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Chapter Text

Link of Ordon, you are hereby invited to attend the upcoming royal ball as a guest of Her Majesty the Queen Zelda. A horse has been provided for your travels. Please return with the messenger with due haste. Regards, The Royal Secretary

Link looked up from the letter to the messenger, and then doubtfully at the brown horses waiting dutifully for them.

“I have my own horse,” he said.

“Leave it,” the messenger said, as if that was the most obvious solution.

Leave it, Link was tempted to say, gee, why didn’t I think of that, let me just go ahead and get my stable-servants to take care of her while I’m away!

“No,” he said instead. “I’ll be out once I’m packed and my horse is tacked up.”

The messenger looked at him with all the approval castle-town courtiers normally had when they looked at Ordonians for a prolonged period of time - that is, none whatsoever. Thankfully his castle-bred sensibilities also wasn’t willing to argue with whoever had been invited to the royal ball, though, so he waited with semi-concealed impatience. Link packed his things, readied Epona, and popped into the village to tell Rusl and Uli where he was going. 

Knocking on the door of their little house, he poked his head in and got a warm greeting from Uli at the fire. Colin and his sister played with rough wooden toys on the carpet in their house, also looking to him as he entered.

As Link edged in the door, Uli noticed the sword on his back. Link tried not to feel bad when she suddenly turned and checked the kids briefly, visibly relaxed when she saw they were still there - as if they’d disappeared under her nose, if Link had to be armed again.

“I’ve had summons to Castle Town,” he told her. “Is Rusl out?”

“He is, but I’ll pass along your goodbyes,” Uli told him. "Where are you off to?" she pressed for details. While Link explained, Colin jumped up and wrapped Link in a hug, sternly extracting a promise of tales of whatever exciting adventures Link had. Uli urged him to wait just a few minutes longer as she bustled around their room, before returning to him pressed a wrapped package of bread and cheese into his hands.

Then, and only then, did he join the - by that stage seriously irritated - messenger.

“We won’t make it to the camp in time,” the messenger said with a sigh when they began to leave.

“Where is camp?” Link asked.

“Hyrule field, just outside of castle town. We’ll have to camp out in the wilds further south.”

“We’ll just stop at Kakariko for the night,” Link said, confused as to why they’d risk that.

The messenger looked at him with amusement. “Where on earth would we sleep? I don’t know if they even have beds in Kakariko, or if they use… I don’t know, rocks. At least camping is on grass.”

Link’s immediate expression was probably somewhere between unimpressed and downright furious, judging by the rapid withdrawal of the messenger’s humour.

“There’s an inn. Complete with sheets,” Link said flatly, kicking Epona onward to lead the way. The messenger, wisely, kept his mouth mostly closed for the remainder of that day. 

Kakariko, in the dusk, was as Link remembered it: mostly empty, dusty, and surprisingly windy. The messenger looked dubious about the entire situation.

Link ditched him at the inn as they arrived in Kakariko, and went to greet Renado in the Shaman’s hut.

Pushing the door open with a small creak, it took a moment of Link’s eyes to adjust to the dim candle-light in the room. Few of the torches were lit, and Renado sat in the light of the center torch.

The man looked tired and, if Link wasn’t mistaken, thinner than before - but he still smiled warmly when he noticed Link entering his home.

Around him were seemingly dozens of powdered and in-the-process-of-being-powdered herbs, in jars, bowls and everything in between.

“I didn’t expect a visit! A shame, my daughter isn’t here to say hello - she’s out foraging,” Renado said. “What brings you, Link?”

“Just thought of you on the way up to Castle Town” Link said. “How is the village going? Do you need me to look out for anything for you in Castle Town while I’m there?”

Renado sighed and nodded. “As a matter of fact, I do - if you hear of any ossary root, we need as much as we can get. Looks like this, should smell pretty strongly if it’s fresh enough.”

Link nodded, taking the offered root and inspecting it so he would recognise it later. “What is it for, if you don’t mind?”

“Insects,” Renado said.

Link looked at him questioningly and Renado added, “It’s a bad year for the gardens here. Seems like a lot of plants withered or died when the light spirit went missing, so it seems like all the insects in the area are finding their way into our little garden.”

“Do you want me to look and see if I can kill them off?” Link offered.

Renado shook his head. “It’s not a matter of killing them, it’s preventing them coming back. The root is all we really need.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Link promised.

