"For the hundredth time Lord Timus, I will not be marrying any time soon." said Midna with a sigh.
She was in the midst of a council meeting that had begun as planned, the process of the lands income was first on the agenda, next came the needs of the people such as food and shelter and then Lord Timus brought up the fact that there was no king yet which sparked a 'discussion' between the lords and ladies of the council.
Midna was beginning to feel a headache brewing behind her eyes.
"I believe it may be best that we have a hour break for lunch." said Midna.
As the council steward took it as a command from the queen he rang a small bell and announced.
"The council will retire for one hour and continue once all members are present once more."
With a scuff of chairs and shuffle of robes the councilmen and women left the hall each displaying the metal patch on their shoulders that displayed their office. Midna then sat alone in her chair and laid her head on the circular table sighing to herself.
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Meanwhile in the palace library Griffin and Evander were hard at work together reading the many books that had history on the Twilight realm. While Midna was in the council it gave them time to work together which was rare when Evander had to take care of his other duties as adviser.
"Nothing important in this one" said Griffin.
Evander looked up at his apprentice with a smug grin.
Griffin was a young Twilian whom was at the age of nineteen, he had blonde hair that flowed down the back of his neck to his shoulders. He would pin his bangs to the side of his head causing it to look like a small curve descended from his forehead to his sideburns. He stood only a head shorter than Evander and had blonde eyes to match his hair. He wore a scholars robe that went from his right shoulder to his left hip and went over his legs slightly. He wore a pair of worn pants and a simple set of boots.
"All books have importance Griffin-" said Evander as he was cut off.
"Or else someone would not have taken the time to write them." finished Griffin. "I know, I know but you know what I meant." he finished.
Evander gave a small chuckle.
"Yes I knew, hmm...how about you read through the volumes on the ancient Twilian magic, perhaps you missed something the last time." said Evander.
"Alright, but I don't think anything knew will show up." said Griffin.
"You never know." replied Evander.
Griffin then went off into the library and gathered up the volumes that Evander had suggested, all twenty of them. Setting them down on his desk near the back of the library Evander began to read again via candlelight.
As he skimmed through the pages and turned each one, one after the other something suddenly caught his eye. He read through the page several times and found nothing, sighing he turned the page once more and again a small detail grabbed his eye.
He hurriedly flipped the paper back again to see what it was but found nothing frustrated he lifted the page without flipping it when he noticed what had drawn his attention. Sitting in the top left corner of the page was a mark that could only be seen with light passing through it. Griffin grabbed a magnifying glass from his desks drawer and examined the marking. It seemed to him to be an eye with spikes coming out of it. Griffin then let down the page and looked at the words, focusing on finding something he angrily found nothing. Sighing to relax himself he starred blankly at the page when the key to it all hit him like a brick wall. The first letter of the words began to spell out new words.
Flipping back to the beginning of the first volume Griffin examined each page where he found a mark and wrote down the capitalized letters.
Eventually he had worked through all twenty volumes and ended up with a stack of papers that told a different history than what was hidden in the books. Griffin bound the papers together then began reading it to himself.
After several hours Griffin had finished reading the pamphlet and had also an even smaller stack of papers that were his own notes from the information he had gathered. It included hand drawn maps and words that were not of the Twilian language.
Griffin then stood and went in search of Evander with his notes in tow. After five years he had found the key to what they were looking for, he could only hope that it was all true and intact after all the time that had passed.
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"The council is adjourned until the next week." said the council steward.
With another shuffling of robes and scrapes of chairs the council meeting was finally over. Midna let out a large sigh as Evander entered the large room after all the council members had left.
"A longer meeting than usual." he said.
"Yes all these lords and ladies insist that their province is the only one suffering. Yet they sit in their lush homes with servants instead of actually doing anything." said Midna.
"Greed is a terrible thing." replied Evander.
"Have you made any progress on your research as of yet?" asked Midna.
"My lady you ask me the same thing once a day, we haven't found anyth-" he said when he heard a shout down the hall.
"Evander! I found it! I have the answer we need!" shouted Griffin from afar.
"You were saying." said Midna with her eyes shining.
Griffin came barreling into the council hall his robes flapping behind him.
"I...found...the answer." he said trying to catch his breath.
Midna and Evander both waited patiently for him to finish.
"It was hidden in the histories of Twilian magic." said Griffin.
"I knew something was different about those books." said Evander.
"You didn't let me finish, one would not have noticed anything was different from the way we were looking at them. On certain pages were shadow marks that could only be seen through one side of the page so long as there was candle light to see by. If you saw the mark then something was hidden on the page. It turns out the first letter of each sentence began to spell out a different history." said Griffin.
"And what does it say?" asked Midna.
"It does reveal the location of the portal, but..." said Griffin trailing away at the end.
"But what?" asked Evander.
"Its located in the middle of the sapping fields." said Griffin.
"Now that makes sense. If you want to hide something put it somewhere will no one wants to go looking." said Evander.
"Do your notes say anything else?" asked Midna.
"Not much other than a few words written in another language." said Griffin.
"Very well, immediately tomorrow morning the two of you and the scholars will head to the sapping fields to find this portal." said Midna.
"By your orders." said Griffin and Evander together.
