Link leaned back into the wall and remained motionless were he sat. Drums were humming slowly through the cavern, making the walls tremble slightly with echoes. He was hidden in shadow, unmoving and almost invisible behind the rows of Goron mourners that lined the tunnels. His face was blemished with black soot, fresh from the volcano, that he had not yet wiped away; his gleaming hair fell partly over his face, a mask behind which he dwelled in grief. Only one eyes was uncovered; it gleamed, wide and watchful as ever, the rims red and watering at the sight of the Goron Lord's funeral pyre.
The flames were dancing, flames of honor that bore the ashes of his bones into legend; flames that lifted his soul to Din in burning sorrow. The light was eerie in its own fury; the fire seemed to feel the dead that it burned was unjust in its murder, the great bones stripped of life before Din had called the soul.
Aloarn knew he did not see her, knew the raging tides that thundered in him and tore between extremities of rage and heartbreak. Her touch at his shoulder was soft, but nonetheless he leapt from his chair with unnatural speed at the suddenness of it. Yet the eyes of Aloarn were his comfort, her embrace forgiveness. For a long while she held him as the drum beats sounded through the caverns and the bones of Darunia crumbled into ash.
Impa watched them, her visage all seriousness and no sorrow. Darunia was dead; yet his last words echoed through the Sheikah's mind, just as the terrible brooding shadow of Ganon hung over Hyrule.
The Lady.
Link caught her eye and pulled away from Aloarn. He kissed her despairingly, for now a new feeling was seeping into him. She felt it and took his hand, leading him to where Impa stood before the Goron Gate. Link looked up at her with eyes that held both fear and ferocity.
"You know the path," whispered Impa. Aloarn held tighter to Link's hand as his eyes fell.
"The Eyes of Death can see the Life of Tomorrow," he whispered. He turned to Aloarn. "You cannot follow me, Aloarn."
"Me'lkmar's ashes lie in the earth," she said softly. "I also must come."
Link had no force in him to argue with her; all his being was focused to the task that lay ahead of him. He nodded to Impa and led Aloarn from the gate. The Sheikah looked on, the shadows of the dead grinning in her mind. The voice that spoke to the Sage was the voice of a deeper shadow than Ganon.
I will wait for them.
Aloarn slid down the ladder and placed her bare feet upon the cold, wet stone of the Kakariko well. Link gazed ahead, the tunnel just as dark and dank as he remembered. The shadows crept from the opening, striving forever to overtake the light that burned it, striving to ensnare them in the black abyss of hell that Link knew all to well.
He turned to Aloarn, who looked down the passage with a creeping fear that had once taken hold of the Hero. Yet toils in the cursed tunnels of this demonic place had taught him to never show fear. To fear death would only bring more horror into the life of the living.
"Aloarn," he whispered. She stepped towards him and he put his arm around her, drawing her close. From his belt he brought forth a crystal, flaming green on the inside with Frarore's might. He threw it into the air and it crashed, leaving a brilliant green light suspended above them. Link turned back to her, and placed one hand against her face.
"Impa and I are the only ones to ever see the depths of this place. In this Temple, all the secrets of death walk in the open. This...this is hell, Aloarn. All that is here must never be spoken in the light of day. You must promise me, that if something happens...if I fall, you will not come for me. I am all that can protect you in this place. Swords and spears do not drive off the dead. If I am taken, do not hesitate, do not even move. I want you to scream Frarore's Wind as loud as you can. Do not wait for me."
"But Link -"
"Do not," said Link, a little fiercer this time. His voice echoed down the hall, challenging the Advisor's pride and, as Link knew, awakening those that slept. Aloarn would have responded, but at that moment Link turned from her.
It started low and rushed upon them with a screech of absolute torture; Link threw his shield in front of them and bent down just in time. The breathing, white gust of wind slammed against the metal with a cry of devils and passed them about the edges, too quick and terrible to follow. Aloarn, unable to tear her eyes away, caught a vision of empty sockets, a decayed visage, a look of hunger that was not for food; she dare not scream, but closed her eyes and grabbed Link.
