-Link / Impa-

-Western Qin-

Several days passed in which they rode through Qin. From corner to corner the journey across Qin takes about two weeks on horseback without rest. Taking in the consideration that the capital of Qin is nearly in its middle, and adding in a few days for rough terrain, detours, questioning passerby as to whether or not a certain girl on horseback passed through the road, and the inevitable need for sleep, then one can guess by the time they reached their destination Link was tired of horses and annoyed by Impa's endless silence.

They stopped on the edge of a forest descending down from the plains. In the distance was the mountain border wrapped around the forest almost lovingly. The nearest village was miles away. They passed destroyed road-signs and their horses trampled dirt roads overtaken by thorns and weeds. An area of ground was once churned up for farmland was now overtaken by the same thorns and weeds, and trees took root in its midst. Blocks of erected stone provided evidence of a village, but the lack of any wooden buildings spoke otherwise. An arrowhead glistened in the sunlight from the ground. Link didn't need to see more weapons to know a conflict had transpired here. The victors had looted everything and burned what remained to the ground.

"What happened here?" Link wondered.

"War. Betrayel." Impa answered. She briefly eyed him, "It is complicated."

"Mhmm, war tends to be with you."

Link stopped the horse by a pile of stone of what might have once been a loose wall. He tied the horse and looked around. The ruins had an ominous feel to it, as ruins will have.

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Impa snapped.

Link shrugged and commented offhandedly, "You're a politician. You complicate things. I'm a soldier. To me it is as simple as 'protect the innocent', and 'try not to die'."

"There is so much more to it than that."

"Only because you want there to be." Link replied. He motioned to the ruins. "Whatever happened here, if Soli has come all this way, its important to her. You can tell me, you can not tell me, either way I am going to snap her back to reality."

"How can you hope to do that if you don't know what troubles her?" Impa scoffed.

"Everyone is troubled by something. That's life."

"For a friend, you are very dismissive."

"Her troubles are real. But at the same time, it is not a contest. We are all a team. Soli and I, even you. All men are born on the same team to just live. It is only when people force their input on it that they put up these little boundaries and split up the team that they sit like wise men and justify it all by calling it-" He used air-quotes with his fingers, "'complicated'."

They searched the ruins. A third horse trotted in the field, untetthered to any post. On the horses back was a saddle Link recognized as having been used by Soli. In a side pocket it still had her spare burn ointments unopened. A mass graveyard was in another field.

"King Shorlin was very accepting... but his son was not," Impa started. Link didn't respond or offer a smartass comment, but simply listened. "Everyone was pressured to strengthen the war efforts all over again to the same extent, if not greater, than it had been for his father. However Shorlins war had lasted decades and was bloody as he doubled Qin's borders, and the people were tired. Only the Mitagi succeeded in standing up to his rediculas standards. Others went to extreme lengths to keep up, like the Dragmire. Others failed and split under the pressure, like the Ki... and the Sheikah. Once we were a clan like any other, but we were small. We changed our methods to recruit criminals outside our bloodlines and offer them a chance for freedom through servitude, but it still wasn't enough. So we offered everyone a second chance. Allow yourself to become a shadow, and escape what your life was. A surprising number took the oppurtunity. People forgot who they were to remake themselves and be reborn, and when they came to remember their past lives, when they remembered their names, they were returned back to it if they wished. Still it wasn't enough for the king and the threat of displeasing him became more real after the Dragmire rebellion. So some... split off from the Sheikah and introctronaded children."

They came to the edge of the forest. The ruins had shown nothing. Impa continued, "War had produced many orphans." She breathed in and out heavily, "They were taken by the numbers to a far away place to be trained. I was a new Shadowmaster at the time, but I came to learn of it and tracked them down. When I found the first 'school' I found one teen had slaughtered all the rest of his peers on the orders of the elders. The officials ordered we take him instead of execution, so we did so and named him Zant."

Impa continued again after a moment, "We found the second 'school' here. The slaughter had not started yet. We killed the elders and rogue Sheikah and a number of the older children who had already been too far gone, but managed to secure a number of the younger ones. The rogue Sheikah were bathing them in Twilight to create something... worse."

"Like Zant." Link concluded. "He was extremely powerful."

"That's right."

"And Soli was among the children you 'rescued'?"

"Yes."

Link blew his hair out of his face and tied it behind his head as best he could. He considered her words briefly, but his conclusions hadn't really changed. "You're reasons for the war is your own. Everyone has a reason. Some go to war for glory, some for riches, some for the thrill. I am thankful that I have met so many who fight solely to protect their home. Yet despite the ideal we have killed a lot of people no more or less than you. I can't judge you. You don't have to justify yourself to me, Chancellor. Whatever the reasons, whatever the excuses, it all comes down to the fact that Soli is here."

