Chapter 2: A Warm Welcome

"WHAT THE DEUCE?!"

Tetra leapt back with the yell, bristling. Bleak hovered over and peered into the gap.

"Oh, that's a deathfall," he said mildly.

"Which is...?!"

"It's a place where dead people fall."

"Well—I mean, I can see that!"

"Why did you ask then?"

"What's the point of it?! Is that sorta thing normal around here, too?!"

"Well, the Queen's sense of décor is like freedom of speech. No one gets it. I think her style is modeled around the 'unusual and macabre'." Bleak thought for a moment. "Or maybe she just burned a couple of her detractors alive. At least they died together, right?"

Tetra made the effort to not look into any more gaps from that point on.

"Speaking of death..." Bleak spoke up as they passed underneath an arch, "Did you want to tune into the execution? It's close to starting, or already has. I know you're not from here but you've got to know that Hearthstone is famous for its means of disposing criminals."

"That sounds inviting," Tetra cracked.

"Not for today. The Queen always decides how executions will go, but she's out of the capital right now. King Hearth, on the other wing, always sort of...sits there. No matter what's happening. And he usually chooses a quick method, like a beheading or firing squad. People say he lacks the creative tact the Queen does."

"Oh, unreal...the more about this place I hear, honestly...who are they executing, then?"

"No clue. He's some bad guy." Bleak said vexingly. "Like, sold-his-daughters-into-slavery-for-his-own-protection, bad. A lot of people were saying he doesn't deserve a quick death. I agree one hundred percent. But why ask? You didn't think it was someone you knew, did you?"

"I don't know what to think now," Tetra admitted, folding her arms behind her head. "There's way too much stuff going on..."

"Oh, like in your mind? I bet. You're stronger than I am. If I were lost and confused, I'd just lie down, go to sleep, and maybe cry a bit. If you don't want to do that, you can just stay away from the pavilion. That's where the excution is."

"Anything else I need to know?"

"I'm not sure how they do things where you come from. But here, if you aren't present at an execution, the rule is that you had better be at home until the proceedings are over," Bleak said. "Serving justice to criminals is a big part of Hearthstone's cultural pride. Most people go. I would say all, really, all several thousand of them."

She almost staggered over her own feet, shocked. That's alotta people...in just a single area of this whole place? As soon as I find Link, we've got to figure out where the heck we are!

Bleak had suddenly gone quiet, flapping his wings languidly.

"Yeah...it's actually pretty taboo if you don't go to the executions here," he said. "Tetra...if you don't go, make sure no one sees you wandering around, alright? Just hide somewhere until it's over."

"Oh, bet on it," Tetra said. She really didn't like the few options she had at the moment.

I can't say I want to see whatever freakshow is going on. Cultural pride...as if. I guess that's another thing that tells me what sort of place this is.

But...if Link is around here...oh goddesses, would I really find him in that crowd?

She brought a hand to her mouth, blankly watching the cobblestones pass underneath her feet.

There's no way he'd go see something like that if he had the choice. No way. But what if he ended up in a worst spot than I did and was forced to go, or something...?

That was it. She was going to cut the figurative dead weight and take her risks. She glanced over at Bleak, who was now going on about the infrastructure of the capital city, and began to casually sidle away...

"…five sides, it is, and all five are high rising walls made of a mix of marble and blood-stone impossible to scale by hand. The four vertexes of the city are occupied by gates, which I'm sure you're familiar with at least one of them, while the northern most point of the capital—where we are now—is the space reserved for the castle and the gardens. The center of the capital is home to the pavilion and clock tower, would you believe the entire city was built around its center? It's thought the first King Hearth created the urban plan and the pentagonal layout, but that's yet another thing from the past that's up for debate, oh by the way Tetra, have you heard the legend of…"


Tetra was running as fast as she could go, and rather blindly at that. She followed the natural curves and dips of the battlement roads in what she hoped was generally a straight path ahead.

Then, there was one large ridge in particular she climbed and when she got to the top, she stopped, gaping...

The capital city sprawled out before her in a world of angled streets, red-roofed architecture, and most obvious of all, the bussiness of day-to-day hawking. The clock tower sat in the midst of it all, touching the sky as easily as the Tree of the Garden did.

