Link stopped for a moment on the path in front of Sahasrahla and Ezifa's house, wondering where to go first.

Sahasrahla would have picked someone trustworthy to share where he was going to hide. Judging by how Ezifa was talking, Gramps already at least suspected Aghanim and he knew the wizard could read people's minds. If that was the case, Sahasrahla wouldn't have trusted anyone connected with the palace that might report to the wizard or who were likely to have their minds read by him.

Gramps was definitely playing it safe: because she'd be among the first Aghanim would try to probe for an answer, he hadn't told his own wife where he was going!

Link scratched his head. Did Gramps think Aghanim or Ganon would come after him because he knew where those pendants were? Or was it something else? If it was the pendants, it might mean that Aghanim and Ganon were afraid of the Master Sword. That was probably good, it could mean that having it WOULD help the Princess defeat the monster and the traitorous wizard.

Link shook his head – this wasn't what he needed to be thinking about right now. Who would Gramps have told about his hiding place? Who had Gramps trusted wouldn't tell Aghanim, either on purpose or from the wizard invading their heads?

It had to be someone he trusted a lot, but also someone Aghanim wouldn't suspect.

Someone who wasn't prominent then. And definitely not a guard or a trainee, or anyone who worked at the Castle.

Link frowned at the thought: that meant that Sahasrahla wouldn't have told Link himself, either. What if the secret keeper had been told not to give away the information to any trainee or guard or Castle staff?

He swallowed nervously but then took a deep breath. It was no good thinking like that. Ezifa had trusted him right away, hopefully whoever knew where Gramps was would as well.

So, not prominent people, not castle employees, not guards, not trainees. If any of the guards and trainees were home and themselves, Link didn't intend to talk to them anyway: if they weren't under Aghanim's spell, it meant they had heard the Princess' desperate calls for help and ignored them. The Princess, someone they were meant to serve, not to mention the most wonderful person in Hyrule, ignored! The very thought disgusted Link: anyone like that had lost his respect and trust forever.

He started walking down the path. The best way to find whoever knew where Gramps was hiding was to walk around and talk to anyone who was a contender.

The first person he spotted was Mrs. Mizo. He smiled and waved, showing far more joy at seeing her than he felt. Mrs. Mizo was always complaining about everyone to everyone else, she was miserable company and Link happened to know some of the things she complained to others about him. Just the same, she didn't work at the castle. She was worth a shot.

Mrs Mizo stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Link. Her eyes grew wide and she backed up a step, one arm rising to point at him shakily as her mouth opened and closed.

Link's eyes widened too and his breath caught briefly. "WAIT!" he cried out, raising both his hands palm forward in an effort to appease her. "Mrs. Mizo, please! I didn't..."

"IT'S HIM!" She screeched, finding her voice. "THE KIDNAPPER! LINK! GUARDS! GUAAAARRDDDS!"

She ran off, still screaming, diving into her house and slamming the door shut behind her.

Link stood still in the middle of the street, hands still up, too shocked to move. Mrs. Mizo was a complainer, and he had never liked her much, and she sure didn't like anybody much either, and Link knew Aghanim had been telling people he'd kidnapped the princess, but...

Someone Link knew, who knew HIM, from a village he pretty much grew up in, calling the guards on him and running away screaming was not something he'd been prepared for. He supposed he should have been: Both Kaygee and Gran had straight up told him some people in the village believed Aghanim about Link, but he would never have thought people he knew could believe the wizard's lies THAT much.

He didn't get the luxury to dwell on it: a guard had appeared from behind Mrs. Mizo's house, as if her cries had magically summoned him, and was running straight for Link, his lance pointed forward.

The mess of blond curly hair poking out from under the guard's helmet made him easy to recognize: Phem, one of the villagers and up until the previous year, Link's fellow trainee. Phem was usually a super sweet guy, always helping everybody out and playing with the kids, and right now, he was charging towards Link with the very clear intention of skewering him.

