Unfortunately it's been a little while since I was able to update this. Because of the closely intertwined nature of the next few chapters, I had to work ahead considerably, making sure that there were no errors in the continuity of the story.

25

The Goron Mines. A Troubled Girl. The Moon Gate.

"You're very, very lucky."

The voice seemed to come from three places at once, the word lucky echoing around the empty street before vanishing into silence. Link's hand snapped to his sword, and he eased it out of his sheath.

"Idiot! Put the blade away!" Hissed, panicky. "She'll find you!"

"Show yourself," Link declared. He kept the Master Sword raised in front of him.

"Up here, you fool."

He looked up, scanning the rooftops. There, perched on a chimney, was a diminutive figure with a familiar silhouette. "Vaati?"

The wind mage slid gracefully off the roof and floated gently down to the cobblestones, his purple cloak swirling about his feet. "Yes, it's me, congratulations, you figured it out. Put the damned sword away, hurry!"

Link took a step forward and levelled the blade at Vaati's throat. "Why should I listen to you?"

Vaati raised his arms in a gesture of surrender. "You really want to know why? You should listen to me because right now Zelda has half of the damn castle and one nameless monstrosity out scouring the city for you, and waving a sword with a very unique and very powerful magical signature around is an extremely stupid thing to do if you want to stay hidden."

Link narrowed his eyes. "I have a piece of the Triforce. That's more powerful than this sword any day."

The look on Vaati's face was one of both contempt and exasperation. "Yes, but right now the entire gods-damned city is bathed in the magic of the Triforce. Your sword stands out! Now put it away!"

Reluctantly, Link sheathed the Master Sword. "What the hell do you want?"

Relieved, Vaati lowered his arms. "As I was saying, you are lucky I found you first. I propose an alliance." With an exaggerated smile, Vaati proffered his hand.

"You must be joking if you think I'm going to trust you."

He winced theatrically. "Fine. Fine. I can't blame you for not trusting me. But just hear me out, okay?"

Link started walking away.

Vaati glided along after him, his feet never touching the ground. "I can only guess at your intentions, but how about you just let me theorize for a few minutes?"

When he got no response, Vaati continued. "Now, clearly something must have happened for Zelda to have taken such radical action, correct? She's worried. Obviously whatever you've done must have alarmed her to such an extent that she was forced to act."

The wind mage swept around in front of Link so that he was floating backwards as he talked.

"The spell has placed a barrier around Hyrule, so that nobody may enter or leave. Zelda needs the complete Triforce, so I can deduce that our good friend Ganondorf must be back in our fair city. No doubt that girl Zant hates is with him. What's her name? Minda?"

"Get to the point," Link snapped.

"Oh, so now you want to hear what I have to say." Vaati's eyes betrayed his seriousness. "Despite the immense danger in being outside in the darkness, here you are. Whatever you plan to do, it must be extremely important for you to take this risk. The most likely possibility is that you believe you have a way to break the spell that Zelda has cast over Hyrule."

Link stopped. Not because of what Vaati was saying, but because he had to stop and double-check his bearings. The same streets he had navigated numerous times in broad daylight became foreign to him in the darkness. "Okay. You're right. Happy?"

Vaati laughed. "I'm never happy. You can't possibly know what it's like, to be just an afterthought in the Goddesses' great plan. To know that nothing you can possibly do will ever matter, ever."

"Yes, well, excuse me if I don't feel too bad for you."

"I'm not asking you to feel bad for me. I'm telling you that I loathe the gods and all that they stand for, and that if there's a chance, any chance at all, for me to break this endless cycle then that chance lies with you, right now."

Now, finally, he had said something that caught Link's interest. He stopped and turned. "So what will you do?"

"You don't trust me," Vaati said, bluntly. "You can't. So all I'm going to do for now is give you some advice: Loyalty is fleeting. Mine included. Much will change with the balance of power. If you can destroy Zelda's magic, if you do put an end to the beast that dwells in the depths, and if the day comes when the Princess falls... well, I wouldn't be too surprised if a lot of loyalties change that day. Do you get what I'm saying?"

Link looked into Vaati's eyes for a long while. "Yeah," he said, finally. "I understand."

