Aaaand, here's the final chapter!

Well, second to final. There's still the epilogue left.

Thank you all for reading this far, and I must warn you, the following chapter is a MASSIVE moodwhiplash compared to the previous chapter.

But I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Regards,

S.S.

Touch 5

"Tharlaigh," someone tapped his cheek gently, whispering so softly he could barely hear them. "Tharlaigh wake up."

He rolled his head groggily in their direction, squinting at the freckled face. "...Lin?"

"Oh thank Farore, Tharlaigh," she whispered, stroking his face, "I'm so glad I found you."

"Uh…"

"Give me a minute, I'll help you up." she pulled back and rummaged in her pockets for some matches, which she struck against the skultulla silk, burning it to ashes in half a second. "There. Can you sit up?"

Sheik grunted, sitting up dizzily, a pain pulsing softly behind his forehead as blood rushed to his head. "How'd you find me?"

"Zelda and I found a transport gate on the eastern moat of Castle Town. It didn't take long to track down where it took you, but from there? We've been crossing off properties in the vicinity for days now, and I was nearly losing hope." and on freeing his other hand she hugged him tightly, startling him. "I'm so glad I finally found you."

He melted into the hug nonetheless, holding her back. "Thanks."

And she kissed him, her lips pressing against his in the gentlest of touches, and a shiver crawled through his stomach.

She watched his eyes, combing his hair from his face. "Is something wrong?"

"I… I don't," He grabbed his head as it gave a vicious spike of pain, growling in protest. "I'm fine. Just, head hurts."

"What did she do to you?"

Sheik snorted. "Mind-magic, what else?"

"Do you, are you, under her control?" she helped him stand, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, bearing his weight, "What can I do to help you?"

"Distance. Further I am, the harder to keep control." he mumbled, still gripping his head, "That or kill her."

"Then, you might actually be alright," she gritted out as she kicked the door open, letting the two of them out, "I couldn't find her anywhere in this mansion, there wasn't a single horse in the stables, all other signs show she's left. Where could she be going?"

Sheik shuddered. "She's gone to get Vighew out."

She gasped, "No. No way. Why?"

"She's his daughter, that's why."

They stumbled into a faster jog, his legs barely keeping up with hers. "Can you ride? We need to go then. Now."

"Thought you said there weren't any horses."

"Aside from mine, silly."

She had a fair point, he supposed. "Where are we?"

"On the outskirts of Hyrule Fields. We can ride straight home."

They stumbled into the stables, where two black horses waited for them.

Sheik gritted his teeth. "Where's Epona?"

Lin didn't answer, instead leaning him against a stall, stroking his hair and kissing him again. "Don't worry about the details. Just let me help you."

His grip on the stall tightened, a coil of rope creaking against his back as his weight bore upon it. "Lin, where the hell is Epona?"

Lin rolled her eyes, her smile twisted a little. "He's home. He's alright."

Sheik struck. He slapped her hard enough to spin her round, slung the rope over her head and kicked her back, forcing her against the ground, and he choked her, choked the life out of her.

She was screaming his name.

"You're not real," he gasped, pressing down with his foot, pulling up with the rope, all too aware of how she was squirming, retching, gasping for breath like a fish out of water, "You're not real, you're not real, you're not real…"

She stopped. Sheik held his breath, head pounding, fear and horror climbing up his chest like hands of acid and he kept repeating the mantra until the world blurred black and he was lying flat on a bed again, limbs aching from the constant struggle against the bonds, head pounding hard enough that he was seeing stars.

Midna might have said something but he couldn't hear it over his own screams.

-.-'-.-'-.-

"Can I kiss you?" he asked, grinning, as they practiced waltzing for Zelda's Birthday Ball.

She blushed (goddesses that was so adorable) and scowled, hunching in on herself. "Why would you even want to?"

"Because you're adorable. And I just do."

"I'm not adorable and you're crazy."

"So would that be a no?"

"Yes."

"Oh? A yes?" he chuckled, leaning slowly in.

She stomped on his foot, growling. "Do you want to be stabbed? Because this is how you get stabbed."

-.-'-.-'-.-

Tharlaigh woke up to someone taking out the bit in his mouth.

"The bitch," Lin swore, tossing it away. "I'm going to kill her for this…"

Sheik grunted, only semi-conscious.

"Tharlaigh?" she asked, shaking him, "You're not, you're not dead, are you?"

He grunted again, squinting his eyes open. "No."

