The descent down the ladder was slow. Link was in total darkness, unable to see the rung below him. His face periodically met with a cobweb. He hoped they weren't inhabited, though he had to wonder how many creatures with more than four legs were crawling on him.
His crippled leg slipped off the rung with a rusty squeak. Link gasped and clung to the rung above him with one arm, dangling in the dark. Take it easy. Breathe. Just find the rung with your foot again. When he had stopped swinging and his heart had settled down some, he maneuvered his partially-paralyzed foot back into position and continued the climb down.
Another minute of descending later, Link noticed light coming from below him. Eager to escape from the shadows, he hurried his climb down. Not long after, he slipped again and fell the rest of the way down, grasping at the rungs in a panic. He managed to slow his fall, though his right hip and left arm throbbed from the impact of hitting the ground. He stood up and looked around him. A spider was crawling up his sleeve. He flicked it off and continued his survey.
The long shaft he had climbed down led into a narrow stone hallway with a low ceiling. Torches spouting purple flames hung on the walls, casting an eerie glow down the hall. The musty scent had grown even worse. Link thought he smelled dead Moldorm. Feeling claustrophobic, he limped forward.
The hall led to a dead end, though a wooden sign had been staked into the floor in front of him. Link wiped as much dust as he could from the front of it and bent down to read it.
Beyond this hall lies the Gerudo's treasure storeroom, Robber's Coffin. If you are a knowledgeable Gerudo, you will know which paths lead to treasure and which lead to death. Robbers beware; you forfeit your life the moment you set foot in the next room. There is no return for those who desecrate this ancient catacomb. Leave this place while you still can.
Link put his hands on his hips. "Pleasant. It's nice to know the Gerudo were very hospitable people." He inspected the walls around him. "By the sound of things, there's an exit to this hallway, at least." He put his hands to the wall on his right and pushed. Nothing. He continued feeling his way around, looking for an exit.
He met limited success a few minutes later. One of the stones composing the wall behind the sign pushed in when nudged. Although nothing happened after that, Link knew he was getting somewhere. He felt around the same wall and tried pushing on every stone, but there was still no response. He expanded his reach to the walls beside him and the ceiling. A minute later, another stone pushed in.
I see how it is, thought Link. You're supposed to push them in a certain order. I wonder how long that'll take me?
Thirty minutes later, the wall behind the sign slid open. Link, sweating from the heat and stress, stepped forward gratefully. As soon as he passed by the wall, it slammed shut. He heard the stones click back into place. Looks like I'm all on my own now.
The room he was in was about fifteen feet across and perfectly square. It was completely unadorned save for a few more of the purple torches. Link couldn't see a way out of the room anywhere. He was getting sick of puzzles. He limped across the room, scanning the walls for clues.
In the middle of the floor, right in front of his feet, was a circular engraving. By now, Link knew the signs: it was a clue to solving the puzzle of the room. It could also be a trap. Experimentally, Link set his left foot down on it.
A noise echoed across the room. Link spun around, looking for the source. The noise had been quiet, small, and high-pitched. Something squeaking, like the hinges of a trap? He grabbed the hilt of the Moon Sword in case he needed it. He remained completely still, listening to see if the noise would sound again, although his own breathing seemed unnaturally loud to him.
A small sound...Link knew he hadn't imagined it, and making assumptions got you killed in places like these. He searched his memory. What was that sound?
A woman's laugh.
Link's eyes fell on something lying in the corner. He hadn't noticed it before, but it seemed to stick out now. It was a human skeleton, dirty and decomposed from age. He walked forward slowly. Something was on the skull's forehead. Actually, on closer inspection, something wasn't there. A gaping hole protruded clean through the skull.
Another skeleton lying by the wall on his left caught his eye. The left arm rested right above the head, severed from its shoulder. When Link came closer, he noticed something unusual about the bones, especially around the head and neck. They were bite marks.
