Link woke a few hours after falling asleep, his hair and body wet with sweat. Even with the cool adobe and stone walls and the sunken floor, it was sweltering in the room. Auren was right: he absolutely did not want to sleep in a padded linen shirt. As it was he didn't want to sleep in anything at all, and if he was alone he would have taken the rest of his clothing off. He sat up with a disgusted sound, feeling his hair stick to his face and neck.
"You've been sweating for a while." Midna said, sitting on the floor and leaning her back against the small bit of wall not occupied by one of the three beds. "I was wondering if you'd wake up."
"This is like being in Death Mountain. I'm an idiot for coming to the desert in the middle of summer." he grumbled, walking from the room. It wasn't hard to find the small room where Auren had washed her face last night. It too had a stone tub and sink like his room in the fortress, but there was only one tap in each, and both were far smaller. Even in their modern city, the Gerudo had a pressurized water system instead of pumps. He didn't know much about engineering, but he had to wonder how that was possible.
After splashing water on his face and neck, he made his way back into the bedroom, grabbed the pillow off his bed, and lay down on the cool stone floor with it. It wasn't as comfortable as the bed, but at the same time he would be able to sleep.
"You're laying directly on the floor?" Midna asked.
"You're sitting directly on the floor. It seemed like a good idea." He shut his eyes and didn't say anything else.
The next thing that woke him wasn't the heat, but Auren pulling on one of her sandals, the bottom of it scuffing on the stone not too far from his head. He opened his eyes and was momentarily confused why he was seeing a pair of feet with red-painted toenails. Then he remembered that he had intentionally lay on the floor.
"Oh sure, this wakes you up." she said, nudging his shoulder with the toes of her single bare foot, sandal held in her hand. "You certainly didn't move when Midna stood on you."
He yawned and sat up, feeling stiff. He was on his side, the exact same position he was in when he fell asleep. "She was trying to wake me up?"
"Do you have any idea how long you've been sleeping? Auren went and took a bath, painted her nails and did her face since she woke up, and she admitted sleeping in due to battle fatigue." Midna moved to hover near him. "You used a lot of magic and slept like the dead. Again. Not that you don't sleep like that normally."
"He's always like that?" Auren asked, pulling her other sandal on. Like Sumati, he had yet to see her wear heels.
"So she tells me. I use so much energy traveling, fighting, using magic, nearly getting killed by things, etcetera." He stood, put his hands to the small of his back and arched it, producing a popping sound. "I'm really tired by the end of the day, every day. It didn't used to be this way for me." He was way too stiff. If he had to fight later, he needed to not feel like his muscles were in knots. He stretched in a few different ways, and gave Midna a confused look when she clicked her tongue at him in disapproval.
"Stop putting on a show for the nice Gerudo lady." Midna chided.
"Oh, no. Don't mind me." Auren said, her eyes showing an obvious interest, but with a smirk on her face. He had noticed her watching him stretching his muscles, but he wasn't going to say anything. Every once in a while he caught her looking at him like that. "He can keep doing that as long as he likes." She crossed her legs and set her elbow on her knee, propping her chin up on it to stare at him more intently. "Please, by all means continue."
He rolled his shoulders, deciding not to turn that into a joke. "I'm not used to sleeping on a stone floor. Then again, I'm not used to temperatures this hot. How do you stand it?"
"While this isn't a building with a cooling tower, it usually isn't that hot in here. Normally we trap the cooler air inside." The Gerudo shrugged. "I forgot to shut the curtains this morning, and that's on me. You weren't the only one who was really tired."
He glanced over at her while reaching over to massage one of his shoulders with one hand. She hadn't looked that tired, but then again she told him she'd make him tea and never did. He grunted as he prodded his muscles. "It was my choice to lay on the floor, and I'm not sure if I'm regretting it or not. My muscles would have been tired even if I had stayed in the bed, and I think trying to cool off made it worse." he said.
"Maybe Auren can rub your shoulders for you." Midna suggested, crossing her arms. It was a joke, but there was a disapproving undertone to it.