“You always do,” Renado said gratefully, clapping Link on the shoulder. “I’m sorry I can’t offer you a meal, as welcome,” he said, with a little hesitation.

It wasn’t in Link’s head, then, that Renado looked thin and tired.

Link was never more thankful to Uli for handing him some supplies before he ran off. It was impolite to draw attention to someone’s misfortune, though.

“I left Ordon with some fresh bread and cheese. You would do me a favour by sharing it with me - by tomorrow, the bread will be stale, and I’ll be in Castle Town anyway,” Link told Renado.

Renado’s expression was grateful - both for the food, Link suspected, and the discretion. “I would be honored to share your hospitality.”

The next day felt like riding into an alternate universe, Link couldn’t help but feel.

Where Kakariko was dusty, abandoned and devoid of green, Castle Town was bustling with life, the sound of the fountains giving a rushing water background to the various calls of hawkers, conversations of people on the street, and sounds of people in armour shifting at their posts.

“Back to civilisation,” the messenger said under his breath with satisfaction.

Through the southern gate of Castle Town, they walked past stalls filled to the brim with fruits and vegetables and produce for the people of Castle Town. Link himself had never managed to persuade a vendor to sell something at a price he’d buy it for - twelve rupees for a single apple? - but it didn’t stop his mouth watering a little as he passed.

The messenger looked annoyed as Link stopped at a stall with some potatoes, grain and root vegetables.

“Very fresh! From South Hyrule Field today,” the vendor said with a smile.

“You go back and forth every day?” Link asked.

“A day trip up, a day here selling, and a day trip back each week,” the vendor replied.

“Why don’t you sell in Kakariko?” Link questioned. “Isn’t that closer?”

“No point,” the vendor replied. “There’s not many people there, and the ones that are there don’t have rupees or are Gorons,” he said. “I don’t know if Gorons eat rocks or what, but they sure don’t eat what I grow.”

“Are you having trouble with bugs?” Link asked. “I heard there’s issues around there.”

The messenger’s annoyance at this random distraction from his mission to the castle was palpable, and Link pointedly ignored it.

“No, no. I buy a load of ossary root every time I sell out the stall. Keeps them at bay,” the vendor replied proudly. “But that’s also why I can’t sell at Kakariko. They don’t have the root we need to buy to keep producing.”

Link brightened. “You’re heading towards Kakariko with ossary root?”

The vendor at this stage now looked suspicious. “Why?”

“Kakariko needs some,” Link said.

“I can’t spare any,” the vendor shook his head. “It costs my profits already.”

“I’ll pay. Take whatever you use normally and buy it twice over. Give one half to Kakariko, plus a basket of produce, next time you go that way.”

“The extra root alone would be 300 rupees, sir, since it has to be harvested in the Gerudo desert,” the vendor said. “Plus I’d lose out on funds in the time spent travelling.”

“I’ll give you 400,” Link countered.

The vendor considered that. The moment stretched on.

“And an extra 200 when you return, if you have a letter from Shaman Renado in Kakariko confirming what you’ve supplied,” Link said.

The vendor’s consideration tipped towards agreement, and he held out a hand to shake on the deal. Link handed over a handful of purple rupees and turned to go.

The messenger managed just barely to keep some comment inside his closed mouth, judging by his pinched expression. “To the castle, sir?” He prompted.

“Go on, then,” Link gestured, his own expression beginning to match as he got increasingly tired of this messenger. “Lead the way.”

Presentation to the Queen was always the most awkward parts of these post-hero visits, Link thought to himself.

The tunic he had been given looked a lot like his old outfit, but that was where the similarities ended. The weight was a world away - one was rough, durable linen, lined with mail; the other was more silk than anything else.

Ahead of him in line were other guests to the ball. Link had no clue who they were, but he mostly heard Castle Town accents, so he didn’t suppose he would find a friend in the crowd.

After many titles and fancy bows, Link found himself next in line.

“Presenting Link of Ordon!” the announcer called.

Queen Zelda smiled and dipped her head in greeting from her throne as Link was presented. He shuffled out of the way for the next in line.

The others began to mingle, most giving Link wide berth. He felt painfully out of place as servants circulated with small snacks and glasses of wine.

Eventually, after greeting a number of others, Zelda found her way to his corner.

