Chapter 19: Depths of Death

…

Link brushed aside his meeting with Janni to focus on returning to his original intentions. So he jumped onto a nearby roof by virtue of the feather in his pocket to look around. From where he stood, the Island Symphony tried its best to be a small star on the edge of the island. Given that he was no longer standing between it and the tower in the center, he had come to quite a distance from his destination. To bypass some time since he did not know how much longer he might be able to travel like this, he hopped across rooftops toward the main street that he and his crew had been exploring. This shortened his search considerably; he was back along the main street in only moments, a much briefer time than if he had tried retracing his path on the ground.

He located the hole in the street where Line and Cale had made the initial discovery. As he observed from atop one corner of a nearby building, he saw that a mysterious fluid still filled the hole. It was not black, though. Its surface reminded Link of drops of oil in a glass of water; sickly-green bubbles sloshed about without breaking or popping. What had looked like solid black when he was awake now looked more like a dark shade that just barely allowed him to see the cave underneath the street. Some of the locals continued to stop and scream near the hole, and Link could see the surface vibrate with every scream like a person blowing over the top of a drink.

The settlers were not as thick in this area as before. Once the intersection was clear, Link dropped down to the street and approached the hole. He was cautious, now knowing that he was probably dealing with a living creature. He drew his sword and gently pushed the blade into the liquid's surface. The liquid did not resist. In fact, the liquid acted like Link's sword did not exist even as he moved the blade left and right to disrupt the surface. He tried to divide one of the green bubbles, but the bubble did not react. He withdrew the blade and examined it only to find it perfectly clean. After touching a finger to the tip just to be sure, he replaced the sword. Then he lowered himself to his knees. His reach was hesitant, but he decided that it could not harm him if he put one gloved hand in, even if the glove did not have fingertips. He felt no difference as his fingers pierced the surface. Even as he waved his hand around, nothing changed. He tried to scoop up some of the liquid only to find that it simply slipped through his fingers. Then he tried it again once he realized that his hand was not even containing the liquid. Instead, the liquid passed through his hand as if his hand was not real. He stared at the surface, wishing he had a bottle to test the liquid more.

Then a hand shoved him from behind.

"WAAAH!" Link tipped into the hole, through the liquid, and—whumpf!—landed hard on his stomach. He lay still for a moment as he tried to catch in all the breath that the fall had knocked out of him. Then he started pushing himself up, groaning as the pain worked across the front of his body.

"You should watch that first step, Captain," a nearby girl's voice told him. "I would love to see you survive a little longer than that."

Link placed his knees underneath him and looked up to find Janni hovering just overhead, her massive grin made spookier by the shadows under the liquid blackening her skin. Link switched from surprised to exhausted as he stood and dusted himself off. "I thought you didn't wanna come along," he told her.

"Do I look like someone who doesn't change her mind a lot?" she answered, crossing her arms.

"So you're gonna help me then?"

"Pfft!" was her immediate response. "Hardly. I'm more interested in seeing how far you go with this. Don't put much thought into it, Captain; I'm just bored."

"Just an observer, huh? I'd think you'd be interested in finding out how to get out of this shield." For emphasis, he patted the edge of the shield on his arm.

Janni gave an indifferent shrug. "Not really."

Link sighed and shook his head. Then he pointed down the tunnel behind her. "Know what's down here?"

Janni glanced over her shoulder, her expression just a vague shade of intrigue among boredom. "The old library."

"The Sorians' lost library," Link explained. "My friend can find a way to change herself back into a Sorian, but that… that black thing down there concerns me."

"Yeah, I imagine it would."

"What is it?"

Janni let her arms fall to her sides and allowed her head to loll onto her left shoulder. "Oh, boy. With all I told you earlier, you still don't know what that is?"

Link gave a pause as he went through their previous discussion. Finding no other explanation, he replied, "The Night? Is that what The Night looks like?"

Janni nodded and floated down to the ground. She started to strut back and forth in front of Link as she told him, "I watched the Obeetans bury this tunnel, and they had good reason. The Night likes to sleep during the day. You're lucky you and your friend didn't wake it throwing things at it."

"You saw that?"