The young woman gave a laugh, but it was a bit of an awkward one. She had a bit of extra color in her cheeks, which were starting to bruise from where she was hit. "I need to talk to my parents." she said, standing up. "I recommend not getting dressed yet, even if you go outside. It's still very hot and you'll be miserable. I'll find you two later." The Gerudo walked from the room, and a few second later the door opened and shut.
"That was not a good joke to make at that time." he said to Midna once Auren was gone. "Even if would be nice for somebody to rub my shoulders."
"It was appropriate, because I wanted to put her in her place, as nice as she is. She's attracted to you, you know."
"I noticed." He sat and pulled his boots on. "It's not just attraction, either. She wanted to fight with me through almost the entire battle, and when she did, she looked like she was having the best time of her life. She keeps giving me these looks not just when I smile, but when I say certain things. She insisted I sleep here, in her house. She even told me something that she never admitted to anyone else, something personal."
Link leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. "I knew that if I came into Gerudo territory, I'd wind up breaking a few hearts. I don't want to break hers. I'm meeting all these wonderful people as I travel around, and I don't want to hurt any of them."
"You're finally making friends other than Ilia, and you don't want to drive any of them away." She floated over to pat him gently on the head. It made him give a small smile. "I understand. What do you plan on doing about her, then?"
"Keep deflecting, keep ignoring it...I don't know, maybe address it if it gets to be too much? I like her, Midna. She's funny, smart, and an amazing fighter. I don't want to lose a friendship I just found." He needed to get out of this stuffy room. Even if he was outside, it had to be better than sitting in an oven.
"Just be careful with that flirting." She warned him as he stood up. "She seems like she's joking around with you most of the time, but sometimes she reacts in a way that indicates she's not."
"Right, I don't want to encourage her." He glanced down at the Master Sword, which lay with his baldric on the floor next to the bed. Should he take it with him? It would be uncomfortable to wear a baldric as he was. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and with how hot he was, he didn't intend on putting one on yet. At this point he didn't care if the Gerudo gawked at him.
"If you're worried about leaving it behind, I'm staying in here for a bit. If I go anywhere, I can cast something to make it look like a different sword. I think. I don't know if it would work on the Master Sword or not."
That will not be necessary. I have a means to protect myself from thieves, and I doubt that any Gerudo would be foolish enough to take your sword from you.
"The sword says it's fine, nobody's going to take it. After Sumati beat those two women black and blue, I don't think anybody is going to dare touch my stuff." He stepped out of the room and into the room with the tub and the sink. He didn't want to take the time to actually bathe, but he was at least able to splash some more water on his face. When he stepped out into the main room, Midna was there on the couch, laying on her back and reading a Gerudo book held above her.
He noticed that Auren had left her bow and arrows for the time being, and he frowned when he saw the feathered ends of a few arrows sticking out of the larger of her two quivers; there was a more narrow, longer quiver that was for the longbow arrows, but that wasn't what caught his interest. The regular quiver had arrows with red fletching, which looked familiar. Figuring she wouldn't mind, he pulled one of the arrows out and saw that it had a bladed tip, and the same rune he had seen before on his own fire arrows. He doubted that Auren had stolen these from Bulbins, and instead it was the other way around. The Bulbins had taken magical arrows from the Gerudo.
He slid the arrow back into its place and went to the door. "I'm going out for a bit. I need to find something to eat."
"Try not to get sunburn." she said, not looking away from her book. Or perhaps Auren's book. There was a bookshelf in the room, and he doubted Midna could leave it alone.
He stepped out into the shade of the narrow street, the sun hidden behind the whitewashed buildings. It was still quite bright compared to inside, and he squinted a bit while his eyes adjusted. While it was possible that there were Gerudo in the nearby buildings that had food, he figured he would go to the central plaza where they had been cooking early this morning. He had a meal like a dinner right after dawn, missed lunch, and now it was about dinnertime. Hopefully his eating and sleeping schedules wouldn't be wrecked from his time in the desert.
