The Legend of Zedekiah
The Forgotten Tomb
1
Night had embraced the quiet town of half-timbered houses in its numbing arms, hushing the garish terracotta roofs. A refreshing wind pressed the tall firs aside, swept through the windows and chased the scorching summer heat. Castle Town was mostly asleep.
Yet, in her room, Lieke relished in the caress of the breeze reaching her desk, tickling her sunburnt skin, toying with her wild and generous mane of dark blonde hair. Opening her eyes, she became aware of the danger in which the flickering flame of her candle was and swiftly hid it behind a wall of books. Books she had to study at night if she ever wanted to be more than a simple farmgirl. Although her father had given her some useful manuscripts—usually about religion—most of those heavy volumes came from her best friend's personal library.
The young hylian sighed, struggling to keep her lids from falling over her dry eyes. This text on ridding equipment vocabulary was so boring. Why did so many tiny parts need to have their own complex name? Why couldn't they just be "the small ring on the upper part of the thingy"? That worked just fine for communication on the parsonage's farm. In her frustrated weariness, head resting in her palms, she drifted nearer and nearer to the world of dreams.
"Lieke," a soft voice called in the darkness of her mind. "Wake up."
She was so comfortable.
"Wake up sleepyhead, or I am letting myself in," the voice insisted, sounding both amused and annoyed.
Lieke jerked up from her working table, eying her window by reflex. The black silhouette of a timid hand greeted her behind the moonlit stain glass, soon followed by the outline of a familiar head. She jumped to her feet and carefully swung the second half of the window open, smothering its indignant screech as much as she could.
Her visitor sneaked into the small room. Lieke didn't need more than the dim candlelight to see him; she knew Prince Zedekiah by heart. Hair the color of wheat fields rocked under the sun, sleek and always perfectly groomed. Slender shape, suited for intellectual and dexterous work. Most of all, piercing blue eyes that seemed to dive into one's soul—and Lieke suspected that there was more truth than metaphor to that last impression.
"It's almost better when you are asleep! Contacting you in your dreams is way more discreet than knocking on the window," he smiled, elegantly striding towards the desk. "Started without me, I see?"
Zedekiah, despite being a year younger than her, stood as high as the sturdy farm girl did. He folded the dark coat he wore on his clandestine escapades and neatly laid it over the chair Lieke was sleeping in moments ago. The girl sat on the edge of her small bed, unconsciously rubbing her eyes.
"I tried," she admitted. "I didn't think you'd be coming tonight."
"Why ever not?" the prince replied, grabbing the book that had claimed her consciousness.
"I thought you'd want to rest. For tomorrow."
He glanced her way, flashing those blue irises, before returning to the pages in his hands.
"Rest is all I'll be able to do for three days," he said. "What won't be in that temple with me is good reading."
"I'd hardly call that good reading," Lieke grumbled.
Tomorrow evening would mark the beginning of the Allgodhayz holiday; three sacred days of devotion to the three gods. If most citizens closed shop for the three days, few were those who actually respected traditional fasting. As for Zedekiah, a descendant of the gods themselves, who turned seventeen this year, he was expected to cloister himself in the Temple of All Gods with nothing other than his prayers and holy water to keep him company.
Far from finding fault in this, Lieke admired her friend's devotion to the gods—if anything, it was what brought them together. Her father was the castle's high priest. The same father who was currently soundly asleep in his study like every evening, just below their feet, unaware of the girl's lessons to infiltrate the high spheres of life in Hyrule.
2
Zedekiah's hand went to fiddle with the bracelet that was absent from his wrist in this incognito costume. There was another reason for his surprise visit, but he still hadn't decided whether to confide in his quiet friend. He didn't like the idea of burdening her mind with problems that were so decidedly out of her hands. Yet, if there was one opinion he cared to listen to, it was Lieke's.
"Since there obviously won't be any efficient studying done tonight, there is something else I'd like to discuss with you," he started hesitantly.
Lieke's eyes, their irises seemingly cut out from the night sky awaiting outside, shot up to meet his, their gaze attentive and determined—as it was whenever he asked anything of her.
"This afternoon, Mother received a most singular visitor," he continued. "By her stature and tone, I assumed a woman. But she was veiled. I could only distinguish her eyes…"
Zedekiah wondered how to best express the feeling he had experienced upon seeing the stranger.
"They felt evil."
The concentrated frown knitting Lieke's severe brows did not falter, as though she had been expecting this announcement all along.