"Oh, please," Janni replied with a flat look. Then she smiled at him. "There isn't anything new going on around here that I don't see. I saw your ship dock. I saw your friends fall through that hole." She pointed up. Then she put her hands behind her back. "And I saw you bump into The Night three times. You have a reason to be paranoid, Captain. If you woke The Night, you wouldn't have survived."

"What would it have done?"

Janni paused so that her smile had a moment to unnerve Link. Then she said, "I don't know. But if you did survive a close-up with The Night, you wouldn't come back right."

"You mean like them?" Link asked, pointing up.

Janni shook her head. "Let's just say that if you didn't kill yourself afterwards, your crew would have to."

Link felt a shiver rattle his spine, and he tried to steel his features. "What about when The Night's awake?" he asked.

"Well, you've seen the Obeetans," Janni said. "You've seen them scream whenever they come near this hole. That was a funny idea, by the way. Up until you and your crew blew open the tunnel, all I had to listen to was their nonsensical ranting to themselves. The blast was pretty impressive, too."

Link glared at her, mostly to keep in the surprise at how nonchalant and even gleeful she was at what he perceived to be seriously horrific ideas. "Why do they scream like that?"

"This stuff you're standing in is The Night's miasma. What falls in doesn't come out until morning." Her smile became wider. "And what comes out is ten times as horrible."

"That's enough," he snapped at her, pointing a finger at her. "I get it that this place is bad, but I don't need you reminding me every five minutes. You can either help me or go away."

"Oh?" Janni replied, her face a gleeful mask of intrigue. "And what do you think you can do to stop me? What do you think you can do to stop The Night? You think you're safe just because you're wandering around in this living dreamscape?" She stepped to one side of the tunnel, crossed her arms again, and leaned against the wall. "You're in The Night's miasma. Even if it didn't care that you're wandering around in its dreamscape, you've ensured that it will find you now."

Link indicated the tunnel toward the library as he argued, "It isn't even coming for me!"

Janni's smile turned smug. "That should worry you more." Link glanced down the tunnel again. And he realized that, if she was right about what The Night did while it was awake as well as not being able to hide from it using the shield's effect, he should have seen The Night do something by now. He turned pale, eliciting a giggle from Janni. "Is it really so bad of me to remind you of the kind of nightmare you're about to walk into?" she taunted.

Link clenched the fist of his free hand. "I have to do something," he told her.

"I can't tell whether you're brave or stupid," she said as Link started down the tunnel. "Not that I think there's much of a difference."

Link rolled his eyes and continued down the tunnel, the path dark but with his destination made clear by the glow of the second hole in the street above. He hoped that Janni would not follow him.

Then a bolt of green flashed past his face. At first, he thought Irleen had caught up with him. But when the fairy stopped, it was immediately apparent that it was not Irleen. Tricking the way light was supposed to work, this fairy was pitch-black at its core and still emitted a green glow from its body.

"You weren't planning on leaving me behind, were you?"

Link's surprise quickly changed into annoyance. "Janni?" he asked the fairy.

"Surprised?"

"Up until you said something."

"Mmm, yeah, that's what I thought, too. It's hard to tell; it's dark."

"It's a tunnel."

"I was talking about your sense of humor."

Link opened and closed his mouth for a moment, unable to fully construct a comeback. Then he shouted, "Do you even listen to what you say?!"

"Not really. I think I'm a little boring."

Link finally gave in with a frustrated groan. "Jus—… If all you're gonna do is clown around, just leave me alone." He stepped aside and walked past her.

She reappeared in the corner of his left eye. "You can't stop me, Link," she told him. "Besides, this is something I'd love to see. It's been a while since someone was deluded enough to go start a fight with The Night."

"I'm not deluded," he told her, shooting her an angry glare. "I have a crew I'm responsible for."

"You think the Obeetans didn't? Many of them were a lot older than you before they turned into nothings. What have you got that they didn't?"

Link did not answer. He did not want to admit that he had no clue as to his actions once he confronted The Night at the bottom of the library. He acted like he was rolling some fatigue out of his right shoulder, trying to distract himself from the fact that he had no solid plan. He wanted to believe that he could at least look at the situation, this having been his method on a number of dangerous adventures before coming to Obeeta. Besides, if Janni was right, he was already doomed. He might as well have a better look at The Night.