“I appreciate you putting in an appearance,” Zelda said. “It makes them more confident that we have a hero on our side, after the recent invasion.”

Link looked doubtfully around the room. The people chatting and dancing didn’t look like those on the outskirts. Kakariko’s three remaining human citizens were thin, Ordon’s citizens couldn’t help compulsively checking their children’s whereabouts, but these people…

“You’re welcome to duck out early, once the speeches start,” Zelda added, evidently noticing his expression. “I’ll check back in later,” she added, and then re-entered the diplomatic fray.

Link leaned on the wall, people-watching.

An overly-powdered woman in an extravagant blue dress was berating a serving girl on the far end of the room.

A young man in a crisp black suit offered his hand to a young lady, who flushed crimson.

A guard swiped three glasses of wine from one of the tables, heading to the door guards and distributing them. One of the door guards nearly dropped his spear with a laugh as he tried to grab the glass.

Nobody discussed any of the topics that had plagued Link’s life since his adventure had been over. Recovering crops from the darkness, finding new people to fulfill roles of those who had died, trying to re-learn the feeling of safety…

It felt about as jarring as entering the Twilight realm. But somehow worse, because it was all so familiar.

Midna had said a life of luxury didn’t teach duty. She said their world was weak because of it. Link had put it down to bitterness, back then. Midna was - at that time - a shadow imp from a dark-realm prison. Not a princess, ruler, leader, as she had turned out to be.

Her words from his journey echoed in his ears.

Even if you go back now with all the people you saved, this tragedy will happen all over again.

Link had the niggling feeling that they still hadn’t done enough.

Chapter Text

Link swung his sword, knocking the bat flying at him into the wall, where it puffed into monster dust.

“I think that’s the last of them here,” Rusl said. “We should tell the Zoras,”

Link nodded, sheathing his sword. This small part of upper zora river had something of an infestation - bad enough that Prince Ruto had asked Telma if she knew someone who could help.

Telma, naturally, always knew someone. And that was how Link and Rusl found themselves clearing out small pockets of monster nests around the Zora territory.

“I swear, there were fewer monsters during the Twilight,” Link grumbled.

Rusl nodded as if this was totally normal. Seeing Link’s puzzled look, he explained, “Queen Rutela used to have them regularly cleared out to stop nests developing, from what Telma told me. But she and her guard, who used to be responsible for it, died in the war. King Ruto didn’t realise until recently - so this would be what, a year or so of monsters moving in?”

“Why this one spot?” Link wondered aloud.

“Probably just because it’s uninhabited,” Rusl shrugged. “Anyway, lets go on back and let them know.”

The trek up the zora river region was cool and pleasant, at least. After a good deal of vine climbing, they made it to the Zora cavern, and King Ruto met them at the entrance.

“All went well?” He asked.

“Yes, that area’s clear now,” Rusl replied.

The relief on Ruto’s face was palpable, even through the strangeness that was Zora facial expressions.

“Thank you very much. How much payment do you need?” He asked.

“None,” Rusl said. “A friend of Telma’s is my friend.”

Ruto smiled brightly. “You are a friend of the Zora, Rusl. And of course, you too Link. Please, stay the rest of the day, set out fresh tomorrow. We have some room to camp down below the waterfall. I’ll have men bring you some fish for your meal.”

“Thank you, we’d love that,” Rusl said with a respectful bow.

By the time they made it back down, the sun was beginning to set. To Link’s mild confusion, about a third of the Zora who were currently in the water seemed to climb out and take up resting places on land, while the guard changed near the entrance to Snowpeak’s valley.

Shortly, a Zora guard climbed up out of the water near where they pitched their tent, and presented them with some fresh fish to cook with.

“Thank you,” Link said as he took the ingredients. “While you’re here - is something wrong with the water?”

“No, not at all. Why?” The guard asked.

“I haven’t seen so many Zora climb out of it at once before,” Link explained.

“Oh!” The guard said. “That’s just a precaution the King has ordered.”

“Precaution for what?” Rusl piped up from behind Link.

“If the water freezes,” the guard clarified. “The guard, Queen and Prince last time made up about fifteen of us. Everyone else got trapped under the frozen layer on top of the water - the ice didn’t seem to snap-freeze the area fully until after the Queen died, but we were all stuck under the water anyway. So we take it in shifts now to be out of the water,” he explained. “Anything else you need?” He offered.