Speaking of trees, they still had presence in a city made of stone. They were plotted by the dozens in countless nooks and crannies along the avenues. Their leaves were a shockingly cheerful green and their branches bore countless clusters of little cerise fruit. At the moment however, these trees offered shade to streets were bare.

Vendors were absent from their stands, most of which had been hastily wiped clean. Closed signs were mounted on locked doors of many shops. Carriages sat abandoned, still hitched to horses that idly dozed or daydreamed in the morning sun. Even mundane personal items that had slipped from careless hands or jostled pockets were littered about the streets, though there was no fool who'd dare mislay their purse or money satchel; it certainty looked like everyone had dropped what they were doing.

For a moment Tetra just swept her eyes back and forth across the horizon, astounded. A slight sweat had formed at her brow.

Oh...goddesses...it's going to take forever to find him at this rate.

Still, this is kind of amazing. I've never seen a settlement this big before.

She perked and listened closely for a moment, suddenly picking up a low, methodical droning. She kept trekking forth, soon realizing that it was someone's voice being magnified. It came straight from the direction of the clock tower.

Then, as she was clambering up the castle ramparts, she noticed something remarkable. The Eyes were beginning to leave the sky, disappearing in twos or threes. Their pupil would wink out, making them resemble real stars for a moment before their light would 'snap' instantly out of existence.

When the very last Eye above her head vanished, and as the black sky gradually faded to a soft morning blue, Tetra finally breathed.

Oh, geez...thank goodness. This is what a real sky is supposed to look like...

Relieved, she took a step forward right into thin air. Whoops! She'd forgotten where she was.

"AGGHHHH!"

Tetra fell far, far down, landing headfirst in a cluster of bushes. Every bad word she knew came out at that moment.


Meanwhile...


"...then, you've got some saying they don't think walking skeletons exist. They're right! I mean, who would think skeleton folk walk and talk like normal people, y'know? You can't be dead and alive at the same time. The whole concept contradicts itself!"

The wind howled lowly, carrying a sudden chill with it. Bleak shivered.

"Oooh! Where did that draft come from?"

When silence answered him again the fairy did a double take, then looked around in confusion.

"Uh...Tetra?"

He slowly realized he'd gone off on another tangent and had been traveling by himself for a good few minutes. His wings sagged. He had been through this before. He just knew there was no point in looking for Tetra and that she was long gone.

"Oh...why am I like this?" Bleak turned with a sigh, hovering like a ghost back to the gardens. "Oh, well…"


The Capital City, Hearthstone

"This insurrection of injustice and chaos has grown far too rampant. The Emperor likely weeps where he lies his head at night…"

"Heh heh!" Tetra chuckled, peering out from around a corner store. "That sounds more like a personal problem to me..."

As she stalked through the empty streets she still kept her head on a swivel, looking for the slightest of movements and being mindful of blind spots. She was almost certain she was the only one out and about, but strong feelings of self-consciousness prickled uneasily under her skin.

"Today, we will send yet another message of order. Real order, and not the false likenesses of it sewn by those who have left the shadow of the rising son..."

Tetra followed the speaker's voice the best she could. The narrow, cobblestoned alley roads and buildings began to run together in an endless expanse of sepia. She began to feel closed in, began to feel paranoid as if all walls around her had eyes.

"This is a claim of restitution. For too many years have we of the capital been forced to live looking over our shoulders, wondering. Wondering who will next be violated by wickedness, or worse, who of our loved ones will fall victim. And for what? For the pettiest of practices and the most ludicrous capers of debauchery."

The voice was now booming, clearer than ever. Tetra leaned around the corner.

Ahead of her, guarding one of the many archways into the alleys, were two Hearthian soldiers. Past them was the pavilion and within it was the entire population of Hearthstone, the capital city...the entire population minus two or a few, rather.

"It's sickening...utterly sickening..."

Tetra was at an entrance that granted her a fair vantage point. She slipped over to the opposite corner for an even better look. There was a large stage set up at the foot of the clock tower. On it stood a tall, unwavering figure proudly adorned with guard regalia. It was a bird man, one who had a pair of the sharpest eyes Tetra had ever seen, and it was his thundering voice that was commanding the attention of the masses.

