Chapter 79: Etudes of Life and Memory

…

Link, Layna, and Irleen returned to the large control room a few minutes later. Link was feeling tired as he stepped up between the two columns in the control room. He removed the blues harp from his pocket and stared at it for a moment.

It was a long enough moment that Irleen asked, "You… know how to play a harmonica, don't you?"

Link gave her a weary look. Then he placed the blues harp to his lips and played a few notes. Irleen jerked backwards in surprise. Not only did Link seem to have a grasp of how a blues harp worked, the dozen or so notes that he played were actually organized into a decent if somewhat slow tune. He even held the last note and used a hand to create a vibrato. When he glanced up at her again, he gave her a weak grin in an attempt to exert a smug attitude.

"Okay, that…" Irleen started before realizing that she could not find any more words. "I thought you've been an airman most of your life. Where did you learn how to play a harmonica?"

"I learned from some friends who live on these islands," Link answered. "The Grand Sails has taken them to a festival on Castle Island for the past… I think, four years? Anyway, they're a band, and one of them taught me how to play a blues harp during one festival. I don't get to practice very often, but I still remember how to play." He glanced over at the column on his left. "The question is if the technoworks will respond to it."

"It should," Irleen said. "You don't actually have to use magic to repair the technoworks; just direct it. The technoworks will do the rest."

"Then why is it that only Sorian magic users know how to control the technoworks?" Link asked.

"Job security." Link's face blanked at the revelation, finding it to be an absurd excuse that he had not considered. Irleen shook side to side. "I'm kidding. The magic users are the ones who put the technoworks together. It's been easier to let them control the technoworks because they understand it, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're the only ones who know how to control them."

Link shrugged. "If you say so. What notes do I need to play?"

"It's hard to say. Since a magic user's tool can be anything, the technoworks has to figure out what the tool is first. Try going through all the notes you know. Make them long. If you hit the right note, these columns will react."

Link did not know any music notation or even the names of the notes on a blues harp. But he knew that blowing and drawing on the harp produced two different notes. So he started from the lowest note and used a single breath to play a blow note and then inhale for the pull note. He kept his eyes shifting between the columns in expectation of a reaction. By the time he reached the fifth hole, however, he was beginning to wonder if the blues harp really did need to be tuned.

Then he pulled on the seventh hole, and a shift in movement in the corner of his left eye made him pause. The blue particles on the column to his left had stopped falling. He looked to his right and found that the right column had done the same.

"That's it!" Irleen declared. "Keep playing that note, Link."

Link exhaled and played the note as he inhaled. The blue particles on the left column, as he watched it, started pulling themselves together. Link had to pause so he could exhale without playing the wrong note and saw that some of the particles had pulled themselves together to look like Sorian symbols. He continued to play the note, and the particles finally formed what looked like a bulleted list in blue lettering on either column. He was not sure if he was done, so he continued the note until he need to breathe out again.

"Perfect," Irleen told him. She looked between the columns, then she moved to the right one and hovered near the bottom bullet on a six-item list. "Press your finger on this circle. Just a tap."

Link stepped over and touched his forefinger to the column where she told him. The bullet, as well as the lettering next to it, glowed white before the whole list faded out. Link glanced at the other column to find that the list on that side had also disappeared. Instead, a circle of blue light had formed on the floor.

"Whoa…" Irleen awed. "That's interesting…"

Link saw that she was hovering near the hand holding the blues harp, and he lifted it to his face to see it. "Whoa…" he agreed when he saw the emerald strips on the top of the blues harp glowing in a pattern. The whole emerald did not glow at once; instead, only half of the emerald would glow, alternating between the half closest to the mouthpiece and then the opposite half every few notes. He angled the blues harp to show Irleen and asked, "Why's it doing that?"

"With instruments," Irleen explained, "the technoworks provides the note combination it's waiting for. When a Sorian instrument is used for magic, it always has some kind of pattern or design so that the necessary notes will display on the instruments when using the technoworks. Neat, huh?"

Link watched the emeralds through a complete pattern. "So I just have to play the pattern on the blues harp?"

