The moon reached its midnight zenith, effectively illuminating the entirety of Kakariko Village. Rainbow roofs of straw showed up pale under the night's light while drowning small paths in pools of contrasting darkness. Those were repeatedly dispelled by the constant movement of torches, the people bearing forestalling the spell of sleep that usually stole over Kakariko at this hour. Nearly every adult was awake and moving. The Sheikah were preparing for war.
Many saw to horses that would speed their march, fitting them with light armor and supplies alike. Others divided up food stores, than set portions of everything inside individual haversacks which were in turn handed out to waiting warriors. Still more Sheikah lined up single-file outside the armory, each receiving the full complement of weapons: slightly curved long and short swords, sinuously bladed spears, horned bows and full quivers, and elongated shields bearing the single eye sigil.
Though every Sheikah sported the same chalk white shade of hair, their heights varied as much as any other people. Paya was grateful for that now as she slowly advanced in the armory line. Amid a sea of activity and raised balaclavas, the young Sheikah was optimistic about her chances of remaining unnoticed. Only one pair of eyes worried her in particular, and she had not seen her grandmother since that night's preparations had begun.
Please, Hylia, Paya prayed for the umpteenth time, please let her not see me. Never before in her extremely timid life had Paya attempted to directly disobey the woman who doubled as her elder and grandmother. Then again, she had never felt this way about a man before, either.
The tales, it turned out, were all too true. A perfectly level-headed woman would indeed cast aside all common sense for the mere hope of a man's attention. One week after Link's departure, she was desperate to feel his eyes on her again, to hear him almost say the words she herself had stopped him from uttering. Just thinking of him actually saying them made her heart flutter anew.
Almost as soon as Link left, Paya had berated herself twenty kinds of fool. In the little time he had been in Kakariko - no more than two days - she had managed to be cold, angry, submissive, absent and entirely too forward. What could Link possibly think of her after being tossed about like a bass on a line?
He probably hates me, part of her sobbed before her braver self interceded.
He said - almost said - he wants to be with you. He did. Now he is alone in a world that mostly hates him, enduring hardships while setting out to accomplish the near-impossible. He doesn't hate you. He needs you.
Don't be absurd! her prim and proper self scolded. He is the Hero of Legend reborn! The Champion of Hyrule! He slew armies with naught but his sword! He received council from Grandmother! He knows what he's doing and can do it better without you fawning over his every footstep!
He doesn't remember anything about Hyrule! she protested stubbornly. His friends are gone, slain by a lynel. He needs a guide! I can help him with that!
Fine! she sarcastically conceded. He needs you. How will you find him? All you know is that he's in Zora's Domain! What if he's gone by the time you get there? What if you get lost or slain trying to find him? Do you want that on his conscience?
I'll find him! she answered gallantly. I can track as well as any Sheikah! I know where he's going! As soon as I leave-
- If you leave…
Which brought Paya back to her present dilemma. She was next in line, now, and she nervously approached the extremely muscular smith charged with distributing arms. Like any Sheikah, Paya was familiar with almost all manner of weaponry. Even if Grandmother was looking for her, there was almost no chance of being noticed. The thought did nothing to quell the nervous butterflies swirling about her insides now.
It was her people, Paya decided. As one, they had decided to march to Link's aid. Paya would do the same, albeit in a manner of her choosing. Grandmother was content to pull strings from atop her precious cushions and guide Link. Paya wanted… well, she wasn't sure exactly what she wanted, only that it would be much more personably helpful to Link. Why should he have to be brave alone when someone who cared for him could be with him?
Paya's breath quickened as she accepted the reins of a horse. She was all but free! Grandmother would surely issue a parting address, but what hope did she have of spotting her in a see of masks in the middle of the night? When her children were old enough, Paya would tell them of the night their mother had hoodwinked the great Impa.
"Ahem, Lady Paya? Lady Impa requests your presence."
Paya stopping breathing, an action her hammering heart immediately protested before plummeting to somewhere near her eyes turned to meet Cado's scarred and emotionless visage. The Sheikah captain casually pulled her aside from the otherwise undisturbed flow of warriors. Without another word, Cado turned and began walking. Paya sullenly followed him to and up the wooden stairs she knew all too well.
Cado opened the door only long enough to allow Paya entry, after which he abruptly turned, exited and closed the door behind him. At the far end of the usual long running rug sat Impa. The Sheikah elder said nothing, deigning only to raise one white eyebrow at her granddaughter.
"You could not wait to address your people first?" Paya shouted as she angrily lowered her balaclava. "Keeping your granddaughter tied to her house is more important than saving Hyrule, is it?"
"Nothing is more important than saving Hyrule," Impa answered smoothly while pouring tea into a pair of tiny white cups. "Join me for some tea."
"I don't want tea!" Paya shouted helplessly. "I want to leave! I want to be with Link!"
"Is that why you rejected his advances?" Impa asked before waving aside the rage mottling Paya's face. "I did not spy on you. The boy looked confused after he'd seen you. If he did not have feelings for you at the time, he would not have given a green rupee for what you thought of him. But he was upset, which means he cared, which means you rejected him - as most young women do to retain some pretense at control over their fast-fluttering hearts."
