Maritta, Night of the Third Day after Hero's Day

Zelda was running as fast as she could, jumping over the holes and debris on the ground and the floor, veering left and right to avoid trees and columns. The moon was so bright as to blind her, except when it disappeared completely, or turned a blood red.

No matter how fast she ran, however, she couldn't seem to gain on the Re-Deads pursuing her.

Her legs soon started to refuse moving, and she found herself forgetting how to run.

She glanced back: the Re-Deads were almost on top of her.

She fell to her hands and knees and desperately tried to crawl away, screaming for help. If only Link could save her, but he couldn't. She couldn't remember why.

She fell a Re-Dead grab her and desperately, she turned around to try and order it away. They were supposed to serve the Royal Family, surely they would listen.

The Re-Dead laughed at her, and took off its wooden mask, revealing a living Hylian face. Only then did she noticed that the false Re-Dead was clothed in gold.

The Child of Hylia snarled at her, producing a dagger, and...

Zelda woke up with a gasp.

She sat up, her heart beating fast. The details of the dream were already fading away, with one notable exception: the Hylian face hiding under the Re-Dead's mask stayed firmly etched into her mind.

She'd have to warn Link in the morning that the Children of Hylia could still be a threat. That Nayru forsaken cult…as if they needed the additional trouble during a Cursed Age!

Maritta, Morning of the Fourth Day after Hero's Day

Zelda woke from nightmares three more times that night, all of them due to the Re-Deads, but by the morning, it was another dream of a restored Master Sword that lingered in her mind.

She found, as the previous morning, that Link had his back to her. He was already dressed, this time in light blue pants and a shirt filled with geometric patterns in tones of purples and blues. He was bent over something, she guessed the book of maps he often consulted.

"Good morning," she said sleepily. "I didn't oversleep, did I?"

"Good morning, Princess," Link replied, his back remaining turned. "Not at all. I tend to be an early riser."

"I wish I could say the same," she said with a small chuckle.

Not that there had been any chance of that this morning, after the night she'd had. The thought reminded her of her first nightmare of the night, with the Re-Deads turning into Children of Hylia.

"I dreamt that the Children of Hylia attacked me," she said, "disguised as Re-Deads. The only part that I can still remember clearly is discovering one of them under a Re-Dead's mask."

Link had straightened, but admiringly, was still looking away. She almost told him to just turn around but couldn't quite bring herself to it.

"I believe it means that the Children of Hylia are still a threat," she concluded. "My dreams are not usually precise enough to reliably say anything more."

Link swallowed. He was tempted to express sympathy over the nightmare, but the Princess was not a child, and chances were she was more accustomed than most to disturbing dreams, and to dismissing those dreams when they meant nothing.

"I will be on guard for them, Princess," he said.

Zelda considered telling him about the dream she'd had twice now, of the Master Sword restored, but decided against it. The dream may or may not be prophetic, but it held no useable information either way and therefore was nothing more than a tease on her mind, like an itch. She had no reason to submit Link to the same pointless irritation.

"I will go get ready," she said instead. "Let's aim for an early departure."

"Yes, Princess Zelda," Link replied. "We have a long trip ahead, so that would be my preference as well."

She made a noise of ascent and went into the small, closed off washing and latrine room.

Hyrule Castle, the same morning

The Queen slowly examined every individual envelope in her mail that morning for the third time, and swallowed, a shudder running through her. There were still no letter from Pyr. There had been none with the evening mail the night before, and there were still none this morning.

From anyone else, it would mean that there had been nothing to report. In this particular case, it would mean that Pyr had picked up Link and Zelda's trail from the Great Plateau and was now following it, as planned.

But from Pyr, who wrote daily when not twice daily, whether he was on assignment or not, the Queen would have expected a letter in the evening confirming Pyr had reached the Great Plateau and whether or not he had found any information, and another letter in the morning to confirm that he had now left the Great Plateau, and whether or not he knew which way the Princess and the Hero had gone.

Having received neither was beyond concerning. She was trying to chase away visions of Pyr falling to roaming monsters right along with his escort, but the possibility was there. She felt a flutter of panic: Pyr couldn't be dead, they couldn't lose him.