"Well we should go prepare now then, My lady." said Evander as the pair left.
Midna had not realized that she stood up from her chair when Griffin said he found the location of the portal and forced herself to sit. Her heart was beating rapidly and she felt slightly light headed.
"Link, I'm getting closer. Soon we can see each other once more." said Midna.
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The following morning Midna bid farewell to Griffin and Evander. In total the trip should only take three or four days. In the meantime she would continue to do as she had always done. If they found nothing they would return on the fourth day, although if they did find the temple then they would contact her via Twilian magic.
On the second day of their journey to the sapping fields, Griffin and Evander looked upon a barren and dead wasteland. They stood on the edge of the sapping fields where not even grass would grow.
"Remember everyone if you begin to feel sick it is normal, however if you get light headed at any point, return to this spot as soon as you can. The sapping fields do not just take the life of plants and animals but also us, so everyone stay alert to your own body." said Evander loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Alright Griffin, you lead the way this time. You have the honor since you found the hidden message." said Evander.
Griffins face lit into a smile. As he took the first steps into the sapping lands he looked behind himself, past the scholars to their campsite. They had left the horses there so that they would not be affected by the sapping effect. The first hour went by comfortable and then the sickness set in. His stomach gave a sudden turn and he dry heaved. Once that was over he felt slightly better and continued on to lead them.
"Its this way, we should be seeing some old stones in the ground soon." said Griffin.
Eventually the scholars began to spread out in groups of two to search the ground quicker. A short while after a shout from across a small field of dead grass was heard.
"We found the stones!"
Griffin and Evander carefully made their way to the scholars and examined the stones.
"These are them, we are getting close. It should be in the center of these stones, they are laid out in a large circle." said Griffin.
The others then began searching in a large range looking for the next few stones, once they found a few more they could determine how large the circle would be and where the center would be. It did not take long for all the scholars to be separated in a large circle starting from the first stone they had found. Griffin and Evander then walked to the center of the circle and stood as if waiting for something to happen.
"Nothings here" said Evander.
"It can't be, all the notes add up and we are where we are supposed to be. So why isn't it here!" said Griffin in frustration.
"Perhaps the portal was once here, it may have been destroyed or time could have swept it away." said Evander.
"No! I refuse to believe that. How could you give up so easily." said Griffin.
"I'm not giving up boy! Remember who is the teacher here." said Evander seating Griffin on the ground as if he were a child.
"I don't want to see her hurt anymore, we gave her hope that we found a means to bring her back to the one she loves. I can't bear to watch that hope be crushed. So I'm not giving up, I'm just stating the facts." said Evander.
In frustration Griffin punched the ground to his side and received a dull thud as a result.
His face lit up in realization.
Standing up he began to stomp on the ground around him.
"What are you doing?" asked Evander annoyed at what appeared to be a childish moment.
"Shh, Listen to the thuds." said Griffin.
One was dense a packed while the other was soft and felt light.
"Its below us!" shouted Evander.
Griffin then began scrapping away the dirt from the area where he had heard the light thuds. It revealed a smooth a polished black stone that appeared to be rather large.
The other scholars came to help and soon enough they had uncovered a large stone tablet with the carving of an eye with spikes coming out of it.
"It's the same symbol from the books I read. This is it right here, just below this tablet." said Griffin.
"Did your notes explain how to open in?" asked Evander.
Griffin pulled them from his robe pocket and read through them quickly not finding the answer.
"Perhaps its one of the words from the other language?" said Griffin questioningly.
"That may be right since it was made in the ancient days of the Twilight realm." responded Evander.
Griffin then knelt next to the tablet and began speaking the words as best as he could.
"Trafsha...Brandral...Ondira" he spoke aloud.
After a moment he looked through his notes once more and found one more word to try.
"Scartash."
The eye suddenly began to glow and then the tablet slid back into a slot and slammed into place.
Before them appeared to be a long staircase leading into an inky blackness.
"Down we go. Torches out!" called Griffin as he led the way into the underground ruin.
Down and down they went, deeper into the earth.
"I wonder if it comes out of the bottom of the landmass." said Griffin.
"Now that would be impressive." said Evander.
After what seemed like an eternity they reached the bottom of the stairs and surprisingly they did not feel the sapping effect within the ruin. Before them were three doors. Two of wood on the left and right and one made of black stone with the same symbol of the eye on it. Griffin repeated the word and the door slid apart smoothly leading into a moderately sized circular room. Stepping into the room Griffin knew that this was the portal. His notes had described a circular room and it fit his notes perfectly.
"Contact her highness. We found the portal. This is it!" said Griffin excitedly.
Evander smiled himself and prepared to send Midna a message with a small bit of Twilian magic.
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Standing out on her balcony Midna was watching the setting of the dim sun which made the sky flare a brilliant twilight, to her the light realms sunset was much more spectacular but this was her homeland and she was proud of it none the less. Suddenly a shadow of darkness slid along the banister of the balcony and bubbled in front of her.
"It must be a message from Evander." she said to herself.
Gently she touched the shadowy mass and it floated in front of her to make a flat disc. The surfaced smoothed out and became almost reflective, then just as suddenly Evanders face appeared within the shadows.
"Midna, we found the portal."