He took one last look at the half-moon hanging above the second hole in the ground before moving into the library. So far, the library looked just as he had seen it two days ago. However, the marbles of light traveling along the wooden surfaces appeared green instead of yellow, and shadows were much darker once nearby illumination moved away. Link took that to be The Night's almost invisible miasma. He began to wonder if it did little more than add an ugly tint to everything.

"Yeah, this is about how I remember it," Janni commented as she fluttered to one of the nearby shelves. "So, what will be your pleasure today, Link? Fifty Lessons of a Fish Monger? Or The Bloody Wrath of a Nightmare Weaver?"

Link stopped and looked back at her over his shoulder. "You made that second one up," he accused her.

"Do you read Sorian?" Janni asked with a hint of challenge in her voice.

Link turned fully around to her. "You do?"

"Well, I'm a little rusty," she admitted. "It has been a while." She fluttered back to Link's side. "But you're right; I was making that second one up."

Link turned back around and walked to the railing at the edge of the floor. He looked down into the atrium to see that something had changed. To the left, hidden by the floor above it, should have been The Night's body with a shadow directly in front of it. However, that shadow was gone, having been replaced with flickering light the same as that around him, down to the green hue of this strange place.

Link frowned and said to himself, "That doesn't look right."

"I think you'll find consistency a little lacking in this place," Janni told him, hovering circles above his head. "That's what makes it fun."

He cast an irritated look up at her. "You and I need to figure out a definition for 'fun'." He pushed away from the rail and started toward the stairs on the right side.

"How's this, then?" Janni asked as she trailed him. "The Night doesn't like to do the same thing twice. You can probably imagine this being a little hard, but, with your crew around, it's opened up a whole new game of 'Add to the Obeetan Population' just for you. So. What you see down there won't be permanent. To an extent, it won't even be real. But who am I to judge? This is all I ever see of the world."

"I'll tell you what I see, then," Link said as he carefully began to descend the large steps. "That side of the last floor is supposed to be almost pitch-black. There's a mass of black right where that doorway is down there, and now it's gone. If this island's library is anything like what the Sorians had on Forelight Island, then that doorway should lead to the technoworks beneath the island. If I can gain access to it, I can change the Sky Lines, and we should be able to leave."

"Okay," Janni said. "That sounds like a plan. But if that's The Night there, do you think it will just let you waltz right in?"

"I have to do something." Then, about part-way down the fourth floor, Link stopped with a start. He patted himself down as he realized something. "Oh, man…"

"What?" Janni asked.

"I forgot the harmonica," Link groaned. He glanced up the stairs. "I wonder if I have time to go get it…"

"The Night isn't gonna be awake by the time you return from your ship," Janni warned him. "Even with those fancy boots of yours."

Link let out a sigh and glanced down at the stairs. "Yeah, maybe you're right," he admitted. "Besides, I can't use it without Irleen." He shrugged and continued down the stairs. "When The Night sleeps, what does it look like to you?"

"From my perspective, it's almost like The Night doesn't exist. What's it supposed to look like while it sleeps in the daylight? Even if it can control things in its sleep, it isn't as if it can show its dreams to us."

Link paused on the landing on the fifth floor and looked up at her. "You mean The Night is completely gone when it goes to sleep?"

"Sure, in this dreamscape," Janni said as she started to move past him. Then she stopped right in front of him. "But then, even I sleep during the day. It's pretty boring otherwise, at least until you came along. Now I just treat myself to a little insomnia and follow along."

Link pointed out toward the atrium. "Have you ever had a look at what's down there while The Night's sleeping?"

"Why? It's not like anyone went down there."

Link's reaction fell somewhere between annoyed and defeated as he mumbled, "Right…" He continued down the stairs, now following Janni.

Once Link was past the level just above the bottom, he hunched low so that he could see the black void on the opposite side before he set foot on the floor. He discovered that, to an extent, Janni was right; what he saw did not seem real. The black mass was gone. In its place looked like two rows of bookshelves crammed on either side of a narrow corridor. Not that Link had a good view from the stairs. He decided that, for the time being, it was safe enough to approach. He watched the lights on the wall as he did so. They remained in sight even after passing the point where the void would have blacked them out, although this meant that they were only following furrows on the other side just barely beyond where The Night should have been. As he came closer, he found that the bookshelves did not look like wood. The material was black and decrepit like it had been burned. The floor looked brighter than the library outside. Spots of light illuminated the corridor from recesses in the ceiling, which Link could not see until he was about a second away from stepping past The Night's edge.

