-Western Qin-

To the end of Qin was a savage land of bleak mountains and thick forests. Few traveled here for fear of witches, Fae, centaur, ogres, ents, wild wolf-men, and other fearsome creatures of legend. This was where Zelda led her band.

Link tagged along, determined to follow Midna's mission to the end. He kept her sword as well as if it was the physical embodiment of his burden. Zelda said nothing about him using her sword. Midna and Link had been close, so he should have something to remember her by.

Zelda stopped by another stone bearing the distinctive mark of the Sheikah, turned, and walked. Link sighed as he followed, "Admit it; you're lost."

"I am not lost."

"Great. Then where are we?"

Zelda didn't answer.

"Yeah, we're screwed."

"Just because I don't know where we are doesn't mean we're lost."

"I'm pretty sure that's lost!"

"Then you rely on sight and not faith, like a monkey rather than man."

"I can faith fine," Link roped his arms together. "Like a guide or map. Maybe if one of those Fae shows up..."

"You would place more faith in a mystical faery than in me? Something you can't see versus what you can, yet you want to rely on a map, which I doubt you can read. All that would be is contradictory except it shows you are desperate to not rely on me," Zelda glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Link averted her gaze guiltily at being caught. "Perhaps you would like to guide us?"

"No, no. You're doing fine."

"Good. Know your place and stay behind me, Monkey."

"I'll show you your place..."

The soldiers watched them, a princess and a slave, bickering. Not demanding, not demeaning, and not dictating, butj ust bickering. It was oddly surreal to witness them acting like the youngsters they physically were.

One of the soldiers, Matsubi, came forward, "Princess, perhaps we should set up camp? We have been marching for days with little rest. Surely, you are becoming weary."

"I am, but this is a dangerous place to stop for the night."

"I must humbly advise for it, though. We are safe from Ketsu, and forcing yourself will hurt you if your body is not given time to rest."

Zelda sighed and looked despondently up the path. She wanted to finish, but the soldier was right. She was becoming drowsy and... irritable and childish. "Very well," She acquiesced. "Let us backtrack to the previous marker and camp at it."

They turned back. Link gaped at her, "You've been following markers this whole time??"

"Yes. Not my fault you haven't noticed, Monkey. It was fairly obvious."

"Oh, you mean these smiling rocks? They're rocks some weirdo drew on!"

"That is what they want you to think."

"Who's they?"

Zelda smirked, "They are them. Who else would they be?" The soldiers chuckled. Link rolled his eyes and kept on.

After the soldiers set up camp, Zelda cautioned them that the forest was too dangerous for them to leave the safety of the campfire. This proved true as when the night fell child-like laughter could be heard in the distance and pockets of light appeared and disappeared. The trees and the rocks seemed to move when they were not looking.

"I think perhaps the slave's Fae are here," Matsubi gulped. He gently poked at the fire. "We will need to hunt tomorrow, or we won't make it far on rations. Do Fae eat people?"

Matsubi aimed the question at the princess but she had fallen asleep nestled against a tree, at a distance so that the radiance of the campfire barely reached her feet.

"Isn't she afraid the forest will reach out and snatch her?"

"I doubt she believes anything of the sort," Link's darkened eyes watched the dancing flame.

Matsubi shared an annoyed glance with another soldier, "You presume to know a great deal about her, for a slave. Are you hers?"

Link scoffed, "No, I'm not her slave. I would have cut my throat long ago if I were."

"Yet you two argue like an old married couple," Matsubi observed.

Link's cheeks and long ears turned red, "Th- We- She's impossible! You are seeing something that isn't there!" Link clenched his fists. "I hate her. I hate everything about her! Her face! Her voice! Her attitude! It's all a mockery of a girl that was better than her." Link laid himself down with his back to them. "I just sometimes forget who she is and who she isn't."

Matsubi looked between Link and Zelda and sighed, "Like raising kids alright..."

-Meanwhile, On the road from Kanyou-

Two guards stood at the sides of the camp of tents. In the middle one, the person they guarded slept soundly. The campfire's flickering flame danced with all the passion of Din, illuminating them in warmth. The men kept an eye on the moon, the ever-present orb of Naryu, that they may judge the time. For as Naryu gave structure and law, so her moon moves to provide time to their nights; always present among Farore's creation, but above it and outside it.

Brief flickers in the moonlight went unnoticed as shapes passed. Without making a sound they traversed the branches. The shadow ones did not disturb the birds or leaves. They did not disturb the wind, though it grabbed their cloth masks and tugged at them.

Like a rehearsed opera, with the coordination of actors who had memorized their lines a thousand times over, they commenced.

The deepening shadows descended from the sky on top of their prey. Instantly knives punctured necks through to blood vessels and across throats. The opera reached its following act as their leader had aimed her positioning to land directly within the tent. The only measurable sound was the impact of their landing. It was enough to wake their charge, but it was too late. In a swift movement, the target was smothered with a drugged cloth.