Link turned tail and ran. He was absolutely not fighting Phem, he didn't want to hurt another friend, and he certainly didn't want a friend to hurt him, either.

He needed to get out of Phem's line of sight. The guards in the castle had consistently stopped pursuing him as soon as they couldn't see him anymore, so hopefully, he just had to hide and Phem would go away.

Link made a beeline for the closest large tree and scrambled up it, going around the trunk to the side further from Phem, and climbing up until he was confident the trunk, leaves and lower branches hid him completely. He then held still and listened.

Phem's heavy booted steps stopped right under the tree. Link clenched his jaw and waited.

Phem took a few more steps, then stopped again. Link swallowed and risked a small peek around the trunk.

Phem was looking around instead of up. And then, right in front of Link's eyes, he disappeared in a cloud of bright green smoke.

Link's eyes widened and he nearly let go of his grip on the tree trunk. Was that how Phem had appeared close by as soon as someone had screamed for a guard? Aghanim was just… poofing them where he wanted them? If he did, that meant Link would have to run every single time someone summoned them, because a guard would be appearing right nearby every time.

On the plus side, it was nice that Phem had just been poofed away again, it allowed Link to get down now instead of having to wait until his bespelled friend walked far enough away.

But then, if they were going back to Aghanim, or even if Aghanim was personally transporting them, did that mean the wizard now knew exactly where Link was?

Link climbed down the tree, his jaw clenched. He had no way to know for sure, but either way, he needed to find Sahasrahla, and to do that, he needed to find who in Kakariko Gramps had entrusted with the secret of his location. He'd just have to keep looking and hope not to find the village suddenly full of guards.

If some of the villagers were going to cause trouble, though, Link thought it was probably best to at least start by talking to the ones who liked him enough not to believe he'd gone mad and kidnapped the Princess.

He started walking south. He knew almost everyone in town, but some still stood out as closer friends: Alin and Elin, the blacksmiths, were always nice to him and glad to see him; Talon, the milk bar owner, had never once failed to offer him free milk and to tell him a funny story; and of course there were the kids - the kids almost all liked him.

The village was eerily quiet. Link knew that a lot of folks were sick, but Kakariko feeling like a ghost town drove the point home in a very unpleasant way. And nobody would help the village, not with a wizard in charge who only cared about allowing a literal demon back into Hyrule and who thought nothing of sacrificing people's lives to that goal.

Link felt his upper lip curl up. He really hoped justice would prevail soon and that Aghanim would pay for all of this.

He took a deep breath: if anyone saw him snarling and scowling, it might help them believe he really was the traitor Aghanim was making him out to be. He needed to stay calm.

He headed for the blacksmiths first, turning left on the path out of the main village. He stopped when he came into view of the forge. Something felt really out of place.

He looked around, wondering what it was that was giving him that feeling. There was nothing strange around that he could see, just the usual garden and the well, and a couple of cuckoos that had wandered here from the main village. The building that the blacksmiths used as both a forge and a house looked like it normally did.

Wait, no. No, it didn't.

Link's brow furrowed: there was no smoke coming out of the chimney. He had NEVER seen the forge without smoke coming out of the chimney.

Now that his attention was on the forge itself, the other thing that felt wrong suddenly became obvious: the forge was quiet. Normally, you could hear the twin blacksmiths working; forging was loud work. Bangs and clangs and hisses, non-stop. But right now, there was no smoke which meant the forge was cold, and there was no noise.

Were Alin and Elin sick? And nobody had noticed?

Link ran the rest of the way to the combination house and forge and banged on the door. "ALIN! ELIN!" he shouted. "ARE YOU OKAY?"

When there was no immediate answer, he tried the handle. The door was unlocked, as usual. Even though it was at last one thing that wasn't wrong, Link found no comfort in it: if the twins weren't home, the door WOULD be locked. But if they WERE home, the house shouldn't be silent.