There were Gerudo managing the fires, hoods up against the sun, and they were cooking pork on metal skewers. The meal station was a bit more sophisticated, and they had brought out large grates that balanced on bricks above fires. On those grates were cookpots, shallow pans, and even a large griddle where women were quickly cooking flatbread. He was about to get in line behind a group of warriors that were stepping up to a wooden table that served as a meal station, when a voice hailed him from nearby.
"Link, there you are!" It was Rennie, seated on the edge of one of the many fountains that was in the square. She sat there with four other young Gerudo, one of which was Ranna. Unlike the other Gerudo, they did not wear cloaks, and they had their hair down and bare feet in the fountain. As he approached, he saw that none of the women wore makeup or jewelry. Now that they were plain-faced, he realized that most of them were ordinary-looking women. The secret to the legendary Gerudo beauty was all due to how they fixed themselves up.
"Good, uh...afternoon? Evening?" He wondered if they even had clocks here. It was probably three hours before sunset. The group of them were combing their fingers through their wet hair, as if they had been washing it in the water. "Weren't you able to take a bath? You didn't sleep outside, did you?"
"Only the west half of the city and the palace have running water." Ranna said. "We slept in my old house. None of us would sleep outside during the day." She patted the edge of the tiled fountain next to her. "Come sit and stick your feet in. It's nice."
"This isn't water for drinking, is it?" He asked, sitting down between Ranna and a dark-skinned Gerudo with eyes that were yellow like a cat's. She didn't have makeup, but her facial features and coloration were still stunning. Some Gerudo were naturally beautiful.
"Of course not." Ranna said, kicking the water a bit with one of her feet. "These fountains are used for public bathing and laundry. There are others for drinking water." She boldly reached out and prodded him in the middle of his chest with a finger. "Aren't men supposed to have hair on their bodies? You have body hair like I do."
He swatted her hand away. "What is it with you women and touching me? Quit it. Some men do, some men don't."
"Look at his face!" the dark-skinned Gerudo said as he leaned down to remove his boots. "He has light-colored stubble."
"Not enough worth shaving off yet. I'll do that tomorrow." He was quite aware of three pairs of yellow eyes and two pairs of red ones all looking at his face as he slid his feet into the fountain. It wasn't cold, but at least felt cooler than the air. "You all had no problems with me yesterday. Why are you staring at me like this?"
"That was when you had your weapons and your clothes. Now you're only wearing pants and your jewelry." The yellow-eyed Gerudo looked closely at his face and giggled. She was as muscular as the others, and yet she was giggling like a young girl. "I thought your beard would be brown, like your eyebrows. It's blonde like your hair instead."
"All right, leave the poor man alone." Rennie said. "He's a warrior just like us, and he should be respected."
"Yes, we saw how you fought." said a different Gerudo that he did not know the name of. That was probably for the best; he was surrounded by nearly two hundred women. There was no way he could remember all of their names. "You're quite skilled for one so young."
"We're glad you're our ally." Ranna added. "I know our success was due to you. Many of us would have been turned into those black beasts if it wasn't for you and Midna."
"Midna protected the chief from the Shadow Beasts after she had been injured. She is also deserving of respect." the dark-skinned woman said, splashing water on her chest. All of their clothes looked a bit damp. "Hero, you're sweating. Don't just put your feet in the water. Be sure to splash it on your skin. When it evaporates, it helps you feel cooler."
He did as she instructed, even wetting down his hair like they did. It was rather nice, although his wet hair was longer and just barely brushed his shoulders. While he probably could grow it out like Midna suggested, he had gotten used to wearing it short his whole life. Maybe he would cut it again, or perhaps ask someone else to do it. "I figured out why you ladies all wear your hair up after trying to sleep through this heat. Having long hair on the back of your neck when it's hot is really unpleasant."