But the ghost was gone. The way was clear, and Link helped Aloarn to stand. He drew his bow and placed an arrow at the string - an arrow that glowed with light and hummed a tune of life in the quiet, deadly darkness.
"Remember what I have said, Aloarn," whispered Link. His gaze bore into her and she saw fear, but did not fully understand it. Link knew she could not yet comprehend it and turned towards the tunnel. As they began to walk forth, Aloarn heard his voice drift towards her.
"You must be careful...the dead..."
He paused and Aloarn caught the gleam of his eye. The terror.
"The dead do not kill you."
"How many escaped?" snapped Vulhal. The two women beside her stepped forth and bowed low to the ground, trembling beneath the Gerudo's fury. One refused to speak so the other looked up.
"We have killed most... about a third escaped."
Vulhal leapt and slashed down the woman with her spear. The other Gerudo stumbled away, fearing the woman's wrath may turn upon her next. The first woman screeched and felt a long Gerudo blade press against her neck.
"How many do we have?"
"Th...three..." gagged the woman. Vulhal grinned in wild delight. She pulled her sword back, and for a moment, the woman relaxed. Then the blade came down with a swift stroke and her head rolled over in the grass.
Vulhal smiled and walked over to where it lay, dead and disgusting, on the burned earth. She picked it up by the matted hair and gazed at it fondly.
"Bring them to me," she glared with a sinister smile. The second woman stumbled and ran to fetch them. The forest was still burning, sill rising with smoke, its beauty fallen to destruction. As the three Kokiri were thrown at Vulhal's feet, she grinned in a sort of satanic happiness - the way the devil would smile when brothers killed one another in war, or when an entire race of innocent was extinguished.
The first two were twins, sobbing uncontrollably at the Gerudo's feet in hushed voices. They were burned along most of their bodies and the pain was unimaginable. They tried briefly to comfort one another, but a Gerudo woman kicked them apart and forced one of them to the feet of Vulhal. The girl struggled and looked up, only to come face-to-face with a pair of bloody, dead eyes.
Vulhal dangled the head of the Gerudo before the girl like a sick, twisted toy. The girl sobbed louder and snapped her eyes shut from the horror; Vulhal smiled wider and grabbed the child's chin with a fierce grip.
"Dear child, you seem frightened," she whispered. Her hand tightened and the girl's jaw cracked loudly. The girl's eyes streamed as the pain grew, and she cried without hesitation before the eyes of this maddened, perverted demon. Vulhal did nothing but laugh; she thrived on the joy of torture and hung the decapitated head before the child, nose to nose.
"The dead can't hurt you child, why not embrace it? She cannot hurt you, child -"
"Miserable devil! Unhand her! The Deku Tree curses you, the forest curses you -"
There was a ring and Saria screamed. Her body hit the ground with a loud thud and blood streamed from her side; Vulhal approached her, half in fury and half in humor. She kicked the green-haired Kokiri over and glared at her with one sinister eye.
"I no longer fear curses, wretch. Devil, yes. I have been called that before. You will know a true devil when Ganon comes for you, Sage. Until then..."
She picked up her spear slowly and, with a heavy thrust, drove the head through the spike at the end. Saria turned away, horrified, as the twins screamed.
A loud horn echoed suddenly through the woods; Vulhal heard it and recognized it instantly. She dropped low and ran swift to the burned trees as scattered spears fell among the others - spears that were not the design of the Gerudo.
Princess Ruto emerged from the trees, closely followed by a Zora Captain. She held in her hands something small and frail, gently wrapped in satin cloth. The Captain looked around at the disfigured Gerudo women and shook his head as the Zora began to attack.
"He is not here, Princess. But now we know why the forest burned on the horizon."
Ruto looked down at the small bundle in her hands, distracted by the task that was not yet fulfilled, by the light that no longer shown around the edges of satin.
