The Legend of Midna: Clockwork Darkness
Chapter Nine
"Ok, so where are you from?" Eoghan asked Cailin enthusiastically. Since their meeting in Telma's bar, he hadn't been able to take his eyes off her.
"Castle Town," she said dryly. "Why?"
"I just wondered," he said, looking a bit downcast at her lack of elaboration. "So you're Hylian, then, or at least from Hyrule."
"Yep, I'm Hyrulean for sure," she said, and left it at that. Then she turned to Siobhán. "So, what do you suggest we do first?"
"I dunno, you tell me," she said as she examined her fingernails before looking up at Cailin. "You're the expert in this field, right?"
"Sorry I asked," she said, "but if it's up to me, I say we get some better equipment, at least for Eoghan. He needs a better sword than that thing if he's going to do any real fighting. I'm not sure what to tell you, though. I don't really know anything about shadow magic."
"I can handle it," Siobhán said nonchalantly. "Anyhow, were do you suggest we get him a new sword?"
"The Hyrule Castle vaults, of course!" Cailin declared exuberantly. "There's all kinds of great stuff down there, and I know for a fact that they kept all the artifacts related to the Hero of Time."
"So what's that have to do with my brother?" Siobhán demanded.
"Well," Cailin began, "after the Hero returned to his childhood, he left Hyrule. When he returned, he had a new gilded sword. I think that sword would be perfect for Eoghan."
"So I'll get to use a sword that the Hero of Time used?" he piped up excitedly.
"That's right," she affirmed. "Better yet, that sword was designed to never break, which is why it's still in such good condition."
"Well," Siobhán said in resignation, "I guess we'd better get going then, hadn't we?"
After a quick trip back through Castle Town and a long game of the blind leading the blind through Hyrule Castle, they finally found the entrance to the vaults. The massive granite doors loomed over them, daring them to go any further.
"Alright," Cailin said to herself, "let's see if I can remember how to get in here…" After a few moments, she finally had the doors open. "Now we just have to sift through all the artifacts down here."
They began searching everything. Among the items they encountered on their quest to find the Gilded Sword were a mask bearing the Sheikah eye symbol, a magical lens, a conductor's baton, and an odd, angular stone that gave off a faint vibration.
"Hey, what's this?" Eoghan called from the other side of the room.
"What's it look like?" his sister shouted back.
"I dunno. It's like, a piece of wood."
"Well then it's a damn piece of wood, you nalehecath!" Siobhán shouted back, aggravated.
"No, wait," said Cailin, as if she'd just had an epiphany. "Let me see it." She skipped over to where Eoghan stood so she could get a better look. When she laid her eyes on what he had found, she beamed.
"Well done, Eoghan," she cheered. "This is the shield the Hero used as a child. See this red design? That's the emblem of the Kokiri."
"What's the Kokiri?" he puzzled.
"They were a race of forest-dwellers back in the Hero's day. He was left there as a newborn so that he would be safe from the civil war that was going on at the time, so he was raised as a Kokiri even though he was Hylian. Now if I'm not mistaken…" She sifted through the heaping mounds of accumulation. "Yes! Here it is! Not really the way you'd expect to find something like this, but either way, this is the Gilded Sword." She hefted the sword in its sheath and then handed it to Eoghan. "Try it out."
He took the sword and removed it from the sheath, which pelted them all with dust. Although it was long, he found the sword to be light and perfectly balanced. He gave it a few swings and then slid it back into its sheath, which he then slung over his back.
"You might want to take this, too," said Cailin, as she handed him a Hylian shield she had found in the refuse. "This was the standard issue shield for the Knights of Hyrule in those days, and still is today, in fact."
Eoghan accepted the shield as well, hanging it on his back with the sword.
"You really take after Link," said Cailin wistfully. "You look just like him when he was your age, I'll bet, save your hair and your eyes, of course. It won't be long before you look like the Link I remember…" She let her voice trail off as she lost herself to the nostalgia, which was promptly broken by Siobhán.
"So are we going?" she demanded impatiently. "I hate to ruin your trip down Memory Lane, but our parents and the princess are in trouble, in case you've forgotten."
"You're right, you're right," Cailin said as she snapped back to reality. She shook her head a few times just for good measure. "Alright then, let's get moving. Perhaps we should head to Kakariko next? Renado might be able to help us out."
"Sounds good to me," Eoghan said, looking very much like a hero. Together they left the vaults, not wasting any time. The adventure of a lifetime was ahead of them, and wasn't going to wait.
Just a quick note: when they're going through the artifacts in the vaults, you may have conjectured as to what those things were. If you guessed the Mask of Truth, the Lens of Truth, and the Wind Waker, you are correct. The Sheikah artifacts should make sense, since they appeared in OoT and MM. In the case of the Wind Waker (and I had to look it up just to be sure I could use it), the baton is used by the King of Hyrule to conduct the Sages in their song to the goddesses. Because it was used by the king, even though it doesn't belong to the same timeline as TP, it can be assumed that the Wind Waker existed before the events of The Wind Waker.