She left her mail unopened on her desk and walked as fast as her legs would allow to the King's study.

She stopped in front of the door, collecting her thoughts. They still hadn't found the Enemy's spy within the castle, so it was necessary to speak in tongues.

She knocked and, without waiting for an answer, let herself in, closing the door behind her.

The King looked up and tilted his head in question.

"Good morning, my King," the Queen said lightly. "Have you heard from Sir Pyr? I think perhaps his letters were directed to yourself."

She knew very well that they hadn't been. Even letters addressed directly to the King went to herself first. But by asking, she was signifying that there had been no letter without giving away how disturbing that fact was to any potential listener.

The King immediately understood: his eyes widened, his iris contracted, and the blood drained from his face. He took a shaky breath and managed a reply in a nearly normal sounding voice. "No, I've received no letter from him. Probably nothing to report, then. If you're curious, we can send a bird to the Great Plateau or to Naydri, I expect he's there by now."

As he spoke, he wrote his real answer on the first piece of paper he found: "His mistress will talk you into declaring him missing immediately. I will be mildly amused and mildly irritated both."

She read it upside down and nodded. Pyr did not have a mistress, so there was no risk said mistress would deny having made such a request.

"I'm sure Sir Pyr will write by tonight," she lied. "I will see you for tea."

She curtsied and let herself out of the study.

Link opened the conversation shortly after they left the outskirts of Maritta. They were riding side by side on Butter and Poe, the rising sun right ahead of them. Both riders were keeping they eyes down to their horse's necks to avoid being blinded.

"Princess Zelda?" he called out softly, turning his head towards her.

"Hmm?" she asked, looking back. "I'm sorry, I'm lost in thoughts again. I'm still reeling over Re-Deads being summoned to the Forgotten Temple."

Link nodded. "A weapon long since abandoned by the Royal Family, brought back by the Enemy... it is disturbing."

Zelda shuddered. If she only knew for sure that the same Enemy was behind everything going on, she'd at least feel better about their chances of solving everything by defeating that one Enemy. As it was, she didn't actually know whether the Re-Deads were related to the other troubles at all. Sharing this possibility with Link didn't seem productive at this point, so she pivoted back to his having been about to tell her something.

"I derailed you, didn't I? Weren't you about to say something else entirely?"

Link gave a small nod. "I was, Princess, although I'm afraid it's more unpleasantness."

Zelda's brow furrowed slightly. Link had been studying maps this morning… had he discovered a problem along the way to Frontier Town? The town was nowhere near Faron, so surely the issue wasn't their destination itself.

"Do we need to go through a difficult area on the way to Frontier Town?" she asked.

Link shook his head. "Not particularly," he replied. "We will be crossing the southern edge of Ludfos' bog, but this is the dry season and the road is elevated, so I would not expect any issues. I merely wanted to warn you about Frontier Town itself. I would expect a cold welcome again, much like in Midah, but it seems like the population in Frontier Town is also still unhappy with the former Queen over welcoming the Sea Folks in Hyrule."

Zelda's eyes widened. She was far less tempted to dismiss the warning after Link's prior knowledge of Midah had been so accurate, but she couldn't imagine how he'd come upon THESE tidbits about Frontier Town. "Have you been there before?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No, Princess, I haven't. This is second hand knowledge," he admitted.

"So was what you knew of Midah, was it not?"

"Yes, Princess."

She sighed. "We'll have to be on our guard, clearly. Thank you for the warning, but I will ask for the same good will I requested before we arrived in Midah: we must not show any sign that we expect anything else than friendship."

"Understood, Princess," Link said.

He was pretty sure it would be wasted effort again, but he chased the thought away as a problem for another day. After all, it literally was since they would never make it all the way to Frontier Town today.

He was better off spending his energy on something more productive than idle worrying about something he had no power over. With that in mind, he pressed his palms together in front of his chest.