“No, thank you,” Rusl assured him.

Once the Zora had dived away, and the smell of cooking fish began to make Link’s stomach grumble, Link said, “They need some guards here. Non-aquatic guards.”

Rusl laughed, humorlessly. “Don’t we all? Shame the Hyrulian guard is more decorative than useful.”

“I never realised they had been trapped under the water while aware of it,” Link said, looking around the beautiful grove of the Zora’s main village. “It looked like they’d been taken by surprise. I guess they were, but not in the way I thought. I can’t imagine our village being frozen like that.”

Rusl hummed in agreement. “We didn’t lose anyone. Thanks to you, Link.”

“We were just lucky to be far out,” Link said.

“No,” Rusl told him, “I don’t think so. Nobody died in Castle Town, but there’s only one survivor of the Hidden Village, two from Kakariko, and we both know plenty of Goron and Zora didn’t make it out. The only difference between our village and theirs is we had you.”

“If I hadn’t done it, someone would’ve,” Link insisted.

“You say that,” Rusl said. “But you should hear Telma. Ruto’s been going to Castle Town near daily, trying to get assistance to rebuild and clear these areas. But the Zora are… out of sight, out of mind, I suppose. He hadn’t had luck, which is the reason Telma called on you and I.”

Link gazed around the now-gloomy area of the Zora’s domain, and sighed. “They can’t send even a few guards?” he asked, exasperated.

Rusl shook his head and then turned to the fire. “Fish is ready,” he announced.

As Link sat, he had an uncomfortably familiar feeling. Out of sight, out of mind, was what Castle Town residents thought of the Zora. Ruto was doing his best from the top, but it seemed he could not do much more than ask for help and hope the right people would answer.

I will tell you of both magic and the oppression of ages.. The people of our tribe… were locked away in this world like insects in a cave… All of it was the fault of that useless, do-nothing royal family that had resigned itself to a miserable half-existence!

Chapter Text

“Link, old boy, what in the Goddesses' names do you mean ‘ghoul rats’?” Shad asked with a shaky voice.

Link couldn’t help but smile a little. “They won’t hurt you, they’re just… clingy. If you find yourself going very slow, and you feel like little ghost claws are climbing up you, just tell me,” he reiterated. 

“I cannot believe you went through this place alone,” Shad said with a shudder.

Link supposed Shad was right - he hadn’t been alone. But he didn’t say that.

“What did you want to see?” he asked.

“Architecture,” Shad said. “Carvings. Whatever interesting things we can find, really.”

Link could work with that.

The main Poe chamber was elaborate, with statues lined up, blue glowing lamps, and doors in all directions. It also contained no dangers and was easy to get to, with Link piggy-backing Shad over the sand on the spinner. Link started them there.

Shad took less than a second to extract some paper and charcoal from his pack, pick a wall, and begin getting an impression from shading over the top of the wall carvings.

“This will make excellent translation materials,” Shad said to himself, satisfied.

“What language is it?” Link asked.

“Gerudo,” Shad replied. “This whole place was a Gerudo temple, hundreds of years back.”

That piqued Link’s curiosity. He thought this was just an old Hyrule prison. “What does it say?”

“Nobody knows,” Shad told him. “Nobody speaks Gerudo any more. But if we can get enough of these impressions, we may be able to reconstruct the language and work it out.”

“What happened to the Gerudo?” Link wondered.

Shad looked at him with surprise before saying, “I forget that you’re from the outskirts, Link. Excuse my rudeness. The Gerudo were imprisoned here, after Hyrule won over Ganondorf the first time. I think some were given the choice to be exiled in the same manner to another world, but there’s no records if anyone ever did it.”

“And then?” Link asked.

Shad sighed. “Well, that’s the end of it. Nobody ever exited this prison.”

Link paused and tried to put the pieces together in his head.

Thousands of tiny and large humanoid skeletons. Ghosts. Spirit rats. Poes. 

He’d known this place was bloody and brutal. He didn’t think it was a death sentence.

“They all died imprisoned here?" Link asked, a little hollowly.

“Most. There’s a colosseum up above - some of them fought. If you won something like six colosseum rounds you were released,” Shad explained. “Unfortunately for them, being released back into the desert alone and un-supplied wasn’t exactly a recipe for success. The colosseum mostly kept them occupied with fighting each other in hopes of escape, rather than fighting the guards or escaping.”

