Chapter 6: Ancient Temple
Link tentatively pushed the ancient stone door. It moved slightly, and only that, rocking the smallest fraction on its ancient hinges. Fresh scuffs on the mossy stone told him that it had only recently been opened – had they been there when he'd passed before? He couldn't remember.
He set his shoulder to the door and pushed hard. Grating on its stiff hinges across the floor beyond, it opened only slowly, but with a kind of inexorability only heavy stone could have. Link stopped pushing once the gap was wide enough to step through, looking cautiously inside.
It was lighter than he'd quite expected. Sunlight made weak and watery by the clouds above shone down through holes in the roof, illuminating a vast, high-ceilinged hall. A strange raised tongue of stone ran down the middle, broken towards the far end: six steps up, the top two strangely different to those below. Roughly halfway along, arches to the left and a door to the right further broke up the walls, bare branches snaking in from outside through holes in the stonework and half-concealing the ancient statues and carvings that once lined them. At the far end, steps rose to a great pair of doors, light shining through the uneven crack between them and falling on…
Link frowned. There was a red shape there, almost like a shrouded figure, seated in front of the doors. Slowly, he ventured towards it, walking to the left of the tongue of stone and glancing through the arches as he passed. There was nothing beyond but another gently crumbling space with a hole in the ceiling through which light shone, illuminating a lushly green patch of grass and flowers. A little wooden stool stood in one corner, tiny and mundane. He looked swiftly back to the red-robed figure. It hadn't moved.
Still slowly, Link continued towards the stairs, setting his foot on the first. Had the figure's head turned towards him?
"Fi?" he whispered. The sword chimed inaudibly in his mind, responding in silence.
I do not detect evil within the being ahead, Master.
That was something, Link supposed. He took another cautious step, and another, until at last he reached the top. The face within the hood was visible now, lined and seamed with age, a white braid hanging down past one side and swaying gently, rhythmically, with its – her? – breathing. Sitting cross-legged and hunched over, beneath the point of her hood, which tilted up in a manner that reminded Link faintly of Fi's strange, unreal hair, she barely came up to his waist.
Her eyes opened, sharp and bright as a bird's, and she showed no surprise as she looked directly at him.
"Ahh… welcome, child of fate." Her voice, too, was an old woman's, softly spoken and strangely accented, her words considered and yet seeming to conceal a kind of suppressed excitement. Link blinked at her: she seemed at once outlandish and at the same time too normal, too mundane, to possibly exist on the surface, so close to the evil he had just encountered.
"You are the traveller who descended from the clouds above… and you bear the sacred Goddess' Sword." She smiled, the lines of her face rewriting themselves. "Tell me, what is your name?"
"Er, Link." He paused. Something about her voice sounded almost familiar. "My name's Link."
"Link?" She pronounced it oddly, as if she were testing the word, and then a second time even more strangely. "Ah, Link. Good. Very good."
"…Is it?" What did his name mean to her?
The old woman nodded, the intricate knot at the end of her braid swaying with the motion. "I have been waiting for you. For the one who bears the sacred blade. The power that awoke within it below is proof that you are fit to do so."
She'd seen him? Then- a moment almost forgotten amidst everything that had happened around it came back to him, and suddenly it made sense: that was why her voice was familiar.
"You were the one who shouted to me!"
The old woman smiled again. "I was, indeed. You stood against the evil below, and you have strengthened the seal upon it, for a time." She drew a slow, measured breath, and it seemed that her next words were almost a recitation. "Now you stand in this ancient sealed temple, a place once built in honour of the goddess in a time passed beyond memory. Your arrival here was predestined by the goddess so very many years ago, along with that of the spirit maiden."
"Zelda!" It was the very same phrase Fi had used, and Link spoke without thinking, another spark of hope igniting within him, almost painful in its intensity. "Did you see her? Was she here?"
The old woman raised her thin hands, gnarled and bent with age, as if to soothe him. "I did see her, yes, the one called Zelda. She arrived here just yesterday, descending from above in a shower of light just as you came borne upon the wind. There is no doubt about it now… that which was predestined is coming to pass." A shadow passed over her expression. "But it has not begun as it should have. The spirit maiden was not meant to reach this land as she did. The evil power that still preys upon this land has wrought its will for many generations, and I fear that it moves even now to warp the destiny in which you and she are bound."
That could mean nothing good. "Where is she?" The weight of all that had happened just outside seemed to loom ominously over him.
"Your concern for her is admirable." The old woman sighed, troubled. "You were meant to arrive together, and travel apart; this was the course of destiny that the goddess set. Now you have arrived apart and alone, and I can only say what you were meant to do. The one called Zelda has left to search this forest, the Faron Woods, to discover that destiny for herself, and in this you must follow her."
Link nodded at once.
"Let me give you something for your guidance…" She reached a bony hand into the voluminous folds of her patterned red robe, withdrawing a folded parchment. "This is a map my people have made showing notable landmarks in this region." The old woman smiled briefly as if at some private joke. "It is drawn most accurately."
Link took the map from her, unfolding it. Worn in its creases, it bore a compass rose in its top right corner, and was marked in a clear but strange script with names he didn't know. He guessed he was in the region labelled "Great Seal".
"But you must be careful," the woman continued. "As many foul creatures as fair have made their home here over the generations, and the land is unfamiliar to you of the sky. I would aid you, were I half a lifetime younger… and those who should be here with me have left to aid Zelda." Her bright eyes flicked from Link's to the swordhilt visible over his shoulder. "It is said that the spirit of the sword has boundless knowledge. May it guide you as you travel, though I cannot."
Link nodded once. "Thank you. I'll be careful." Hope and fear warred within him, determination stronger than either. He would find Zelda.
The old woman smiled one last time. "Then go with this old woman's blessings. If there is anything in this temple that is of use to you, I give it freely… and if you should seek shelter, know that you will find it here. The eye of my people is always upon this place, and the great seal it guards."
"Thank you." Link turned, hesitated, glanced back, and saw her gesture to the side doors. With a quick nod of thanks, he hurried down the steps and across to them, setting his shoulder to the ancient stone to push it aside. The place he had landed in already seemed vaster, at once brighter and more threatening, than he would ever have imagined – and somewhere in it, Zelda was wandering even more lost than he was.
Among other things, I also removed the two-storey hat. Can you imagine what would happen if she sneezed?
Patch Notes:
- Game tutorials substituted for reason to have a map.
- NPCs no longer speak for Link.
- "You're looking for Zelda. You have your own path and cannot follow Zelda. Follow Zelda." lines removed.
- Ninja population increased to viable levels.
- Ceremonial hood requiring 20 servants replaced with ceremonial hood suitable for old lady.
- Inexplicable voice explained.
- [Spoilers redacted.]