Another chapter? So soon? What can I say, I'm inspired, especially now that we're taking things back to the Great Sea. This is where things really start to kick into high gear so I'm excited to get things going from here. Still, we got a bit of shorter chapter this time around, but one that'll still hit ya right in the feels. So enjoy!

Chapter 11: Ash

"I wish I was home."

He doesn't feel it happen, or at least, he doesn't think he does. He's not so sure what it's even supposed to feel like. But what he does feel is Goddess Tear disappearing from his hand. What he feels is the soft bed of sand he's suddenly lying on. What he hears is the gentle din of waves meeting the shore. What he smells is the smooth, salty sea air. What he sees when he opens his eyes is the starry night sky hanging high above his head, without a single Goddess Tear in sight.

It's enough to spark a tiny burst of hope within his heart. That hope only grows when he slowly sits up to stare at the sea before him. Upon a first glance, it looks almost identical to the ocean he's spent the past four years upon. But what lies on the shore just behind him is more than enough to set it apart.

Link gasps, swiveling around in the sand to face it properly. He's shocked by how it still looks almost exactly how he left it. The same humble houses all sitting right where he remembers them to be, the same watch tower rising above the same short dock, the same pair of cliffs standing tall above it all. And, just a few short feet to his left… the same cozy little cottage he grew up in, its windows aglow in with the same comforting light he's always known.

Sure enough, the Goddesses have heard his wish and answered it. He's back on the Great Sea, back on Outset.

He's home.

At first, he can't help but wonder if he's dreaming. It wouldn't be too shocking if he was; he's dreamt of this exact moment more times than he can possibly count by this point. He pinches himself for good measure, and when that doesn't work, he takes another glance around. He's not surprised that no one's out and about for how late it seems to be, but the fact that he's alone jars him for another reason entirely. Because only moments ago, he was standing alongside Linebeck and Ciela and now… now he's all but ensured he'll never see either of them again.

He bites back the sting such a bitter thought brings him. He can't focus on that now, not when he's finally here. He slowly rises to stand, his gaze focused on his home. His home; the thought alone fills him with a kind of happiness he hasn't felt in ages. He can practically feel the fire blazing in the hearth, can practically smell the soup boiling on the pot above it, can practically see Grandma's wrinkled grin and hear Aryll's playful laughter. It's all so close, only a few steps away now, to the point that Link can't bear even that short distance anymore.

He breaks into a jog first, then a run, tears starting to brim in his eyes as a smile spreads wide across his face. He reaches the porch in seconds, slowing his pace as he walks up the familiar steps to the door. A nostalgic sigh slips out as he traces a hand over the paint decorating the doorpost, worn and weathered with time, but still exactly how he remembers it.

For a moment, as he stands outside of his house, simply taking it all in, it truly feels like nothing's changed at all. Like he's just a kid again, returning from a short voyage at sea instead of a lengthy exile in another world. Like he really can pick up exactly where he left off, just like he's always dreamed.

But then… he knocks on the door. And within minutes, that dream falls apart.

Link nearly forgets to breathe while he waits for someone to answer. When he hears approaching footsteps from the other side of the door, he stands a bit straighter, smoothing his hair and straightening his cap. He's not sure why he's so anxious; this is his family he's about to see, and even after five years away, he's sure they'll welcome him back with open arms. Someone like Tetra may not be as easy of a sell, but he'll cross that bridge when he gets to it. For now, his family comes first.

After what feels like forever, the door finally swings open. And, standing right there, right there in front of him, is his little sister. And this time, she's not just a dream, not just an illusion, not just a memory.

This time, she's real.

She looks so grown up now, that's his first thought. Aryll had only been 8 when he left home; now, she's 13 and it shows. She's grown her hair out, wearing it in a long braid tied down her back. She's taller too, about the same height he'd been when he was her age. But if there's anything about her that hasn't changed, it's her eyes, still big and bright green as she stares up at him, her face awash in alarm. Link can't really blame her for being shocked at the mere sight of him; he would be too, if he were in her shoes.