A few of them nodded at him in agreement. He was starting to feel cooler, which was good. When he woke up in the middle of the day, he was so hot he felt a bit dizzy. If he had any sense, he would have tried putting on the Goron bracelet to see if that helped at all. He was so bone tired that he forgot that he had it, even after making the comment about Death Mountain.
"Is he still off-limits now that the battle is done?" the dark-skinned Gerudo next to him asked Rennie, leaning forward to look at her.
"I believe Auren has claimed him, although not officially." The gold-eyed woman shrugged. "Even if Hida's declaration still stands, it probably doesn't apply to her daughter."
"I think I've heard enough of this conversation." He stood up, feeling a bit angry. He had thought he was past all of this, but he was still a desirable target for the desert women. "Nobody is claiming me. I'm happy to help your people, fight alongside you or even befriend you. I have zero interest in any of you beyond that, and you can't convince me. Stop pestering me about it."
Rennie and the two women on the end near her looked awkward, but Ranna made eye contact with him and nodded slightly in approval. She had children so she wasn't after him, and because she wasn't after him, she likely understood how frustrated he was. The last Gerudo with the beautiful yellow eyes began to sniffle, though. He had raised his voice, but these women were toughened warriors. He hadn't expected one of them to start crying.
"Oh, no." He stepped out of the fountain to stand in front of her. "I wasn't- Uh...look, I didn't mean to make you cry. I'm sorry if I got angry."
"What's wrong with me? Why did you get angry?" she asked, blinking as a tear slid down her cheek. The apology wasn't enough, and she was taking it quite personally.
"Nothing is wrong with you. Like many of the women here I've seen, you're very attractive. Here, let me be completely honest…" He knelt down in front of her to look up at her, just as he had with Ilia. It got her attention. "I'm not interested in any of you because I'm interested in someone else already. Somebody from back home. Leaving her behind to come here was hard enough on me, and every time somebody makes a pass at me I think of her and how far away she is."
"You're telling the truth. Your eyes got very sad when you mentioned her." she said, wiping at her eyes with her fingers. It was strange, but these desert women seemed to be good judges on whether he was being truthful, and seemed to value it. "I'm sorry. I had no idea you were in love."
"It's all right, neither did I until recently." That was enough of this conversation; the woman had recovered, and the less he had to talk about Ilia, the better. He stood and pulled his boots on. His feet were mostly dry already. "It's been nice chatting with you ladies."
He left them behind at the fountain and went to stand in line, his stomach complaining that he hadn't eaten already. The sun was already feeling hot on his hair, which had dried in only minutes, and he hoped that his skin wasn't burning. Another voice hailed him, but this time it was a welcome one.
"Don't stand in that line!" Sumati called out to him, waving him over to where she stood next to a short date palm. Her voice carried across the square easily, and it made the others in the line look around and then turn to look at him. He shrugged at them and crossed the square to where she was. The woman had a blanket spread out in the shade beneath the palm, and plenty of food in bowls on top of it. She even had a silver tea service. "I have extra food. Auren was supposed to eat with me, but I think she's busy talking to her parents. You can eat her share."
"Thanks, I appreciate it." Link sat in the shade with a content sigh. "I didn't want to stand in the sun for too much longer."
"You're crazy to stand in the sun at all with skin that's pale like snow." She poured him a glass of tea. "You're also crazy to walk around with no shirt on in front of a bunch of lonely women. Most of the men in Lakeside do not have a warrior's body like you do."
"I figured I could handle it, but somebody was a bit of a pest. I got angry and made her cry. Then I had to apologize because I really don't like to see women cry." He carefully picked up the hot glass and took a sip. "I didn't want to put on my gambeson, though."
"Your what?"
"It's a padded linen shirt you wear under armor. The kind I wear is only padded on the shoulders and torso since I wear a chain mail shirt." He appreciated Sumati's tea, which once again did not have honey in it, and instead had a faint citrus taste. "I wore that thing inside a volcano, so no way was I going to wear it here unless I have to." He set down the tea and reached for a piece of flatbread. "At least there was no risk of sunburn inside the volcano."