"There is more. A strand of hair escaped her veil: it was as red as flames. And she was uncommonly tall. No hylian is that tall."
"You don't think that…" His stoic friend interrupted herself, probably hit by the improbability of such an idea.
"I know it sounds crazy," the prince sighed.
Lieke ran a hand in her unruly blonde hair, a concentrated look on her face.
"But Gerudo are always male," she pondered.
So they have been, for centuries. This nation of great warriors dwelled in to the west, beyond the desert. They occasionally traveled to central Hyrule, in search of a mate, but mostly they kept to themselves. The fact that the few hylians having met those giants of the desert were surprised by their charming, almost bewitching behavior, only made the majority of hylians particularly suspicious of them. Numerous were the tales of women having followed a tall redheaded man into the desert never to be seen again, converted to their secretive, perhaps unholy way of life. But Zedekiah knew those to be falsehoods, as women were strictly forbidden in their far away fortress. He had visited the place once, invited in his mother's place by their chief, Nabooris. What he had seen was a thriving exotic city, filled with families of fathers and sons as caring and lively as any hylian home. There were in fact a few hylians living in the smaller villages erected around the fortress.
"Indeed," Zedekiah agreed. "But the legends say that a woman can be born, and should that happen, she'd become their queen."
To his friend's surprise, the girl's face illuminated.
"Oh, I remember reading about this now!" she exclaimed.
She rummaged through the piles of books on her desk until she extirpated a badly battered book. The binding barely held the pages back, and a few leaves whirled out as she brought it close to her nose. The title read 'Hyrule Historia'.
"Mmf. There isn't much more on the subject," she said, disappointed.
Zedekiah was not surprised. He glanced at the starry sky outside, wondering what to do with this situation that made him very uncomfortable.
"Lieke," he once more asked for his friend's complete attention, "if you ever see that woman, be careful, will you?"
3
The monumental double doors of ancient wood creaked as the high priest led Prince Zedekiah into the temple. This sanctuary, nested in the outskirts of Castle Town, was the largest in all of Hyrule, designed to receive as much of the population as possible for important events, such as coronations. As the sun set on the town, the towering insides of the temple were slowly flooded by shadows. Zedekiah was not used to see it empty and still. Outside of public celebrations, he mostly prayed in the private sanctuary in the inner court of the castle.
"I believe you'll find everything you need, your Highness," the sheikah priest bowed affably, his short ponytail of silvery hair shining in the shadows.
"I won't be needing much. Thank you, Impé," the boy smiled back.
He liked the priest like a father, having never really known his own. The poor king had died soon after the birth of his heir. But Impé had not hesitated to give the boy way more than was required of him as a simple priest. As he had done with Lieke, the orphan he had raised as his own daughter. More than teaching the prince prayers and incantations, Impé had always lent time, ear, protection. Zedekiah's mother might be loving under her stern looks, yet she still had an entire kingdom to rule by herself.
But for now, the loyal priest could not assist the young man in the task he had to perform, and the latter was left all alone.
4
Forger in the highest mountains, may thy strength shape the lands so that they will ever provide. Juror in the earth, may thy courage bless our kingdom with righteous justice and the renewal of life. Keeper in the waters, may thy knowledge bring order to both what is animated and what is not. God of all gods, Father of all things, may thou find pride in –
Prince Zedekiah interrupted the string of prose endlessly repeated in his head since dusk. The sound of his many jewels of gold tinkling against one another echoed in the vast and silent space surrounding him as he observed it. He could not see very well beyond the chancel lit with countless candles, even if dawn was basking the nave in dim lilac light, but he felt it. The presence in the temple. He was not alone.
But it was not a threatening presence. Zedekiah felt its warmth and softness press against his heart fleetingly and immediately recognized it.
"What are you doing here?" he whispered in the dark. "We could be in serious trouble if someone caught us."
Somehow, his tone wasn't disapproving or anxious. It was the tone used to reprimand an incorrigible yet adorable puppy who just wouldn't stay behind. The ashen mane of Lieke, framed by the pointy hood of her green surcoat emerged between two rows of benches. Beneath the surcoat, she wore the farm's usual brown long-sleeved dress.
"You just helped me so much recently, I thought I'd check if I could do anything for you," she stood awkwardly in the aisle.
The prince only studied her in silence, actually wondering if there was anything she could do. The adventurous girl had grown up in this temple, exploring its every corner and executing many chores as her father tended to his tasks. She evidently knew how to slip in and out undetected, even with all main entrances locked as they presently were.