He moved to the next set of murals and began shading a second time.

“So Hyrule added crests, and that’s all?” Link asked. “Or did they destroy carvings?”

“Surprisingly little destruction,” Shad replied, semi-distracted, as he drew a new piece of paper for tracing. “But they defiled the temple.”

Link found those words extremely uneasy. “Defiled?”

“These statues,” he gestured at the central ones, “they’re not Gerudo. They were added when it was transformed from a temple to a prison.”

“And that’s… defiling?”

“Oh yes,” Shad said with certainty. “The Gerudo were all female, you know? They were even more matriarchal than us Hyrulians with our Queens. It was thought that males in the temple would defile it, and make their goddess angry. So when the Hyrule guard added the male statues, most of their religious beliefs couldn’t continue. Certainly not their temple practices,” he explained.

Link had thought the statues fancy, perhaps even beautiful or dignified. Now they seemed like a scar of aggression in the room.

“I heard a legend,” he said, “that an old tribe called the Interlopers was banished from this spot. But a long, long time ago.”

“Did you?” Shad asked, genuine curiosity in his tone. “There’s a few ancient Hylian texts mentioning interlopers, but rarely much info in them. Just that they were all banished permanently to another realm. This would’ve been before the Gerudo existed, though, so it wouldn’t be in this temple even if it was in this place.”

“Maybe this was something before it was a Gerudo temple too,” Link said, knowing that it was indeed in this temple. “It’s ancient, right?”

Shad nodded. “A plausible theory, but hard to prove,” he said. “I think I agree, though. This was the place where Ganondorf gained the Triforce of Power, so who knows what the Gods do here?”

Link’s look of confusion led him to continue.

“This was a Temple of Light, to the Gerudo, because of the spiritual magic that gathered here,” Shad clarified. “And it’s clear that it’s got spiritual power still,” he added, gesturing at the four blue poe-flames, glowing without fuel or wick on top of their podium. “Ghost rats aren’t… typical, you know. Usually it takes some kind of regret or curse to keep a spirit around like that. And I find it hard to believe your invisible ghost rats are plagued by regrets.”

“They’re not my ghost rats,” Link replied with a little affront.

Shad laughed. "Either way, the Gerudo may have known something we've lost knowledge of. They used a lot of light and fire to clear out this place regularly, according to what the early guards wrote, before the statues were put up," Shad said, wrinkling his nose at the stale air as he looked around the dark cavern. He sighed with longing. "How I would love to see this place in its prime."

Link had once heard Rusl call Twilight a time where he felt the lingering regrets of spirits… In hindsight, it seemed like an unconscious awareness of the plight and suffering of the Twili. As if the whole world had forgotten what they did, who they trapped, but it couldn’t prevent itself from knowing.

This place gave a whole new meaning to the phrase. Twili, Gerudo, Hylian, and who knows what else - this place was, as Midna called it, drenched in blood.

And perhaps that was as the Gods intended it. Why else would they give it - and its most evil prisoner - the power they did?

“Next mural, old boy!” Shad commanded happily, tucking his charcoal’d papers into his bag.

Chapter Text

The Festival of Din fell on the longest day of summer each year, in Ordon. It was a day for children to swim in the lake, food to be cooked, and dancing to happen.

Link could not bring himself to visit the village. Not to celebrate Din. The Goddess who did this to all of them - who gave the triforce to Ganondorf at the moment he nearly died.

The children were excited. They’d missed the festival last year. That made Link all the more irritated at himself. He was ruining the day for the children. But Din had been the reason behind them being kidnapped last year. Din had been the reason Queen Rutela died in front of her subjects. Din had been the reason Kakariko village was a shell of its former self.

Din, in Link’s opinion, needed to keep her divine nose out of their business for once.

He found his feet taking himself to Ordon spring. The soft sounds of the fairies filled his ears and he tried to relax. This had all come from Din too. Without Ganondorf, he wouldn’t have released the great fairy back to them.

It wasn’t much of a reassurance.

Instead his mind wandered to the spot where The Hero of Time had stood, in golden wolf form, to await him. He’d learned the Mortal Blow from that hero. The man who had defeated Ganondorf the first time, blessed with the Triforce of Courage and the legendary Ocarina of Time.

The Chosen of the Gods… who wandered as a regretful spirit for hundreds of years.