Once he looked down to get a better view of the corridor now that he was close, he froze. The luminous material on the ground turned out to be broken and uneven.

And bone.

From the edge of the corridor to as far as Link could see, the floor was littered with so many bones that there was no telling what was underneath. The floor sported a variety: limb bones, ribs, pelvises, and even skulls. The skulls gave Link the impression of human remains, and the thought that so many people had died down here made his whole body grow cold.

"Hmmm…" Janni hummed as she floated past Link. "Brilliant. Daunting." She turned to Link. "Morbid. The Night's style, naturally."

"Is this why no one came down here anymore?" Link asked.

"Hardly," Janni said. "At best, there's probably a skeleton or two down here. The rest of this is just The Night's imagination. It's been a while since I'd seen a bone-riddled floor. I like the yellowish color with the red flecks of dried flesh. Really sets the mood, don't you think?"

Link slowly drew his sword. "Is there anything in here that can hurt me?"

"Well, this is a dream, and you're a dream. So… hm. I don't know."

Link started forward as he said, "I think I'll keep this out just to be safe."

"You any good with that?"

Link allowed a half-grin as he began to say, "You won't—"

"EEEEEEEEEEEK!"

Link jumped in surprise, scattering bones into a clattering frenzy and crunching down on them again. He immediately spun around with the shield raised. "What!? What!?" he demanded.

"Look at these books!" Janni cried out. "They're so perfect! The best pun on human anatomy I've seen in a long time!"

She was hovering in front of a bookshelf near the entrance. It had escaped Link's notice after he had stepped inside, but now that Janni had called attention to it, he saw that the books on the shelves were not simply books. Their spines were composed of actual vertebrae, something he should have realized since there were no backbones on the floor. He heaved an exhausted sigh and told her, "Could you avoid screaming like that?"

Janni giggled as she turned to him. "Wow, Link. You really are out of your element, aren't you?"

"You aren't helping."

"I never said I would."

Link turned back around and continued down the corridor with Janni trailing along. He had to admit that he began to feel a bit of relief, especially since Janni had already told him that, maybe barring a skeleton or two, the rest of this place was just an illusion. He wished he knew how to break through it; he needed to know if this was a part of the island's technoworks or not.

The corridor finally opened into a massive room. The bookshelves were gone, but the bones on the floor remained. Some of them were embedded into the walls and ceiling around them, looking as if the entire structure had been built on people's unused skeletons. Someone had piled skulls in the middle of the floor. Against the opposite wall from the corridor's opening was a platform. Link swallowed hard as he realized that the platform, built of arm and leg bones strapped together, bore a hangman's noose on a single arm.

"Hmm…" Janni said as Link slowly started around the skulls. "I'm not sure about this. I mean, you can only push bones so far before it gets absurd."

"You think this is absurd?" Link asked, indicating the gallows with his sword. But when he looked over his shoulder at her, he saw that she was observing something else. So he followed her direction down at the nearby pile. He backed away a step when he saw that the skulls were not human. Even worse, they were moving.

Skulls began to rise in the air, each one showing off bestial features. A few looked like they had a muzzle, similar to a dog. Others were wide and triangular, like a reptile's head. One easily doubled Link's own head in size with a square jaw that looked like it could bite through a yardarm.

"Oooooh," Janni droned. "They're supposed to be Bubbles! So that's why they looked so bizarre."

"Why the hell is this fun for you?!" Link snapped at her.

Then he watched as each Bubble took on a blue flame, causing their forms to brighten even further. As if on cue, the room around them turned dim so that Link could only see with the Bubbles' ghostly lights.

Link only feared them at first. Then he took on a determined glare. These were not the first bones to attack him. These were not even the first mangled and deformed skulls he had seen before. Memories of fighting Cunimincus' Stalarmors served to remind him that he had seen bigger threats than this. Full skeletons clad in armor and blades had been some of the worst things to ever attack him. His sword would have no problem breaking bare bone.