Irleen bobbed up and down. "Yep."

"But how do I know when to blow or draw?"

Irleen paused for a moment. "What?"

"When you play a harmonica, breathing out and breathing in are two different notes. How am I supposed to know which is which?"

"Uh… I… I don't know. Just… wing it. The technoworks won't revert unless you play that single note again. And make sure you stand in the circle; that's where the technoworks expects to hear the music from."

"Never thought I'd be playing for living rock…" Link commented under his breath as he stepped into the circle.

"Well, you must've taken up the harmonica for some reason," Irleen joked. "Besides, isn't this fun?" Link allowed himself a half-smile as he watched the pattern play out on the blues harp. He tried to memorize it, tried to imagine how the notes would sound in his head, but he found that, at the end of one pattern, he had missed a small group on notes at the beginning and had to watch the whole thing again. Then he watched the pattern two more times, his hesitation causing Irleen to groan her impatience at him. "Come on, Link."

"Sh," he hissed at her. He put the blues harp to his mouth and noticed that he could see some of the emeralds glowing at the bottom of his vision, particularly those not right under his nose. He waited for the pattern to start again and started playing along. He had lost count of how many notes the instrument was asking for, but about halfway through, Link flubbed a note and, realizing it, took the instrument from his mouth and gave an irritated groan. His next attempt at the piece yielded another slip-up. But the third attempt, Link played the whole piece through and glanced around. As he had assumed, the technoworks had not responded, and he thought he knew why. He replayed the piece in his head as he had played it, and he found that even he, an amateur musician, noticed that the melody of the piece sounded a little awkward.

"Well, that didn't work," Irleen griped.

"Hang on, Irleen," Link told her. "I think I know what I did wrong. That didn't sound right; I'm gonna play it again."

Irleen sighed. "If you say so…"

Link played the piece again, this time reversing the notes that he drew and blew. Again, the first place he had messed up tripped him up, but his second attempt was a successful melody which, although still a little strange, sounded better than his first full play through. It was an easy-going, casual tune, something which he had not heard on a harmonica before. Until this piece, he had only heard either an exciting song which often made one want to slap one's knees to the rhythm or a sad solo that used to make Line cry.

When Link paused after the end, he became aware of a crumbling sound nearby and turned around. He watched as the red spot on the floor, the one that the Stalarmor had made during their fight, changed from its pulsing red color to what looked like white stone before it molded to match the nearby tiles' shape, patterns, and coloring, right down to the way the colors shifted. It looked as if the damage had never occurred in the first place. He turned to the column on the right, where he had noticed damage near the bottom. His eyes only caught the aftermath as the white rock shifted to match the column's appearance.

"Link," Irleen said as she looked at the left column. "Keep playing. The technoworks hasn't distributed the command yet."

Link waited for the pattern on the blues harp to restart before he played again. After he finished his second complete attempt, he saw that the columns had begun to glow brighter. His third play almost left him blind from the amount of light, so he had to play the fourth time with his eyes closed. Fortunately, he had already gotten used to the melody and played it flawlessly without looking.

"Okay, Link," Irleen said. "That's it."

Link opened his eyes to find that the entire room had rid itself of the dreary, copper coloring in favor of the bright yellows and oranges and blue particles that they had seen in the entrance chamber. Even the bright, red sections had completely disappeared. He found that, to a small degree, he could almost feel what the technoworks felt. Most of his fatigue had disappeared, and his body did not feel as sore anymore.

"Link, play that note again," Irleen told him. "The one that calls up the list." Link turned to the right column and, after taking a brief pause when he noticed that the harmonica was not glowing anymore, tried to play the note she requested in a single breath. He did not quite make it, only managing to get half of the list composed before he had to breathe out. But he summoned the list with a second sound, and Irleen shifted to the left column. "Hm…"

"What is it?" Link asked.

"I'm trying to think where to find the command to put the Sky Lines back up… Maybe it's this one?" She moved to the other column, and Link followed her with his eyes. She hovered at the top of the list and told him, "Press this one." Link moved to place a finger on the bullet before she blurted, "No, wait! Wait."