Doing her best to account for and dismiss her grandmother's infuriating logic, Paya pounced on the one nugget that seemed to support her actions.
"So Link does care for me!" she cried triumphantly, stepping forward to witness her grandmother in defeat.
"He did," Impa said in a clipped, practical voice. "He no longer will."
"Because of what I said?" Paya asked incredulously. "No! Link will understand why I rejected him the first time! I'll explain it to him. Unlike you, I have no compunctions about being honest him!"
"It will have nothing to do with you at all," Impa responded in that maddeningly calm tone of hers. "Link has begun to re-learn who he is. It will nearly break him to remember the love he has lost, let alone give place to someone new. What's more, he won't."
"How do you know?" Paya demanded, already discounting her grandmother's words as baseless. Who could Link have possibly loved before the Calamity? Even dry history books would have mentioned something about that! "Have you spoken with him since he left? Or is it something else? Do you have so little faith in my ability to earn a man's love?"
"Girl, this has nothing to do with you and everything with Link," Impa snorted. "You should be thanking me."
"Thanking you?" Paya laughed sardonically. "What were all those years encouragement and wifely practices for? To not chase my heart's desire when he finally entered my life? You want me to thank you for telling me not to seek love?"
"You should thank me," Impa repeated firmly while delicately setting down her teacup, "for saving you the pain of a broken heart. I knew Link when I was your age, Paya, and I can tell you he has loved more deeply than you could ever dream. He could be unearthing the agony of that love even now. Once he does, the feelings you stir in him will be but faint echoes of what he once knew. I ask you: do you want that reflected in his eyes when you look into them again?"
Tears such as those Paya had not shed since she was a child sprang to her eyes.
"That won't- He wouldn't- He will see-"
"He will not see what you want him to see," Impa mercilessly interrupted. "You could not claim his love anymore than one that is not Ganon could claim his hate. Both are tied to the Calamity, beyond which we would be selfish to hope for anything. Seek love elsewhere, granddaughter, for you will not find it with Link of Hyrule."
"You are wrong," Paya gritted through her tears. "I will be there for him on his quest. That will be the new bond between us. You would have him cling to the past rather than embrace the present. That's where I will be for him, and that's why he will love me more than a memory."
Impa sighed and stood up, which only brought her head to Paya's thighs. The diminutive Sheikah leader gently pounded the rug once with her walking stick. Cado entered immediately.
"Ensure that Paya is prepared to leave," Impa informed her captain. "She will accompany your troops to the Wetlands Stable. After that, her journey is her own."
Paya turned in surprise from Cado's perfect bow to her grandmother.
"You're letting me go?" she asked disbelievingly.
"You are right that I have encouraged you to love unflinchingly and with confidence," Impa admitted heavily. "Though I know in my heart what you will find, I cannot in good conscience forbid you from seeking happiness. I am no Gerudo soldier, scornful of love's power to move the most stubborn of stones. Go with my love, granddaughter, and may Hylia walk with you."
Paya was forced to kneel in order to accept her grandmother's offered embrace, which she returned in quiet disbelief. It was not until she was riding with her Sheikah brothers and sisters at a quick trot toward Sahasra Slope that Paya fully embraced her newfound freedom - and the vast world in which she was about to live it.
Impa remained standing at the end of the long rug even after a knock sounded at the door. I must be troubled to not hear Cado until now, she thought to herself with a frown.
"Enter!" Impa invited.
The taciturn captain opened the door and approached until he was just shy of Impa, at which point he bowed and remained so until addressed.
"May Hylia bless you, Little Brother," she said absent-mindedly. "You are welcome here."
"May Hylia bless you, Lady Impa," Cado returned formally. "I thank you for welcoming me here."
Silence reigned between elder and captain until the latter decided to speak first.
"I will have her watched as long as she is within our sight," Cado quietly assured her.
"There will be no need for that," Impa said dismissively. "My thoughts dwell on the hero of Hyrule, not the granddaughter of Impa."
"We know where he is," Cado said matter-of-factly. "That he has gotten this far is, in itself, a victory."
"I hope so," Impa agreed. "I trust Dorephan, but that is all I know to this point. Would that you could be at Link's side as easily as you were in the wetlands, my friend. His safety and our knowledge would be all but assured."
Cado bowed in quiet acceptance of the compliment, but his next words were tied to a different topic.
"What of this patrolman?" the Sheikah asked. "Do you trust him to do as you requested?"
"More than most," Impa admitted. "That will have to do. Link has little reason or desire to return and report to me. For now, the best signs are the towers. Each is a beacon of hope and a sign of Link's progress. We can only hope more are lit in the coming days."
"Yes, Lady Impa," Cado acknowledged with a final bow. It was not until he was nearly through the door again that Impa delayed his departure.
"Cado," she reminded him, "you have not asked how long the Sheikah are to hold the stable."
The unflappable captain turned and bowed in response.
"Neither have you said, Lady Impa," Cado replied. "Thus I assumed it was either until the enemy is defeated - or we are all slain."
Impa searched her captain's hooded expression for any sign of unease, resignation, or bitterness. As usual, she found nothing.
"Thus let it be," Impa finally affirmed. "Though I pray to Hylia the latter will not come to pass."
"As do I, Lady Impa," Cado responded with all the emotion of stone. "As do I."