There was a throne on the stage. At first glance Tetra had a moment of confusion where she thought it was empty, then realized a sad, peculiar truth...the reigning king had the presence of moldy bread.

He was a round, doughy little specimen with beady black eyes like a rat's, nearly swallowed up in the massive cushion of his throne. His stout legs never had a chance of reaching the ground and his arms strained to come up to the armrests. His red and gold robes were thick and oversized, making him look more like an infant swathed up in a blanket rather than a regal patriarch. And his golden, ruby encrusted crown completed the entire depressing ensemble instead of being the only decent exception. It was tiny, moreso resembling a tiara, and sat slightly askew on the king's balding head.

Tetra felt pity and disgust just looking in his direction. He couldn't have given off a feebler air if he were a corpse in a casket.

Shaking her head, she quietly wandered forward a little more. There were pair of stone pillars erected on stage. A man was bound in between them by shackles attached to his wrists. He was held firmly upright, pulled so taut between the pillars that his arms strained from their sockets. He also sat in a large, shallow basin made of granite.

They hadn't covered his mouth but he seemed far too scared to even think about speaking out. His clothes clung tight to his body, darkened and sodden with an unknown liquid. A Goron stood off to the side holding a particular pair of items in hand.

Something in her sank. Tetra almost turned away, but her morbid curiosity kept her frozen in place. She had a feeling it wasn't going to be a beheading today.


Hearthstone Pavilion

"...and so, that leads me into this."

Major Skyron Bellows, Rito and one of the highest ranking guards of the land, spoke ruthlessly with truth and tact. All audiences he claimed with his voice were the same—rapt and still, like a field of stony, unblinking grass.

"Each and every one of us can reflect upon our own lives and easily identify poor happenstance. Every one of us. We, the people of this empirical society, are akin to well-made rugs laid upon the ground. Due to the nature of living itself, there are circumstances that will find and trample us mercilessly. By day, or by night. Sometimes, seemingly, with no reprieve in sight. And we are left...battered and worn, sometimes unable to help wondering when the next stampede of misfortune will tread on us."

The Major glanced off to the wayside, his sharp eyes zeroing in on movement that was out of place. Without drawing attention to his brief pause he continued.

"Yet...what do we do? Most of us do not commit felonious acts even in the harshest seasons of life. We are worldly enough to conceptualize certain consequences, some of which may even draw the Emperor's ire. And we, Hearthstone, know what that is like."

Restlessness began to shake the countless blades of stony grass before him. Major Bellows tilted his head up slightly, catching a ray of sunlight along his beak, and didn't have to wait long for the rustling to settle.

"Yes...thankfully," Major Bellows uttered. "Thankfully, that is not the case this time."

The crowd erupted into a chorus of joyful cheering.

"NO CELEBRATING!"

The Major's bark echoed to every corner of Hearthstone, laying silence as it did.

"....it is a heavenly mercy to us, surely." Major Bellows said tersely. He was beginning to swell and his crown of feathers trembled in rage. He suddenly whipped around on the spot, glaring at the criminal in chains. "But imagine you are a pathetic, groveling, useless man like that fool tied there, and that you try to sell your own children like they are LIVESTOCK to the worst of the worst...for your own thin skin, simply, and nothing more. Now, does that sound tantalizing to anyone else? Hm?"

Major Bellows looked around far and wide, holding his wings out expectantly. The chained man began to weep.

"No one? No one agrees with that? I thought so. But this man here surely did. I won't even call him a father. He merely provided half of what was needed to bring his offspring into existence...pity. Now those young girls are orphans and must live with the fact they never had loving parents that would die for them. A dead mother and a selfish, ignorant father...they never had a chance."

The accused hung his head low, still sobbing, trying to choke out words.

Bellows stared at him with cold, cutting indifference. "Now you sob, now you moan," he droned, waving a wing lazily in the air. He snorted dismissively and turned away. "Utterly pathetic..."

He brandished his beautiful ashen wings with a flourish, though instead of using them he squatted and bound upwards, alighting to the back of the king's throne. He faced the crowd once more, folding his wings behind his back.