"What?"

She gave a frustrated sigh. "I don't know. You keep calling them 'Sky Lines'; I forgot what I used to call them."

"Sorians don't use the word 'Sky Lines'?" Link asked.

"I just started using the word I hear when you say it, so now I can't remember what I used to call them. It's not on the list here, so I have no idea where it would be."

"Wa—… What did you call them?"

"I don't know, but it made a lot more sense than 'Sky Lines'." She moved back to the left column. Then she hovered near the second-to-last item on the list. "Try this one." Link moved over to the other column and, after hesitating in case Irleen changed her mind, pressed his forefinger against the bullet. Instead of disappearing as before, the Sorian lettering rearranged itself into a smaller list. "There it is!" Irleen suddenly declared, making Link start. "Streamways! I can't believe I forgot that!"

Link gave her a confused look. "Do you see it? How do we put them back?"

"Tap that second item."

Link pressed his finger against the column as she had told him, and he noticed the room around them grow a little darker. The bright, warm colors had faded to a dull orange, but the blue particles remained undisturbed as they continued to flow along the technoworks' floor, ceiling, and walls. Link turned to find that the circle on the floor had returned, so he looked at the blues harp. The emeralds were glowing as before, so Link moved back to the circle. Then he quickly asked Irleen, "I do need to play again, right?"

"Yeah, I think so," she said. "This should put the Sky Li—Streamways back in place."

Link shot her a confused look at her sudden need to correct herself before he settled his eyes on the blues harp to memorize the pattern. This pattern turned out to be a little longer than the first piece, and Link's first two attempts were met with failure when he flubbed a quick transition from a low to a very high note. He messed up the third attempt when, anticipating the transition he had tripped over, attempted the transition in the wrong place much earlier in the piece. When the fourth came about, his frustration saw to it that he completely forgot about the tricky transition and trailed the emeralds by about two notes. He had to pause so that he could memorize the pattern again.

Then he played. The piece, in its entirety, was a little more serious. It started with a low melody and, at the transition that Link had kept making a mistake on, maintained that somber feel just through the length of the higher notes he had to play. The piece ended with a repeat of part of the low melody at the beginning, and then it started over. Link played it twice more, and he noticed that a couple of the notes had varied from before, forcing him to catch the odd notes. He did not stop until the end of the third play.

And he only stopped because the floor began to shake. His eyes refocused themselves on the wall ahead of him just in time to see the blue particles fade from the wall. He widened his stance to keep from falling and called out, "Irleen, what's going on!?"

"What?" Irleen asked.

"The island's shaking!" Link quickly glanced over at Layna just to make sure he was not the only one feeling the quake. Layna had tensed, knees bent as if to spring at the first sign of trouble with one of her throwing blades held between two fingers.

Then the shaking stopped, and the room returned to its original lighting. However, Link noticed that the blue particles were absent from their surroundings except for the raining particles on the columns. Link glanced around only to see that the technoworks had hardly been disturbed. He remembered Leynne mentioning an earthquake at the same moment the Sky Lines were supposed to have disappeared and asked, "So… did we do it?"

"I think that did it," Irleen agreed. "We should…"

Link noticed her staring at the wall. "What is it?"

"There's… something in one of the above rooms," she responded, her voice sounding a little worried. "Inside the technoworks."

Link glanced around as if to find an answer. Then he suggested, "Maybe… the technoworks sees the Sorian airman's body?"

"Necrosis wouldn't let the technoworks see that. There's something inside the technoworks' structure itself."

He shrugged. "Okay, let's go take a look, then."

…

After ensuring that the technoworks was functioning correctly, Link and Layna walked side-by-side behind Irleen as she appeared to follow something in the technoworks that they could not see. From the junction, they took the ladder to the floor above and eventually found themselves standing in the middle of the floor of the barracks they had located earlier. Or, more accurately, just off-center the middle of the room. A solid circle of white light occupied the middle of the floor in a space that they had not noticed had been brushed free of debris. Link and Layna puzzled at it for a moment.