Within the very foundations of Hyrule, beneath even the dank empty roads of the undercity, lay the mines.

A vast network of tunnels and quarries, carved into the rock over the course of centuries. The stone to build Hyrule had to come from somewhere, and the Gorons were perfectly suited to the task of mining vast amounts of ore from beneath the city.

Link was below even the riverbed now, he knew. This far underground, the heat was oppressive: molten streams of rock flowed by in deep channels carved by the Gorons, and steam and smoke billowed from the enormous furnaces used to smelt the ore.

A foul-smelling river ran alongside the path he walked. This far underground, the copious runoff from the city above formed rushing waters and deep underground pools, and the sound of them mingled with the cacophony of the mines to create an oppressive din. The Gorons used the waters for both cooling and waste disposal, which only served to add to the impressive amount of pollutants that saturated them already.

So it was really saying something that Link was tempted to dip his head into the water, if only for a temporary reprieve from the heat. The rocky walls of the cavern acted like a convection oven, reflecting and containing the heat of the mines.

"Hold it right there, bud."

A deep voice rang out from somewhere behind him. Link knew better to turn and look for the source, when literally any rock could be a Goron in disguise.

Instead he slowly raised his hands over his head and said, in a loud, clear voice: "My name is Link. I'm with the Gerudo. I'm looking for Ganondorf and Midna."

"Oh yeah? What's the password?"

Password? Link racked his brains trying to remember if there had been one or not. "I... There isn't a password. Midna probably told you to say that as a joke."

There was a silence that stretched out uncomfortably.

"I gotta say, you're pretty sharp, bud. Come on, we'll show you where your friends are."

Suddenly, all around him, boulders sprouted legs and arms. The Gorons were by nature a fairly friendly and peaceful race, but Link was always wary of their prodigious strength. He wasn't sure if even Ganondorf could measure up to one if it came to a contest of brute force.

"Don't worry," said the friendly-seeming Goron, noticing his worried expression "We're one your side. My handle's Gorko. And you?"

"Link." He refrained from shaking Gorko's hand for fears of his own being crushed.

The Gorons led him through the mines along through a series of winding tunnels, so filled with twists and turned that he began to worry that he'd be unable to find his way out again. Presently they came upon long rows of small caves hewn into the rock, what Link could only assume were Goron houses. Each one seemed to be decorated differently- some were adorned with Dodongo skulls above the entrance and other had bomb flowers and pottery in their 'front yard.'

They came to one cave that was unadorned. A crude wooden door prevented him from seeing who was inside, but the familiar flickering light of a fireplace shone through the cracks. Link knocked on the door.

"Who 's there?"

"Link."

The door swung open and there was Ganondorf, hunched over in the small stone frame. "Hurry, inside." He gestured hurriedly with his free hand. "Gorko, you keep watch."

"Sure thing."

The first thing Link noticed when he stepped inside was that it was crowded. He'd been expecting just Ganondorf, Midna, and Navi, but there were at least fifty people crammed into the cave, if not more.

All that was left of the Gerudo.

"Well, look who it is!" said a familiar voice, and suddenly Link was wrapped up in an enthusiastic embrace. "Bet you thought I'd packed it in, yeah?"

He couldn't believe it. "Ashei? You're alive!"

His old comrade stepped back and punched him in the shoulder, sporting a rare grin. "Sure am. After we got separated when we busted outta the castle I managed to find my way to the Greatfish cell, which was a bunch of Zora. I hid out with them for a while, but only a few of us managed to make it down here when Veran's gang started hunting down Gerudo."

Link saw that among the people gathered in the cave there was at least five or six Zora. They seemed extremely uncomfortable in the dusty, heated confines.

Ashei stepped back and clapped her hands, the smile slipping off her face. She clapped her hands loudly. "Alright, boss. We're all here. What's the plan?"

"Yeah!" Somebody yelled, overhearing her. "What are we going to do?"

There were more cries, of "Tell us, Ganondorf," and "We are still loyal!"

The room fell into an expectant hush, all eyes on Ganondorf. The leader of the Gerudo towered naturally over the room, and as his eyes swept across the crowded confines fifty solemn faces looked up at him.

"This," he began slowly, thoughtfully. "Is our darkest day."