"The only reason you shed tears in this kingdom is because you were caught! You would have lived life without regret and without thoughts of your daughters if youhad notbeen CAUGHT! Now you are trapped and humiliated like the filthy rat you are. Keep crying...it just may keep the flames at bay..."

Major Bellows was well known for his philosophy—punishment that fit the crime. It was all but realized why his hostility was dramatically increased even now—he was a widower with a daughter of his own, after all. It in fact had been he who had chosen the method of excution this time, and not King Hearth.

"I'll not keep the masses of eyes waiting...each and every pair is looking at you with scorn and hatred," Bellows spoke calmly, though his words were still sharp and bitter. "So, now. Do you, the accused, have any last words?"

Finally, the criminal managed to sputter, "No, no, no, I'm sorry, please don't do this, I'm begging you!"

His voice had been magically amplified as well; Major Bellows hummed curiously.

"I'm sorry, what?" the Rito asked politely, raising a wing to the side of his head. "I didn't catch that. You might want to beg louder so those at the back have a chance of hearing."

"Please, no no no, oh Ziraj I swear I'm sorry!"

The accused actually got louder on command, which made the crowd roll madly with laughter.

Major Bellows chuckled, dark and rough. "You hear that, Hearthstone? He even dares to bring up the deity of ruse so spoken of by the most shameful race of our empire!"

"Blasphemy!" a shout from the crowd came, followed by screams of agreement.

"True, utterly true. How desperate one gets in their final moments of life..."

The Rito then glanced down, lowly clearing his throat. King Hearth nodded without taking his eyes off the criminal, who was rolling his head around on his shoulders, moaning in utter despair.

"So, Glacier," Major Bellows announced. "Let us begin his trip to oblivion and watch him burn."

The Goron on the stage raised a thumbs up, showing her teeth in a frightening grin. There was never any doubt of how much she loved her job.

She hefted up her flint and steel high enough for the crowd to see, then leisurely began walking towards the accused in the midst of cheers. She started to scrape the flint and steel together, perfectly timing the motion to each passing second; it was like the ticking of a clock counting down to one of the most torturous ways to die.

The accused shook wildly in his bonds, maddened with fear and braying like the most feral of animals. The crowd fed off his despair and became riled. Every inch of him had been doused in a flammable solution and he sat in several inches of it. Some of it splashed out from his struggling but it was like losing a drop or two of water from a lake. One spark was all that was needed.

Glacier was about a yard from him when he suddenly went up in flames, instantly turning into a living pillar of fire. The crowd nearly shook the earth with its crescendo, creating an awful din of noise as it mixed with the accused's wails of horrible agony. As he burned he tried yet to wrench himself free, tearing skin and muscle, causing blood to bubble up around his wrists. But the granite basin and stone pillars locked him tight in his burning torment, which now was nothing more than a show for cheering thousands.

King Hearth stared at the human bonfire, his dark eyes livened by the flames. And several feet above his head, Major Bellows watched the criminal burn with the biggest smile he had ever worn.


Tetra's head pounded. She hadn't breathed in so long. She began reversing slowly, unable to fully process what she was witnessing.

Twitch-twitch!

Then there it came—there went that little electric shock in her head.

Every sound of the world dampened dramatically. An odd feeling suddenly swelled behind her eyes, blurring her sight.

Tetra stood frozen, disassociating as the world reformed in her eyes...


It all became hazy and tinged in blue, like she was peering down through the deepest waters of the ocean. She saw someone, though, someone familiar, standing alone in the murkiness of the world...


It was herself.

She almost fell from how fast she spun, looking up at the nearest roof. There was nothing there.

She let out a breath. The hairs on her neck were shockingly stiff. She didn't know how she knew, but she did. Someone had been watching her at some point and for all she could tell, still was.

An indescribable smell drifted in the air and she covered her nose, turning a bit ill. It was burning flesh. She had to get away from that rotten, visceral smell and knew she would never forget it.


Tetra eventually regressed to dragging her feet, staring wide-eyed at the ground as she went wherever there was ground to walk on. It had been several minutes since she had left the terrible ruckus of the execution and she had traveled further into the tangle of alleyways without direction.

The jubilation from the pavilion had barely lowered. It was because of that and her idly wondering if the man was still burning that she nearly missed the low, thoughtful hum and the mischievous snickering that followed.

