yes, Sir," the soldier answered weakly, and he set off. Shad watched him go, his face drawn. Then his face went pink with rage.
"Now just you listen here!" Shad cried, and Rasire turned to him in rage.
"Are you threatening me, book boy?!" Rasire cried. Shad gulped nervously.
"Yes," he answered decisively. "Yes, I am."
Rasire howled with laughter. "Very well, then! What is it you desire?"
"Let that man go!" Shad cried. "Let that man come with us and heal his hand. You healed yours!"
Rasire narrowed his eyes. "Do you dare-"
"Yes I dare!" Shad said immediately, his heart hammering away in his ribcage. Colin was gaping at him, obviously shocked by Shad's display of courage. But Shad knew that it was time to man up; no more playing around. He wasn't going to be a coward. Cowardice was below him, and this was about saving his friend. This was about being a hero.
Because it wasn't just Link, he realized. It wasn't just Link who was the hero of Hyrule. They were all heroes of Hyrule, but they were heroes on a slightly smaller scale. They were heroes in the way that they stood up for what was right, no matter the circumstances.
But Rasire didn't seem to agree. "Say that again, book boy! Say that again to my face!"
There was a sword five feet away... it was tempting. Should he take it...?
His question was answered as Rasire drew his own blade and swung forward. Shad dodged the blow and grabbed the sword that been left in the dirt. He defected a second blow but stumbled back at the force, the blade slackening in his weak grip. A third blow almost dislodged the blade completely, and he had to jump to the side to avoid being struck. Then he swung; he missed terribly, of course, but it was enough to shock Rasire into moving back. Another swing, and the blades met in midair, and then Shad swung a final time- the blade flew out of his hand-
-And sliced the tip of Rasire's ear off.
Shad's eyes widened. No way... he thought, recalling a time when he had once done the same thing to Auru. Ashei had commented on it herself. "You're lucky you didn't slice off his head," she had said.
Ashei.
Rasire stumbled to the side, grasping the side of his head with his good hand and glowering at Shad. Adrenaline rushing through his blood, Shad grabbed one of Colin's wrists, and one of the soldier's wrists, and bolted towards the house.
When he got inside, he freed them. The soldier was just staring at him in disbelief. To be honest, Shad was still amazed at what he had just done, but there was no time to dwell on it now. Ashei was dying, and they had to save her.
There was still a heavy concentration of townspeople in the house, and Shad had to shout to get all of their attention.
"EXCUSE ME!" he cried, and the room fell silent. "Thank you!" he called. "Now, I need one of you to do something very important! We need to boil water in a pan in order to dissolve this... uh, this stuff in this bottle!" He held up the bottle of ordealium chloride.
"I'll take care of it!" Pergie cried, and she filled a pot with water from the pump and rested it over the fire. In a matter of minutes, the water had begun to boil, and Shad measured out a rather hefty amount of ordealium chloride onto a spoon and then poured it into the pot, stirring as he went.
"There needs to be a heavy amount of ordealium chloride for it to be a saturated solution," Shad was explaining. "You see, we want there to be just the right amount, and we want it to be heavy on the ordealium... that's the most crucial part, you see. It needs to be stronger than ordinary Fairy Water to be a proper medicine. It needs to be able to heal fatal wounds."
He glanced back into the pot, stirring for a few more minutes until all that was left was a violet solution. The powder had seemingly all dissolved; satisfied, he poured a portion of it into a wooden bowl, and, holding it carefully in his hands, began the ascent up the stairs. For a minute, all was quiet. Then, a wail pervaded the house.
"Ashei!" someone cried from upstairs. Link.
Shad ran upstairs as quickly as he could without spilling his tonic. Link and Rusl were at Ashei's bedside, and Link's face had gone a deathly shade of gray. He was grasping Ashei's hand with unimaginable ferocity; at his side, Ilia combed a calming hand through Ashei's hair as the girl thrashed in place. Her breathing had gone rapid; she's dying, she's really dying...
"Here, I'm here!" cried Shad, bursting forth with the wooden bowl in his arms. He was at Ashei's side in a heartbeat, and Link moved out of the way as Shad placed a gentle hand on Ashei's jaw and opened it just the slightest bit. Ashei was sweating profusely, somewhere between a conscious and an unconscious state. She probably doesn't realize what's going on, Shad thought.
Gently, he tipped the bowl up against Ashei's lips, and the violet liquid trickled into her mouth. She swallowed automatically, and, the dose complete, Shad handed what was left of the tonic to Ilia.
"I need you to administer this to her wound," he said, trying to ignore Ashei, who was beginning to moan behind him. Eyes wide, Ilia took a towel from where it was hanging on the bedpost and did as she was told. She wet the warm, moist towel with the tonic Shad had created, and removed the bandages from the wound, pressing the towel up to the skin. Ashei fidgeted uncomfortably from the hot water, but Ilia didn't falter; she did as she was told, and slowly, Ashei drew still.
Nothing...
Silence...