"You told me that there were machines that shot fire, rivers of liquid fire, and giant lizards that spit fire, so I think I would much rather get sunburn." While many of the other Gerudo hadn't fixed their makeup, Sumati had her lips painted blue and eyelids colored golden again. Her hair was slicked back and clipped at the back of her head instead of to the side. He thought it looked much better that way.
"Can Gerudo get sunburned? You ladies show a lot of skin and nobody looks burned." He mimicked what she was doing, wrapping pieces of seasoned pork, vegetables and rice in the flatbread, and then took a bite.
"Of course we do. We still have skin, don't we? It's just after you've been burned enough, your skin gets tough and doesn't burn as easily. We also have a kind of medicine we can put on our skin to repel the sun for a while. We Gerudo aren't only warriors, but we also know much herblore. It's necessary in a place like this, where so many things can poison you." She took a sip of her tea, looking at his chest. He wasn't sure why, but then she leaned forward and put her hand beneath his grandmother's pendant to get a better look at it. "This is Sheikah. I had no idea you had this hidden beneath your clothes."
"Yeah, it was my grandmother's. I'm only one-quarter Sheikah, which means I'm considered Hylian. I don't look like a Sheikah anyway." He tolerated being touched without permission, knowing that she didn't mean anything by it. Neither Hida nor Sumati bothered to ask first before putting their hands on him, and as much as he liked the two of them, it would have been nice if she had asked if she could have touched his bare skin. At least Auren had respected his personal space, other than poking him with her foot this morning.
"Ha!" She grinned at him and let the pendant go, but still leaned in towards him. "Me too! My grandfather was a Sheikah, but around here it doesn't matter who your grandfather was. A Gerudo is a Gerudo. Our blood breeds true every time." Sumati tapped at the bite marks that were still near his collarbone, which still had the faint pattern of the chain mail that had been mashed into his skin at the time. "That's from the giant plant that wanted you as a snack, right?"
"Right. I'm surprised I'm still bruised from that, but I guess it did chomp down on me pretty hard."
Sumati sat back and gestured palm-up at the blanket they were seated on. "It's pleasant in the shade, and we have tea and pork. Why don't you tell me that story again? Then I can tell you of some of the things I've done."
Link smiled and began retelling her of his encounters in the Kokiri ruins, and had a pleasant meal with this strange new friend that he made out in the desert.
Some time later, he was fed, dressed and geared up. He had fed and watered Epona, but this time did not give the horse an apple. She had been getting enough sugar as it was, and even though she tugged on his sleeve while begging, he did not relent. As rough as he had been treating her lately, he didn't want to compromise her health just for a few extra treats.
With Midna in tow, he went up into the palace to meet with Hida, Auru and Auren there. The young Gerudo had never returned from speaking to her parents, even once the sun went down. Perhaps there was much to plan and prepare for in the haunted old jail, or perhaps her parents wanted her company after thinking they lost her last night.
Hida was in a sitting room instead of on the golden throne in the main hall of the palace. The room was comfortable and cool, heavy tapestries having been pulled over the open windows to keep out the heat while the sun was still out, and the palace itself had a series of tall square structures on its roof that were likely the cooling towers Auren had mentioned. The chief herself sat on one of the many couches in the room, a stack of books next to her, and her leg was out straight and propped up on an ottoman. The left leg of her baggy green pants had been cut away halfway up her thigh, and the jagged wound above her knee was neatly stitched shut with silken thread, and smeared with orange ointment. Considering the size of the wound and the amount of stitches, he could understand why she needed medicine for the pain when it was sewn shut.
"Ah, there you two are." she said with a smile, her face not painted. She still wore her jewelry and her aqua scarf, but since she was spending most of her time alone, she hadn't bothered to apply makeup. Hida had a few more wrinkles than he had thought, but she was still quite lovely without makeup, just like her daughter. "I trust that you are rested? My daughter says she hid you away in her house so the others will let you sleep."