He gathered the words silently inside his mind.

"Our brotherhood has been shattered. Brothers and sisters have been murdered under cover of darkness, the honour of a noble death stolen from them through subterfuge and treachery. A terrible magic has engulfed all of Hyrule, and high above us, the Princess defies the will of the gods and works to destroy us all. We are in the grip of an endless night, my friends, and the beast that we have feared for so long now roams the streets, unchecked and sleepless."

Glancing around the room, Link noticed that there was one person who seemed entirely unconcerned by Ganondorf's speech. No, not unconcerned, but-distracted.

Midna stared quietly into the fire, her eyes unblinking, her jaw slack in thought. Absentmindedly, she opened and closed her fist, a small flame winking in and out of existence each time she did so.

Ganondorf paused before the next sentence, not for effect, but because it was difficult for him to speak what he knew to be true.

"The Gerudo are dead," he said. "We are all that remains. Fifty lost souls, hiding from the dark. Fifty out of the hundreds that were once our siblings. But all is not yet lost."

What could be consuming Midna so? Link did not care for the look on her face at all.

"The princess, in her arrogance, assumes that we are finished. That we are cowards. That we will stay down here, trapped like animals in this hole, that we lack the will to fight! Do we?"

"No!" Said a few of the attentive members of the audience. Ashei chimed in with a 'Hell no!'

"The princess claims to see all within this city, but her arrogance has left her blind! She believes that knives and darkness are enough to destroy a noble cause, but does a noble cause die an ignoble death?"

"No!" More people shouted, the Gorons especially.

"And can even this darkness not be overcome, illuminated by the fury that burns within a thousand righteous souls? Will the people of Hyrule not rise up, and cast aside the shackles that bind them when the appointed hour is come?"

"Hyrule rises!" Ashei bellowed, and her call was taken up in earnest.

"HYRULE RISES!"

"She thinks us nothing more than puppets, mere dolls that bend to her whims. Are you a mere plaything? Or are you real men, real women, who will forge your will in the fires of battle to come?"

"HYRULE RISES!"

"The magic and the darkness that bind us are nothing more than trickeries, illusions created by cowards who fear the might of the people they oppress! But the time has come when these deceptions will fall, fall before the fires of justice!"

Ganondorf drew the greatsword at his side, the massive blade that was made of pure light. It illuminated fifty rapt faces and the hot fury that was written on every one.

"HYRULE RISES!" Ganondorf thundered, the very rock beneath their feet seeming to tremble with his voice.

"HYRULE RISES!" Echoed back the last remnants of the Gerudo. For one instant Link saw Ganondorf as he was long ago, in another life; a warrior king resplendent in flame and blood, riding hellbent towards war with a hundred thousand warriors screaming behind him.

"Go from this place," Ganondorf said. "All of you, steal away and hide yourselves, find somewhere safe. Tell nobody, not even me, because the risk of betrayal is too great. But, wherever you go, you must tell the people this: That the hour approaches when this curse will be broken, and when the darkness that covers our city will give way to light. When the sun shines in the sky once more, then you will know that hour has come."

"Spread the word. When the enchantment over the city falls, all true sons and daughters of Hyrule are to march on the castle. The building will empty, and the streets will be filled with citizens who will demand justice at last. Zelda will fall, my friends. Mark my words- the day is coming soon."

As he finished speaking and sheathed the greatsword, Ganondorf was swarmed by the last of his followers as they swore loyalty to him and vengeance against Princess Zelda.

Somebody sidled up next to him and jabbed him in the ribs. It was Midna. "Let's get out of here," she said. "I wanna to talk to you."

She certainly seemed distressed. So Link followed her out of the crowded cave, past Gorko, and down the corridor chiselled into the stone.

Midna wavered slightly as she walked, and her breath seemed strangely ragged and uneven. "Did you hear them? She asked suddenly. "Willing to follow him through hell itself. Gods, the fools."

Link realized that Mida was very, very drunk.

"Midna... are you alright?"

She seemed to ignore him. "Hell itself," she mused. "Will any of them follow us there? No. We'll be alone down there, in the dark."

"There are four of us," Link said. "You, me, Navi, and Ganondorf. That's hardly 'alone.'"