He let himself in, heart hammering in his chest. He liked the blacksmiths, they were good people. They were always up for a chat, even if they managed to turn every topic back to metal working. Link had started a conversation with them once on a dare, about flowers, and he'd left with a very pretty metal sculpture of a flower and a head full of knowledge on what ore could yield what color, and how to properly work the metal to get various effects and texture. He'd forgotten most of it by the time he'd been back in Kakariko proper, but he still had the flower.

The forge was dark, but sunlight came through the door Link had just used, and some more light managed to filter through the few soot-stained windows as well. It was enough for Link to spot Alin lying curled up on the floor. There was no sign of Elin.

"ALIN!" Link cried.

He ran to the man and kneeled next to him. Alin groaned and coughed weakly. Upon closer inspection, Link saw a puddle of vomit right by the smith's face.

"...Link?" Alin croaked.

"Yeah," Link said softly. He felt bad for yelling earlier, now. "Here, let me help you get to your bed, 'kay?"

He awkwardly rolled the smith and pulled him up. Alin, like his twin Elin, was thankfully a very small man, because right now, he was a dead weight.

Link dragged him to his bed and helped him lie back down.

Alin sighed and rolled on his side again.

"So er..." Link said. "Where's Elin?"

He intended to get Ezifa and Kepoga to come look after Alin, or to bring him to their place with the others, but he needed to know whether Elin needed help too, and where he was.

"Gone," Alin groaned. "Dunno where... didn't come back..."

Link's eyes widened. "He didn't come back? For how long? Where was he going?"

Alin dissolved into a fit of coughing and shook his head. "Ore," he croaked.

Link licked his lips, then came to a resolution. "I'm going to tell Ezifa you're sick, ok? And that Elin isn't back yet. Ezifa and Kepoga have been helping out other folks that are sick too, it's going around. You don't know where Ezifa's husband is by any chance? Been looking for him."

Alin shook his head weakly, his eyes closing.

"Ok," said Link. "I'll let you sleep. Hope you feel better soon."

He didn't think Alin heard that last one, the smith's breathing had slowed and he didn't react, not even with a grunt.

Link padded his way back out of the house and forge, closed the door back and sat down on the ground heavily.

Just how many people were sick? And where was Elin? And with everyone sick or taking care of the sick, who'd be able to look for the missing blacksmith? Link himself couldn't, he really couldn't. He had to get that sword, and he couldn't take too long because the longer it took, the more danger there was that Aghanim would find Princess Zelda.

The thought got Link to his feet again. He had to let Ezifa and Kepoga look after Kakariko. They were better equipped to take care of the sick than he was, and they would know how to get help if they needed it.

He ran back towards Sahasrahla's house, and nearly collided with Pogar.

Link's heart dropped into his stomach: he didn't want to have to keep evading guards. Hopefully, Pogar hadn't actually been running away from him earlier, even though it had sure looked like it.

"Mr Pogar!" Link said. "I'm sorry! I know, I shouldn't be running like that, only I'm worried about…"

Pogar replied with a scream and ran off, yelling for guards at the top of his lungs.

Link didn't wait to see the summoned guards appear: he ran for it, launching himself up the very same tree he'd hidden in before.

He peeked down long enough to see that the guard was different this time, and one of the few he didn't know. He was pretty sure her name was Vess, but he wouldn't have been able to say anything more about her.

Vess trampled around for a bit and then, just like Phem earlier, disappeared in a puff of green smoke.

Link carefully inspected the area before climbing down: having to hide was a waste of time, so he didn't want to run into Pogar or Mizo again.

Once reassured the way was clear, he scrambled down and ran the rest of the way to Ezifa's house. He knocked once and let himself in.

Kepoga poked his head out of the other room. "Link? You already found out where Dad is?" he asked.

Link shook his head. "No. I was just at the blacksmiths, and Alin is sick, and Elin is gone! He went looking for some ore and hasn't come back yet! I don't know for how long. And Alin is sick, he needs help!"