"Right. Fine. Just, hold on, I'm getting you out of here." and she sawed through the silk, or at least tried to, and cursing again she lit it with some matches, sending it into ash. "Why are you being held in a bed, anyway?"

Sheik grinned. "Reasons."

"Reasons. Sure," she scoffed, pulling him up and pressing a vial of potion to his mouth. "Here, this'll-"

He jerked away. "No."

"Tharlaigh, please,"

"No."

"...Later, then?"

He nodded fervently, leaning into her touch. "Goddesses I missed you."

She held him tightly round the shoulders, breathing him in. "I missed you too. I'm so sorry it took so long to find you."

Sheik screwed his eyes shut, his heart shuddering with dread. "How did you find me?"

"Travel magic was used just outside Castletown the night you went missing, at the eastern moat. Zelda managed to reverse-engineer it, and I came through, and here I am. It just, took a lot longer than I thought to find you." she leaned over him, setting the other silk on fire, before pulling back and rummaging through her pack. The vial of whatever she'd been about to give him went in there too. "We have to hurry; I don't want to be caught by the guards."

"There were no guards, last I saw," Sheik mumbled, gritting his teeth as his legs wobbled beneath him. Lin slung his arm over her shoulders, taking his weight.

"True, but for all I know they're on dinner break."

Sheik snorted. "Fair enough."

"Zelda's right behind us with reinforcements; they're going to raid this mansion and Midnasia is going to be executed."

He did not find her tone reassuring. "Zelda's coming?"

Lin grinned at him, though a little quizzically. "Of course she is, she's family."

Sheik didn't remember telling her that.

"So what was Midnasia doing to you? Will you be able to ride?"

"Mind-magic. Maybe."

"Goddesses," she shuddered, "I'm really going to kill her for doing this to you."

Sheik stayed silent, limping with her till they reached the stables. Epona waited for them, stamping her hooves on the hays with distaste. She glared at the Sheikah, who rolled his eyes. "Where in Hyrule are we?"

"Just opposite Lake Hylia. This mansion was abandoned a while ago, I think." she eased him onto the ground, letting him sit against a stall wall, brushing away his hair. "I'll send Zelda the signal, get Epona ready, and we're getting the hell out of here. I won't let anyone hurt you anymore."

"...Zelda's not meeting us?"

"She's commandeering troops, we'll only get in her way."

"Didn't she pay tribute to Ruto on the way?"

She frowned. "Of course she did, why?"

"I would have thought as the local Head Lady," Sheik drawled, "Ruto would have lent you some of her troops. Especially if this mansion belonged to one of her lesser vassals."

She shrugged, going through Epona's saddle-bags, taking out what looked like a flare-torch, "Maybe she was trying to save face? Tharlaigh, you know how terrible I am when it comes to politics."

Sheik gave a shuddering sigh. "You're right. I know. I'm… I thinking too deeply about this."

She knelt in front of him and held his hands, her touch warm against his skin. "Let's go home, you've been through enough. I'm just, I'm so sorry I couldn't find you sooner."

"Yeah. I… Lin, will you kiss me?"

"...What?"

"I don't, I don't know if this is real. Is this real?"

She blushed a deep adorable red, biting her lip. "Tharlaigh. I… this is real."

"I need to know. I need to be reassured."

She sighed, smiled and nodded. "Don't get used to it, though."

They kissed, the gentlest and warmest of touches, Sheik cradling her head between his shaking hands.

They parted. Sheik jerked her head to the side with all the violence he could muster and snapped her neck.

"Ruto's a Zora," he hissed at Epona, who was looking at him with a wide eye, "Her vassals wouldn't have a landbound mansion."

The horse didn't react, and nibbled some hay.

"Goddesses," he whispered, Lin's crumpled body lying prone so very near, the skin of her neck stretched over points of broken bone, "You're not real, you can't be real, not real, not real, not real…"

-.-'-.-'-.-

"Why won't Zelda go anywhere? You know she wants to."

Sheik sighed. "Would you expect the Temple of Time to move around?"

"...It's a building."

"It's also one of most iconic landmarks that represent Hyrule. Zelda is much the same; she can't go anywhere unless there's imminent danger to Hyrule or to herself."

"But she isn't a building or a monument. She's a person."

"But she is also the sole heir to a bloodline that goes all the way back to Hylia, and she's the leader of a people that have the right to seek audience with her if the need rises. And sometimes it's over petty things like property, but other times, it's about famine, corrupt ladies or lords, ancient relics going unappeased that only one of royal blood or those blessed by the Goddesses can fix. She needs to be in the Castle, because she never can really know when she's needed."