She turned and gave him a strange, pitying sort of look. "You don't know what it's like. You haven't seen that darkness. I have."

He remembered the few other times when her barrier of cynicism had failed her, when he had caught a glimpse of the true Midna. How small she had looked then.

"Come on, let's eat something." She pushed aside a heavy wooden door and they stepped into an underground storehouse. Even this close to the heat of the mines and the runoff of the city, it was cool and dry, and crates and barrels of supplies were stacked neatly along the walls.

She slid the top off a crate and reached inside. "Here."

He caught the bottle that she threw at him.

"Down here, they call it 'Rock Polish.'" She cackled. "Heavy stuff."

Midna resumed digging around the storeroom. Link took a pull from the bottle and discovered that she certainly hadn't been kidding- his eyes watered just from the smell of it.

"Wow," he said.

She burst out laughing at the expression on his face, but her mirth quickly faded in the still quiet of the storeroom. Returning to her previous sullen state, she handed him some food: bread, cheese, and a thick slice of salted meat.

Slumping down next to him, she chewed her food and stared at the wall.

"Hey, Midna..." he began, unsure of how to broach the subject.

"Nn," she grunted, indicating the he should continue.

"Tell me what's the matter."

She sighed deeply and tore off a chunk of bread. "You know, Link..." Midna stuffed the bread into her mouth and mumbled around it. "Ugh. Nevermin.' S'not 'mportant."

"You're the one who told me you needed to talk." He grasped her hand. Startled, she turned to face him and he stared into her eyes. "You're not acting right. I'm concerned about you."

For a moment, some savage emotion flashed across her face- was it hate that he saw in her eyes? But then it was gone, and she extracted her hand from his. "There's something I've been wanting to ask you, Link. Well, something I need to tell you, more like. For quite a while."

He didn't say anything, instead waiting for her to finish.

"Something... about me. I haven't been telling you the whole truth."

"So tell me. What is it that has you so troubled?"

"...I don't want you to hate me. But now, it looks like you're going to find out, one way or another... and..."

She covered her face.

"...I can't do it. Tomorrow. I'll tell you tomorrow."

"Midna... you're my friend. Why would I hate you?"

"Because I hate myself." She stood up suddenly. "I'm tired. This was a stupid idea."

"Go to sleep then," he said. "But I'm going to hold you to what you said. You can explain what you were talking about tomorrow."

"I'll have to."

He sat there in the cool, dry storeroom for a while after she left, leaning against barrels of grain and staring at the compass that the mask salesman had given him. The compass that pointed to the very center of the enchantment that encompassed Hyrule.

The needle was still pointing the same direction.

Straight down.

"Good morning, sunshine. How are you feeling?"

Midna shot Ganondorf a very dirty look and muttered a few filthy words. One of her hands was rubbing tenderly at her temple while the other still clutched a half-full bottle of Goron rock polish.

Ganondorf snatched the bottle away from her before she could take a drink. "I think you've had enough."

"I haven't had any today."

"Well you more than made up for that yesterday." He raised the bottle to his lips and took a pull. "Gods! How can you drink this?"

He took another gulp and passed the bottle to Link. "Either finish that or pour it out. We need to get moving."

Link allowed himself a little pick-me-up, and then upended the bottle and poured its contents on the stone floor. Midna grumbled her dissatisfaction as he did so.

"Whoah, buddy, that's a century of Goron tradition you just poured out!"

Gorko the Goron, their assigned guide through the lower levels of the mines, lumbered up to them. He took the empty bottle from Link and shook his head sadly. "It takes one hundred years just to brew one bottle of this delicacy, you know. There are many Gorons who would kill you for wasting a bottle of our prized rock polish in this way. You are lucky I am not one of them, bud."

"Wow!" Navi said. She was sitting on top of Ganondorf's head. "Is that true?"

Gorko laughed, deep and hearty. "No way, little fairy. This is pure swill. Even I cannot stomach the stuff, to tell you the truth."

"Can we just get moving?" Midna moaned, still clutching her head.

They were standing at the very bottom of one of the mines' immense quarries, a great cavern spanning several kilometres carved into the stone. All along the walls of the vastness, mine carts ran up and down on tracks that crisscrossed and swooped in and out of tunnels bored into the rock.

