And down went the knife, onto the cutting board alongside the half-filleted fish, Link turning to walk over to the table.
He crouched down next to her, making sure she was looking him in the eye before speaking. "I know you don't," he said. "And you didn't mess up. I had an explanation that I threw at Pruce that fixed the problem before it was a problem. And I'm sure he'll probably tell Ivee, just to keep her on the same page. What would be messing up is continuing to talk about it."
He put a hand on her knee, trying to give her any measure of reassuring contact, and really only able to do as much without a lot of awkward reaching. "This is just as much my fault, because I should've said something last night," he continued. "It's just been bred into my family for about sixty thousand years to keep that secret at all costs, if for some Goddess only knows reason we even become aware of it. So my first instinct was to not talk about it at all. I should've thought better of that. So this isn't just on your head."