"Yes, and her plan worked. There was a warrior who asked if your rule to leave me alone still stood, and Rennie told her that Auren had 'claimed' me." He did not mention how he had to tell the woman about Ilia. Even though Keela had suggested he keep telling the other Gerudo about his romantic interest, thinking about how she was hundreds of miles away made him feel lonely.
"That was the plan?" Auru asked his daughter, his eyes amused. "You do realize that they're all going to expect you to have children with him now, right?"
The young Gerudo shrugged. "I'll tell them the truth once he's back in Hyrule. It was a little white lie to give poor Link some peace. Besides, they're all idiots if they think the two of us did anything with Midna in the room."
"I don't know, maybe they figured I was into that kind of thing." Midna covered her mouth and gave a little naughty giggle. "Either way, I'm glad that she did it, regardless of what the others think. He got to sleep at least ten hours, which is about what he does when he uses his magic a bunch."
"I must thank you for your help in cleaning up the city, Midna." Hida inclined her head towards the Twili. "My warriors would have spent many hours clearing the Bulbin corpses, and they would have been stinking in the sun before they had gotten to them all. It's far better to have them far outside the walls, where the scavengers will find them there instead of entering our city."
"What are your plans for this city, now? Are you bringing everyone back here?" Link asked.
"Some, yes. It will take time, but we will find the people who had to hide away over the past year. Our numbers are only about two thousand all told, and this city can hold about that. Now that the sun is low, I've sent riders out to make contact with the towns and fortresses I know of. I would go to bring the good news myself, but…" Hida gestured at her wounded leg. "It will be a bit of time before I can walk properly. It was not a clean cut and will heal slowly. The Bulbin was using a Lizalfos spear, and their weapons tear flesh, not cut it."
"I've seen their weapons so I know what you're talking about. Here's hoping you have a speedy recovery. Your people need you now." He found a different ottoman and sat down, which was far more practical for him to sit on with the long scabbard of the Master Sword jutting down almost to his knees. "Can I ask you to watch Epona for a bit? I'm not only going through the Arbiter's Grounds, but I'm also going to spend time in the Twilight Realm. I'll probably be gone for days."
"Then it's probably for the best that I'm guiding you. I will have to speak to the Sages to let them know why you need to use the Mirror. They may be aware of what's happening, they may not. I haven't spoken to them in four years." Auru said. "Not only that, but I doubt you know how to activate it. So far only the Sage of Light is able to...and I suppose Midna could. A sorceress would have the power to turn on the Mirror, and I do not doubt that the Hero of Hyrule has the potential to do so as well."
"I was able to open it even in my cursed body. There are others in the Twilight Realm that probably have the ability, but everyone is forbidden from entering the Hall of the Mirror." She gave a derisive snort. "That didn't stop Zant from going there."
"You said that you spoke with the Sages four years ago. Does that mean that Shad got to speak with them too? He was here four years ago." While Link did know that Shad was able to find out what happened to his parents, he wasn't going to share that information. He didn't want to say anything to clue in to what Auren and Shad had done.
"Yes, I introduced him, but it was a difficult fight to get there. I initially brought Hida with us as I always do, but there were far too many ghosts. Poes, the kind with lanterns that can harm the living. Shad was able to see them and warn us of their attacks. We had to leave and return with a group of archers with fire arrows. Only elemental or sacred magic can harm the undead." He reached out to put his hand on his wife's arm. "We were fortunate that Shad had that ability. My wife may not be with us today if it were not for him."
"I missed all of this." Auren said. "I wasn't the leader of the archers yet, and I was in the city. Somebody didn't tell me they needed skilled archers." She shot a look at her father that was accusatory.
"I would not risk you then, you were so young." Auru's face was serious. "You are my only daughter."
"It's different now." Hida said. "Now you will bring your bow and magic arrows to protect your father, and you will have a Twili sorceress and the Hero of Hyrule with his sacred sword to aid you. Even if my leg was not injured, I would not go. I know my swords are useless against angry spirits." Her expression went sour. "I can't see the damned things anyway."