The moment ended when Irleen said, "Oh, my…" Her voice sounded shocked, and Link would have asked her about it if she had not next told him, "Link, take out the harmonica."

"What for?" Link asked, already digging into his pocket.

"Just do it. Play that single note, the one the technoworks respond to." Link did just as she asked, holding the note as long as he could.

This caused something unexpected to happen. Specks of light floated up from the circle and appeared to build something from the floor up. The process was fast, and Link recognized the pair of Sorian trousers he had left behind in the junction along with a pair of bare feet. He had to pause when the image was built to the waist. He continued, and the image completed a bare-chested Sorian male probably in his late twenties. His plumage was bright red with a dull layer of pink closer to his scalp, and the feathers on his left wing were the same white color as the wing Link had found with the crates. In his hands was the same blues harp that Link held, cupped between his frozen fingers as if he had been playing it when he stopped in time.

Link glanced at Irleen and asked, "Is this… who I think it is?"

"Airman Kaheel," Irleen replied. "He must have left this message. Check the harmonica; there should be a way to view it."

Link found that a single emerald on the blues harp pulsed and decided to play the corresponding note.

The image of Airman Kaheel shifted and lowered the blues harp from his mouth. When he opened his eyes, Link saw a clear, sad expression in them which hinted that whatever message he had left was not going to be very pleasant.

He seemed to hesitate, toeing the ground before he spoke. "Kàhīla táwa," he said. "Rapùcwáh Ħōntìnico natī Kòrōla Hōwàl kīnù tōkwi táwa. Káááá… Kàtlácīn kátàh ō."

"Sh," Irleen quickly hissed at Link just as he opened his mouth to ask something. He originally planned to ask why he was spontaneously hearing Sorian while still having her translator gem in his pocket, but he decided against it as he watched the image's eyes wander the ground in a moment of silence.

Airman Kaheel gave a heavy sigh. "Cìpákwáhtū nūkaħátinat. Kil Tānòcokīn nùtci, ōtàn lì ta. Àt kátlicá ahà ō. Ìp ikòn táp káħòtuhan pòt. Káhì Còntáwih Ħōntáwà tòkwá kátànut, ħàl kàtcītu hàtòt. Káhát kácīt atác, tiháħin kálīh pa." The airman paused and took in a deep breath. Link could tell that he was about to go into a long talk; he had seen that sort of look from superiors a number of times when they had started to lecture him and Line.

"Rapùcwáh Ħōntìnico Cònhu Pakànùnico cū tìpàħátinat cìt kōnwi hì Hálta Pálīt klánōtanhu pòt. Pāpìna, Kōtoħa… Tùpìna… Lākán cū tlārùkatìnat. Káhì nacwī Hīlīħán itì rùkatìnat. Klātopīc Cūnìnincùha ħōnrotà ħitácatìnat… Kòrōla Hōwàl kīt hì 'Tlānapītix' ħa witat. Káhì ħōnnolòk kárōl.

"Hòt ħakáwìh itì. Rītò àt Hīlīħán tuwìk kīc ìt Cūnìnincùha àt ħōnrotà cū káħàħátinat… Káħàħátinat, àt káħàħátinhu cìt kácīt. Cìt kákùwàhu, Tānòcokīn Toròlcita ħacàtī kàtùtàri ħàhu. Luc ònwi tùħu káħanuli, ħàl kil Toròlcita towul tlāħitùn, Hīlīħán pat tūri ħarì. Luc… kīt hì káwit nòt. Ħōtnùl ō.

"Tiháħin kálīh, àt kápáħō Hīlīħán ròl ta ħanùl kácīh. Ìp nòt lòn kápà ahà. Hòt itì káħanuli ta ō." Airman Kaheel, now wearing a determined scowl, brought his blues harp back to his mouth and played a pair of notes. The image disappeared back into the circle on the floor, and the room fell silent.

Link waited for a moment before asking Irleen, "Was that… a last message from him?"