Tetra stopped, wearily scanning her surroundings through clouded eyes. "Alright...who's there?"

"Who's where?"

Another snicker. The speaker's voice was sly and raspy, sounding just like the hiss of a snake. Tetra followed it to her right and around a corner. The hissing came once more, leading her further through the walls.

"Now what's wrong, little pixie? It's not like you have this entire world to bear."

There was light blooming from around the next corner. Tetra carefully peered around and discovered a dead end, though a small covered wagon was parked there. A pair of poofy cherry-red cushions rested on the ground in front of it. Hovering above the wagon's bonnet was a small pearly sphere, rotating and glowing iridescently as it emitted spears of white light.

Tetra immediately glanced over her shoulder and down the alley. When she looked around she came nose-to-nose with a fuzzy, grinning face. With a startled shout she leapt back, crashing into the wall.

Her sudden company was a fox with fur the hue and boldness of the rising sun. He stood upright like a human and had it not been for his perked ears, wouldn't have been any taller than her. He was minimally garbed, clothed only in a violet vest and a pair of bone-white breeches. An assortment of rings decorated his fuzzy fingers. Strange ornaments of all shapes and sizes dangled from his neck by crimson strings of twine. He was smiling, but it and his squinting eyes spoke more of trouble than kindness.

Tetra already didn't like him.

"You," she said, pushing off the wall. The hairs on her neck had gone erect once more. "You've been following me, haven't you?"

"It hasn't been for long...I couldn't help but to notice you wandering the maze alone," the fox crooned. "Why aren't you with the rest of your kind?"

She cringed. She couldn't stop images of the execution from flashing through her mind. The fox watched patiently and with interest.

Finally, Tetra said, "I don't belong out there with those nutcases..."

"Ah, now don't blame them…it's the only excitement they get around these parts. To them the entire world's a stage."

"And why aren't you out there? You look like you'd be at home in a freakshow like that."

"Me? Not I," the fox said, turning on the spot and walking towards his wagon. "I can, and prefer, to make just as much of a ruckus on my own. There's much better things for me to be doing...I suppose it's the same for you?"

Tetra didn't answer, too busy staring at his bushy tails. All three of them. He grinned when he noticed her looking.

"Do you like them? I named each one," the fox said, then lifted each as he spoke, "Junior, Fey, and Miss Midnight. I like Miss Midnight the most. She comforts me the most at night."

He cackled and darted behind his wagon. He then peered only his face out, still grinning.

"Ohhhh, you should've seen the look on your cute little face," he simpered. "I could surely tell that this was your first time seeing the pride and prejudices of Hearthstone."

"I...I mean, in all honesty it's like the fifth thing that's happened that I don't exactly get," Tetra said, careful to keep her eyes on him. "The worst, actually."

"Don't pity that pile of ash after what he's done."

The fox slunk out from behind his wagon. A tea set levitated after him. He sat down on a cushion and poured himself a cup.

"Well...I don't, really. It's just...I guess I should say I'm not down to laugh and enjoy anyone getting burnt alive," Tetra said, staring at the hovering teapot.

"Oh, I see," the fox said in concern, though his tone made it hard to tell if he meant it. "Yes, that's understandable."

He motioned to the other cushion. "Wouldn't you like to take a rest for a moment? You look weary...what has someone so little been so busy about? Children your age should be dancing with butterflies and picking flowers..."

"Yeah, no, not me. I need to my Link," Tetra said, then smacked her forehead. "Stupid! I did it again! I mean—"

"Your link? Link to what? Your past? Certain riches? Maybe to a sort of self-discovery? I can agree to the last one."

The fox finally opened his cerise eyes, leering at her.

"Explain, please?" he uttered kindly.

"I'm looking for someone named Link. We ended up separated."

Then, she sighed in frustration and blurted, "Not that—it should have happened in the first place, but that doofus has a knack for finding trouble."

"I've heard that one yet…are you sure it isn't the other way around and that trouble finds him? Hm. Without him, I'm not sure I trust your account on this, little lady…frustration can cloud the senses."

"I'm not frustrated!"

"That's not how I'm reading between the lines. What are you, then?"

Tetra was flustered for a moment, for a rare moment unable to find anything to say.