"But we're the ones fixing and appeasing relics and things. Why can't we let Zelda do it for a change? Get her out of the Castle."

"She could get hurt, Lin."

The girl scowled. "We'd protect her."

"Yes, a Sheikah and a girl that people call that weird one."

"Hey!"

"Point being, her duties don't allow it. That's what she has us around for."

"But what if you get hurt? Or me? Or both of us?"

"We're just going to have to watch each other's backs to make sure it doesn't happen then, eh?" he grinned, lifting a fist at her.

Sighing she bumped her fist against his and smiled with some exasperation and perhaps a little more shyness. "I guess."

-.-'-.-'-.-

He couldn't bear asking someone he might kill again to kiss him, not even to make absolutely sure she wasn't real.

When she called him Tharlaigh without mispronouncing his name again, he didn't bother letting her free him; he used the ribbons and strangled her again.

He suffered her body cooling against his.

-.-'-.-'-.-

"Therley?"

"No."

"Tharleigh."

"Mmm, no."

"Therelaigh?"

"Closer."

"Therelee."

"And way off the mark again. You do know you can just call me Sheik."

"I am calling you by your name eventually, even if it kills me."

-.-'-.-'-.-

It was taking longer to kill her. After stabbing her twice the rescue happened in Calatia, rather than Hyrule. One time they dueled, she insisting he stop, insisting this was real, screaming every time he cut her open, dodging as he knew she would, prolonging the battle. She bled out, and he had curled up into a ball and insisted just as much that this wasn't real, this wasn't, this wasn't.

He had held her and wept, nonetheless.

-.-'-.-'-.-

"You're going to kill her eventually, at this rate. Like actually genuinely kill her."

His whole body was damp with sweat, and his jaw felt stiff from being kept open most of the time. Midna sighed and took the bit out, and he swallowed, barely having enough energy to glare.

"I'll know."

"No you won't," Midna grinned, sharklike, "When she comes, I'll just let her in, and you'll kill her, and life won't reset. You'll go through all the grief again, and it'll be your fault."

"No."

"What if I told you I have a pink fairy?" she whispered, giggling, "Even if you do kill her, I could revive her. Is that reassuring? Obviously I'll only give it to you if you tell me where father is."

"Never."

"Oh I don't think so. How you scream every time you kill her, I think that when it actually happens, you won't be able to help yourself. It's actually kind of pathetic, how you love someone so much when they clearly only think of you as a friend. Is that why she doesn't kiss you? It's the face, isn't it."

"Shut up."

"Just tell me where father is already," Midna snapped, "And maybe I will. Or maybe, maybe I'll just keep bringing her in to rescue you only to be killed until you just give up and-"

Lin burst into the room, one mightily annoyed adventurer.

Sheik stared. So did Midna. Lin glared, and marched, and Midna scrambled up with a preemptive spell but Lin just stepped past the blast and slugged a vicious punch into the redhead's right temple.

Midna dropped out of Sheik's sight. There was a weak whimper. Lin's face gave a sharp twist and she punched down, there was a thud, and Lin stepped over the crumpled body.

She turned around and kicked it for good measure. Twice.

She then turned back around, a sharp knife in hand. Her shoulders heaved with each breath, and the grip on the knife shook. "We're leaving."

Sheik coughed. "Oh, good. This is not what it looks like, by the way."

Lin grabbed the ribbons keeping him in place and started sawing. "Being tortured on a bed?"

"...Nevermind, that's exactly what this looks like. Also Skultulla silk."

"Crazy dangerous freaks," Lin growled, stabbing the knife into the mattress to hold the silks in her hands, red light smouldering between her fingers. When she let go, the ribbons were ash.

"Did you just…" Sheik closed his eyes, the absurdity of it (like using a battleaxe to cut a knob of butter, good Ladies she could have brought the building down on top of them all) rocking his already disturbed brain. "Did you just use Din's Fire on that?"

"I didn't bring matches." She went to work on his other hand before gently sitting him up, pressing a glass vial to his lips, "Here, this'll-"

He jerked away. "No."

"Sheik, please,"

"No."

"...Later, then?"

He nodded reluctantly, so she corked the bottle, tucked it into her bag and busied herself with setting the rest of his limbs free. He watched her searing the ribbons, letting him unbind the rest himself, wondering if this was another simulation, another mirage, made all the more convincing because of the interruption.

Seeing Midna be beat down so brutally and thoroughly had been pretty satisfying…

"Can you walk?" she asked, sheathing the knife into her belt.