"A-Aryll…" His voice is somewhere between a laugh and a sob. He falls to his knees, throwing his arms around her without a second thought. The fact that he's able to hug her without her disappearing into thin air is proof enough that this is actually happening. As incredible and impossible as it may seem.

Strangely, she doesn't hug him back. If anything, she stiffens when he so much as touches her, draws in a sharp breath. And then, in a move that Link can hardly begin to make sense of, she shoves him away.

"Link," she speaks quietly, cautiously. She steals a worried glance at the house behind her before fixing him with an almost suspicious look. "What are you doing here?"

The question, as well as the way it's asked, catches Link off guard. He slowly stands, absently wiping his tears dry. "I-I'm back," he sighs happily, relishing the thought, the fact. "I'm home."

Aryll lets out a scoff, of all things. By now, her shock is quickly shifting into something else. Something that Link can't say he's ever really seen from his cheerful little sister before. "Yeah, I can see that," she crosses her arms as her face settles into a scowl. "But why?"

"Uh, don't you mean how?" he laughs again. This time, it's far less joyful and far more anxious.

"No, I mean why," Aryll asserts. "You know you're not supposed to be here, not after what happened last time…"

"Last time?" Link raises an eyebrow. "But… I've been gone for-"

"For nowhere near long enough," Aryll interrupts. Her words cut him deep, and it's clear that's what she wants when she proceeds to double down on them. "I just don't get it. You've made it more than clear you don't want to be here with us. So why do you keep coming back?"

"I've… what?" Link asks, taken aback. His long absence aside, he would have never done anything like that, at least not intentionally. "I don't understand. What are you even talking about?"

"Don't act like you don't know," she narrows her eyes at him. The fact that she hasn't even managed the smallest of smiles since he arrived isn't lost on Link. If anything, it only makes the already sizable pit settling in his stomach grow. "The way you just… left without saying anything? How things always get worse whenever you come back around? And then you think you can just show up tonight and pretend like nothing's happened? When is enough ever enough for you, Link?"

"Whenever I come back around?" Link echoes, more confused than ever before. "Aryll, you're not making any sense."

"Oh, I'm not making sense?" she laughs dryly, bitterly. "You're the one who hasn't made any sense ever since you decided to just leave your own family behind for no real reason at all!"

"That wasn't my fault!" Link argues. An edge of desperation slips into his voice, one that he doesn't bother trying to hide as he all but begs his sister for some level of forgiveness. The only problem is, he's not so sure that forgiveness is something he's going to get. "Look, I know I've been gone a long time, way longer than I ever wanted to be." He sighs in a feeble attempt at calming his clashing emotions down. It doesn't really work. "But… I need you to know that all this time I've been away, the only thing I've wanted, the only thing I've been able to think about is finding a way back here to you and-"

"Aryll?" A frail, yet familiar voice calls from inside of the house. "Is someone at the door?"

Link gasps. At the sound of her voice alone, his smile is back, his heart swelling with a renewed sense of hope. He tries peering past his sister for even just a glimpse of her. Because even if Aryll doesn't believe him, then certainly, the woman who all but raised him will. "Gran-"

"No, Grandma!" Aryll quickly cuts him off. "No one's here. I'm just… taking care of something outside real quick."

Before Link can even get another word out, Aryll closes the door behind her, all but barring him from their grandmother. And he can't even begin to fathom why. "Aryll," he shifts his tone to match the severity of his sister's. He's never had to get this harsh with her, but at the same time, she's never been this harsh with him either. "Let me inside so I can see Grandma, please-"

"No!" Aryll snaps, her hands in tight fists at her sides. "You've put Grandma through so much stress and grief these past few years. She's getting to the point where she just can't take it anymore."