"Alright, fine, maybe I'm frustrated! And not just at him, it's...partially to myself, too," she admitted scathingly, then lowered her voice and quietly belted out, "ThereIsaidit..."

"Ooooh, I heard all that, I sure did. That sounds more realistic. And so yes, continue?"

He hadn't yet shut his eyes back into a squint. Tetra sighed, already getting the sense he was looking right through her. "Should I, though? I mean, really...what do I have to lose here...?"

"I just suggest you make the practical choice here. You see, I am very old…folk my age tend to know things that plenty others don't. Things like where babies come from. I bet you never knew they're grown and plucked up from the ground like carrots!"

"Oh now that's just stupid, the only way anyone would believe that is if they'd just been born," Tetra said, rolling her eyes. "You're trying to pretty up the fact that you gossip, I bet."

"It passes time!" The fox hissed. "Now are you going to go on or not? Please," he added calmly. "I'll shut my eyes if it makes you more comfortable."

And he did just that. It worked enough for Tetra to follow through with the compulsion to speak.

"Okay…fine," she said impatiently. "We were both fooling around and it's like, fifforty percent of my fault we ended up in trouble, separated or whatever, but HE…HE started it! I'm still blaming him for that! He-He doesn't normally start things! And this time...it looks like it screwed us over bad. I don't even know where the heck I am!"

"Awwww...it sounds to me you ankle biters may have been done dirty…oh, life," the fox sighed through his grinning teeth. "Well! Now that you're in these parts, know one thing—you should stay away from the odd and embrace the norm...at least on the surface."

She grunted, narrowing her eyes. There was something in his tone and the way his words flowed that chaffed her nerves. "I'd love to walk away right now, if that's the case. You're messing with me, aren't you? You've totally seen him."

"I don't know what you mean, who is he?"

Tetra erupted, "LINK! Look, he's around here somewhere, I know it! I don't know how I know it, but I can feel it!"

She nearly went breathless in her hysteria. He chuckled and drained his teacup.

"Whoa, now, little pixie! Ease up on the fire before you explode into a thousand pieces. You've got good sense! Maybe too good. Now pray tell, let's dwell on what this Link fellow looks like…I see many faces in a day, after all. But one moment! I've got to use my cherry."

He then pulled out an actual cherry and placed it between his ears.

Tetra crossed her arms, unamused. "The phrase is use your nut."

"Well, I haven't got any nuts. So there."

"Yeah, neither does the king from what I can tell..." Tetra cracked quietly to herself. He overheard and laughed, doubling over.

"Oooh, yes, to be so short you're very sharp, girl! Let's see, here..."

"He..."

"No, no! No, no. I've got it..."

He took in a deep breath, letting it out. His smile seemed too smug to her.

"Yes. This boy. Who's your friend. Is he perhaps…blonde? One inch shorter than you, maybe, with big eyes and an even bigger stomach? Maybe he's dressed just as oddly as you and I are, though I can't fathom—"

"You saw him!" Tetra screamed, pouncing and seizing the fox by the front of his shirt. "Or you...how long have you been stalking—"

"Now-now-now—"

He sharply prodded her on the forehead with a finger. She let go of him and fell limply against the wall, staring blankly ahead through clouded eyes.

The fox turned around, smoothing his clothes. "Goodness me," he remarked to himself, levitating his cushions and tea set into his wagon. "Any more spice and that one'll burn her own tongue. Least her friend wasn't nearly as problematic…"

He was quite startled when Tetra suddenly spun him around, shoving him so hard against the wall his spine cracked painfully.

"AGH! Oh, god, my back...! Did I not give you a hard enough tap?" he groaned.

"What were you just saying?! What did you do to Link?!"

"Not telling!"

The fox vanished with a little pop. With another pop he reappeared on his wagon, the wheels of which began to spin wildly. He peeled out around her, cackling madly as he roared off.

"See ya, bullhead!" he yelled.

"GET BACK HERE!"

He bent over and smacked his rear at her, sticking his tongue out. Tetra was so angry it literally hurt.

With a scream of pure rage she launched herself forward, careening down the alley after the fox and his wagon. He seemed to be only one thing standing in between her and Link, and she was willing to chase him to every corner of the odd realm she'd found herself in.