"Yes," Irleen replied in a grim tone. "And I think I understand what happened. He told the Stalarmors how to disable the Sky Lines to buy time for the Hylians here. Then… he-he said that there was one last thing he could do, something he wouldn't regret. I think he deliberately used his trousers to block the drain outside so that one of the Stalarmors would be trapped below. And the Stalarmors in the control rooms… they weren't busting the place apart because they were trying to figure out how to free their friend."

"He tried until the end," Link reasoned.

Irleen bobbed up and down. "He had no idea how much help he was to us. Link, when we get back to my people… we have to bring someone here so that we can extract this message."

Link nodded and said in a quieter voice, "Okay. Do you…?"

"No, I'm fine. We need to get going. There may be more Sorians that we can help."

…

The trio emerged from the waterfall into an almost black night. The last traces of the sun had disappeared past the horizon, leaving only a half-moon shining down on them from above. In lieu of trying to climb down the cliff, Link decided on a path northwest around the waterfall, where he eventually hoped to find the edge of the island. Layna disappeared into the trees the moment Link had started around the side of the cliff nearby, and he simply took this as Layna employing her usual methods. He believed, after all, that if someone other than the Island Symphony responded to his signal, he would have a substantially unpleasant surprise waiting. Still, even after locating the western edge of the island, he decided that he should also show that he was ready for a fight if necessary.

The edge he found would have been impossible to notice without the nearby grass reflecting moonlight. It had not occurred to him that he might simply fall over if he wandered around in the dark until he realized that the grass had ended and immediately stopped. He did not have much in the way of means to tell where the edge was, so, with some lighting assistance from Irleen, he loaded a shell into his flare gun and sent a bright green flash, a signal of safety, sailing into the darkness beyond the grass. The flare was quite disorienting, and Link backed closer to the trees as his eyes tried to cope with the sudden onset of light. Then, he drew his bow as well as an arrow and sat on the ground. He did not know how long it would take for the Island Symphony to respond, but the agreement was to wait about an hour (which he would have to guess at since he did not have a watch) before he fired another flare to try attracting their attention again. If the second attempt failed, Link and Leynne agreed that the Island Symphony would chance docking and wait to see if Link returned. Meanwhile, Link had to be on the lookout in case the Moon's Shadow happened to see him signal. He doubted the crew would recognize it, but it was not the crew Link feared. Captain North was less likely to be fooled by their methods.

No one knew how long they had been waiting. Link began to pray that he would not have to sleep in the middle of the forest, as he was sure those clicking noises he occasionally heard in the distance were some of Sagacity Island's nocturnal hunters.

"So," Irleen said, the sudden onset of her voice causing Link to start. "I'm… guessing you'd like to know what that message was all about."

"Oh, so you do know I couldn't understand it," Link said.

"The gem only translates me. Even if we met another Sorian, we would need another gem meant to translate for him only."

Link nodded his understanding. "I guess… he was miserable because of the Stalarmors?"

"No, I think it was a little deeper than that. I think Kaheel was miserable because of himself. Captain Koroul… The captain told him that… that those that died when the Smiling Gunner first attacked were lucky. Kaheel was beginning to understand him, and I think I get the idea, too."

He twisted his face into a confused frown, although this was barely visible to Irleen since she was hovering about an arm's length away from him. "What is the idea?" he asked.

"Dead, the crew of the Horizon's Eye is useless to Cunimincus. But alive… Being alive was torture to Kaheel. Cunimincus used him and probably others to attack the technoworks out here. He turned them against the creations of their ancestors. Do you know what that does to a person, Link?"

Link tried to imagine being in Kaheel's place. Kaheel had been taught to control the technoworks so that he could use them, that was how Link understood things. But to have that training turned against him and other Sorians… Link had a little trouble understanding the nightmarish part. So he thought how his own training, his knowledge of airships, could be turned against him. And he thought what it would be like if pirates had taken over his ship. If he had not died in the beginning, they could use him to continue to sail the ship. It would lead the ship to a service of harassing other vessels with Link forever held at death's blade and bidding. But, in the end, Link decided he just could not sympathize. Maybe it was just his lack of experience, but Link assumed that, if someone were to try using him to battle other, innocent ships, Link would retaliate until he either took the ship or died in the process.

