Hehe.
Long time no update.
No. For seriously.
This chapter's a little shorter than the last one (by about five hundred words), but at least it's something. You might want to give previous chapters a quick once-over, just to make sure you're up to date. I know I did.
Chapter 9: Obtaining Power
"Should you successfully complete this next trial, you will move on to the third and final one," Acarsis continued. "Now, prepare yourself."
Maris drew a deep breath and poised herself determinedly. The blue-haired girl closed her eyes. "Chosen," she began, "tell me… What is broken the moment you name it?"
The young Chosen tilted her head. "I… don't think I understand the question," she stated hesitantly. Acarsis' eyes flashed open almost angrily.
"You must answer. Face the trial boldly. Your wits must be sharp, and you must be confident. Now, what is broken when you name it?" she repeated. Maris sighed and turned her face upwards in silent contemplation. The quietness was somewhat eerie. "Silence," Maris muttered observantly.
"Correct."
Maris gasped. "Th-that was the answer?" she inquired in awe. Acarsis nodded once. The girl laughed at her fortune. She'd merely been stating the obvious; she probably wouldn't be as lucky next time.
"What does everyone have that he can always count on?" Acarsis questioned. Maris bit her lip and focused all her thoughts on the Spirit's words. Something everyone has… that he can always, always count on. The question completely stumped Maris. She clenched her hand into a fist and gazed at it intently, perhaps hoping to procure the answer from her very fingers. A sudden idea donned on the girl.
"Is it… fingers?" she guessed. Acarsis narrowed her eyes.
"You don't sound as confident as the Chosen of Water should. What happened to that stoic determination you had when you spoke to Lurias? Nonetheless, your answer is correct."
"Wait a minute, how do you know what I said to the Zora chief?" Maris asked suspiciously.
"Child, do you understand nothing?" Acarsis said cynically. "I am a Guardian Spirit. I am only a step away from the Goddesses themselves. I can see anything I wish to see. I can know anything I wish to know. Have you not yet come to comprehend that?" Maris hung her head shamefully.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, "but like you said, you're only a step away from the Goddesses. It's a little intimidating."
Acarsis nodded in understanding. "Perhaps so, but should the Chosen of Water, a being charged with the task of the world's salvation, have such fluctuating conviction?" she reasoned. "Your next question is your last. Ready yourself."
Maris straightened her posture and took a deep breath. "I am ready, Acarsis," she announced. The Spirit closed her eyes as if in contemplation.
"Listen carefully. I will only speak this riddle once. Miss Anju of Kakariko is feeding her cuccos. There are seven cuccos in the pen. Every cucco gets two slices of bread. For every slice of bread, three mice gather to eat what has been left behind when the cuccos are finished, and four every mouse, five insects wait to partake of what remains. How many beings are in Miss Anju's pen?"
Maris sighed, grateful that she had been able to memorize each of the quantities and even more grateful that the final question of the trial was a simple math problem. Her aine had made her and Zephyr practice their sums and multiplication tables daily for two hours. Realizing that she was distracting herself, Maris set to work. Her answer was two hundred and fifty-nine.
"Um… I think it's… I mean, my solution is two hundred fifty-nine," she proclaimed, remembering halfway through her statement that she had been told to have more confidence.
Acarsis' eyes were closed, leaving Maris in great suspense as to whether she'd passed or failed.
"Your answer is… incorrect," the Spirit reported regretfully.
"What?!" Maris blurted. "No way! There are seven cuccos, right? Each cucco gets two slices of bread; that's fourteen pieces of bread. Three mice for every piece, which is—"
"Please, child. I understand the nature of my own riddle," Acarsis said, holding up her small hand to silence the Chosen. "Your error was in forgetting to count Miss Anju herself." Maris turned her gaze to the ground, her eyes clouding with tears. Had she already failed Hyrule, before her journey even truly began? And if what Lurias had told her was true, she would have no second chances.
"Please," she began, her voice faltering. She whipped her head up and swallowed her sorrow, replacing it with the confidence she knew Acarsis expected of her. "Let me try again! I'll do anything. If the fate of the world rests with me, I refuse to accept this! There has to be another way!"
