[ Twenty-three, then. She says it so simply, so definitively, that Link doesn't feel the slightest inkling to discuss further, much less argue. If that number is a satisfying answer to her question, then all the better. But rather than being relieved of that sense of loss that was evoked by her question, he feels it grip tight around him when she speaks again. ]

...Is that what you see, then. That's my fortune... shackles.

[ He asks softly, staying calm in the face of their emotional back and forth. Anxious one second, reminiscing on their lust the next, and now confronted with the core conflict that's tormented him for the past several months... How much of it can she see, with that strange power of hers?

With a sigh, he takes another sip from his cup. ]

I don't know. I've always known I was supposed to do important things... that's one of the first things I was told when I woke up from being asleep. And from what I've learned, I knew I had some kind of important destiny when I was a kid too. But I don't remember it feeling heavy. Not until recently.