"I could just stay with you," she suggested. "I promise I wouldn't disturb you. I'd be as silent as a grave!"
Indeed, his friend, despite her occasional witty remarks, was not the talkative type. Yet after a moment of silence, she added half-heartedly: "I brought a book."
A smile twisted the corner of Zedekiah's mouth against his will. Who was he kidding? His first night in this immense temple, its towering ceilings echoing every sound in the dark, and the demons of a restless mind whispering in his ear, had been unsettling to say the least.
"I'd like that," he agreed. "Thank you, Lieke."
5
This was the most boring day of Lieke's life—and she had known plenty boring days in her youth in this exact temple. As she didn't want to disturb her friend's prayers, she had refrained from wandering through the immense sanctuary in search of a distraction, which officially made this the longest day she ever spent here.
She eyed her unflappable companion, still praying away. His kneeling silhouette was much brighter than it was yesterday, wrapped in his princely apparel: a surcoat of royal magenta decorated with his family's crest rested on a white tunic with two blue stripes running along its edges. A circlet, necklace, belt, epaulettes and large bracelets of gold and rubies made his royal appurtenance undeniable.
She shifted in her uncomfortable seat at a row bench, returning to 'The Compendium of Hyrule's Noble Houses'. There were so many things that royal knights needed to know which seemed completely futile to her. Zedekiah seemed certain that displaying a strong basic knowledge would increase the odds of finding a mentor who would take Lieke as their squire. And she was not about to question his wisdom in the matter.
"I am exhausted," she finally heard her friend exhale by the end of the day.
He turned away from the imposing effigy of the god of all gods, offering her a tired smile. Lieke's stomach responded with an indignant growl.
"And famished as well," he laughed, his crystalline voice echoing softly around them.
"I'll fetch you some food," the girl offered, immediately getting to her feet.
Stretching her legs would be a more than welcome distraction.
"I daresay the gods don't mind me bending the rules slightly by letting you in, talking two sentences in a day or sleeping for a few hours, but eating would be downright cheating," he replied.
Lieke suspiciously eyed the large stone statue, with its spread wings and resting face fixed in a neutral yet benevolent looking expression.
"Look at him and those chubby cheeks, he's clearly just as much of a cheater as all of us," she waved a dismissing hand.
Zedekiah's shocked expression twisted Lieke's empty stomach. Surely the gods could recognize a harmless joke, couldn't they?
"I could refuse tonight's meal in repentance, but if I don't show up for supper, Father is going to turn suspicious," the priest's daughter shifted guiltily. "You're sure I can't bring you anything from the exciting world of the living?"
The prince shook his head, yet she noticed the simper he was trying to hide. He turned his face away, gazing through one of the stained-glass windows. The setting sun projected its iridescent colors on his face and pale hair.
"I wish you didn't have to go," he declared.
6
Later that night, the thought would occur to Prince Zedekiah that he had brought all of it on himself by speaking those words, and he would regret them bitterly. But at first, he didn't regard the keese as the gods answer to his wish.
As if reacting on cue to his last sentence in a theater play, what the boy first took for a stray bat spurted just above their heads, leaving a trail of echoing ultrasounds behind it. The two adolescents started, ducking to avoid any collision.
"I didn't know there were bats in here," the prince said as Lieke quickly joined him on the chancel, eyes searching for the creature across the dim ceiling.
"I don't think this was an ordinary bat," his friend answered.
It amazed Zedekiah how the easygoing farmgirl could switch into action mode at the slightest alarm. As he squinted to better see the screeching creature, it abruptly changed its course and charged at them. Its small size and great speed made it hard to distinguish, and it was past them before the young man heard Lieke letting out a short cry of pain.
"What happened?" he asked in confusion. "Did it hurt you?"
But Lieke gave no answer, all of her attention riveted to the whirling beast. Her gaze then swiftly swept their surroundings, before landing on an extinguished torch propped against the brick wall leading to the basement.
She reached it in a few hurried steps and swiftly returned to her friend.
"Stay back," she told him, brandishing the improvised staff.
The bat was back, swooping down on them with unmistakable purpose, steering away from the menacing torch at the last second.
This situation was starting to unnerve Zedekiah. Sleeping with bats hanging upside-down to his ceiling was one thing, but having them attacking him changed his perspective of the night to come.