The more Link looked around, the more skeletons he noticed. How had he not seen them before? He drew the Moon Sword from its sheath and held it up beside him, ready to strike if the need arose. Something was not right with this room. Bitten skeletons and purple torches aside, something was messing with his mind. That had to be the explanation.
A warm, soft wind blew onto Link's neck. He jabbed his elbow behind him on impulse and spun around. There was nothing there. Something had been breathing on him, he was sure of it. The woman's laugh flitted across the room again. The echo made it impossible to tell where it came from.
"Show yourself!" Link shouted.
He made the Moon Sword shine and held it in front of him, casting the light across the room. Even the Moon Sword's powers couldn't reveal his enemy's location. Link couldn't help but feel as if he'd never faced a more intimidating opponent.
Something moved to his right. Link shifted the Moon Sword's rays to see it better. He didn't see anything at first. After a few seconds, something moved again. It was a faint purple mist, gliding towards him. When it came close enough, Link swung at it. It backed up instantly.
"So you're my opponent?" Link asked.
Before his eyes, the purple mist compacted together and took the shape of a woman. Link thought she would have had very tanned skin if her entire appearance wasn't a constant shade of purple. Her long hair hung in a ponytail, and her nose was slightly elongated. Two scimitars hung from her waist. She wore loose, baggy pants and cloak that draped down to the knees. The cloak parted in the middle on the bottom front and back, giving it a sort of authoritative aura. Overall, she was beautiful. The circumstances still didn't make Link want to ask her out.
"Who are you?" he asked.
She laughed again. "So rude. Women like men with a sensitive side."
"Look, I'm not here to pick up dates," Link snapped. "I'm looking for the Constellation Compass. You can show me where it is or get out of my way."
"Your search won't take you very far. There's no way forward in this room. The path to our treasure was sealed off long ago."
"I don't want treasure. I just want - "
"I have nothing against you, rude comment aside. The door shut behind you, but I know a way out of here. I'll lead you out if promise to be nicer." Link glared at her. "You'll get no further, and you can't leave without me anyway. Who knows, maybe you'll find your Constellation Compass through a different route." She extended her hand.
Link stared at the outstretched hand and considered the offer. Her soothing voice and words made him want to accept her gift.
"Come," she whispered. "You've been wandering in the desert for days, I know. You're hungry, thirsty, tired...needed by the people back home. Why waste your time in this decrepit old place any longer?"
He was a second away from accepting her offer when he glanced at the partially-eaten skeleton lying behind her. His eyes refocused on hers. "Keep your lies to yourself. You're not dissuading me."
She raised her eyebrows. "Lies? I mean you no harm. I'll be honest, I don't want you here. This is my race's greatest treasure hoard. The treasure may not be attainable, but the fact remains you're still desecrating our grounds. I don't want anything bad to happen to you. Please, follow me out of these ruins."
Link motioned to the skeleton. "Please explain the half-digested corpses lying around the room."
The woman laughed again, but this time it was filled with cruelty. "You won't accept charity? Not even from me? Fine, what if I do you one better?" She gestured behind her. "I also know a way forward. If you're that determined to find your Compass, I can keep you safe from the traps up ahead. When you find your beloved Compass, I can see you out. Or you can leave by yourself. I don't want any harm to come to you," she repeated.
"I can keep myself from harm," said Link. "Your help is unwanted and unneeded. If you really want to help, you should tell me the way forward and step aside."
Her eyes seemed to shine with malice. "Still no? Aren't you distrustful." She placed a hand on the scimitar on her left hip. "Of all the prey to wander into my lair, you've put up the biggest resistance. All the others never saw me coming. All the same, you'll make a nice appetizer after forty-eight years since the last one."