Link had never learned much about his predecessor’s time as a hero. He was, evidently, a very good swordsman. He’d died in battle, according to his armor. He’d defeated Ganondorf as a child, according to the legends.

Link couldn’t imagine doing that. He had chosen to do what he did. He’d gone after the children of his village, and then gone on to make his village safe. He was their strongest, liveliest adult member. He was just doing his duty to them, as Rusl did too.

The Hero of Time… what had he been driven by? Why would a child be the best solution to an evil man like Ganondorf? Why on Earth would Farore give her piece of power to an innocent child and doom them not only to a life of battle and heroics, but an afterlife of regret?

“Ordona,” he called.

The goat-formed light spirit rose gently, its soothing light washing over Link. “Hero,” it greeted.

“Did you see the golden wolf that was here, when this all first started?” Link asked.

Ordona nodded its great glowing antlered head. “The Hero of Time,” it said.

“Did you know him?”

“We light spirits did not take our current forms, in his time,” Ordona replied. “The great fairy knew him.”

Link blinked at that, and approached closer the glowing cloud. It coalesced into the great fairy as Ordona sank back into the sacred waters, disappearing.

“You ask about the Hero of Time?” She asked gently.

“Yes,” Link replied. “How did you know him?”

“I was broken, scattered, in the war of his time,” she said. “He collected the pieces and restored me, and my sisters.”

“How old was he?”

“Maybe eight or ten in human years,” the great fairy said. “You feel sad for him,” she noted, “but perhaps you should not. He bore the triforce of courage with strength. He did a great deal of good.”

“Did he?” Link asked. “Ganondorf survived and returned to devastate us. In the years between, whole tribes died. You fairies disappeared again, and he roamed the woods as a lost spirit, and if he’s related to me, his family line died out and left an orphan. How is that doing good?”

The fairy looked confused. “Ganondorf did not defeat us, young one,” she said. “He won. Without his work, there would be no fairies to return to the world; no forest to roam."

“He lost everything,” Link growled, frustrated. The fairy began to return to its glowing cloud form, and he sighed. “I didn’t mean to take that out on you,” he said to the fairy.

She smiled softly, solidifying once more. “Mortals feel strongly,” she said. “We cannot know why the Gods do what they do. They are just there, ensuring a hero is chosen each time dark rises.”

Link froze, thinking.

“It’ll happen again?” He asked. “Isn’t the point of this that I stopped it?”

“You gave the land hundreds of years of peace,” the great fairy reassured him. “But yes, there will always be another bearer of spirit that led Ganondorf to his evil, over time. There were heroes before your Hero of Time, and there will be heroes after your death, young one.”

Link unfroze, furious. “So it was all for nothing,” he said.

“If something does not cause permanent good, is it worthless?” the great fairy challenged gently. “You released my children, and freed me from the cave of ordeals. Perhaps one day I and my children will be in trouble again. But I will still appreciate what you did for us now, on that day.”

Link suddenly felt he knew exactly why his predecessor had lingered in spirit form, full of regrets, waiting to help the next hero.

“I am not leaving another person alone to take the Triforce’s burden,” he said. “Either I will break this cycle, this system, or I will be there for whoever comes after me.”

“You speak the truth of your intention,” the great fairy said softly. “But you are not the first to vow such a thing. Do not fall into this trap as your predecessor did, chosen one. We may choose our path, but the Goddesses direct our steps, and no mortal or immortal can destroy what they have made.”

Link knew he wasn't going to get a fairy to agree that the Gods were unjust. “Thank you for your advice, great fairy,” he said politely, bowing. As he neared the gate of the spring, she called out to him.

He turned, surprised she was still in the form of a woman, as she floated a little closer over the water.

“Know, hero, the thing that your predecessor learned by hard experience,” she said. “Your spirit may linger, even the spirit of the wolf, but your body is only mortal and it will not remain. You will not be able to affect the future the way you want to.”

Link nodded. “I appreciate the warning,” he said. “But I can’t not try.”

The fairy smiled sadly. “That is why you are the Hero of Twilight, young one.”

With that, she faded away.

Link had some research to do. He had to pack and visit Shad.

He would go tomorrow, so he could say goodbye without the festival hanging over his head.

In the mean time… he supposed he would go into the village, let the kids have their fun and jump all over him. He had the rest of his life to work out his next steps.