Finally, the beast came again, a mere flash of shadow in the penumbra, only to be met by a mighty torch blow. It spread to the floor, inert.
The two friends glanced at each other, only now realizing that they had forgotten to breathe for a short while. Inhaling sharply, Lieke crouched over the recumbent creature whose broken wings lay at odd angles to its side. Zedekiah curiously followed.
It was no bat. Bats didn't have barbed mandibles. Nor did they have vicious raptor talons at their wings. Or enormous protruding eyes. The aura around its limp body was what shocked Zedekiah the most. It was the second time he felt it. There was a maleficent power emanating from it, even if very faintly. And it filled his heart with dread.
Lieke's hand extended to probe the dead creature, but before his friend could hold her back, the little body disappeared in a burst of violet smoke, making them both jump. They stared at the floor a few moments, too surprised to register this strange event.
Then Lieke's gaze slowly turned towards her arm, where the creature's talon had cut through the brown sleeve. She gently touched the small cut and inspected her bloodstained finger.
"Are you alright?" Zedekiah enquired.
"Yes," she answered, before adding: "That thing was in one of your books. The one about the dark eras."
The prince gulped, his throat feeling uncomfortably tight.
"It was," he agreed.
"It's called a keese, isn't it?" she asked.
"I believe so."
Shaken by this strange encounter, the friends stood silently, wondering what to make of it. Lieke was observing the temple with a reproachful glare, as if that would guilt it into providing answers.
"Where did it come from?" she finally asked.
Even if she was staring at the archway where she had grabbed the torch, which she still held in a hand whose knuckles were turning white, Zedekiah assumed the question was directed at him rather than the temple.
"I-I think it was that way," he stammered.
Lieke walked up to the archway and peered into the darkness that stood on the other side.
"What if there are more?" she wondered.
As Zedekiah didn't know what to say, he kept silent.
"I'll go check it out," she decided. "So you can pray in peace."
"Are you serious?" he heard himself reply without thinking. "Praying just fell all the way down the priority list. I'm coming with you."
7
A spiral staircase let to the basement. The torch, which Lieke had lit using the candles at the foot of the God's effigy, sent a dancing sunset-colored light against the brick walls. She knew where it led; remembered the cold and dampness that awaited them in the temple's basement.
She stepped flame first into the underground, ready to greet the horde of keese that might be lurking under its low ceiling. But the place was as deserted as it always was. The wooden doors to the few rooms it housed, such as the cellar for potion making, were closed. She strode across the long corridor, when she felt something indescribable. It was like… a distant calling. Something was calling her. No, not exactly. It came from within herself, guiding her. And at the same time, it was out there.
Maybe she should have found this unnatural and frightening. Instead, it reassured her; gave her courage.
"This way," she told the prince who walked more slowly, having no previous knowledge of those labyrinthine corridors to guide him in the darkness.
He complied without a word. They walked along a few corridors, stopping at intersections as Lieke fathomed her omniscient guide for the right way. Sometimes they heard the echoing chirpings and flapping winds of other keese, but fortunately didn't encounter any.
The girl stopped in front of an entrance through the brick wall, behind which awaited descending stairs. This was never here, she was certain of it. The calling felt stronger, vibrating in the air with the perfect frequency of a diapason.
She eyed her companion, wondering if he could feel it too. He seemed anxious and alert. She nodded to him in encouragement, indicating the hidden staircase they had stumbled upon, and went through it.
A vast wall carved in stone awaited at the bottom, engraved in an ancient sheikah dialect which Lieke didn't understand. Her father, she thought disappointedly, probably knew it. At the heart of the wall was a door of stone which had been slid to the side, either by magic or surhylian force, revealing a dark entrance.
"Lieke." Zedekiah grabbed her gently and pointed at their feet.
There, in the orange halo of the torch's flame, was a symbol carved in the floor. A geometrical bird, wings, talons and tail spread, beak towards the sky. Lodged between wings and beak was a triangle, made of three smaller ones.
"This is my family's crest," the prince said.
Lieke's gaze went from the carving at their feet to the painting on Zedekiah's surcoat; the resemblance was undeniable.
"Do you know what this place is?" she asked him.
"No," he replied barely loud enough for her to hear.
She tried to put up a confident smile for him.
"Then let's find out."
8
A room too large for the torch's glow to reveal its true depth awaited on the other side of the entrance. A canal of shallow still water spread between neat rows of paved pathways.