There was no consideration for whether their actions were right or wrong, moral or immoral. They were a blade. Blades do not kill, it is those that wield them that bear the blame, the guilt.

-Reida-

Reida woke with a start. The taste of urine assaulted her mouth. She immediately found a fabric around her eyes, her mouth gagged by a cloth, her hands fastened behind her back, her legs tied to a pole of some sort, and a rock floor under her. Her guards, where were they? Where was she and who had taken her?!

A sound paralysed her, and terror strangled her. Someone else was in the room. A blunt hand grasped the clothes that veiled her face and flicked them away.

Reida snapped her eyes shut tightly as torchlight pierced her orbs. She coughed violently. The taste of urine wouldn't be going away anytime soon.

"Wha- what do you want? Who are you?"

"I must apologize for the treatment, but it was necessary."

A chair was pulled up, and as Reida's eyes adjusted to the light, she saw she was in a cavernous room with someone else. There was a desk and a chair at a distance, and her feet were tied to a vacant post that went from the floor to the ceiling. The one to speak was concealed in clothes, from head to toe, however, the emblem on his chest was revealing enough.

"What do the Sheikah clan want with me?" Reida struggled to regain some semblance of calm. "Who ordered this?"

"Out of respect for you, I have been instructed to explain everything. First, you must eat," The Sheikah took a plate from the desk and held it before her. "It is not poisoned. If we wanted you dead, you would be."

Reida glanced at the food out of the corner of her eye. It wasn't garbage like she expected prisoners to receive. If anything, it was what they ate themselves. Reida couldn't stomach the idea of eating, though. She was too scared to eat.

The Sheikah withdrew it, "I understand. When you have a chance to calm down, then you may be hungry." The Sheikah positioned the chair closer and sat on it. "Now, I grasp how this may look, but you are not in any danger."

"Forgive me if I don't believe that," Reida whispered.

There were many reasons Reida could imagine people wanting her killed or kidnapped. She was the daughter of the governor to one of Qin's grandest cities and the house of Ki. Above all that, she was betrothed to Prince Kyou.

She didn't agree with what he was doing and openly made her disappointment known to him in private counsel, but men would be men and would do what they wanted as they do. In the world of politics, this made her either an enemy to Kyou for speaking out, or an enemy of his rivals for existing.

The Sheikah, so far as she knew, had no loyalty to Kyou. Their loyalty had passed easily to Princess Zelda, who had just been killed.

"This is about revenge, isn't it?" Reida guessed. The Sheikah jerked his head, curious at the prisoner's thought. "My prince dethroned Zelda, so you're wounding him through me."

The Sheikah nodded, "It looks like Lady Impa was right about your understanding. You grasped it quickly, however, as I said, your life is not in danger."

She narrowed her eyes at the Sheikah, "You just murdered my guards."

"Regrettably," The Sheikah shook his head in passing interest. "Directly put, you are a distraction. If you disappear, then Prince Kyou will naturally follow the same thought you have had and believe this is revenge. You are the one thing he cares about beyond the throne, and in choosing between the throne and you then we will see which he decides to chase after."

"Prince Kyou isn't so dumb as to expose himself to danger and walk knowingly into a trap, even for my sake," Reida argued. "Nor would I want him to."

"Be that as it may be, we will hold his attention. That is more than enough."

The Sheikah stood up and approached her. Reida tried to squirm away, but the Sheikah snatched her arm with a firm grip while reaching for her fingers. Reida shook her hands out of the grip. He paused, "Lady Impa says you are not to lose any fingers, but if you refuse to give up a ring, we may have to."

The man spoke with such simplicity that were he another person, Reida might have suspected she was being toyed with; however, this was a Sheikah. The threat to remove a finger was not an idle one. Reida gulped and stopped squirming, even as her pride was damaged. The Sheikah removed a ring from her finger.

"Do not hate us for this, my lady. Lady Impa wishes to see you thrive in court. This may make us seem like adversaries, but tomorrow we may be your ally. We are merely a blade and do the will of our master."

"So easy to cast off blame like that isn't it, but take away the lord, and yet the blade continues to kill. Is it because the blade has found a new master or because it has become wild and feral?"

The saying seemed to give the Sheikah pause for a moment, as Reida's barb struck a nerve. Then even as swiftly as it struck, the Sheikah shrugged it off. A blanket was handed in with a pillow. The Sheikah worked to arrange them beside her, and just before leaving, cut Reida's bindings.

"Zelda is dead," Reida spoke up. The Sheikah faltered, and it offered her a bit of satisfaction to see they were behind the times. "Her corpse was hung from the palace gates just before I left Kanyou. You can check for yourselves."

The Sheikah left without a word.

(scribens 4/7/2020)