Link's face was pale and his voice shook when he spoke. "Is... is she breathing?"
Ilia pressed an ear up to Ashei's chest. For a moment, there was nothing. Ilia's face drew solemn... she checked for a heartbeat...
Her eyes closed slowly. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, pulling her ear away. She took Ashei's hand, but the body had gone limp, now. Ilia took the towel and wiped the sweat from Ashei's brow; she closed the half-open eyes with her fingers, and then turned to Link, who was staring blankly.
"No... she can't be..."
He was on the verge of tears, now. He collapsed at Ashei's side, wringing her hand in his own. "Ashei, wake up! Wake up, Ashei, just wake up! Don't you go, don't you dare go- come on! Come on, Ashei!" He balled his hands into fists and pressed hard against her stomach, as if he might get her breathing again. Nothing happened, and Ashei remained limp. Several more times he threw the weight of his palms against her abdomen; several more times, nothing.
He drew still and his eyes fell shut. Tears were falling, now, hot as they plastered to his cheeks. "Ashei," he said quietly, resting a hand in her hair. "Ashei, please, you can't die, you can't do this, you don't die. This is my fault! I get it now, it's my fault! I screw everything up, I know that now! You've made your point, now wake up!"
But nothing happened, and Link pulled away. The tears continued to fall, but his expression was vague. Then he kneeled down and placed a kiss on her forehead. He whispered something, too, but what he said, nobody knew. It wasn't for them to hear.
He stood up; blankly, he removed himself from her side. And then a fit of rage overtook him and he kicked a chair so hard it went reeling across the room and crashed into the wall. Then he withdrew his sword from his sheath and marched across the room, a look on his face that nobody had seen since the dark days.
"Where are you going?" Ilia asked, and Link turned around. When he did, his eyes burned with anger and ferocity the likes of which Ilia had never seen.
"I'm going to kill Rasire," he answered matter-of-factly, and just as he was crossing through the door, something stopped him.
Ashei took such a deep, sudden breath that Shad thought she might use up all of the air in the room. Her body shook and the color began to return to her skin; her heart was pumping; she was alive. Link froze in place. Turned slowly. Glanced her over.
"No..."
He pushed everyone out of his way and returned his sword to its scabbard, falling again to his knees as he took his spot at Ashei's side.
"Impossible," Rusl remarked. "She... she was dead! And she came back to life!"
"It's the Fairy Water," Shad said. "That tonic's strong enough to heal anything." He noticed suddenly that Ilia was giving him a very odd look. "...What?"
"I told you you'd make a wonderful doctor," was all she said.
Shad blinked. And then relief flooded through him and he gathered Ilia into his arms. Ashei continued to breathe beside them; a second glance at her revealed that the gash in her side had already stopped bleeding.
There were footsteps on the staircase and the soldier materialized before them. He held out his bloodied hand.
"A deal's a deal," he said. Shad blinked a few times.
"What- yes, of course-"
He handed what was left of the tonic to the soldier, and he rested his cut up hand in the pit of the bowl. In a matter of seconds, his hand had begun to heal..
"Thank you," he now said. "I'm in your debt."
Shad frowned. "Yes, you are," he said slowly.
"And that's why I'm going to pay you back with information," the soldier explained. All eyes in the room turned on him as he spoke. "Princess Zelda is having a ball next week," he began. "It is the annual Monarch's Pick Dinner, where she selects a group of people to recognize for their achievements. You all are on the guest list, of course, as well as His Grace and the rest of the soldiers. It is at this ball that the chancellor plans to make his final attack."
Rusl stepped forward. "And that is...?"
"To dethrone Princess Zelda and take Hyrule for himself," the soldier explained. "You'll recall Crevan's efforts to dislodge all of the leaders of each township. You see, that was only the beginning... it was all leading up to his grand finale."
"And you're telling us this because..."
"Because I've seen what you can do," the soldier said, looking around. His eyes fell onto Shad. "I've seen the courage that you all harbor inside of you. It's courage beyond what any of Crevan's soldiers have, even Rasire. You've got the strength to stop this man; he is corrupt and he is power-hungry. I was forced to join his ranks, and was too much of a coward to protest..." He glanced around the room. "You all have the power to stop him, and I implore you to utilize this power."
"Are you suggesting we gatecrash Princess Zelda's party?" Shad asked suddenly.
"That's exactly what I'm suggesting," the soldier answered. He took one final look around the room. His gaze stopped on Link. "You're really him," he said. "The hero of Hyrule."
Link smiled a bit, his gaze not wavering from where it had anchored on Ashei. "I'm just one of the heroes," he answered.
"You can do it again, then...?"
"I'll try."
The soldier glanced around one final time. "It was a pleasure to meet all of you... I must be on my way." He started to draw away, but on his way out of the door, he bumped right into Colin.
"Shad!" Colin cried, and Shad turned around. "Look what you left hanging about," Colin said, and Shad's jaw dropped.