Zedekiah followed his friend on the path along the wall to their right. He let his fingers trace the ancient runes endlessly carved in the walls. How mysterious. Never had he heard of a site relating to the royal family beneath the Temple of All Gods. Those runes were proof that the place was old. Older than the dark eras, which had all but wiped the sheikah race from the mortal world. Apart from Impé, last survivor of a long line of sheikah priests having endured for centuries after the dark eras, Zedekiah had never met another living member of that clan whose historical purpose had been to watch over the royal family.
However, curiosity was not the prince's only feeling towards the place. Dread was much stronger. The nearer they had gotten to this lost royal site, the stronger the aura of corruption he had first felt with the veiled woman, and then with the keese, had become. Now, he was bathing in it; every breath he drew was filled with nefarious energy. The place reeked of it. Especially the water. He didn't trust it for one second. He felt vulnerable without any means of defense and found himself wishing for his bow and arrows. Zedekiah was no great warrior, being more of a pacifist, but he did master the noble art of archery.
After walking for a few moments along the right side of the room, they were met with another canal of water too large to leap over, and the path crooked to the left, sending them back towards the middle. A dark, immobile shape stood across the way in the distance, just near enough for the light of the torch to reveal it, making the teenagers recoil in surprise.
"What is this?" Zedekiah whispered in his friend's ear.
As if triggered by the faint sound, the undistinguishable shape started to move slowly, almost imperceptibly, as though turning on itself. Its movement seemed to freeze everything around it; the air that entered Zedekiah's lungs was biting, so much so that his very heart felt numb. As he exhaled, whirls of white fumes exited his mouth.
The thing started approaching. As it got closer to the light, its humanoid shape became clearer; it was a mummified corpse. A walking corpse.
"Lieke, let's go," the prince ordered, no longer bothering to keep his tone low for stealth's sake.
The girl seemed as frozen as he was by the atmosphere around the creature, but she finally took a step back. Not fast enough, however, as the most horrifying sound Zedekiah had ever heard tore through his very soul. Or the sound was that of his soul screaming for mercy. He fell to his knees, no longer the master of his own body.
The corpse marched on, now only a few feet away. The life inhabiting the two young hylians seemed to slowly leave them, sucked away by those hollow orbits and mouth.
But Lieke abruptly snapped back to reality, splitting the air in front of her with her flaming torch, uttering a menacing cry. The flames licked the creature's dry brown skin, without eliciting the slightest reaction from the latter. It merely kept marching forward, followed by the sickening odor of burnt skin.
Lieke changed technique, thumping the petrifying face with the torch. The corpse stumbled back, but immediately recovered and steadily advanced on its prey. Before she could repeat her attack however, the bloodcurdling sound tore the air once more.
Zedekiah watched, powerless, as his friend's will faltered, leaving her defenseless in front of the terrible monster. Its evil aura alone was enough to rivet him to the ground; its cry beat down on the nail.
And then, the corpse jumped on Lieke, wrapping its skeletal limbs around her body, making them both fall across the canal of putrid water.
It was in that moment that Prince Zedekiah realized that he himself had been the spark that had triggered this chain of terrifying events. He had wished for his friend to stay with him. His wish had been granted in a most ironic way when that keese had shown up, like an omen of the dark world that had been unleashed beneath their feet. Would all of this have happened, had he kept his mouth shut?
He could not lose his best friend because of some selfish yearning. He could not be the cause of her demise. He would not allow it.
The young royal hylian slowly returned on his feet, filled with a feeling of purpose and righteousness coursing from his heart to the very end of all his extremities. He would send that vicious creature back to the realm of malice it crept out from if it was the last thing he did.
Without thinking, he motioned the drawing out of a bow with one hand, and of an arrow with the other, before gesturing the bending of the bow. Only it was more than a gesture, as he found himself pulling with all his might. A blazing light of the purest white emanated from his extended arm, but Zedekiah did not let it distract him; he had eyes for only one thing. The abomination wrapped around Lieke's paralyzed body.
The moment the corpse's atrocious head was away from the girl's, it found itself pierced at close range by the blinding arrow of divine sentence. The redead had reunited with death, ultimately.
9
The living dead had fallen limp, and suddenly the cold that had settled in her mind and body disappeared, leaving Lieke lying unfettered in the shallow water that burnt her like acid. She struggled incoherently to get away from it, uncertain of her surroundings in the darkness. Her torch had gone out in the water. Yet there was another source of light, pure and glaring.