So Link just shook his head. "I wish I could," he told Irleen. "He looked like he'd been through a lot."

"Probably about as much as us," she said. "Captured, stuffed into a box… having a wing removed, and essentially being used as a tool to the eventual fall of this island. If he hadn't trapped that Stalarmor at the lowest level, it's likely that they would have bashed the technoworks into enough pieces that it wouldn't be able to hold off necrosis. I… I wish he could've survived long enough for us to save him."

Link sighed, not sure what he should say next. This talk about Airman Kaheel was beginning to make him depressed, so he opted for a change in subject and asked, "So, where do we go next?"

"Huh? Oh. Uh…" Irleen turned in different directions as she thought. "I'm sure I said it before, but I believe the larger islands are the ones that the Sky Lines can be controlled from. So from here, the next island we should explore should be about the same size as this one."

"That should beeeee… Might Island," Link replied. "Do you think, if we did restore the nearby Sky Lines, that one will take us there?"

"Realistically, I wouldn't count on it."

Link nodded. "It would be nice, though. From here, we're probably looking at over a week to get there."

"Well, at least your crew likes you."

He offered himself a sarcastic chuckle. "Yeah, the problem is they might hate each other."

Irleen paused before asking, "How long have we been waiting?"

Link frowned and glanced at the edge of the island. "I'm not sure. Think I should fire another one?"

"Hang on," Irleen told him. Then she rose straight up into the air above the treetops, far enough that Link lost her among the stars. She returned half a minute later, although she had to fly back to the edge of the island to find him. "There's a ship slowly rising further along the edge. And it has lights on."

Link rose to his feet and nocked the arrow he held. Although he had ordered that the lights be turned on once he signaled, Link did not dare discount the possibility of it being any other ship. "Was it the Symphony?"

"I couldn't tell; it's too dark."

"Which way?"

"Follow me."

Link nodded. "Keep near the trees; I really don't wanna fall off."

"I know," she replied in an irritated tone.

She led him through the trees, staying near enough to the edge that both of them could see out into the open sky. In a few minutes, Link spotted a lit form in the open air. The vessel had put distance between itself and the shore, but the facts that the hull was parallel to the shore and the bow pointed almost due south told Link that the ship was examining the shore; any other vessel here probably would have been pointing north toward Timbre Island. The lighting along the bulwark was too inadequate for Link to see much of the ship.

Then, he discovered as he got as close to the ship as possible that it was indeed the Island Symphony, her identity given away by the reflection of crew-held lanterns off the oddly arranged sails. Link stowed his bow and loaded his flare gun with another green shell. He fired it at an angle away from the ship but at level so that they might see where it had come from. To his confusion, someone fired a similar flare from the deck before the ship turned to approach.

Moments later, Link grasped Lwamm's hand and was pulled onto the port, forward cargo hatch. Irleen fluttered in behind him, and, when Link turned back to the island to call Layna aboard, he was startled by the fact that she already stood behind him. He gestured her to follow as he went up to the weather deck, leaving Lwamm to close the hatch.

On the deck, the first person he met was Dubbl. She saluted (using the wrong hand) and said, "You hafe letu'ned, Kyabtin."

Link, taking this as a form of "welcome back" from the Gelto, dismissed her salute. "Dubbl, is Leynne on-deck?"

She nodded. "Yes, Kyabtin. And we not fought."

He gave a slow nod, not having considered the possibility before he had left. He turned and indicated Layna with a finger. "Tell Layna that she can go get some rest now. She deserves it. I'm going to speak with Leynne."

"Yes, Kyabtin," she replied.

Link left the Gelto alone and stepped onto the forecastle. He was mildly surprised to see that Gold was still on the wheel while Leynne stood further toward the bow, appearing to ponder the stars above.

Gold glanced at him and called to Leynne, "Cap'n on deck."

Leynne looked at Link and said, "Welcome back."

