I'm visiting Michigan for a few days and won't be able to update until I get back. Enjoy this short chapter in the meantime.

Kronya felt validated that her theory had been right. However, it made the situation complicated.

On the one hand, Link was a weapon capable of ending Calamity Ganon. And ending Calamity Ganon was priority one. The real question was what would happen afterwards.

"So, can you tell me a little bit about this 'Hylia'?" she asked Link as the twenty-eight adventurers made their way down the mountain path that led off the Plateau. The path was in disrepair, but it was still useable, thankfully.

"I...don't think so, no," Link said. "Are you religious?"

"Haven't found one I'm interested in," Kronya answered. "But if your princess is the mortal incarnation of Hylia, I want to know what we can expect of Hylia."

More specifically, she wanted to know if Hylia would be an enemy to the Agarthans.

"I should know this, but...I'm the wrong person to ask right now," Link told her.

"Right," Kronya said.

Claude cut into the conversation. "How do you feel about being a goddess's chosen hero?"

"I don't really know how I should feel," Link admitted. "I'll admit, it's daunting. But there's a kind of comfort to it. I know what my purpose is in life now. I don't have to spend my entire life searching for it."

"Hm. I can see that," Claude said.

Kronya thought about what Link had said. She knew what her purpose in life was from a young age; it was to serve the Agarthans as a master assassin. She had been trained for it since she was nine years old.

Knowledge of her purpose in life somehow didn't comfort her the way it did Link.

It was probably because of Calamity Ganon, she reasoned. With something like Calamity Ganon nearby, she would rather be a killer of nightmarish monsters than a killer of primitives.

Speaking of primitives, there was a band of them going up the mountain trail. "Hello there!" one called.

Link went to greet them. "Hello. How are you?"

"As well as may be," the leader commented. "We were just on our way up to the Great Plateau to search for something."

"And what might that be?" Link asked.

"Why, the Hero of Hyrule and his companions, of course," the traveler said darkly, and he and his fellows pulled out weapons. Assassins. "For the glory of Ganon, the Yiga Clan will slay you!"

Kronya reacted quickly, drawing her sword and deflecting a blow from a sickle-shaped knife. Elsewhere in the battle, Link had managed to cut one assassin down, and a second one had been felled by Annette's Fire magic.

The assassin facing Kronya was skilled. So was she, but the sword she was wielding was big and cumbersome. Nothing like her athame.

She did her best to keep up with her opponent anyway, but it was clear she didn't have the advantage. She blocked blows until—argh!

Pain shot through her as the assassin's sickle pierced her hand. Reflexively, she dropped her sword, and the assassin kicked it away.

She tried kicking him, but he dodged easily and she fell to the ground. "Too easy," he said and made to cut her throat.

However, just in the nick of time, an arrow hit the assassin in the head, killing him. "Are you all right?" Ashe asked her.

No. No, she was not all right. She had been defeated by that pathetic worm, and had to be saved by an inferior being.

As Mercedes healed the hole in her hand, her mind instinctively rejected responsibility. It wasn't her fault. She just had a weapon she couldn't properly use! She hadn't been defeated fairly by that worm.

She wasn't weak. She wasn't pathetic. She wasn't inferior.

She wasn't!

Link and the others had managed to kill most of the other assassins. One had a half-crushed head from Edelgard's hammer, three more had sword wounds, three had been killed by magic, and one had had his neck broken by Dimitri. Somehow none of her allies had been seriously wounded, though several of them had minor injuries.

The two remaining assassins seemed to realize their attack had failed, and decided to flee. "You may have bested us here, but mark my words, the Yiga Clan will claim your lives," one of them said. The other threw down a smoke bomb, and when the smoke cleared, the assassins were gone.

"Who were those guys?" Hilda asked.

"Questions upon questions," Hubert mused.

"Astor? You were right," Master Kohga admitted.

Astor regarded him. "What went wrong?"

"I sent some of my men to the Plateau to investigate your prophecy. You were right; the Hero's alive, and he's got pals. They tried jumping the Hero, and most of 'em got killed."

"I told you to send your best," Astor said.

"I know, I know. Next time, all right? I'll send my top Blademasters," Kohga promised.

"No need," Astor told him. "I expected your failure, and prepared a backup plan." He clasped his hands and smirked.

"Lady Rhea? It's dinner time," Cyril said after knocking on the door.

Rhea briefly considered her options. She could, theoretically, just ask Cyril to bring them food and have the house leaders continue telling their story. After all, it was important to the future of Fodlan. But on the other hand, Zelda and Link were honored guests, and Link had graciously offered to help cook for them. It would be extremely rude to not accept the offered meal, and this was a diplomatic meeting of sorts.

And Link was a truly magnificent chef.

"We will be at the Dining Hall in ten minutes," she informed Cyril.

It wouldn't do to be a poor host.