Out of it came a hand that grabbed her surcoat and lifted her away from the dangerous water.
"Lieke! Lieke, talk to me. Are you alright?" Zedekiah exclaimed anxiously, patting her arms and inspecting her closely.
Even though her whole body shook from her fresh altercation with a living dead, and her skin still prickled where the water had touched it, she felt surprisingly fine. This was undeniably the craziest, most dangerous thing that had ever happened to her, but now that they were both safe again, she actually felt like laughing. Perhaps it was the relief.
"I'm good," she exhaled, dismissing her friend's scrutiny with one hand.
The prince sighed shakily, taking a step back to let his anxiety out.
"Gods all mighty," he murmured, quickly touching his forehead, heart and core as one did to appeal to the three gods' mercy. "What living nightmare is this?"
He didn't seem to be addressing her, not really, so Lieke kept silent as her friend breathed deeply and stared into the darkness towards where the entrance probably stood.
It was then that she realized what the bright light's source was. On the floor lay an object so refined, Lieke was certain no hylian, sheikah or even zora could have crafted it. It was a bow. A bow that seemed alive with the pulse of light coursing along its elegantly sculpted arc.
If the apparition of foul creatures whose only record of existence dated of so long ago that people thought of them as myths, or the existence of a secret entrance to a site Lieke could only describe as a royal tomb had not convinced the farmgirl of the seriousness of their situation, that bow did. This was the weapon wielded by the Prince who Vanquished the Night—the weapon that, in the hand of its appointed master on earth, had seen the dark era to an end.
Lieke lifted her gaze back to the young man standing in front of her, realizing the depth of the gulf separating their situation. As his stunning blue eyes met hers, she bowed her head and stooped to one knee.
"What are you doing?" Zedekiah demanded. "Get up."
"You were chosen by the gods," she simply replied, glancing at the bow between them.
The prince felt silent. He bent to pick up the ethereal object, took a step forward, and kneeled in front of her.
"The gods sent me this bow to save you," he told her, and she couldn't resist tilting her face up to look at him. "Let us not waste time debating over who the gods truly chose. I believe we still have a tomb to explore."
10
No more horrifying manifestations of the dark world came to haunt them after that life-threatening experience. Lieke however did not realize nor experience the terrible oppression that her companion felt as he walked these cursed grounds. On the contrary, if she had to describe what she felt as she followed her inner compass, she would have chosen the inexplicable yet irresistible attraction between star-crossed lovers in the novels. Something was calling for her, and her for it. And she was almost there.
Using the generous glow of the bow to guide their steps, they passed a second archway, exiting the room of engraved walls and tortuous paths.
This new room seemed really deep. Lieke noted with relief the absence of toxic water. The walls on both sides were lined with sarcophaguses, each of them marked with the royal seal. Zedekiah's scientific mind seemed to take over his mistrust of the place, as he strode to the nearest coffin.
"Extraordinary," he whispered in awe, as if suddenly feeling the need to lower his voice in respect for the dead.
Lieke approached, quite undesirous of dawdling over dead people when she was so close to her calling.
"All my family has been buried in the castle's cemetery for centuries," Zedekiah told her softly. "I wonder who these people were. I always wondered why Tetius the Gifted's body was nowhere to be found, perhaps it is here! He lived hundreds of years ago, maybe he was one of the last ones to be buried here. That would be some genealogical mystery solved, that it would be!"
The young prince excitedly moved up the alley, lightening the carved inscriptions with his bow, followed by a reluctant Lieke.
However, as they advanced, his enthusiasm slowly disappeared, giving way to a hesitant, then outright fearful attitude. Staring ahead, he looked so horrified that her friend actually wondered if there was another redead she hadn't spotted yet. Stepping in front of him, she squinted. There was something alright. Something whose glossy surface reflected the bow's divine light. This was the object of her calling, she was certain of it.
She inclined towards it, but was intercepted by Zedekiah's firm grasp.
"Don't," he whispered; a whisper of terror rather than respect this time. "There is some great evil at work here."
Lieke frowned, eyeing the bright shape standing not so far away. There were violet fumes, much like the one they had seen when the keese had returned to its dark world, and probably like those she had missed in her confusion when the redead had disappeared. The fumes seemed to leak from the base of the object she desperately wanted to get to.
"I need to," she replied, with a finality in her tone she didn't remember ever using.