He let her pull his arm over her shoulder, supporting his weight against her side as they stood. Again, voluntary touching; he was leaning towards mind-warp.

"Probably."

"Can you run?"

"Possibly."

"Better than I expected," she noted as they stood, glaring at Midna's prone form. "Can I kick her again?"

"Up to you."

Lin hooked a foot under her and heaved Midna into a sharp roll against the table, where her head smacked against a table leg. Sheik couldn't help but smile.

They left the room and marched through the hallways, Sheik heavily leaning on his rescuer. She barely flinched. Barely registered the contact. It seemed less and less likely to be real, this ordeal. Sheik gritted his teeth, and slipped Lin's knife from her belt and held it against his side.

"How'd you find me?"

"Travel magic was used just outside Castletown the night you went missing. Powerful, unregistered, no idea where it went. Had to find the gate before we could see where it sent you."

"Which is…?"

"Calatia."

"Ah."

"Didn't know you were from here. Didn't even know you had a cousin, which would've been really useful if I'd known, Tharlaigh."

He grunted. "Sorry. Then…?"

"...Zelda told me about Midna, we looked at lands that were held under Bastard's name, and I've been going through each one. Finally found you."

Ah, so Midna finally noticed Lin only referred to Vhighew as Bastard. Nice touch. He tried a new angle. "How long have I been gone?"

Lin faltered, looking at his face. "You don't know?"

"Drugged most of the time. That or being mind-warped. So I can only guess."

She swallowed, and they turned a corner, and she kicked a door in. It led to a meeting hall. "Sixteen, maybe seventeen days. If you include today."

Sheik shuddered. It hadn't felt that long, if it was the truth. "Gods."

"I'm sorry I couldn't find you sooner," she grunted, setting him on a couch, taking in a deep breath. "I tried. I really did."

He closed his eyes, grunting back, hiding the knife between his body and the furniture. He watched her behind half-lidded eyes, unshouldering a bag and pulling out a corked bottle of blue potion, which she drank out of. There were bags under her bloodshot eyes, and she struggled with the first few sips because of the shaking of her hands.

"You said mind-warp," she added, corking the bottle, "What exactly did she do to you? Was it… was it something like Bastard's magic?"

"Something like," he agreed, wondering how he would have to manipulate this conversation, kill her quickly to stop her from screaming. He was really hating that part of these simulations.

"Sheik, I can't… now that I know, I can't get near you if you might be under Midna's influence. You might attack me, like I did you, with Bastard. So I need to know what she did."

Clever. A legitimate reason to stay away. "I can't know for sure."

"Does it wear off? Do we need to do something, to, to snap you out of it?"

"Killing Midna would be a way."

She paled. Interesting. In other simulations she'd been passionately angry, or cold, and often in favour of this idea. Had Midna worked out that Lin detested fighting and killing people?

Sheik shuddered. He wondered how many memories had been perused, how many hours his cousin had spent in his head, perfecting this projection of her, to make it seem so real.

And he would have to kill her again, and wait till he was rescued again. Again and again, until it stopped. But Midna's words made him hesitate. What if this was real? The knife pressed against his back.

"Killing you is another way. Or myself, actually," he added, drawing the knife, decidedly fed up with keeping up with the game, "That might be better."

"...Don't you dare."

"Sick of killing you," he muttered, pressing the knife against his own neck, "I'm done."

She blurred in a flurry of green light and was crouching over him, holding his wrist tight enough to bruise, eyes wide with fear. "Please try to kill me instead."

He grinned. "Funny."

"It's not!"

"You're not real. This isn't real."

"Cutting your neck open will not break the spell."

He leaned in, resting his head on her shoulder, and wrapped his free arm around her back. "Then what will?"

"Tharlaigh, please."

"Should I kill you instead, then?" he pressed against her hand, angling the knife down toward them both. He still didn't know which of them he was aiming to stab. "And do it all over again?"

"Don't do this, Sheik,"

"Why?" he held her tighter, burying his face in her neck, his armed hand shaking against her defiant grip, yet drawing ever closer. "You're not real."

"Goddess damn it at least stop hugging me if you're trying to kill me!"

He froze. She sounded genuinely spooked, and not for reasons he suspected, or even dared hope. He pulled back, and a great long shaky whoosh of a sigh escaped her, a strange chord of relief in that fearful breath.

Then she took the knife away while he was still uncertain.