"My cane!" he cried, and stopped himself from reaching out. "Wait..." He recalled the journey through the forest, across the creek, the swordfight with Rasire. How had he forgotten his cane? He'd done all of that and he hadn't even noticed his limp was gone...
Colin placed the cane off to the side and Shad grinned fiercely. "Well, then," he said, a new burst of confidence rushing through him. "Well, then, I suppose I'm quite healed after all..." He took Ilia's arm absently. "Let's go get a drink," he suggested.
Ilia frowned. "Right now?"
"Yes," Shad answered. "You almost got married and Ashei almost died and we're going to storm a castle in less than a week... I think now's a perfect time, don't you?"
Ilia was slightly baffled by Shad's abrupt change in attitude. But then she thought about it further. Shad had saved the day. She gave a small smile.
"A drink it is."
They sauntered out of the room and Rusl wrapped an arm around Colin's shoulders, following closely behind. They descended the staircase and Link found himself all alone, except, of course, for Ashei.
He pulled the chair back to her side and sat down. Her eyes were still shut; she must have been sleeping, then. He reached out absently and stroked the hair from her face. It was an intimate action; he was glad to be alone with her, even if she couldn't tell. He continued to stroke the hair from where it had been plastered to her forehead, and a small smile appeared on his features.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you," he said quietly, even though he knew she couldn't hear. "And I'm sorry that you got hurt. But you know that," he added. He paused and rested his hand on the side of her head. "You know," he said, "I've learned something very important. I've learned that as long as I'm around, the rest of you are all at risk. I've learned that I'm a target. And as long as I'm here, they're going to use you. They're going to use you to get to me. The same way they've used Ilia, the same way they've used Colin. And now you. As long as I'm around, I'll always have enemies."
He paused and pulled his hand away, examining her face, which was relaxed as it slowly became pinker and more lifelike. Gods, Shad was a real hero. He would never be able to repay him for this.
He took her hand one last time. "I've realized something else, Ashei. I've realized that if I want to keep you safe, then I can't stick around. I'm..." his breath hitched in his throat and he closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were stinging with tears again. Stop crying, he wanted to say. Stop it.
"I'm going to have to die, Ashei," he said quietly. "Maybe not now, but soon. I don't know what it's going to consist of. I know it's not really fair of me to do that, but it's going to have to happen. And when it does, I hope you'll... I hope you'll understand."
He was quiet for a long time after that, staring at her, drinking her in. It was rare that she was peaceful, and sleep was what caused one of those rare bouts of peace. He didn't know when he'd gotten to thinking she was beautiful; he'd always found her to be relatively attractive, but he'd also found Zelda attractive, and he'd found Ilia attractive, and he'd found Hena attractive, and sweet mother Farore had he found Midna attractive.
But beautiful; no, this was the first time he'd ever looked at someone and been absolutely overwhelmed just by the way they appeared. He'd never had the chance to find Midna beautiful; he'd only seen her true form for a few days before she made her departure. He'd never gotten to know how someone looked so well that the way they looked became the way they were. He'd never known anyone in the way that he knew Ashei, had never understood anyone in the way he understood her. There was no one in the world that matched her, and he realized with a shock that Midna had finally taken second seat to someone.
Yes; when Link looked at the big picture, when he saw everything and everyone and when it was all thrown at him at once, when everything was confusing, when the world just kept spinning and spinning and spinning and nothing made sense, she made sense. She made sense because she had been there through all the good times, all the bad times. She had defined this post-war Link because she'd been the rock he stood on. When no one else had been there, she had been there in a way that blotted out all the bad things.
Their hands latched together and suddenly he was smiling. It was like a ray of light had broken through the clouds, and he felt more confident than ever. The sword at his hip felt comfortable; natural. It was like an extension of himself. How had he ever gone without it?
A week from now they would be storming a ballroom and everything would be chaos and Zelda's throne would be held ransom. Hell would be raised and Link knew hell would be raised and he felt very happy about all of it. He'd gone far too long without purpose; could it be that he had spent this long being afraid of war not because he feared the guilt of it, but missed the thrill of it? He'd spent too long wasting away with no purpose, had spent too long with nothing to fight for. And now he had something to fight for, and he remembered again why he'd spent all of those nights out in Hyrule proper fighting and fighting and fighting. It was because he'd had a reason. A very important reason. And that reason had been his friends.
It hadn't changed.
It had been almost an hour before anything happened. He drew out of his trance as Ashei stirred just the slightest bit. He stared intently at her face, eyes full of hope.
Her lashes parted and the eyes drifted open, deep and brown and murky and tired. Link's breath caught in his throat as he felt her hand tighten around his own.
"...Hi," she finally said, her voice quiet and sleepy. It took Link a moment to find the words; they were lost to him. And then he found them.
"Hi," he said breathlessly.
This chapter contained a lot of made up science. I kind of suck at science, but I wanted a chapter that focused on Shad's strong point, and that happens to be knowledge.
Next chapter: The group gathers together at Telma's Bar to plan a castle siege. It's about time, too.
My thoughts and prayers go out to those in Boston.