So when the first Bubble, a canine-like skull with massive fangs, charged in for a bite, Link twisted into a horizontal swing that smashed the skull aside. Its light abated as it bounced off the floor. The next one, a triangular skull, decided to rush in while Link left his shoulder exposed. Link easily spotted its attack and, angling downward a bit, returned with a diagonal backswing that sent the skull, its jaw bone broken where the sword hit, spinning toward the opposite side of the room.

Two skulls gone, the rest of the Bubbles decided that an all-out attack was the best response. They had an advantage; Link was backing against the wall, the Bubbles had him surrounded, and he could not swing fast enough to defeat them all.

Link lacked any sort of anxiety as part of Layna's training showed him an opening. He kicked against the ground, against the solid structure underneath the loose bones. He tumbled forward and allowed his left shoulder to hit the floor. He rolled head over heels. He also flipped himself and ground the balls of his feet against the loose bone, using his momentum to rise once more. The nearest Bubble could not turn in time, so Link pressed forward and struck it with a horizontal swing. The Bubble rammed its forehead into another, sending them both spinning into the floor with a clatter.

He did not see another canine-like Bubble approaching from his left. It had its jaw nearly closed on Link's exposed left arm before Link noticed.

Then Link felt jagged teeth clamp down on his forearm. Link gave a simple cry. Then he watched his arm fall limp to his side, the sword slipping his grip. The flame was gone from its body, but Link could see the lingering flickers binding his arm up to his shoulder.

"Janni!" Link shouted as he watched another Bubble, the large skull, approach from his left. "Janni! I can't move my arm!"

"Bubbles are cursed!" Janni had to holler back as Link brought his right arm around in a hook and smashed the shield's edge into the Bubble's thick jaw. The Bubble wandered away, flexing its jaw as it tried to fit it back into place. Link caught movement in the corner of his right eye and swung his unaffected arm again to bash a smaller Bubble square in the face. "Don't let them bite your neck; you'll be completely paralyzed!"

"Great…" Link groaned before jumping backwards. The feather in his pocket allowed him to clear the pile while putting distance between him and the other Bubbles. It was not his best move; with one arm paralyzed, he stumbled on his landing and crashed into the floor on his back. Instead of recovering, though, he rolled onto the paralyzed arm to pin the Bubble against the floor. Then he brought up the shield and smashed the bottom point through the skull's eye socket. The Bubble crumbled, and Link found his arm could move again.

That was his cue to scramble to his feet. He barely had enough time to notice the Bubbles closing on him again, and he had left his sword in an inconvenient location. So he reached behind his back and flipped open the pouch on his belt. He clasped the device inside by the metal elbow, sure to press down hard on the red jewel as soon as it was free. A pair of battered, wooden blades that had once been painted bright yellow sprang open into a right angle. Once Link had the boomerang in front of him, he lofted it a little to catch one of the blades. Then he swung with the metal cap leading the blow, smacking a triangular Bubble directly into the nearby ground. He used a backswing to catch the next closest Bubble in the temple and send it bouncing into a nearby corner. His eyes caught sight of the large Bubble approaching again, so he adjusted his hold and reared back. Then he flung the boomerang as hard as he could, using his hooked finger to impart a last-minute spin. The boomerang punched the large Bubble in the eye, breaking the skull and knocking it into the floor with the boomerang still embedded in it.

Link then used the moment to glance around the room. A couple of Bubbles clopped around on the floor, trying to move about. None remained in the air, and Link took the time to quickly round the pile in the middle and retrieve his sword.

"Well," he breathed as he picked up his sword. "That was close."

BAAAAAM! The pile of skulls behind Link erupted into the air. He spun with the shield raised, which saved one tumbling skull from headbutting him from above.

The room was filled with a new light as Link then looked up to see a Bubble tower over him. It looked as large as any adult he had seen, and the fact that it hovered over the ground did not abate his amazement. It shone with an orange flame, outlining the horns adorning the sides of its head. It sported two jaws: one on the outside that looked to be normal human teeth, and one on the inside with sharp teeth that it liked to snap open and closed as it leered down at him. Link could not believe something so large could convincingly hide in that small pile.