"Thanks," Link replied as he took two steps toward him. "Where'd that other flare come from?"

Leynne turned to reveal what almost looked like a holster on his right hip. "Biluf improvised anotheh flah gun foh us to use," he explained. "She used a few materials from ouh supplies to put togetheh a bahrel and a stock, and she used whateveh chemicals she had left to make at least one set of shells. Dholit tells me that, if we can get heh moh supplies at the next island, she can make moh shells. And, if we'h going to be communicating like this, we may need a lot. I figuh that we can treat most of the signals from the ship as meaning the same as those that come from you, but that's something we can figuh out lateh."

Link nodded. "I like it; remind me at the next stop."

"Speaking of which. Wheh will we be going next?"

"Right. I need you to quickly plot a course to Might Island. How long do you think we can last on our current rations?"

Leynne scrunched his face as he thought. "It may be a stretch, but I imagine we might be able to last a couple weeks; we've really been consuming less than what we put in."

Link indicated for Leynne to follow him. "Mister Gold, take us around the island; we'll be heading northeast from here."

"Aye aye, Cap'n," Gold said as he started turning the wheel.

"So what happened?" Leynne asked when he and Link reached the weather deck. "You've been gone foh houhs."

"There was a bit of navigating to do," Link said. "First we had to find an opening to the technoworks, then we had to find our way through them. Cunimincus' sailors didn't help things."

"Sounds bad."

"Living skeletons coated in iron," Irleen spoke up, poking out around Link's left ear. "Add to that the fact that they wore armor, and things got a little ugly."

"We thi… nk…" Link trailed off when he noticed large clumps of dirt in the middle of the deck. He stopped and pointed. "What's all that?"

"Oh, that?" Leynne asked. "Well, apparently, theh's a cehtain hazahd to hiding undehneath an island. It was probably oveh an houh ago, but stuff just suddenly fell from the undehside."

"I bet that fell off when we were trying to put the Sky Lines back," Irleen said. "Link said he felt the island shake."

Link gave a gentle nod and started walking again. "We'll worry about cleaning all that off later. How are you doing? It must be after midnight."

"Not quite, I think," Leynne replied as he followed. "But I was hoping you'd be back at a decent time."

"I just need you to plot our new course, then I'll let you get to sleep."

"No objections heh," Leynne said as he suppressed a yawn. "I suppose I can always sleep in once we'h out to… What would you call it up heh? Out to sky? Out to aih?"

Link shrugged. "I think we usually just say 'out'."

"Simple, though not quite the inventive colloquial I'd imagined."

Link smiled as he opened his cabin door. "You said we have enough supplies for a couple weeks?"

Leynne paused as he watched Link move over to the chart on the table and tug the overhead light on before closing the cabin door. "I've been keeping an eye on ouh supplies since ouh frantic escape to Thicket Island. I've done the arithmetic in my head. In fact, I tend to think we'h a little oveh-stocked, seeing as how small the crew is."

"Well, we're gonna have to test that," Link replied as he watched Leynne set to work on the table. "Might Island is gonna be a long trip."

"I can see what you mean, moh than twice the distance of any of ouh previous jouhneys." He paused as he measured a few things out. "Assuming this map is to-scale."

"Any problems while we were gone?"

Leynne scrunched his face. "Nothing in pahticulah," he responded after some thought. "I think Biluf threatened to bust Sello's skull open at one point, but that was just because she caught him swiping some of heh chemical supplies. Helo told me that the Goron food souhce is a little low, but he took some of the rocks that hit the deck, so they might be all right foh now. Oh, we did spot a couple of ships while we waited."

"A couple?" Link asked, looking a little concerned while Irleen popped out from under his hat.

"Cale and Twali saw one each. They didn't seem interested in us, though. Neither made contact. I don't know if eitheh of them weh the Moon's Shadow, but the lack of shackles on us seems to say that it wasn't very likely."

Link nodded. "Dubbl says you two didn't fight this time."

"Actually, I'd ratheh say we ignohed each otheh, but it wohked out foh the best. Though, I doubt if she still likes me giving heh ohdehs."