Confusion ebbs into guilt when Link hears this. He anticipated that his family would have taken his disappearance hard, especially Grandma. But he could have never guessed that she'd be suffering to the extent that Aryll is implying. He could have never thought that his absence would bring his kind and caring grandmother even closer to death's door. "I… I had no idea," he shakes his head. "I'm so sorry. But… maybe if I could just go in and show her I'm ok, then she-"

His attempt at stepping past his sister is swiftly blocked. Aryll holds her arms out wide, determined on keeping him from so much as entering his own house altogether. "I'm not falling for that trick, not again," she says. Link has no idea what 'trick' she could be referring to; as far back as he can remember, he's never played any trick or prank on his little sister, even when they were both very little. The thought of it going awry and upsetting her had always been too much for him to bear to even try. "Someone has to protect Grandma and since you don't care about either of us enough anymore to even bother, that someone is me. And trust me, Link, I will do whatever I have to to keep her safe, even from–especially from you."

Her resolve, as stern and straightforward as it is, stuns Link into silence. The sharp tone of her voice, the distrustful look on her face… it all rings far too familiar for comfort. It's as if the cruel, cunning illusion Bellum had crafted of her all those years ago has come to life and replaced the kind and gentle sister he thought he knew so well. Because just like that illusion, here Aryll stands, coldly accusing him of not caring about–not loving his family. And even after spending so much time apart from them, Link knows that couldn't be any further from the truth.

"Aryll…" he shakes his head. His voice softens, but even the sheer, almost heartbroken sincerity of his pleas don't seem to phase his angry sister. It seems as though nothing will at this point. "Please, you have to believe me. Whatever you think's been going on, I've had nothing to do with it, I swear. I'd never do anything to hurt you or Grandma. You know that."

For the first time, the anger in Aryll's face melts away into what's buried just beneath it: deep, longstanding pain. "...I used to think I did know that…" she says softly, sadly. She turns away from him, opening the door only for herself. Tears are in her eyes when she looks back at him one final time, tears that her brother is quickly starting to share. Especially when he hears the last thing she has to say. "Until you actually did."

And with that, she closes the door.

Silence falls over Link like a shroud. He stands stiff, his eyes burning, his chest aching, his world splintering. Without thinking, he raises his hand to the door again, all but ready to knock until someone answers and hears him out. But just before he can… he stops himself, brings his hand back down to his side, and falls apart.

He collapses against one of the porch beams, suddenly struggling to breathe. He doesn't cry but he treads dangerously close to tears just the same. Even without those tears, he still feels like a frayed rope ready to snap clean in half, like an abandoned ship left alone on the sea. After everything he's been through, everything he's ever been up against, he thought he'd be more than familiar with pain by now. But this? This is pain of an entirely different kind.

His own sister, his own sister stood there and shut him out. Without a even a trace of doubt, she accused him of walking out on her and Grandma, on causing them untold sorrow in his wake. And where was he while they were stuck at home, suffering without him? Off sailing an entirely different sea with the new "family" he'd found to replace them. With that in mind, he understands at least on some level why Aryll is so upset. If their roles were reversed and she'd vanished without a word or a trace for five straight years like he had… he's not so sure he'd be so willing to quickly forgive her either.

Except… that's not the full picture here. Aryll had said he'd returned and recently and repeatedly at that. But how? Outside of his dreams and deepest longings, he hasn't stepped foot on this island, in this world in half a decade before tonight. So then, why did Aryll seem so convinced that he has?

Whatever answers she may have for those questions, it's clear she won't give him them willingly. He doubts she'd even bother opening the door at all if he knocked again and she'd probably find a way to keep Grandma from answering too. The thought of his grandmother sends another wave of grief washing over him as he slowly stumbles down the steps. He hadn't even gotten to speak to her, to see her, to simply just know how she's doing after all this time. Instead, Aryll had coldly pushed him away, from Grandma, from her, from their home, from everything.

And the worst part of it all? He has no idea why.

His despair quickly gives way to desperation, to the need to figure out what's happened here, why everything's suddenly gone so wrong. He decides to branch out from his family, to try and ask around the rest of the tiny village to see if any of his neighbors can fill in the gaps for him. Outset isn't home to many, so he knows each of its residents, or at least he thought he did.