She drew both scimitars at once and slashed at his neck. He backed away and swung the Moon Sword at her belly. She readjusted her body so that it missed her by an inch. As he backed up, she jumped at him and swung both scimitars down at his head. He blocked the attack with an upwards stroke, but she landed and swept his legs out from under him with a kick before he could regain his senses. The Moon Sword fell from his hands and clattered across the floor away from him. Stabbing her scimitars into the ground on each side of his head, she leaped on him and sank her teeth into his neck. Enraged, Link bashed the side of her head with his fist. She wouldn't budge. If he wasted any more time, she would tear a chunk of his neck off. With no time for subtlety, Link jabbed at her eyes with his fingers. Even the paranormal could feel pain, Link realized, as she howled and leaned off of him. He rolled to his feet, grabbed his sword, and faced her again.
He was just in time to see a scimitar thrown at him. He stepped to the side before it could impale him and felt it whoosh past him. The Gerudo specter dashed at him, sword raised. Link met her attack with a strike of his own and charged his blade with lunar energy. The resulting blast knocked her off balance long enough for him to plunge his sword into her stomach. He charged the blade once more as the specter raised the scimitar in retaliation. As she sliced down, he released the energy from the Moon Sword in all directions. Blue light flooded the room, blotting the ghostly woman from view for a few seconds.
Link lowered his sword as the light faded and the rumbling stopped. The only things left of the Gerudo specter were several floating purple particles spread around the room, slowly disintegrating.
The wall in front of him glowed purple in certain spots. The spots expanded until they touched one another and formed a perfect rectangle. The glowing portion of the wall slid down, revealing another way forward. Link didn't fully understand how the door had opened, but as long as he was allowed through, he wasn't overly concerned.
He pressed his hand to the side of his neck. It was bleeding from when the Gerudo specter had bitten him. Not profusely, but it couldn't go unchecked for long. He tore off a strip of the white shirt underneath his tunic and wrapped it around his neck. It wasn't an excellent alternative to healing, but it would have to do for now.
A subsequent narrow hallway took him to a large rectangular room that looked similar to the one he was just in. The door shut behind him. Only two things stood out in this room. One was that it was much wider than the room before. Two, there was a golden sarcophagus set into the wall opposite him. He knew the drill: it was either the way forward or a trap. Or both.
With the Moon Sword firmly in his hand, Link gripped the edge of the sarcophagus lid and thrust it to the side. It slid around the coffin and disappeared into a thin crevice. He jumped back, expecting a surprise. Instead, there was just a skeleton, which was to be expected from a coffin. Its bony hands rested on its ribcage as if sleeping peacefully. Gravity didn't slide it out of the sarcophagus and onto the floor, either. More Gerudo mischief.
Link looked around to make sure nothing else had been disturbed. If he heard another woman's laugh, he'd probably go insane. Perhaps the suspense was part of Robber's Coffin's guard against thieves. He inched closer to the skeleton and peered inside the coffin. He didn't know what he was looking for; a button, maybe, or a trapdoor.
The skeleton opened its eyes.
Link yelped and staggered back. He'd expected as much, but it was still frightening. The skeleton didn't even have eyes, just empty sockets. But something seemed to have lifted from the dark hollows in the skull, and what were undeniably eyes were looking back at him. The white parts were pitch black, the irises were purple (a recurring theme, Link noticed), and the pupils were slit like a lizard's. Link stepped to the side. The eyes followed him.
"I see you, little fleshling," the skeleton moaned. Its voice was unnaturally deep, and its jaw didn't move when it spoke. "You bear no resemblance to a Gerudo. State your name."
"What'll you do if I tell you that?" Link demanded.
"State your name and we'll see if you can pass."
Link hesitated, but decided to appease the skeleton. "My name is Link. What are you?"
"I guard the passage to the third test. Answer four questions correctly, and you may pass to the next room."
"Four questions? What happens if I get one wrong?"
"Question one: What distinguishes between day and night to raise the living from the dead? Though it soars, it cannot escape its own captivity."