The young prince said nothing, but the girl didn't miss the bow shifting in his hands from a makeshift torch to a ready weapon. Alone, she walked the distance separating her from what turned out to be a glorious pedestal. Stabbed through its stone heart stood a sword, whose purple guard spread its wings exactly like the bird on Zedekiah's surcoat. It seemed untouched by the centuries that had eroded this place—a beacon of eternal youth and innocence enduring amongst the dead. Lieke's eyes followed its immaculate blade from the delicate trinity symbol engraved at its base to the invisible tip buried in the pedestal. There, the stone was cracked, giving birth to the violet fumes.
No hylian child grew up without knowing this sword. Like every other kid, the nights of Lieke's youth had been filled with dreams of epic adventures where she held it. The Blade of Legend. The Pillar to the Skies. The Blade that seals away the Darkness. The Master Sword. Its names were numerous, all more heroic than the last.
It was said that only the Hero of Legend could hold it. That its mere power was enough to kill the unworthy that would dare lift it.
But Lieke didn't think about that. She didn't need to think, guided by the force that had took over her. When she laid her hand on the handle, she felt a sudden surge of purpose fill her, like a violent gust sweeping her insides, alleviating her soul. The wind blew upwards, joining its strength to hers as she dislodged the large sword from its pedestal. Somehow, even though it should have been a remarkably heavy piece of metal, holding it seemed to lighten her steps as she turned back to her friend, wild locks of hair settling back on each side of her face.
Zedekiah's large blue eyes were wide open, his fair eyebrows lifted in amazement, his combed hair ruffled by an unworldly breeze. Before he could find words to express himself however, the sound of slowly clapping hands echoed in the dark crypt.
"Bravo," a deep, guttural voice spoke, rolling the 'r' on their tongue in a very unhylian fashion. "I am thoroughly impressed."
A monstrous woman, two times as tall as the two young hylians, stepped from the darkness, appearing behind the prince. Before the boy could do anything, he found himself lifted off the ground, held by the throat against the wall. The Bow of Light fell to the floor, basking the scene from under in a disturbing light.
It was her, Lieke was certain. The woman Zedekiah had warned her about; everything about her reeked of malevolence. Only she wasn't veiled anymore. Her red hair cascaded freely in her back, sent backwards by a bloodcurdling headband of golden thorns. Her powerful muscles rolled under impressive armor pieces of thick dark leather. She had the typical straight nose bridge of the Gerudo. Yet, her eyes were enough to recognize her. Yellow eyes that would roast you to a crisp if they had the power to do so.
"Look at you. You are little more than a baby," the woman addressed the girl, speaking evenly yet with visceral disdain. "And you have managed to do what I couldn't, in a mere second!"
As Zedekiah vainly struggled to free his crushed neck, the woman merely laughed lowly—a laugh devoid of any joy.
"Now, hand me the sword, girl. If you want your little friend to live."
Lieke glanced anxiously at the boy; between erratic gulping and gasping, his head swayed ever so slightly left and right, eying her intently. The friends had reached the same conclusion: that woman had no intention of letting either of them survive, and whatever her intentions were for the sacred object, they were no good. Their only chance was confrontation.
"No," she heard herself reply, hand shaking on the Master Sword's handle.
The Gerudo smiled, as if she had been hoping for this. Without warning, she conjured a crystalline barrier which trapped Zedekiah where he stood, leaving her free to advance on Lieke. The prince desperately banged his fists against its magic captor, to no avail.
"No one has survived a confrontation with Ganondra, the Great Desert Queen, but I'll let you take your chances," she said.
With each step the queen took, Lieke saw her mind rushing even more furiously to find a course of action in which they stood the slightest chance.
Ganondra raised a hand crackling with dark energy. She released it full force at the hylian girl. The latter, having no shield to parry the blow, hid behind the sword as a last resort. And it worked: the sparkling ball of dark matter returned whence it came.
The queen, somewhat surprised by the reflexes of the farmgirl, nevertheless easily deflected the hex, which crashed into a wall, leaving a smoking hole in its stone. This gave Lieke an idea.
She rolled to the side and sprinted away from the incoming foe. Gonondra would have to attack her at a distance, and she did, sending another ball of energy her way. This time, Lieke was ready: she awaited the projectile, and smashed it with her sword, sending it towards her friend's prison.
The crystal burst to pieces, and Zedekiah fell to the ground, landing on his bow.
"You are a witty one, I'll give you that. No matter, crushing two insects is no harder than crushing one."