"Hopefully, it won't last for much longer," Link said. Then he grinned and added, "This next trip out should give you two plenty of time to ignore each other."

Leynne chuckled. "I've got ouh new couhse."

Link nodded. "Okay. Go ahead and get the course to Gold. Then get some sleep. Maybe arrange to have someone wake you tomorrow."

"Of couhse," Leynne told him. "Will you be going right to sleep?"

"With as long a day as we've had?" Irleen finally spoke up as she settled into her apartment above Link's bed.

After casting her humored look, he shook his head and said, "I might stay up for a bit, but yeah, I'll be going to bed soon myself."

"See you in the mohning then," Leynne said as he walked to the door. He paused after opening it and added, "If it isn't already."

Link waited for the door to shut before he moved over to his footlocker and started removing his gear. "Some day, huh?" he asked Irleen.

"I've been on some emotional rides before," she answered, "but today… I don't know. I can't really say it's the worst day I've ever had, but it definitely ranks somewhere in the top five. I feel miserable, and I can't really say why anymore."

"I don't blame you," Link said. "I can't tell what exhausted me more: all the fighting or all the stuff we learned about what's happened since the Sky Lines disappeared."

"I'm never gonna get that word out of my vocabulary. When I get back home, people are gonna wonder what I'm talking about when I say 'Sky Lines'." She then fluttered out of the bed and into Link's view. "You know, it's just occurred to me that not once, in everything Airman Kaheel had said, did he ever mention the fact that he was missing a wing."

Link closed the footlocker after dropping his boomerang in. "I guess… when you're slowly dying and seeing other people's worlds about to fall apart, missing a limb is the last thing he was thinking about. I hope the other Sorians out here are just as good at sabotaging Cunimincus."

"Yeah…"

Link removed his tunic and cap and left them on the footlocker before he moved over to his desk and sat down. He opened his journal, but he just could not decide on what he wanted to write in it first. For what felt like almost an hour, he sat under the dim light of his cabin's lone bulb and tried to find the words he wanted to use to remember the day's treasure trove of information. In addition, he felt that he should memorialize Airman Kaheel in some way. Irleen's obsessing over his efforts made him feel like he should at least acknowledge that their success in the Sagacity Technoworks was partially his doing. Still, he was not sure how he should write it out. Between the complexities of the day and his own exhaustion, he began to feel that the task of filling out his journal was too tedious and difficult.

He jerked out of a drowsy slump when someone knocked on his cabin door some time later. After blinking the sleepiness out of his eyes, he called to the knocker, "Come in."

The door opened, and Dubbl leaned in with her hand still on the knob. "I solly, Kyabtin. I woke?"

Link shook his head. "No, it's all right. Do you need something?"

"I zink you should see somezing," she told him. Link's curiosity at her calm voice shoved aside his fatigue, and he stood up and followed her onto the deck.

The first thing he noticed after stepping outside was lights off the starboard bow, the southern edge of Sagacity Island. However, Dubbl turned to port and made him follow her onto the quarterdeck. Link noticed that there were no lights in this area, whether by design or if they had just been turned off, he really couldn't tell. She held up an arm to indicate the empty air off to port.

It was difficult to see at first because there was still ambient light from the deck below. But he saw it after his eyes had finished adjusting.

A Sky Line. In the blackest of night was the best time to see its luminescent body of particles sparkle brighter than the stars, its huge form narrow from the distance but still quite visible. He rested his hands on the bulwark and leaned forward as if to get a better look. The sight of it made him want to cry in relief and shout in triumph at the same time. He did feel tears well up, but that might have just been the breeze drying out his eyes.

After what felt like a lifetime, Link stood up straight and turned to Dubbl. "Thanks for showing me," he said.

"You' welcome," Dubbl replied with a nod.

Link returned to his cabin soon after and sat back down at his desk. It was only for a moment to write a single line in his journal before he went to bed.

~~Day 50 (Command, Day 13)

~~In memory of Airman Kaheel of the Horizon's Eye, I report that the Sky Lines around Sagacity Island are back.