The far end of the cavern was lit up by the workings of a gigantic smelting facility. Enormous quantities of molten stone flowed into and out of the furnaces, carried to and from the metalworks by deep channels.

Even this far away from the core of the Goron mines, the heat and light given off was immense. Link's hair and tunic were damp with sweat, and it hurt his eyes to look directly at the rivers of lava.

"You know, you should count yourself lucky," Gorko was saying as he trodded along, leading them into one of the mines' many service tunnels. "Very few of you surface-dwellers get to see our mines up close. You wouldn't believe how much rock we dig out of this place. There are at least a hundred caverns just as big as this one."

"Is it safe?" Ganondorf asked. "Shouldn't there be a risk of collapse if you dig out too much from underneath the city?"

Gorko laughed, engaging in the Goron custom of slapping Ganondorf on the back as he did so. It was to Ganondorf's credit that he barely flinched. "You are a funny one, bud! Doubting the power of Goron engineering! Ha!"

The maintenance tunnel was wide, easily wide enough for all of them to stand side-by-side with arms outstretched and not touch the walls. Two sets of tracks for mine carts ran parallel into the gloom ahead, and magic lamps embedded into the sides of the tunnel lit their way.

"No, I think that no matter how much we dig out it will not make a difference."

Midna laughed.

"Why do you say that?" Link asked

Gorko looked back over his shoulder. "You really have no idea how far down these tunnels go, do you?"

"Are you coming all the way to the bottom with us?" Navi chirped.

The goron shuddered. "No way in hell, little fairy buddy. You guys must be crazy to go down there, that's what I think. I'm just taking you to an old passage into the low kingdom."

"The low kingdom?"

It was Midna who answered Link's question. "The dead civilization even further beneath the city than the Gorons. The Twili."

"Is that what they were called?" Gorko seemed surprised. "Never heard of these Twili. Rumour has it they died out centuries ago."

"Oh? Is that so?" Link's voice was a little bit louder than necessary.

"That's what the rumour says." Midna stared straight ahead, not turning to meet Link's eyes boring into her.

"You know, I'm the only one that will even go down as far as the old gateway. Everybody else is too superstitious. Not me though, I love all that old stuff."

They turned down another passage, an offshoot of the main tunnel. This one was considerably narrower and darker, the magic lamps that lit their way spaced farther apart.

"Well, there's that, and..." Gorko gulped audibly. "The you-know-what. The low kingdom is the beginning of its territory. The place under the city where no light reaches. Scary stuff, I tell you. Scary stuff."

"Indeed," Ganondorf seemed wryly amused, somehow. "I heard once that the ghosts of the low kingdom still roam Hyrule, you know. That some of the Twili still walk this world."

"No way!" Gorko's eyes widened. "You pulling my leg?"

"It would be quite a chilling tale," Midna said, bitter mirth in her voice. "If it were true."

Navi interrupted from overhead. "But Midna, aren't you- Ah!"

She snatched the fairy from the air. "You had best keep quiet, Navi. The ghosts of the low kingdom don't take well to noisy intruders."

The narrow passageway opened up onto a wide cavern. A torrent of water rushed past beneath them, dark and deep. Somewhere downstream the familiar rumble of a waterfall could be heard.

"The bridge might not hold all of us at once," Gorko was saying. "So head across one at a time, to be sure. I'll go first."

The bridge in question was made of stone panels, and held together with heavy chains that were driven into the walls on each side. At the far side, the dark opening to another cave waited.

Gorko went first across the bridge, followed by Ganondorf. Once the two heaviest members of their group were across, Midna and Link followed.

"Where do you think all this water goes?" Grasping the chains, she leaned over the side of the bridge to peer down into the roiling waters below. "Think about it. All the runoff from the city above- it has to end up somewhere."

"Maybe the whole undercity is flooded," Link said. "That would be quite an end to our adventure, wouldn't it? Foiled by water?"

Ganondorf had overheard them as they approached the stone outcropping where he and Gorko were waiting. "No. She would want to make sure that she could recover her reliquary if need be. I don't know what we'll find down there, but it won't be flooded, you can count on that."