The blue halo of Nayru's Love appeared right away. Link focused on pushing out as far as he could, stretching the shield a bit beyond the size he'd made it in the Forgotten Temple, and immediately let the spell go. He then looked around, mentally identifying every plant he could see, and then a bird he couldn't see from its song, and then the telltale tracks of a rat in the dirt next to the road, with the solid line from the tail between the paw prints.

Being able to do it all without difficulty or the temptation not to bother confirmed he didn't need a potion or even a pod.

"The protective glow was larger than last time," the Princess commented. "I would suggest not casting again right away even if you feel well, however."

Link nodded. His training, as minimal as it had been when it came to powerful spells, had still included the imperative to rest fully between each major casting, whether he felt there was a need or not. "Your advice echoes my training, Princess. That restraint is one of the ways I mitigate my inability to tell how depleted my magic is."

"You really have been taught well," the Princess said. "By the way, did you know of the Legends of Ludfos' Bog?" she asked.

Link didn't, so she started telling him all about old stories of mysterious bog people who were sometimes dragons and sometimes not, and who sometimes helped travelers and other times, caused their deaths or turned them into one of their own.

There were so many different and contradictory versions that it was clear none of them ought to be taken seriously. The Princess herself clearly wasn't, but she inserted a lot of cultural history explaining why certain times had created certain versions, from weather events inspiring the idea of the bog becoming sentient, to lizalfos infestations encouraging stories that made the area scarier and therefore encouraged people to avoid it.

Link asked questions when the Princess paused for breath, fascinated and deeply grateful for something other than frustration and impatience to occupy his mind. She smiled each time he did, whether she knew the answer or not.

Considering that the Master Sword was still dying on his hip and waiting for him to free it from the curse it was under; seeing that monsters were still attacking people while he failed to find and fight those monsters; and seeing that he hadn't been able to even start looking for the Enemy… he was shocked to find himself smiling back.

Annual Tabantha Archery Contest, the same morning,

From the spectator area, Remiss examined the line of contestants. There were twenty of them in this first round.

All twenty were waiting for the signal to draw, bows down but strung, arrow in place. At the signal, they would draw and shoot within a generous window of time - this part of the contest was about precision, not speed.

The competing archers in this round were all Hylians, but even before the first shot, it was already clear that several styles were on display: some were using marked Royal Guard bows and were clearly guards who had been granted leave to participate in the contest; others had expensive looking long bows, and others still had home made bows in varying sizes.

The crowd around Remiss was chattering excitedly, but he wasn't paying much attention to them: that was Shade's job.

The Sheikah was at his right elbow, and in full 'totally not a Sheikah' mode: she was chatting right along with the crowd, using normal words and sentences and everything. Her civilian winter gear was no different than that of anyone else's around and her hair was completely covered by her hat and scarves, so she blended right in.

"Any crowd favorite?" Remiss asked.

"You're going to love this," Shade replied, still speaking in her "incognito" speech pattern in order not to break character in front of the crowd. "That blond guy, fifth from this end of the line? He's a Link."

Remiss's eyes widened. He looked at the man in question with renewed interest.

"The thing is, unless he's improved a lot in a year, he's not actually any good," Shade continued.

Remiss scowled at her. "Well then, he's hardly a crowd favorite, is he?" he asked.

Shade snorted. "Well, they do like making fun of him," she said. "But all right, seriously now, there are three favorites. The tall skinny guy with the long black hair and the long bow, near the other end of the line; the short stocky blonde female guard near the middle; and the bald archer with the homemade bow, next to that Link."

Remiss nodded and focused his attention on these three when the signal to shoot was given.

By the time the round was over, he had his candidate: the blonde woman had bulls-eyed every shot and had consistently loosed her arrows faster than the others. The fact that she was short and a guard, a profession where bravery was particularly sought after, only reinforced Remiss's hope that he'd found the true hero. And, being a woman, she was less likely to have ever attempted to put on Farore's medal, which would explain why she hadn't been identified before now.

Just South of Ludfos Bog, Evening of the Fourth Day after Hero's Day

"Bigger again," Zelda said. "I must say, I didn't expect you'd be able to extend it so quickly."

