Iris remained at the counter, even though it currently the slowest part of the year for potion sales. Not many adventurers went out in the months following the carnival. Then again most were either too broke to entertain such travels or still severely hung over after the celebration. Frustratingly her friends were also still unconscious, Koume and Kotake assured her that they would awaken eventually. The waiting was still frustrating and the fairies Kotake had found did not make good company as they insisted on remaining by Skull Kid's side. Iris shifted a glance towards him, almost cursing his appearance. Maybe if Sable hadn't found him to begin with, none of this would have happened. She quickly perished the thought as Iris remembered the result of the situation.
The familiar sound of ringing roused Skull Kid from his slumber. When he opened his eyes he was greeted by the sight of Tatl and Tael hovering over him. Although he could not recognise where he was, the chaotic clutter of a potion laboratory surrounded him. He was lying in a makeshift bunk at the edge of the room and near a shop counter. Sitting at the counter was a Deku girl dressed in black robes, she was casually flicking through an old tome and did not turn as the fairies cheered.
Tael flew in close to his face "Skull Kid, we were so worried about you."
"We thought you were a goner," Tatl added "But then this witch fixed you."
"A witch?" Skull Kid looked over to the Deku, forcing his body to sit up in bed "Did you save me?"
The tome slammed shut "Not really, I just brought you here after my friend found you, then my master healed you. You've been asleep for the past week."
"Friend? You mean…" Skull Kid felt the dread tighten his chest "That dragon is your friend!?"
"We've actually met before, when you were possessed by the mask. Sable and I were there when you shattered the Great Fairy of the Great Bay."
"Oh… then I attacked you… Sorry about that, I really truly am."
The Deku went to his side and offered her hand "I'm Iris by the way, the apprentice of Mistress Kotake, and you are?"
"Skull Kid… um… How did Tatl and Tael get here?" He felt a light headed and lay down once more to stop the room from spinning.
"My mistress found them in the swamp."
"Where did you go Skull Kid?" Tael sat on his pillow "We looked everywhere for you."
Tatl snapped "You worried us sick, you jerk!"
"Would you calm down a little Tatl? You really need to control your anger." Iris remarked as she passed Skull Kid a bottle of blue potion. He cautiously sipped from the bottle as they kept arguing.
Tatl went up in Iris' face "Me!? Have anger problems! HA!"
She stood her ground and told the fairy off "You did go ballistic when you first woke up. Broke the bottle and everything."
"Who puts fairies in bottles!? That's just sick!"
"Well you didn't have to smash it to pieces! Do you realise how expensive glass bottles are!?"
"AGH! You sound just like Link! What is it with you people and bottles? Are they some rare commodity!?"
"Yes, there aren't many craftsmen that work with glass!"
Tael nervously interjected "We're both sorry about that, Tatl has always been a very strong and stubborn fairy."
"Stubborn, how dare you accuse me of such a thing!?" snapped Tatl as she bumped into Tael.
"Cut it out the both of you!" Tael replied "Iris, weren't you supposed to go get Kotake when Skull Kid woke up? She said she needed to examine him to make sure the mask didn't hurt him."
Skull Kid froze and turned slowly to his fairy friends "You… you told them?"
Tael shyly admitted "We had to Skull Kid, we needed to tell them about Majora's Mask or else they wouldn't help you."
"It was the only way we could explain why you disappeared in the first place." Tatl nodded.
Every instinct told him to run, Skull Kid threw himself from his bed and forced himself to stand. Agony pulsed through his body as he tried to move his legs. But they let him down as he fell to the ground and struggled to get up again.
"Take it easy! Are you trying to kill yourself!?" Iris was at his side and helping him to his knees. She wiped his tears away with her baggy sleeve.
"Stop it! I don't deserve it!" he slapped her hand away "I should die for what I did."
"Skull Kid, don't say that." Tael sat on his tattered hat "We're still your friends and we care about you."
Tatl reiterated "You really have no idea how much you scared us! Disappearing like that without a word. Others care about you too, like the Giants and Link!"
"Don't you two get it?" Skull Kid covered his face "I let myself fall victim to that mask just because I didn't want to be lonely anymore… I almost killed everyone because of that! I shouldn't be allowed to live."
"Shut up! You're not making any sense now, you say you're alone and yet I see two people in this room who care about you. Are you really that blind!?" Iris pulled him up by the scruff of his collar "Look, we are all exhausted from what'd happened over the past few days. But we still managed to save you and you're not even grateful for it!? Are you trying to tell me, that we wasted our time saving you!?"
Skull Kid could not even look her in the eye, there was something eerie about Iris' gaze that unsettled him. Right now he was sure he could see the flames of hell burning in her eyes. She hissed back at him "Well? What's wrong? The cat caught your tongue!?"
He wilted before her "N… No. I just… I don't know what I'm doing anymore… I don't know how I can live with myself…"
"Iris, please calm down!" Tael pleaded "Skull Kid isn't really a bad person. He's just scared right now, you have to admit he's been through a horrible ordeal."
"Fine," Iris' expression softened, the fairy had made a good point after all "Look Skull Kid, I don't care what you've done and it's none of my business either. But, if I've learnt anything it's that you can't just shut yourself off from everyone when clearly there are people willing to help you. Everyone has their burdens and sometimes you need help with carrying them, so let them help."