Kepoga closed his eyes and sagged. So Elin was missing too… that brought the total to four. There was absolutely no point letting Link know that, however. "Thanks for letting me know," he told the kid. "I'll look after it. We'll go check on everyone, actually, so you don't need to keep coming back here."

Link nodded. "Yeah, yeah that sounds good. I need to start hurrying," he said. "Good luck."

He didn't wait for an answer, and walked back out. He hadn't counted on Gramps being hard to find, and he was starting to feel like this was all taking too long. The Princess was safe for now, but he didn't want to tempt fate by giving Aghanim a lot of time to find her.

And what if the wizard had found her already? Link's heart started hammering at the thought. That wasn't possible, was it? She'd have called out for help again if that happened. Especially now that it was easy.

Wouldn't she?

He swallowed and focused again on talking to her.

"Princess Zelda?" he said with his mind. "Are… are you still okay? Sahasrahla is in hiding, I'm working on finding him. Sorry."

Zelda's heart started hammering as soon as her name sounded in her mind. Just like before, hearing Link's voice in spite of his not being anywhere near felt oddly intimate, as if he were whispering in her ear while they were hiding somewhere together.

She took a deep stabilizing breath before she answered.

"All is well, Link," she said. "I believe in you, I know you will find Sahasrahla."

Although the link between them was mostly meant to convey words, she felt a strong sense of relief from him.

"Thank Hylia you're still safe," he said. "I'm so glad you're not worried. I WILL find Gramps, and I'll get those pendants and the Master Sword."

She felt heat rush to her face when he thanked Hylia for her safety, and her breath hitched. She licked her lips and took another deep breath.

"Please stay safe too," she said. She cut the contact then and breathed heavily for a minute.

Goddess, she needed to control her feelings better than this. She and Link needed to be able to communicate without her losing her head, and it wasn't like a romance with him was at all possible. Her long standing silly fondness for him had just exploded because she owed him her life, that was all.

"Your Highness?"

She startled badly and turned around, her heart drumming a fast beat. She'd forgotten that Rauner, the Head Priest of the Sanctuary where she was hiding, had been in the middle of talking to her when Link had commandeered her attention.

"Yes," she said, her voice higher pitched than usual. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Yes, High Priest. I'm terribly sorry."

"I will gladly wait whenever Link needs to talk to you, Princess," Rauner said. "It's just… I feel I must ask given the gravity of our situation. Might I speak bluntly?"

Zelda could guess where this was going. She flushed and broke eye contact. "You are concerned that my heart might overtake my head when Link is concerned," she said.

Rauner shifted on his feet. "More importantly, your Highness, are YOU concerned about that?"

She sighed and after a moment of reflection, shook her head. "Hyrule is my priority right now. I would clearly be wasting my time and yours were I to attempt to deny that… I… that your concerns are not completely unfounded. However, I am already determined to remain focused on our mission, and besides… even when it comes to how I feel about Link, my most ardent desire is to not hurt him, and… well, you and I both understand that… that any…" she trailed off.

Rauner nodded. "Nothing will ever exist between you," he finished for her. "Thank you, Princess, for your candor. If there is anything I can do to help…?"

"You are already doing exactly what I need by providing me with a safe sanctuary, and you did more than I ever could have hoped for by giving me a means of communicating with Link. You are for now, limited to waiting. Just like myself."

Rauned nodded and bowed. "I should return above ground. I will come back here in a short while."

Zelda nodded and the High Priest opened the ceiling's trap door with the floor tile switch, then climbed the ladder. He then closed the trap door once more, leaving her alone to hide and wait.

She paced around the limited space and ran through what she knew of the trials again in her head. It wasn't much, but thinking about it might stir a few more details out of her memories, and it could prove to be useful to Link.

But mostly, it was something to keep her thoughts away from Link himself. She could not allow her thoughts to idly wander back to Link: that way lay madness.