It was a bit of an understatement on her part: Link had cast Nayru's Love five times during the day, and had managed to extend the shield further every time. They were now stopped for the night, and he'd decided to make one last attempt before their evening meal, this time managing to extend the blue glow to nearly twice the size it had been in the Forgotten Temple.

"His Royal Highness Prince Hylrick's training method are working very well so far, Princess," Link agreed with a smile.

Zelda cocked her head: Link wasn't scanning their surroundings to make some kind of mental list and check his mental acuity. "What were the trials that the Hero of Legends had to undertake in order to claim the Master Sword?" she asked.

Link blinked at her, then suddenly realized why she was asking: the plants here were all the same as they had been the last time he'd tested himself, so rather than scan and mentally enumerate them, he'd recited an old poem in his head.

"The trial of courage was in the Eastern Palace, which had once been a summer retreat for the Royal Family, with the testing grounds built-in, but which had been perverted into a dark parody of itself," he said. "The trial of wisdom was in the Desert Temple, and the trial of power was in the Tower of Hera on Death Mountain. Each trial allowed the Hero of Legends to acquire one of three pendants, which he then used to claim the Master Sword. It is said that the pendants no longer exist, thus my not needing them when I claimed the Holy Blade."

The Princess smiled and nodded, satisfied. "Would I be right to guess that little quiz was completely unnecessary and that you had already tested yourself through some means I could not see?" she asked.

"I believe caution to be rarely wasted, even in the absence of clear danger," Link answered. "That being said, you are correct, Princess, I already had tested myself by mentally reciting an old poem."

She chuckled. "Thank you for indulging me. Since the early symptoms of magical fatigue include lack of motivation, I would have been concerned had you refused."

"You would have been absolutely right to be, Princess," Link said. He cleared his throat. "My apologies for an abrupt change of topic, but I wish to give you advanced warning: there is someone coming this way and the area is quiet enough that our words have no doubt already been heard through no malice on their part."

Some distance behind Zelda, someone barked a laugh. She flinched and whipped her head around to look at the newcomer.

The immediate result was that the newcomer in question, a hooded, tall and large Sea Folk man walking alongside two packed mules, gasped and fell on one knee with a cry of "Your Highness!". He simultaneously pushed back his hood to allow for his face to be seen clearly. She held back a sigh.

"Please rise," she said with a soft smile. "Well met."

The Hero had jumped to his feet upon hearing the stranger's voice, eyes wide. "Uncle Riph?!" he exclaimed.

She felt the air move as he dashed past her more than she saw him and suddenly, Link was hugging the stranger. Her own eyes widened: the Hero was shaking.

"Hey Link! Oh wow, I didn't even recognize your voice there at first. Whoa, whoa..." the stranger was saying, hugging back. "Link, buddy, yes, it's me, I'm fine. See? Goodness boy, did I miss another Riph in that list? You thought I was gone? I wasn't even home, I've been on the road for a month!"

Riph's eyes kept wandering back to Zelda as he talked and hugged his nephew.

Link muttered something Zelda didn't hear.

"Everyone's fine, buddy," Riph said in answer.

Link visibly tensed. "Everyone?" he asked, pulling back slightly. "What do you mean, 'everyone'?"

The Hero's tone was incredulous, angry even.

Riff's eyes widened. "You didn't read the list? With the newsletter?"

Link had pulled back from his uncle a bit more again and was staring at him, still agitated by violent tremors from head to toe, brow furrowed in confusion.

Zelda's own eyes widened: Link had been so relieved to see one living relative he was completely overwhelmed, so much so that he was showing symptoms of outright shock, and now he couldn't believe all the others he shared with this man were fine. Even though the list of victims would have told him as much...

"Link..." she asked. "Did... didn't you read the newsletter? Or the one from the day before, that had an estimate?"

She hadn't seen him read either newsletter, but they had seen them around. There had been one, the one with the estimate, at Sahesro's house in Midah and in their room at the Wanderer's Inn on their first night there. The new one, with the actual tally, had been in their room on their second night at the Inn, and there had been one on nearly every table at breakfast, including their own.