Acarsis grinned approvingly. "I anticipated such a response from the Chosen of Water. In all honesty, I have no desire to watch my country fade into nothingness, so I will allow you one opportunity to redeem yourself. For the Trial of Power, I had intended for you to demonstrate your skills in combat against a fearsome creature called a Moblin. However, in order for you to prove yourself worthy of the Crest, you are to face me directly."
Maris uttered a murmur of shock. The frail little Water Spirit didn't appear to be much of an opponent, but the Chosen knew that for her to be stronger than the aforementioned "fearsome Moblin", she would probably have more than enough of a challenge on her hands.
A large blue room faded into existence. It had no doors or windows and offered no decoration. "Prepare yourself," the Spirit warned, offering little other indication that she was going to attack. Maris barely found time to dodge as the small being lunged at her wielding a strange weapon she had summoned at a moment's notice. At face value it appeared to be no more than a sword, but the blade seemed to be made of glass and contained water. The young Hylian wondered if maybe she couldn't manage to break it to gain an advantage over her foe. If she could manage that, she would also have water to manipulate.
Maris' plans, however, didn't appear to fit into Acarsis' prediction of the course of the battle. She turned on her heel when her initial attack failed and made a quick flourish with her hand. A few inches of water manifested on the floor and froze into ice. Maris was spared no chance to establish her footing on the ice and slipped to the ground. Within moments Acarsis was upon her with her sword poised for the finishing blow.
The Chosen of Water quickly raised the ice coating the floor to create a shield for herself. Her defense shattered under the force of the attack, and she quickly directed the dozens of shards at her opponent. Acarsis halted them all, and Maris took this time to heave a large slab of upturned ice at the Spirit's sword. As she had hoped it would, the blade cracked and split. Immediately she used the water in a whip-like fashion to deliver a blow of her own, but as her makeshift weapon prepared to hit its mark, the black nothing reclaimed their battleground.
"You performed admirably," Acarsis complimented. "Of course, had I been inclined to use all of my power, you'd have stood nary a chance."
Maris giggled. "Of course," she replied. A silvery blue light glowed intensely upon the girl's chest, and when it faded, a flat plate of silver that bore the emblem representing the Crest of Water was left in its place.
"With the insignia you now bear upon your person," Acarsis began formally, "you have been granted the full power of the Chosen of Water. Learning to manage this power will be another task entirely, but I am confident in your abilities. May your fellow Chosen fare equally as well." As the Spirit began to fade, Maris called for her to wait.
"You mentioned my parents earlier!" she reminded. "Please! Did you know them? Do you know where they are now? Please tell me!"
Acarsis' eyes dimmed remorsefully, filling Maris with dread. "It's not my place to say," she apologized. "Seek the Spirit of the Celestials. While it will prove difficult to locate, it will offer you far more information regarding your parents than I could hope to, even in all my vast wells of knowledge."
The girl pressed her lips together and nodded, bidding her friend farewell. Before she knew exactly what happened, she found herself lying in the bed in which she fell asleep, gazing up at the white domed ceiling. A soft light broke through the round window across from her, filtering through the light green curtains to bask the room in soft turquoise light. The sleeping figures of Zephyr and River were illuminated, and Maris smiled to herself. She sat up and shifted her weight to her hands, but felt something cold beneath her palm. She picked up the object to inspect it and saw that it was the very emblem Acarsis had granted her at the end of the Trials.
The Hylian child was suddenly overcome by exhaustion as though she had not been asleep at all that night. It donned on her that was a distinct possibility, and she lay down again. Before long she was fast asleep, and unfortunately, not long after that she was being roused by her brother.
"Maris, wake up," he commanded quietly. "The Trials, right? They'll probably be today. I know you don't believe in them, but will you just trust me for once?"
"Go away, Brother," the younger sibling mumbled. "I've already taken care of the Trials. Just let me sleep for a while longer."
Why couldn't I manage to finish that danged chapter? D:
Don't expect another one any time soon. You've already had a taste of my ineptitude with updating. With any luck, I'll finish the next chapter before Halloween next year.
Happy Halloween, by the way. :D