Link lowered his sword in thought. Day and night? Raising the living from...? Link had had to overcome many puzzles before, but never word games, which he was consistently terrible at. Zelda, I could use your Wisdom right about now. He thought for another twenty seconds. "The...the moon?"
A grinding sound came from the left and right. The ground faintly rumbled. Link turned to the wall on his left in astonishment. Unless his mind was playing tricks on him, it was gradually getting closer to him. He checked the wall on his right and reached the same conclusion.
"The more questions you answer wrong," the skeleton growled, "the quicker the walls will close in. Presently, you have close to three and a half minutes before you're crushed."
Link grit his teeth. If this was the case, he was doomed. He brainstormed, going over the riddle in his head over and over again. Distinguishes between day and night to raise the living from the dead...soars, but can't escape it's own captivity... He decided to give the next best answer. "The sun?"
The walls clinked slightly faster than before. The skeleton tauntingly glanced at both walls.
It soars...maybe it's not a metaphor. What soars, but can't escape...captivity... He was still stuck on the "raising the living from the dead" part. He'd fought many animated dead creatures before, but he had no idea what made them tick. The moon was his best guess, and that was out the window.
"A sundial?" said Link. His voice came out higher than he meant it to.
"Does a sundial soar?" the skeleton replied.
I hate word games! Link yelled mentally. The clinking became faster. As if hit by the answer, Link blurted out his next guess. "A...a rooster!"
"Question two: What facilitates the flame as well as destroys it? At times, it is as strong as a battering ram or as weak as a feather. It is as fleeting as the waves in an ocean."
Link frowned. "An ocean?" The walls closed in faster. "That wasn't an answer!"
"Hurry," said the skeleton. "You have little more than a minute left to your life now."
What facilitates the flame as well as destroys it... Link got the feeling the question would be a great deal easier to answer if he knew what the word "facilitate" meant. He focused on the last two parts instead. Strong as a battering ram, yet at times weak as a feather. It was also as fleeting as the waves in an ocean...
"Love?" Link ventured.
The walls clinked faster.
Facilitate..."facilitate" must be the opposite of what destroys a flame. So, I guess it...builds it up?
"Wind?" Link guessed.
"Question three: What gives birth to the mother as the mother gives birth to the daughter? Some of its sisters are wild and treacherous, while its other sisters are calm and quiet."
"Oh, give me a break!" Link shouted. To his relief, the clinking pattern of the walls stayed the same. The riddle made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Was it referring to an animal? The first part was obviously a metaphor. Link was familiar with all kinds of creatures, and never did he hear of an animal that gave birth to its mother as its mother gave birth to it. He got the impression the answer wasn't of a creature at all. Why did he have to suck at word games so much...?
The walls were now close enough to make Link feel insanely claustrophobic. If he stepped once to the side and stretched out his arm, he could touch the wall with his fingertips. He didn't dare get a question wrong. It would be the end of him for sure.
He closed his eyes and tried to steady himself. Some of its sisters were wild. Some were calm and quiet. Sounded like water.
"A river!" Link yelled.
"Question four: What has the sun as a hazardous ally? Its path is winding and uncertain. To move forward with its life, it leaves itself behind."
Link now didn't have to lean over to be able to touch the walls with his hands. He had several answers in the making already, but he didn't want to take chances lest he get crushed. He considered every alternative. Was that last part literal or figurative? It was so difficult to tell with this skeleton.
"Can't you give me a hint?" Link pleaded.
"You are too late to stop your fate," the skeleton mocked. "Enjoy your last moments."
Link raised the Moon Sword and slashed at the skeleton, cutting a hand and some of its ribs off. The skeleton laughed a deep, haunting cackle. Acting on a whim, Link jammed the sword between the walls in an effort to stop them. Although it worked for the time being, the strain of keeping the sword in place was almost unbearable.
"Is it sand?" Link groaned. Sweat dripped from his forehead.
