Link ran a towel through his wet hair inside the inn. He had hung his champion's tunic and trousers on the side of his bed. Paya demanded he dry off before tell them what happened. It made sense to him. She didn't want any of her papers tarnished... whatever those papers were.

He draped the towel over his shoulders, his hair still a little damp, and walked around in only the underwear he had woken up with in the Shrine of Resurrection. He studied the wound on his side he had received. It wasn't too deep, yet it still hurt. He quickly flipped through some of the clothes he had recovered from his burned house. He decided on his blue lobster shirt and his stealth armor trousers.

Walking towards the door to return to the group, he looked at the nightstand next to Zelda's bed. On it was the slightly singed picture of the Champions. He instantly remembered what Impa said before she left his presence.

"All of us here say hi."

He picked up the picture and traced it with his fingers. He smiled knowing they were all looking down on him. He placed the picture back down, ran the towel through his hair once more, and started to walk out.

He took his hair tie and began to tie his signature messy ponytail. He pushed the door open with his foot and was met with Zelda waiting right in front of him: eyes wide and hands behind her back. Link froze with his hands still in his hair.

"Are you ok?" Zelda asked.

"Hmm?" Link responded, finishing his hair.

Zelda had done her best to not show it, but she had been tense the entire time Link had been down in the dungeon. She had been waiting outside the door since he had walked in. The feelings she had for him were still present, but they had grown even more over the last month. It was almost unbearable.

"Are you ok?" She repeated. "Did you get hurt when you were down there?" She reached out and touched his arm. "You looked exhausted when you came out."

His mind immediately went to his left side. Link smiled, grabbed her arm, and gently put it down. Her heart fluttered.

"I'm fine, Zelda. I'll explain everything when we get back." He motioned with his head to the house. His hand was still on hers. He didn't want to admit it so he could focus on the current threat, but his feelings had grown as well. He squeezed her hand a tiny bit. "Come on. Let's go."

They walked hand in hand to the house, both melting inside. Zelda looked at the shirt he had changed into. She pointed to it.

"I like this one."

He raised his eyebrows. "You do?"

"Yeah," she giggled. "It makes you look like a little kid."

—————

Sheik continued to figure out the ancient melody inside the house. The notes on the tattered page were faded and very difficult to see. He had been trying since Link had first gone down the hole to read it and little progress was being made. He eventually pushed the pages aside, leaned against the wall, and played his own melody. This wasn't one he had read about in his book. This was a song he had composed on his own. It was his favorite, too. He felt it reflected who he was.

As he finished, he opened his eyes to see Paya staring at him across the room. Immediately her cheeks turned bright red, but she didn't break eye contact.

"That was beautiful," she eventually said. The redness in her face started to die down.

Sheik sat up. "Thank you. Means a lot."

"You still haven't told any of us who you are," Paya said. "Yet you came in everyday to check on me. Against my orders, too"

Sheik placed his harp down. "Just checking if you were alright."

"I said I was fine, though."

"But you weren't. Your grandmother had just died and you had the weight of an entire village on you. You locked yourself in and studied all of this," he motioned to the floor.

"Yeah...b-" she stuttered. "But I was ok. I'd go upstairs and get some rest every once in a while..."

"No you didn't." Sheik cut her off.

"What? N-no. I'd walk upstairs-"

Sheik shook his head. "You fell asleep on that floor every single time." He pointed to his chest. "I carried you up."

Paya's mouth hung open and her face turned red again.

"I carried you to your bed and I brought in the food and water on top of checking on you. That was me."

Paya looked down in embarrassment, an emotion she was very familiar with.

"I'm glad you've opened the doors," Sheik continued. "Now we can all know what the heck you've been doing in here."

Paya continued to look down.

"Guess we'll just wait for them to get back."

"Thank you," Paya abruptly.

Sheik lifted his head at her. She looked at him with the most appreciation and... love he had ever seen from a person.

"Y- You're welcome." Sheik began to stand, but Link and Zelda walked into the room. Zelda smiled.

"Guess it's time to catch up," Zelda announced.

—————

"It was a huge room. Six times the size of this one." Link began to explain what had happened in the dungeon. All four of them sat on the floor.

He described what it looked like and how far it took to get down there.

"How did I not know about this?" Paya questioned.

"Well," he started, "she actually appeared to me."

"She did?" Her eyes went wide.

Link nodded. "She looked like you, actually. Way younger than she used to be. She told me that she and Purah would come down there every once in a while. Then Purah began to conduct experiments and eventually made a fully functioning guardian."

"What?" Sheik asked from the corner. "How could it have gotten out?"

"Well... it didn't," Link answered. "It was still there. And that's why she, Impa, sent me down there."

"To kill it?" Zelda asked.

"Yeah. But," he pulled the hookshot out, "I think this is the REAL reason she had me do it." Link handed it to Zelda.

"This is incredible," she said awestruck. She ran her hands over it. "What is it?"

He told them about how Impa claimed it would help him on his journey. They all asked what journey she was talking about. He still didn't know. He assumed it had to do with Dark Link and the Yiga Clan.

As Link wrapped up his story, he smiled at Paya.

"Ok. Your turn."

Paya shifted in her seat and sat up straighter.

"Ok." She breathed out. "I want to start by saying sorry. To all of you. My emotions, as always, got the best of me and I foolishly acted on impulse when I shut everyone out." She looked up. "I'm sincerely sorry."

"Don't be," Sheik said.

She turned to him.

"You were dealing with a lot of things, and you still are. Don't be sorry. You're ok."

Paya smiled. "Ok." She continued.

"When I locked the doors I cri-" she stopped and cleared her throat. "I gathered myself. I took some time to reflect on her as anyone would and I gathered myself." she clarified. "I thought about what a great woman and leader she was, so I decided to look at some of her belongings. It was hard, but I eventually brought myself to it. I read through her journals, looked at old pictures and paintings, and wrote in my own diary- journal. I wrote about her in my journal."

Zelda smiled at her friend's clumsiness. She was used to hearing it, but it still was charming to her.

"I read some more of her journals when I came across..." she shuffled some papers and books around until she found a newer, crimson color book. "...this." On the cover it read: "Paya" on the cover in white letters. It was very thin, only 10 pages long.

"This is a book written to me by Impa. It has things that only I need to know about, but she also wrote in here that, 'everything you need to know about your people, you already have.'"

She sighed.

"So I've been reading everything here, trying to figure out what I 'already have.' I've gone... I don't know how many days without sleep, but now that I know she came to you," she pointed to Link, "I know she's been with me this entire time."

"So you're alright?" Zelda asked.

"I am," Paya smiled. "And I think I know what she was talking about."

They all smiled. If they knew Paya was good, then the Sheikah would be good.

"So now what?" Sheik asked.

"I've been thinking about that," Link said. "There's obviously more we need to do in order for-"

Paya had raised her hand.

Link chuckled. "Yeah, Paya?"

She smiled through bloodshot eyes. "Let's sleep on it."