"Eh?" The woman turns and blinks. She heaves her loot. "This? Over by Horwell Bridge. Two of the damn things shot each other somehow, I think. Had half its head melted off. Still some parts to salvage, if you fancy risking your life. I'm sure as hell not going back."

"Thank you for the warning." Horwell, Horwell... ah! Right, it's down the back end of the mountain from here, one of the eight bridges out of Central Hyrule that she memorized once due to being the sort of person who memorizes lists. "I'll be sure to take appropriate caution if I'm in the area."

"What's it for?" Link asks.

"Oh, probably pawn it off to that old scientist up north," she shrugs. "Certainly not selling it to anyone around here." She laughs awkwardly.

...???

She wants to ask but doesn't know how.

Link has no such qualms.

"Why?"

"They don't want anything to do with these old beasties." She slaps the salvage. "Some of those old ladies gave me the evil eye when I came in lugging this. Not Milo, though, he's cool. Right, Milo?" she calls.

    "Pipe down and eat your dinner," he calls back from the bar.

"...well, I suppose Guardians can be dangerous," she says dubiously. "But how can we protect ourselves against what we don't understand?"

"Don't you know it! Might as well get some use out of the bad boys once they're down."

The woman gets promptly distracted by the drinks menu.

So Zelda goes back to her dinner. The part of her that is Rosy resents this intrusion of politics into what was supposed to be a straightforward quest to save the world, and, to be fair, the part of her that is Zelda does too, but more resignedly. As soon as you have people they begin to disagree with each other. If you have people and none of them are disagreeing with each other you have other problems.

No one bothers them for the rest of dinner. Link finishes quickly and starts fiddling with his Sheikah Slate at the table. Milo will collect their dishes and prompt them to get going if they're not gone by the end of the hour.

She's not much slower than Link. Eating is something of a pointless indulgence anyway. ...she pointlessly indulges in sneaking dessert into her pocket, though, because it will be nice to have eternal access to dessert.

"I think I saw an attached stable as we were coming in," she says. "I want to check that Starless made it here, and I feel like I should check on her anyway, she's had a lot of upheaval in her life recently."

Link puts away his Sheikah Slate and nods, standing up.

To the stables!

It's a nice roomy stable, eleven stalls, a bit less than there are rooms in the inn. There are two other horses parked there, and Starless is near the gate, munching on some hay that someone must have provided. She looks up and flicks an ear as they enter. She doesn't appear distressed. When Zelda comes over, she nickers for a snack.

Apple! Pat pat. Friend horse.

"I keep feeling like I should apologize to her for getting her involved in all this," she comments.

This is going to be the best-fed horse in all of Hyrule.

"Doesn't look like she has complaints," remarks Link.

"That might change if we're attacked while we're traveling with her." Horse friend gets ear scritches. "But I shouldn't borrow trouble, I suppose, there's plenty to go around already."

Horse friend approves of ear scritches.

"What's going to attack us?" Link wonders. "Calamity Ganon's in the castle."

"Monsters? The Yiga? I'm not sure. Maybe I'm worrying over nothing."

"Yiga?"

"Ah—Claree mentioned they killed her mother. They're... a troublesome bunch." This is making them sound like rowdy schoolchildren. She clarifies: "Assassins. With many of the same tricks that I hope to start learning tomorrow—like that gate guard appearing out of thin air—but they mostly use them to murder people who do things they don't like. They want the Calamity to win."

???

"Why?"

"Good question," she sighs. "I'm not sure."

"So we shouldn't make it known who we are."

He touches his Slate.

"We should cover these up."