She had assumed Link had read them while she was getting ready, or while she was busy with something else. She had not, for one single second, imagined he might decide not to. She'd been certain he'd check on everyone he knew as soon as he could. But now, one possible reason why he might not have looked at the newsletters occurred to her, based on his immense relief.

Oh, no. Oh, no no no… had she really let him think...?

"Link... did you so much as look at the newsletter in our room in Maritta? Or at breakfast?" she asked. "Or… did you…" she swallowed a painful lump. "Did you avoid looking at them because you thought you'd see a tally including nearly everyone?"

She saw him tense and his eyes met hers. They were wide, and trembling as much as the rest of him.

"Thought, Princess?" he asked in a croak.

She inhaled sharply, her chest suddenly tight. "Link…" she said gently, "every other settlement was attacked by far, FAR less monsters than Given was, and the hordes had either one single lynel or one single hinox."

She bit her lip. How had she not realized that Link had avoided any information on the attacks? "I respected your silence over the attacks, I thought I had no business asking you about them, I had no idea you still thought... I'm sorry. I am so sorry."

Link pulled away from his uncle completely and faced her, still on his knees and eyes wide. "Far less...?" he asked. "But…" he turned to his uncle again. "Did you say there was list? Did you mean of the victims?"

"Yes," Zelda replied before Riph could. "There were still one hundred and two," she added softly. "I am sorry."

"One... hundred?" Link asked in a too high, shaky voice. "There were less monsters? Less lynels? And hinoxes? But..."

"The Enemy knew you were in Given," Zelda said, saving him the mental gymnastic. "They attacked the others anyway, but with a lot less monsters."

"There was more in Given?" Riff asked.

He was ignored.

"One... one hundred..." Link repeated, breathing too quickly. His eyes suddenly overflowed and he wrapped his arms around himself, his body folding as he fell to a kneeling sit and slouched forward, shaking worse than ever.

Riff came closer to him and snapped his fingers in front of his face. "Goddess, kid. How many did you expect? What happened in Given? You guys weren't on the list, not you or your parents, not Limsy's parents either, or her sister. I heard say there was no casualties at all over there."

Link forced himself to breathe slower, counting to five on both inhales and exhales. He needed to get a hold of himself, but he had no idea how to deal with this.

One hundred and two people dead... it was way too many, he couldn't stand to think of it. And at the same time, it was a relief so big that he felt like he was going to explode from it. He'd spent all this time thinking nearly everyone was dead, and he'd refused to find out for sure because the confirmation would have driven him mad. But they weren't, almost everyone was okay, and he could hardly believe it except he DID believe it, and he wanted to scream in joy, and at the same time, he wanted to scream in pain and rage over the one hundred and two people who HAD died.

He focused on his uncle: he'd been asked a question. He should answer, it was rude no to. The utterly mundane urge to be polite was at least familiar, and easy. He leaned into it.

"We had about three hundred monsters attacking Given," he said. He barely recognized his voice, it was too high, too shaky. "I figured there'd be even more in the bigger settlements. There were twelve lynels. Eleven hinoxes. I don't even know how THEY got past the bridge."

Riff swallowed. "You... took care of them all, did you? Considering what you got on your hip there and how the Princess is fine with just you as an escort... I'm going to kill your dad by the way, he could have told ME. This whole time, MY nephew's the Hero, and my own brother didn't TELL me!"

Link nodded and as his thoughts drifted back to what he had thought had happened in the other nine settlements, his chest contracted. His voice came out as a croak. "I thought pretty much everyone was gone," he said. "One hundred and two died but… but… that means 10,000 didn't... I..."

The rest was swallowed by a sob. He found himself being hugged again. He allowed it, focusing on trying to get his composure back. He had to get it together or the Princess would rightfully worry that even with his fighting skills, he was incapable of handling what was going on.

Zelda licked her lips. Goddess, why had she not confirmed Link knew the attacks in the other settlements hadn't been as bad as in Given?

Link suddenly jerked upright, breaking his uncle's hold on him and instantly towering over the still kneeling man. His cheeks were wet, but his eyes, as red as they still were, were wide. "Did you say you've been on the road for a month? ALONE?"