"Hyrule is dying, as the light of Navi has died. We must find Link before..." the Captain heard her pause and looked on the Princess with disbelief.
"Princess...is the Hero injured? Diseased? We may find medicine -"
"No, my friend," she whispered. In her mind Impa whispered and her countenance fell. "Link now is healthy as ever...but tonight he talks with death."
The tunnel was so low Aloarn and Link were forced to fall down onto their hands and knees. Spider webs hung from the walls and tangled in the Gerudo's hair as she crept along behind Link, whose face was slashed with grime and muck. Both of them were covered in filth and decay; the walls were tight, and the few bones that broke through clung to them like claws.
As they emerged Link took the moment to gaze around the room. It was shaped into a perfect circle, almost twice as large as Hyrule castle itself and just as high. The walls were dank but without blemish or cobweb, and the floor remained completely smooth. The sight was odd in Link's mind and something he did not remember; the walls should be seeping with screams, the ground bursting with half-decayed bodies and fiends of torture. Yet the scene was quiet...motionless. Aloarn stood up behind him and gazed around, catching sight of a small, white pedestal from across the room.
"Link -"
The Hero clapped a hand across her mouth and her sentence stopped short. She muffled angrily into his hand but he hissed her quiet. The Light Arrow in his bow began to gleam.
There was a deafening screech and for one brief second, Link's fear overcame him. The arrow flew through the darkness like an ill-aimed beacon of hope and thudded, loudly, into the ground.
Link cursed himself and tensed. For a long moment he stood in expectation, one hand around Aloarn and one at his side, fingering the blue crystal at his belt. From the floor, there was a long, loud crack.
The arrow fell through the floor and the rocks broke apart, falling down into a bottomless abyss that formed beneath them with sudden speed; stones fell away and clattered into never ending darkness and the pit grew into an immeasurable, gaping hole. Link could see the narrow bridge forming towards the pedestal, a slim line of rock suspended above the pit of shadows - shadows that began to crawl up the sides of the room and clench bony hands around the edges of rocks. Debris clattered down the sides of walls that crept with dead and Link turned to Aloarn.
"Put one hand on my shoulder and follow me across the bridge. Close your eyes."
"Link I can -"
"This isn't about what you can handle, Aloarn," hissed Link fiercely. From somewhere in the depths of the pit, a chorus of screams began to rise. "You must trust me. Close your eyes and do not open them. Not for anything. Remember Frarore's wind."
Aloarn nodded slowly, surprised by how fierce Link had become; yet the fear encased him again as he felt her hand touch his shoulder and he began the long journey across the deadly bridge.
One of them hissed and crawled onto the stone behind them, its backbone torn through with spikes and chains, like an imprisoned gargoyle. It was followed by a corpse that had only half of its head and a still pulsing brain, the fluid leaking out from the side of its head where maggots were busily worming their way inside. Others followed, covered in leeches and grave worms, or with scraps of metal jutting from their distorted bodies. Some resembled men, but they were monstrosities of men, unrecognizable and twisted with tortures of the pit. Shoulder blades moved halfway down their back with rusting nails, leftover from broken coffins, breaking through thin layers of pale naked skin. They bled even in death, their hearts still pumping outside of their bodies and leaving scarlet trails along the ground. Some were only half-formed and mutilated, while others grew claws from their hands and scrabbled against the bare stone in hopes to reach the living that walked before them. Creatures, grinning wildly with three rows of naked fangs, convulsed as they rolled onto the bridge, clamping bodies into their mouth and devouring them before moving on. Slowly the bridge began to creep with dead as Link walked forth, his eyes on the pedestal, Aloarn's eyes shut tight to the groans and cries the horrors made. Link dare not look back; the sounds enough were reminders and he had no desire to see into the empty eyes of the living dead.
Halfway to the pedestal, he felt Aloarn jerk.
She screeched at the sudden grip of a hand on her ankle and whirled, slashing down the creature's arm with her blade and leaping away. But she had opened her eyes.