"I know," she snarled, sheathing the blade, "That I'm not the most comforting of people, and you find it absolutely hilarious, but don't joke about it when you're trying to kill me. Teasing me, fine. During training, also fine. But if you're actively trying to kill me, please take me seriously."

"Um."

"And why do you think I'm not real?"

"Uh."

She waited. She just knelt there, scowling, and waited.

He found himself shaking. "Are you real?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you weren't, for the last twelve times. Midna made it look like you were here, saving me, but it was all in my head, to lead her to her father, so she'd know where to go to free him. You, you weren't remotely like you at first, but you got closer, and it got harder to kill you. It was the only way I knew how to stall time. I, I had to kill you. Twelve times."

With every word Lin grew paler, and she practically swooned on her knees, horrified. "You killed-"

He'd sunk forward, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes, fingertips digging into his scalp. "And now I don't know, because you're so real, now, after so many times adjusting, digging into my memories to see what you were like, but she could never get your issues, but now you have them, or implying you have them, and with that last leverage gone how can I know? I can't kill you if I'm not sure. So it has to be me."

"It has to be neither of us," she practically yelled, grabbing his hands, forcing him to meet her eyes. "Because this is real, I am here, and I'm so sorry it took so long but I am here now, so don't you damnwell dare do something so monumentally stupid!"

"It's worked twelve times. It'll work again."

"Killing fake me is not the same as killing real you. Sheik," she pleaded, clasping her hands over his, "Like I said, I'm not the most comforting person because I, I can barely touch people let alone hug them without my skin crawling and having flashbacks about monsters trying to hurt me, but I can do this, I can hold your hand and I can promise you that I am real. Please, please, just, convince yourself. I'll answer any question you want. I'll do it for as long as you need, because I'm real and I'm not going anywhere. Ask. Go on."

He stared at her hands over his own, shaking as much as he, and uncertainty limped into his heart.

Could this be real?

"What's…" he swallowed his nerves, cleared his throat. "Your name."

She shifted her grip over his knuckles, never letting go. "Lin Knightly. Or Link Nightly. I was ten, I thought I was being clever."

"How long ago did we meet?"

"Maybe four and a half years now, including the time I was wearing that hat."

"For how long have you known of me?"

"What, oh of course. Over seven years, spanning two… I don't know what Zelda calls them. Lifetimes? Timestreams? Just, two of those."

He watched those hands, wrapped around his own, and calm began to flow into his blood. "When Princess Zelda fled the castle after Ganondorf's rebellion, for how long was she in exile?"

"This time, three years. Last time, seven."

"And for how long were you active as Hero in both?"

"Trick question. I only woke up at the very end of the seven, and I was never officially hero in this one. You're the one that kept calling me that."

"How am I related to Zelda?"

"...Wait, you are? I thought that was a joke. Like, calling your friend your brother. Wait, she's related to Bastard? Eh?"

Sheik laughed weakly, raising his eyes to meet hers. "We never told you. But Midna would have known. It's very distantly, through many marriages and generations. Zelda and I share a great-grandmother or something."

"Oh. Oh, okay." she sighed, grumbling. "Another trick question. You're such a tease, Sheik."

His grin widened. "That phrase is usually used in a different context, Lin."

"You can tell me which later."

He nodded. "Can I kiss you?"

"I told you to take me seriously."

"I have never been more serious."

She looked at him, nervous and frightened and shy, and painfully apologetic. "I can't."

"Can I kiss your hands?"

She inhaled, deeply. "That we can do."

So he did, pressing his lips against her knuckles with reverence, and something inside him broke. Out flowed his fears, surging in a tide of relief and desperate hope, and Sheik found himself sobbing into a tangle of his and her fingers, holding those precious hands in his like a prayer.

"Please be real, Ladies above please be real."

"I am," she whispered, voice trembling. "I swear I am."

"You're convincing," he admitted between tears, "I'll give you that."

"It comes with being real." she chuckled, sniffling, "And now you've set me off. Can I have my hands back now?"

"No." he pressed them against his eyes, weeping even as he laughed. "Never letting you go. Never."

-.-'-.-'-.-

Lin had to go back to encase Midna in Nayru's Judgement so she couldn't escape, and set up a focal point for Farore's Wind so Zelda's troops could come collect the crazy witch, but in order to do that she had to do two things.

First, convince Sheik to let go of her hands. Second, to calm him down, because as soon as she'd mentioned the first spell he had turned to stone and had protested in no uncertain terms that he refused to let her use said spell. Not after last time.