Because when he knocks on their doors, he's met with a reception almost identical to Aryll's. Old man Orca screams at him, demanding that he leave him and his brother Sturgeon alone just shy of slamming the door in his face. Sue-Belle, now married to Mesa, it seems, meekly peeks out from her house, anxiously begging him to go away, almost as if she's afraid of him. Abe and Rose don't even open their door to him at all as their two young sons watch him warily from a window. Clearly, whatever bitter suspicion Aryll had toward him has spread across Outset; but as far as Link is concerned, that suspicion has no clear source in the slightest.

He feels hollow as he finds himself wandering back toward the beach. His steps are slow, leaving footprints in the sand that are quickly covered by the rising surf. As if they're wiping away any trace that he was ever here, except… apparently, he had been, according to his sister. Even though Link knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, just how impossible that really is.

He has to figure this out, to solve this mystery in the hopes of somehow setting it right. If for nothing else than to be invited back into his family's home like he hoped and thought he would be. His quick trip around the village had made it painfully clear that no one is willing to help him do that. Which means, he'll just have to do it himself, somewhere away from Outset.

The thought of leaving home, so soon after finally returning, isn't exactly a pleasant one. But it's not like he has too many other choices to fall back on. The tiny island holds more secrets than ever, it seems, but it refuses to yield any of them to him. That's fine, he thinks as he prepares one of the village's several communal fishing canoes. He's always been better at salvaging secrets from the sea anyway.

The canoe is meant to be rowed, to stay close to Outset's shores. Fortunately, Link has fashioned makeshift sails for the S.S. Linebeck plenty of times in the past. All it really takes is a large cloth, a sturdy base to hang it from, and a few ropes to tie it all together, which he manages to make easily enough with whatever he can find lying around. None of his former neighbors step out of their houses to stop him; he supposes that's just about the only good thing to come from their bizarre aversion to him. It allows him to shove the tiny boat into the water without any sort of opposition. He rows a bit away from the shore and as soon as he's out in the open water, he lets his sail unfurl.

Yet even as the wind begins pushing his tiny boat out to sea, Link still keeps his sights set on Outset. No one stands on the shore to see him off this time, no one watches with waves and well wishes as he sails off on his own. The quiet, empty beach of his beloved home is a sobering sight as it starts to grow smaller and smaller behind him. His heart is as heavy as an anchor when he finally forces his gaze off of it.

He doesn't know when or how so many of his bridges were burnt. But they have been. And for now, all that remains to tie him to his island, his home, his family… are the ashes of what he has no choice but to leave behind all over again.

Still…

He'll fix this, he tells himself, refusing to believe otherwise. He'll fix this, find a way to clear his name and earn back the love of the family he's somehow lost. Even if he has to search the entire Great Sea, he won't stop until he's able to return to Outset. He won't stop until Aryll and Grandma welcome him back with all the warmth he's wanted for far too long to even say. And, just like he did back in the World of the Ocean King, Link won't stop until he can finally, truly come home.

Though no one sees him off from the shore, someone still watches him leave just the same. From atop one of Outset's high cliffs, a lone figure stands, wreathed in both the shadows of the night and plenty of his own. A cruel grin curls across his face as he watches the lone boat cut its way across the moonlit sea. His eyes flash a bitter shade of red as he lets his usual disguise slip; there's not much of a need for it, not anymore.

Not now that the original is back to reap all of the seeds he's spent years sowing.

"Finally…" his wicked smile sharpens. He's spent years patiently waiting for this very moment, only for that waiting to pay off when he least expected it to. Because within the blink of an eye, without any sort of warning at all, the final piece of his careful plan found his way back. Which means…

"It won't be long now, my lord…" he closes his eyes, bows his head in respect for his king, his creator. The man he's spent his entire existence striving to revive. "The 'hero' has returned. At last… we have everything we need…"

Don't forget to REVIEW please!