"Man, you guys are talking about some deep stuff, way over my head." Gorko said. "No pun intended. Come on, we're almost there."

They wove their way through an increasingly narrow and cramped network of passageways bored into the stone, the rock now constantly damp beneath their feet. In some places, water flowed ankle deep along the tunnels, carrying the harsh smells of sulfur and ozone with it.

"Don't drink that stuff," Gorko advised. "We run it through our furnaces to cool them. You probably shouldn't even be putting your feet in there."

"Appreciate the tip," Midna said, shaking out a waterlogged boot.

It was after a few hours of travelling through the fringes of the mines that they finally arrived at their destination: the gateway into the low kingdom.

The passageway suddenly widened into a great hall, the roughly hewn walls giving way to smooth walls of dark, black stone. Thick pillars of the same material formed two rows at the center of the atrium. Every surface made of the black stone- the pillars, the walls, the floor- had strange runes carved into them, which glowed with a faint orange light.

"This is the Moon Gate, one of many gateways into the Twili kingdom," Midna ran her hands over the symbols. "These runes are part of a spell to keep out intruders."

"How does it work?" Navi asked

"Well, if the spell detects an intruder, then the gate doesn't open," Midna said. "Pretty simple." At the far end of the hall was a thick rectangular slab made out of the same stone. The symbols on the gate itself formed complex patterns within concentric circles, constituting a powerful binding spell.

"So can you break the spell?"

"No need," Midna said. "Ganondorf can just break the door."

Ganondorf strolled to calmly up to the doorway and laid his hands on it. The circles lit up briefly, before fading back to their dormant state once more. "It would be a shame to destroy such a work of art as this. Especially when that destruction is without purpose. Open the gate, Midna."

She sighed, raised her hand lazily, and snapped her fingers.

Immediately, the entire room was ablaze with the light of magic. The runes on every surface blazed with an unnatural brightness, shining all the more against the black stone.

"Wow!" Gorko shouted, clapping his hands. "You guys do not kid around! This is amazing!"

Ganondorf stepped back hastily from the doorway, as the circles drawn there began to rotate and interlock as the barrier spell undid itself. With a final rush of light and energy, the Moon Gate split right down the middle, sliding open and revealing a dark passageway behind it.

Although the light had faded a bit, the runes continued to glow and hum all around them, like bizarre constellations in a sky made out of stone. Link laid his hand against one of the pillars and closed his eyes. He could feel the magic in the room, almost like he could reach out and grasp it.

Gorko peered down into the newly opened passage. It was a staircase, made out of the same black stone, leading down, further into the city's depths.

"This is where I leave you, my friends." He said. "I must say, I kind of like you guys. I will watch the sky like you said, Ganondorf, and if you succeed in your crazy adventure, I will be there alongside you and the rest of Hyrule."

"Thank you, Gorko," Ganondorf grinned and clapped the Goron on the back. "It has been a pleasure."

"Yeah. I'd say 'see you later,' but... you know." Midna brushed past them and started down the staircase. Within a few minutes she had vanished into the darkness.

Ganondorf and Link followed her, with Navi bobbing alongside them. Link turned and looked back- Gorko was still standing at the top of the stairs, one arm raised in farewell.

"Goodbye, bud."

Link turned and followed the other two, taking his first steps down into the dead kingdom of the Twili.

I liked Gorko the friendly Goron so much in Skyward Sword that I just had to put him in.

As this story draws closer to its climax, a lot of the individual character arcs are also going to draw towards their conclusion, and we'll see many prominent characters forced to make very personal and emotional decisions. One of the purposes of writing this story was exploring how characters attitudes and actions could change given a different set of circumstances, and how people that we know as heroes and villains could switch places given the right motivations. The biggest challenge in writing Sacred Reliquary was having the characters behave in drastically different ways but still remain true to their canon selves. This journey beneath the city is a journey for the reader into the true selves of Ganondorf, Midna, and Link.

One last note: I started a Twitter, booksin1tweet, where every week or so I will post a 140-character impression of a book that I've read recently. If you have Twitter yourself and you'd like to help me out and further validate my asinine opinions, please give it a follow. Who knows? If I get enough followers I just might release chapters a little bit faster.*

* No I won't.