The dead caught sight of her fear and leapt, screaming, towards her. Link threw her before him and launched and arrow into their midst as the sped towards them. They fell back momentarily, but more crawled upon the bridge and a mass of decaying bodies fell upon Link. He hurled a blue crystal into the air and a sparkling blue barrier formed between the dead and themselves. As Aloarn stood and ran forth to aid him, he drew the mAster Sword and slashed down the oncoming creatures in defiance. He caught Aloarn's eyes just as she neared him.
"Remember what I have said!" he yelled despairingly. The blue shield began to die away and the creature's were breaking through. "Leave! Now!"
Aloarn did not even respond. The eyes of the dead were on her, seeking to devour her, to place upon her the same hell they endured for eternity. The blue light faded from Link and he braced himself for the onslaught of the merciless dead.
There was a crack through the air and Aloarn howled. She leapt past Link, straight into the surge of corpses and screamed something in a faint tongue. Link flinched and fell forth onto his side as the Triforce tore through his skin.
Aloarn's sides sprang with light; her eyes lost focus and she stood, suspended in the heavy air, before the army of cowering creatures. They hissed at the silver-blue light that piured forth from her, burning their bodies and tearing up their souls. Link opened his eyes despite all the pain and stared at Aloarn, her aura sparkling in the darkness, piercing the shadows like knives, the Triforce of Wisdom burning into the very eyes of death.
Another screech sounded and Aloarn collapsed, her light gone. The dead began to approach once more but a different shadow confronted them. It screamed and the corpses fled in terror, leaving the two living abandoned on the bridge with the Greater Shadow. The ones who did not escape fell to the teeth of it and were devoured.
Link took Aloarn in his arms and they leaned against the pedestal for support, putting forth all their effort into standing. The Greater Shadow slithered along the ground, still searching for corpses that lingered by the bridge. When the search came back unsatisfactory, it slithered with unnatural speed to the edge of the pedestal and reared up before Link's eyes. It spoke low and long, hissing and coughing blood throughout its words, it empty eyes emotionless and unchanging.
Hero of Time. You live still.
"As I will for a long while, Lady," whispered Link into the bleeding complexion of the shadow. The Lady hissed and slithered around them onto the pedestal, where she crouched like a spider and glared at them both.
You want my secrets.
"I have come tell you," spoke Link louder. "Ganon has returned from the Dark Realms."
We know this, snapped the Lady. She crawled forth towards Link and reared up, face-to-face. Death follows the Dark Realms like hounds. Death creeps through the doorway and maddens the prisoners. Death whispers in the ear of Ganon.
"Ganon cannot be killed."
Death eludes no one, Hero.
"Then how do we kill him, if he has cheated death so easily before?"
You speak in ignorance, she hissed venomously. She crouched low onto long, bony arms and crept to the side of the pit. Ganon owes death a great price. His punishment is severe. The girl, Hero. She seeks the ashes of Me'lkmar. Yet she is no child of Din.
Aloarn's defense rose in her chest but when the face of the Lady came close to hers her throat went dry. The Lady coughed blood and a pool of red formed before Aloarn's feet.
You are filled with the strength of Nayru. Me'lkmar whispered the secret in the dawn of the world, when death did not dwell on every doorstep. Darunia has sent you to me.
"Yes," whispered Link. "What do you have to tell us?"
The Lady crept towards the pedestal and perched upon it like a crow. Her mouth dripped with blood and venom as she spoke, and a hunger was coming back into her eyes,
The girl now bears the Triforce. War shall be waged on the plains of the Gerudo Valley. In each direction death will rule; if the races of Hyrule conquer, Ganon shall fall into my pit. If they fail, I shall have the souls of men, of Zora, of Goron to devour. Already I have tasted the blood of Darunia and of Kokiri. Only one thing is clear in the glass of the future.
Link could hardly stand the Lady's gaze upon him, but she did not blink or move.
The Hero of Time will die.