The gears moving the walls began clinking to life once more. The wall on Link's right slowly pushed its way past the blade. If he didn't act quickly, he wouldn't be able to take the Moon Sword with him even if he did get out alive.
I've got one guess left. "A snake!"
The skeleton laughed again. The back of the sarcophagus slid to the left, taking the skeleton with it. Beyond was the hallway to another room. Link pulled his sword from the wall, squeezed past the closing faces, and ran through the sarcophagus. The back of the coffin instantly closed behind him.
"You are very lucky, fleshling," the skeleton's voice rumbled.
Link sat down, emotionally and physically drained. I'd rather face a dozen of those Gerudo specters than one more of him, he thought. He wondered if the tests were designed to be harder the farther in you got. If that was the case, was there any hope for him? He took a swig of his canteen, trying not to deplete the precious little water he had left.
Fifteen minutes later, he stood up, energized for a brief bit, and limped down the length of the hallway. Small trickles of blood were running down his neck from the bite wound. At this rate, he wondered if he'd even make it through Robber's Coffin alive. Most people, he understood, didn't.
The next room was even larger than the last one. The traditional purple torches lined the walls. At the far end of the room was a staircase leading to a rectangular opening in the wall in front of it. On the ground were big hieroglyphs of what looked like various animals. Link counted twenty-eight of them; four up, seven over. It was essentially a giant grid. Link didn't like the feel of that.
The voice of a woman came from behind him. Link's heart nearly leapt into his throat. He whirled around, sword down by his side but ready for attack. The voice sounded again.
"Link? Link, are you here? Link?"
I know that voice, thought Link. What's she doing here?
A young woman emerged from the darkness of the hallway. Princess Zelda. Kain and Byron were beside her, drenched with sweat as Link himself was. The princess was wearing what he had last seen her in, albeit much grungier and slightly wet from sweat as well.
"Zelda?" Link asked. "What are you doing here?"
He was genuinely surprised. Was it really Zelda? Why would she brave the desert just to reach him? Relief, concern, and apprehension filled his mind.
"I meant to tell you something before you left," she replied, "but you had already gone. Are you alright?"
Link exhaled. "Honestly? No. But I'm doing the best I can." He looked at her two bodyguards. "So, what is it you want to tell me? Shouldn't you be back in Hyrule?"
"The princess's message is too important for that," Kain explained. "It was imperative that she tell you directly."
Panting, Zelda stepped forward. Byron supported her to keep her from falling down. Kain brought up the rear, glancing behind him to make sure nothing was following them.
"It's about the Constellation King," she said. "Right before you left, we discovered important information on him. I wanted to tell you not to go to the desert, but you left before we could reach you. We followed you for awhile, though we were always a step or two behind. Thankfully, Kain's a good tracker." She smiled at Kain. The brown-haired man looked down at the ground and blushed.
"What's so important that you couldn't send a subordinate to do it?" Link asked.
"The Constellation King has already breached the surface," she sighed. "He was sighted down by Lake Hylia. Only one messenger survived to bring the missive to me." They looked each other in the eye for awhile. "I'm sorry, Link. This entire quest to the desert has been for nothing. I truly am sorry for how you've suffered in the sands, but this is the way things stand."
"In short," Byron grunted, "we're here to bring you back. Zelda couldn't send an underling to do this because the information was too - "
"Wait a minute," Link muttered. "This place has tried all kinds of tricks to get me to either get up and leave or roll over and die. How do I know you're really the princess?" He gestured to Kain and Byron. "How do I know they're really your personal bodyguards?"
Zelda nodded. "I understand your caution, but I can prove my trustworthiness to you. Let's see...the breakfast I gave you before you left for the desert was bread and cheese. I also gave you a red potion and a letter. You, along with Kain and Byron, escorted me down to the Safe Haven when Hyrule Castle was attacked. You...you were attracted to shiny objects as a result of medicine you took in order to cure your leg paralysis. You reached for my shoulder pad when I was talking on the day the castle was attacked."