Link entered the forest. Impa hesitated briefly, surprised by his lack of judgement and simple way of looking at this. Unsure what to make of it, she entered the forest behind him.

Towards the center of the forest they came to the remains of a village. Link peered through windows and gaped at what he found. Besides the bodies left out in the open, inside one hut in particular was a stash of bottles. Inside the bottles were the dimming lights of Fae. How long had they been here? Link wondered. If the dimmed lights were any clue, it had been a long time. Link looked around carefully. No one was in sight. He quietly climbed through the window into the hut. His feet crunched on broken glass and rotten wood. Bugs crawled across every surface to scavange the meat and sinew from bones. The planks of plywood that made up the door swung noisily on the wind from a single hinge. A dark mist rolled across the wooden floor from outside.

Link grabbed the first bottle at his arm level, pried open the top, and left it on the ground. He didnt want to shake it and perhaps injure the Fae who had been trapped for so long. They would find the opening on their own soon. Already they stirred slowly from within their cages, awoken by his movement. If they were not leaving on their own before he left he would do more.

With all of the bottles opened, Link smiled to himself and returned to the more immediate task. Impa stayed outside of the hut in the shadows, watching carefully. Link moved towards the door and peered out. He could see all kinds of buildings and the equipment for them of this small village. A hunters lodge, a smokehouse, a tannery, a couple living huts, and a grainery. Judging from the bottles and equipment around him, he was most likely hiding from a medical hut. In the center of the village was a well. The dark mist poured up from it onto the ground all around.

"Creepy..." Link whispered to himself.

A faint light in the corner of his eye drew his attention back, and he saw a few Fae in the air frolicking about. He smiled warmly. They seemed happy. One drew in front of him and moved around frantically.

"What you trying to tell me little guy? You hungry? Not sure if you guys eat or not but-" Something squeezed his leg. He looked down and saw the mist had tightened around his ankle. "Ah shiIIIIIT!"

The mist pulled him up into the air, crashing through the hut's roof, and then swung him back crashing into the same building. Its walls and furniture collapsed as the mist tentacle swung him down. Glass shards punctured his skin all over, but he pushed through the pain and managed to grab hold of a nailed down flooring. "Let me go you bastard!" Link yelled.

The mist pulled him across the floor and out onto the ground. Link dug his fingers in, but couldn't get enough of a grip to stop. As soon as the mist drew him up to the well, he pressed his feet against it and managed to hold. "I already dealt with this mist shit once with Zant, I ain't dealin with it no more!" Link grabbed hold of the mist tentacle. As soon as his hand grasped it, the triangle on his hand flared and the mist disappeared with a shriek. Link fell onto the ground.

Immediately, he rolled away. The stone wall around the well exploded and dozens of tentacles reached into the air. Link stepped back. He was uncertain how many he could deal with. He pulled his spear from its holster on his back and prepared himself.

A ball landed just in front of him and light exploded. He squeezed his eyes against the blinding light. The tentacles shrieked in pain before descending back into the well. When he was able to open his eyes again, there was Impa, looking down at him in judgement.

"You have no idea how stealth works, do you?" Impa asked.

"What did you think I was doing, playing with it?!" Link snapped. He raised his spear and looked down over the edge of the well. He couldn't see its bottom. "What even was that thing?"

"I... don't know. I have never seen anything like it."

"Are you sure? It was similar to the stuff Zant was using."

"Yes, but did you see anyone controlling it?" Impa wondered. Link shook his head. "So either the one it is bonded with is capable of controlling the twilight mist from a distance, or it could move of its own will. Neither prospect bodes well."

"We can figure it out if it comes back. For now we need to find Soli."

Link turned to investigate the village further, but Impa stopped him. "While you were playing, I checked the other huts. There is nothing but dry bones and dust, although I did find this..." Impa pulled out a blank mask and dropped it on the ground at their feet. Link stared at it. It looked... familiar.

"Is that a Majora mask?" He wondered.

Impa nodded grimly. "Whatever that thing is, it escaped its prison."

Link grit his teeth in aggravation. That was just great. As if they didn't have enough to deal with. They needed to find Soli! If she wasn't in the huts then...

"What are you doing?!" Impa exclaimed.

Link peered down into the wall, adjusted his grip on his spear, and threw his feet over the wall. He couldn't see the bottom, but there had to be one. Otherwise... well... he'd rather not think about it. "Going after it! If there is room for that thing down here, Soli might be down here as well. You go investigate the forest and see if we missed anything!"

Impa opened her mouth to tell him he doesn't give her orders, but before she could voice it, he dropped down into the darkness.