"Huh," Janni said in a flat voice as she watched over Link's shoulder. "Apparently wasn't close enough."

The massive Bubble finally snapped its outer jaw shut at Link as a demonstration of what kind of bite it had. Then it charged at him with its maw open for a crunch of Link. Link's boots kicked in their speed, and Link dashed out of the way as the Bubble's chin ground into the floor where he had been standing. The room gave a great lurch when the Bubble face-planted the wall, and Link's footing faltered, causing him to tumble into the ground. He saved himself with a roll and rose to a knee, the same way Layna had taught him to recover from such a fall. He looked over one shoulder as the Bubble pulled away from the wall, shaking its head to rid itself of the shock of impact. Link jumped to his feet and spun on the Bubble. The Bubble, however, did not charge immediately. Instead, it stared at him as it slowly drifted back toward the center of the room.

This gave Link an opportunity to see into the Bubble's nose. It was not an entertaining sight, but he could see that there was something on the inside of its head, reflecting its cursed flames off a shining surface. He thought that, if he could hit it, it might yield an advantage. But the Bubble's size made it hard for him to reach it from the ground, and jumping would only lead to Link landing in the creature's mouth if it wanted to catch him that way. So he sheathed the sword.

Then he touched both of his thumbs to the sides of his head (careful not to hurt himself with the shield) with his palms facing toward the Bubble and wiggled his fingers as he blew a raspberry at it. The Bubble's jaw dropped open, dumbfounded by the fact that Link was mocking it. Then it charged him. Link dashed to one side again, this time angling himself a little more toward the Bubble. In a move that surprised Link, it managed to turn as if to follow. Then one of its horns hit the wall, and it staggered and lolled about in front of the room's only entrance as it tried to fight through the shock. Link moved closer to the gallows and located the last Bubble he had taken out with the boomerang. He kicked the Bubble's broken face aside and retrieved the boomerang that was lying underneath.

KRRRRRRRR! Link looked toward the massive Bubble just in time to see its jaw raking through the bone-covered floor as it charged him again. He sprang forward in whatever direction he was facing and dove beside the gallows. There was a loud snap as the Bubble's jaw broke apart the support on the opposite side from Link. Then the room shuddered when the Bubble's horn impeded its progress yet again. Link took the opportunity to rise and dash for the entrance. He halted just outside the door, spinning to face down the Bubble. The Bubble had to back away from the wall before it could turn to confront him.

What it found was Link halfway through his swing. The boomerang sailed with an angry spin straight for the Bubble, leaving the Bubble with only a second to react.

Then the boomerang flew through its nostril. A resounding crack filled the room. Then the Bubble writhed where it floated, its face looking up and shivering as if it was trying to snort back a booger. It turned away from Link, drifting just a little closer to the gallows. Link decided that he needed to land a solid blow on this creature and charged at it from behind. His boots allowed him to pick up momentum in a short run, and he leapt into the air with the shield raised. He had intentionally jumped while he was close so that the upward drive would impart more force. The shield struck the back of the Bubble's head, causing it to lurch forward and bash against the wall, crushing the gallows. The rebound sent Link sprawling, and he landed hard on his back, made to feel much worse since he landed on a protruding rib. He writhed for a moment before sitting up. He watched as the Bubble turned back to him, its face so broken that it looked to have given him a final expression of sorrow before it collapsed into small fragments.

"Aaaa—Ow…" Link's attempt to lie on the floor was halted by the rib jabbing his back again, and he rolled to avoid it. Then he decided to stand up again and survey the room. "Anyone else?" he asked aloud.

"I gotta say," Janni said as she floated down from the ceiling, "that was actually kind of impressive."

"I try," Link told her as he dusted himself off.

"I can tell. Too bad you weren't a little slower; you'd probably be rended into a spectacular mess."

Link glared at her. "'Too bad'?"

"A girl can wish, can't she?"

Link sighed and glanced over at the remains of the gallows. He noticed that there was a doorway behind the broken structure. "Any idea what's down there?" he asked, pointing.

"It's gotta be better than this," Janni told him. "The further you go down, the closer you are to The Night's core. You're probably tempting fate just suggesting it."

"I think I can do more than just tempt fate," he replied as he started toward the doorway.