Before she could take a step towards them however, Hyurle's prince had returned to his feet, arrow drawn and pointed at the giant woman's heart.
"Abandon your dark quest, Desert Queen, and I will let you return to your lair unarmed."
The queen's sinister laughter echoed against the tomb's walls. Smiling menacingly, she advanced on the two adolescents. But Zedekiah's heart was unshaken by her audaciousness.
The arrow of light flew true, with such velocity that Lieke barely understood what had happened. But Ganondra had no problem catching the projectile with a lightning fast hand. She tutted at the prince with reproachful, toying eyes. Her gaze however quickly turned to the relic in her hand, and an expression of pain contorted her features.
She threw the arrow to the floor, massaging the hand that had held it with anger. Dark energy crackled weakly in her wounded palm, then fainted.
With an enraged roar, she summoned her foul hex of her other hand and hurled it towards the prince. Lieke stepped in front of her friend, sword at the ready, and sent the curse back towards the queen.
The latter swiftly parried the attack, and the ball of dark matter was once more heading their way. Deciding that this exchange was futile, the girl sent it at their foe's feet, where just near enough for the woman to try and recover the projectile.
As the latter did, Lieke lost no time turning to her friend, exchanging a vital whisper.
"Get her other hand. She will have no choice but to retreat."
The boy nodded, and Lieke's determined gaze was on their enemy again. Predictably enough, the Gerudo woman attacked again, outstretching her valid hand as she did.
Lieke exhaled in preparation for her feat; their timing had to be perfect, and she would offer her prince the protection he needed while he waited for his opening. She could not fail.
And the exchange began. Hit after hit, neither her nor the sorceress's address wavered. The hex seemed to feed from their foe's dark magic each time it returned to her, growing in size and force. Lieke's every muscle were screaming for relief, her breath was short, her heartbeat fast, her lungs burning. But she kept pushing harder, and harder.
Until Ganondra's pained holler echoed through the tomb—sign that Zedekiah had hit his mark.
Focused on the dangerous hex, Lieke resisted looking, and delivered an ultimate blow with all of the force left in her at the curse. Its wild course finally came to an end as it collided with the large evil woman.
As if hit by a lightning bolt, she convulsed before falling to the ground on her hands—one of which was pierced by an arrow of celestial light.
The two friends watched in shock as the Great Desert Queen howled in her throes, consumed in what seemed to be black flames. Her armor withered, her flesh disappeared from her bones, her figure ascended slowly as if claimed by divine justice, and she vanished.
And this was all that Lieke's food-deprived body could endure before letting her consciousness slip away.
11
As the sun set for a third time on the impressive Temple of All Gods, Impé was walking up the grand staircase leading to the towering entrance doors. His mind was distracted by the worry his daughter was bringing him—Lieke had not come home last night. No one had seen her at the parsonage's farm yesterday. Yet, it was not the first time this happened. The impetuous girl had lived more adventures than most men twice her age.
And Impé had a feeling he knew where he would find her. Oh, he knew about the visitor that often sneaked in his humble dwelling in the evening.
Nightingales sang in the chestnut trees lined on each side of the building. The priest rejoiced in their melodious cries; everything was quiet. Peaceful. The prince would be happy to walk the town's street, finally breathing some free air after his Allgodhayz cloistering.
The man held out a frail hand holding the large key to the temple and unlocked the heavy wooden door. As he stepped in the dim sanctuary, his eyes slowly adjusted to the change in lightening.
The chancel was bathed in the soft glow of countless candles—most of them gone out, drowned in their own melted wax. Impé's chest swelled with warm relief as he stumbled upon the sleeping shapes of the prince… and his own daughter, nested in the middle of this protective halo of light. Their breaths lifted their ribs in the slow, rhythmic tide of extenuated slumber. Both of the adolescent's blonde hair—gold as the sun for him, dark as freshly turned earth for her—were scattered across the floor, looking ruffled and uncleaned. The relaxed fingers of the young farmgirl rested against those of the prince, their indexes almost intertwined, as if they had fallen asleep holding hands, or praying.
The high priest's benevolent smile however disappeared as his gaze fell upon the two artefacts lying in the grasp of his young protégés. The Bow of Light. The Blade of Legend.
The challenges that must have befallen those two adolescents he loved more than his own life for them to come into possession of such sacred objects didn't scare the old man as much as the inescapable destiny that laid ahead of them.