She had to promise him that she wouldn't invoke the Triforce at all (she still didn't know how she did it the first time anyway), so the crystal prison would do what it was meant to do, and only that. Tharlaigh Hasheik did not stop worrying until she came back, wobbling on her feet. She hoisted him onto his feet, letting him carry most of her meagre supplies. "Took far too much magic, but done. Right, let's go."

Sheik winced when they stepped outside, the sun burning high in the sky. Lin led him to two ponies (he laughed a little too much when she kept calling them peonies) that they rode till they reached a trades-post around dusk, at which she pawned the ponies back for a pair of silver gauntlets.

Correction: The Silver Gauntlets, the ones that were magicked to lift ten times the capacity of a normal person. Those.

"Were you out of your mind?" Sheik had snapped as Lin wore them, "They're an heirloom. Of the nation. What if you couldn't buy them back?"

"Well I didn't have any money left." she grumbled, flexing her fingers, "And I would've just stolen them back."

They were still in dire financial straits, so to rectify that particular conundrum they mucked out the pigs' pens and changed the hay in both barns of the trades-post. Not having enough for a meal they hunted near the area, picking some herbs and catching a small rabbit (Tharlaigh couldn't get himself to eat anything that was given him anyway; he still had the niggling feeling that this escape seemed too good to be true), though they managed to afford a stall in the stables for the night. The next morning (pulling hay out of each other's heads and patting themselves down of dust) they hired themselves out as guards to caravans heading in Hyrule's direction, and stayed with them another day.

Sheik often asked questions that he thought maybe Midna wouldn't know, little things, useless things, things that, just in case he was still under her control, would be utterly useless to her. So though the most reassuring answers would have been ones concerning the other timestream, he kept to inanities and old missions. Lin answered them readily. Never did either of them bring up Vhighew/Bastard.

When they were standing at the slopes on the other side of Death Mountain, Lin told him to hold her hand (odd, unnerving, but not necessarily unwelcome) and invoked Farore's Gale, which blasted them across the border and into the Hyrule Fields, ridiculously close to Castletown. In fact, they were basically standing at the gate.

Lin collapsed. "Din damn it."

"Damn right!" Sheik hissed once he recovered from the shock, crouching beside her, "You didn't have to do that. We could've taken the long way home, you have got to stop pushing yourself like this."

She gasped, trembling. "Potion, please?"

"Lin,"

"Just, enough to stand. And, can we camp on the castle grounds, tonight? I don't, I think Zelda might be pissed at me." she swayed on her fours, almost incoherent. "I'd rather face her in the morning."

"I'm carrying you."

She breathed deeply, and nodded. "Deal."

"Goddesses you must be exhausted," he grunted, and on hauling her on his back (he nearly lost his balance; lying catatonic on a bed for over two weeks did not an athlete make), he traipsed through the town, which got them both strange looks. It didn't help that Lin kept mumbling for potion like a crazy person. By the time they reached the Castle Gates it was night, which meant they would have to sneak in.

Tharlaigh gave Lin the last of the blue potion to shut her whining up.

"So, weird one," he sighed, eyes brushing over the bright windows of the fortress beyond, "How are we getting in?"

"Vines," she said, pointing at a cliff as she packed the empty bottle away, "Then along the flower trough, through the foxhunt trees, over the garden grates, and then campsite. Also I have to get a flag up so the guards don't kill us when I get the fire started. Do you want to try catching a pheasant on the way?"

Usually poaching on Royal Grounds equated to treason. "Your arrangement with the Captain must be really good."

"He likes making the new recruits do a walk of shame if I go through without getting caught."

"Delightful."

They went through without getting caught, but didn't catch any game. Sheik set up a few traps as Lin set up the fire, and obtained two keese.

Lin was alright with eating them, so roast bats and nuts ended up as their dinner.

"You should sleep, Tharley."

"You're getting closer, I'll give you that."

"Sheik."

"I've been unconscious for most of my kidnapping, Lin. I can keep watch."

"There's nothing to keep watch for. You've hardly slept since we got out of there."

This was true, so Tharlaigh kept his mouth shut.

"Let me tend the fire?" she wheedled, sidling up to him, "And, I'll hold your hand?"

He rolled his eyes. "You do not have to hold my hand."

"But would it help?"

"...Maybe."

The arrangement would have been too awkward for it to work, but Lin laid her hand on his leg, over his blanket, and that in itself was disturbingly reassuring. He fell asleep to the flickering of firelight on his eyelids, and dreamed that Lin kissed the scarred side of his face, her hair tickling his nose.

Soooo, what did you guys think?

Thanks again!

S.S.