Link softened his stance. "So you really are the princess. Sorry for testing you, but..."
"We understand," Kain grunted. "We didn't have to put up with all the traps of this place, but after what it must have done to you...it's no wonder you were so suspicious."
Link tried to think of something appropriate to say, maybe a thank-you to the princess or some pretty speech signifying the end of his desert journey. Nothing came to him, so he turned back around and faced the grid of hieroglyphs.
"I...I appreciate your concern, but...we're this close to the Constellation Compass. While we're so close, I think we should get it anyway. It can't hurt."
"Unless you die," Byron said bluntly. "Come on. Don't throw away the princess's harsh excursion by committing suicide. Aside from losing an important figure in the war against the Constellation, it would crush her."
"I promise I won't die," Link assured them. "If you stay right behind me, we can make it through this grid maze - I'm pretty sure that's what it is. If I die, you can take the Moon Sword and leave."
"Link, please," Zelda begged. "Don't do this. We're already preparing strategies for the war. The Constellation Compass is not worth it."
Link stepped toward the princess, thinking of a way to get his point across. "Princess, I know how you must feel, but I've suffered, too. On my end, I don't want my journey to be wasted. Perhaps it's a selfish thing, but..." He reached out to put his hand on her shoulder. "That's why I - "
His hand went through her. He stopped and stared at the place his hand was supposed to be. It was as if it had simply disappeared when it touched her. He retracted his arm and his hand resurfaced. "You..." He waved his hand around her face. It passed through her.
The air in front of him seemed to shatter like glass. The pieces of his vision separated and exploded, accompanied by a loud breaking sound. Link covered his eyes to avert the strain. Panting, he lowered his hand and looked up.
The princess and her bodyguards were not there. There was no sign they had ever been there. Even the footprints in the dust he had seen them leave before were gone. Was that really just an illusion?
He turned back to the grid. "Very clever, Gerudo morons. You almost had me there. But now you've made me mad. No more tricks. I'm pushing straight through."
Although he was still shaken from the deception of his mind, he pushed it out of his conscience for the time and focused on the problem at hand. There were seven hieroglyphs he could possibly start at, and he was pretty sure if he stepped on the wrong one, something bad would happen. He decided to start at the hieroglyph on the far left and work his way down.
To test the seamless square, Link smacked the picture with his sword. Nothing happened. Still not satisfied, he charged the Moon Sword with energy and released it upon hitting the hieroglyph again. Five-foot-tall spikes shot up, nearly knocking the sword out of Link's hands. He regained his grip on it and moved down to the next hieroglyph.
He progressed in this pattern through the grid maze, memorizing the images when he discovered he'd picked the right path. He was almost halfway through it when he uncovered a slight hiccup.
All three potential paths from the square he stood on led to spike traps. He was certain he hadn't missed anything. He'd tested the other six squares you could potentially start on, and all of them came up with spikes. So what had gone wrong?
He remembered the mind trick the room had tried to put on him before. This room was also about deception, not just grid mazes and spike traps. After he'd accidentally let go of his sword on the third square he'd tested, he'd made sure to pull the Moon Sword back as quickly as possible before the spikes could knock it out again. But what if one of the spike traps was an illusion?
He tested the square on his left and had the sword nearly knocked out of his hands again. Testing spike traps like this was not high up on his Ways to Test Traps list, but it was the only method he could think of. The square that had been directly in front of him turned out to have illusory spikes that just went through his sword without harming them. Link stepped into the midst of spikes and found he could stand safely, though it was still unnerving to look down and see himself only from the shoulders up.
This new pattern continued until the end of the grid. Link warily smacked the floor around him with magic from the Moon Sword to make sure he wasn't still being deceived. When he was satisfied, he bounded up the steps, looked around, and entered through the opening in the wall to see what lay beyond.