Tael sat on Skull Kid's shoulder "We know it'll be hard for you, but… Kotake seems really nice too. So maybe it's best if we stay here until you feel better."
"Yeah, I don't think anyone is your enemy here." Tatl hovered before his face "And if you disappear again, I am going to hunt you down and punch you in the face as hard as I can for being a colossal idiot!"
Iris laughed "You know, I think I like you little fairy."
"Tatl, my dear, and I can appreciate you as well. Nice to meet a girl who is like minded."
The door of the shop creaked open, a lithe blue skinned woman came in from the cool night. She smiled and laughed to herself "Looks like he's up."
Iris waved back "Hey Veran, I thought you went to bed already?"
"The witches got me up," Veran looked over to Skull Kid "They're waiting for you in the Woods of Mystery now. There's something you need to see before you meet everyone else."
Tatl chirped "Alright then, let's see it."
"Not the fairies, just Skull Kid."
He looked to Iris who nodded back to him. With hesitant steps he followed after the strange woman as she guided him through the Woods of Mystery.
The siren song of curious voices filtered through the trees. Skull Kid looked around himself to see the will-o-wisps dance amidst the darkness. A star studded sky stretched overhead with the alabaster moon watching his journey. There was something electric about the air, it was unlike anything Skull Kid had seen before in a forest. The wisps trailed behind him and chattered in a lost tongue. He quickened his pace to catch up to Veran, his heart beating faster as he grew nervous. She looked back at him and gave him a comforting smile, yet there was something he could not quite trust about her. In fact this entire situation disturbed him, there was something ethereal about Veran that made him fear her. A wicked glint in her eye, that friendly smile that looked like it came from a predatory monster about to feast on its kill, all of it made him shiver.
The wisps parted as they reached the edges of the Woods of Mystery. They came to an ancient glade that housed a single monolith. A tall woman with hair of fire and ice was waiting for them. Celestial threads danced from her skin to the relic of black stone embedded in the earth.
Veran bowed her head "Twinrova."
"Twinrova?" Skull Kid glanced around the verdant clearing, the scent of the trees felt so familiar to him "Where is Ms Kotake?"
"Kotake and Koume are my… masks, so to say. Any form of deity needs a mask if they are to live in Termina. Our forms are just too powerful and divine to exist beyond the veil of twilight without a little help." Twinrova knelt down before Skull Kid, eyeing him curiously "Then again, this would be no problem for one as old as you."
Skull Kid backed away, Veran grabbed his shoulder to keep him running "I don't understand…"
"You found Majora's Mask because the Man Eater willed it to happen, it even created that salesman to act as its conduit."
Veran teased cruelly as she pulled him closer to the monolith "And why would the Man Eater want a filthy little lost soul like you?"
The closer she came to the monolith, the more her mask began to slip. Skull Kid watched as Veran's elegant beauty twisted away into a malevolent Great Fairy. She then placed him before the odd relic, he could feel the pulse of magic radiate from the stone.
"This is a piece of the Twilight Realm, in fact, you were the one who brought it to Termina as a prank." Veran smirked at him "Do you not remember those old times of ages past? Before the Giants sent you to the heavens… well, heaven isn't the right word for it. After all, it's just the realm the Golden Goddesses crafted to prove they were better than everyone else."
He broke free of her grip, his anger finally erupted "What are you even talking about!? I'm just… I'm just a faceless skull kid! What would I know about any of this!? I can't even remember my family or where I came from."
Twinrova raised a hand to Veran before the fairy could retort. The calmer deity sat beside him to explain "I suspect you might be more than that. I felt it the first time Iris brought you to the shop and it explains why Majora's Mask could do so much damage to Termina. It could not cast such powerful magic unless it took control of a deity."
Skull Kid flailed his arms "Me!? A deity? But… how… why?"
"I think you're a broken deity, one who has forgotten their true face. It happens from time to time, usually at the hands of the Golden Goddesses. They probably stripped you of your powers the moment you entered their realm." Twinrova put an arm around him, she dismissed Veran with a wave of her hand "Don't think that they're evil, they just have different magic that draws from the power of light, rather than darkness. That's all."
"Then why would they do that to me? What did I even do to them?"
"Who knows? They've never been very good at explaining why they do these things." Twinrova looked up "Do you see the wisps in the forest? How they dance in the air?"
Skull Kid nodded as he wiped his tears away. The ghostly flames continued to swim overhead without a care in the world.
"The fact that you can see them is a sign that you were once a deity. These wisps are lost souls and they gather here, although I don't know why. With time, I think you can recover your lost memories and find your true face once more."
"I think this is all insane…"
Twinrova laughed warmly "Aren't you tired of wandering aimlessly and alone through these worlds? Why not let yourself have a second chance?"
Skull Kid tilted his head "Worlds? You mean Termina and Hyrule?"
"You never realised you were the only one who could traverse them with ease?" Twinrova sighed out loud "The Golden Goddesses really did a number on you if you didn't even notice that." She smiled back at him "Luckily you're in the company of those who may be able to help you. Of course, I could never force you to stay with us, but at least consider staying in touch with Veran and I. The choice is yours."
They remained in the glade until daybreak as they watched the will-o-wisps dance. Skull Kid's mind was reeling as he tried to process everything that had been said. These wild theories actually sounded plausible the more he considered them.