"I don't suppose you can see them, Midna?" the scholar asked. "With your magical ability, you should be able to."
"Both of us can. I've run into them before." Link put a hand on the hilt of his sword. "I'll be able to see them, and fight them off. No, not just fight them off. I'll be able to actually kill them with this sword."
I can destroy lesser evils, and seal greater ones. The spirits of the damned will not give us trouble. The sword's yellow gem flashed and it chimed, indicating to the rest of the group that it was willing to help.
Auru nodded in approval. "Good, because where we're going, you will fight some Poes. The Sages closed off the way forward and sealed the front door. I believe that you will be able to open that door, Link. Once we are inside, we must retrieve the key to open the rest of the way." He gave a small smile. "It's hidden, but the Sage of Light told me where it is."
"And you know your way around those ruins, I take it?" Midna asked. She had found a heap of silk pillows to lay on, and sprawled across them like a queen.
"I have a book that I've been writing on the Arbiter's Grounds, and it has maps as well as other information." Auru reached into one of his many pouches on his belt, one that was sized just right to hold a book. He pulled out one that had a red leather cover and held it up to show her. "When I say that I can guide you, I will guide you."
"Good, then I'm ready to go." the Twili said, rising into the air to bob next to Hida. "Whenever you three are ready…"
"Wait." Hida said, and she took her husband's hand in hers, and said something quietly to him in Gerudo. The look that they exchanged was a bit embarrassing, and Link felt as if he was intruding on a private moment simply by standing in the same room. "I am trusting you with the two things I love more than anything on this earth." she said, turning her orange eyes on him. "I know I don't need to say this, but I will say it anyway: please keep my loved ones safe. My family is my life."
Link nodded. "You have my word that I'll bring them back safe and sound. I promise."
The desert was growing cold as they walked through the makeshift Bulbin town situated between Gerudo City and the Arbiter's Grounds, the massive prison dark in front of the pinks and golds of the twilight sky. On top of the structure was something that looked like an arena, a circular wall framed by six pillars. It was hard to see from this distance, but before long they would get there.
The four of them passed the smoldering remnants of the stable, which was still burning after nearly a whole day. The cleanup of the nearby dead wasn't yet underway in the middle of the shanties, and the green corpses that had been left in the sun for a day stunk. The Gerudo had prioritized the ones in the city first, and then sent a group up to clean up the area near the portal, just in case Midna and Link needed it.
He could see the pyres in the distance as they walked, where a group of warriors were gradually getting rid of Shadow Beast corpses. Link thought of Setskie again, of how he wanted to save her yet lacked the power. He had the potential to reverse the curse of those turned into Shadow Beasts, but even if he gained the power necessary, it wouldn't help the ones that died in that form. There were families that were going to have no idea where their loved ones were, and had no bodies to bury. It was entirely possible that there was going to be not only Stalchildren wandering Central Hyrule, but the restless souls of those who had died as Shadow Beasts, haunting all of Hyrule until the end of time.
There were two tall Gerudo warriors holding the body of a Shadow Beast, its stone mask removed. They swung it onto a fire burning hot and bright, made of the dried planks that the Bulbins had built their base out of. He felt guilty at the sight; he was the one who killed that Shadow Beast. The pile of black, leathery corpses nearby had nearly identical wounds, almost all of them stabbed through the heart. Now that he saw the large pile of the dead, he was reminded of Midna's estimate of how many they had killed. He swallowed hard and did his best to maintain his composure in front of the others, hoping they didn't notice the tears he quickly blinked away.
Do not weep, Master. You do what you must, and what you did here was unavoidable. The Gerudo needed to be protected.
That didn't change how he felt. He had felt terrible about the lives he had taken and done his best not to think of it too much, to dismiss them as "monsters" and make it easier on himself. The discussion he had with Ilia brought it to the forefront of his mind, and he was having more difficulty ignoring it since then. The sword was right in telling him that it was a necessary evil, but it was a very human thing to feel pain and guilt for taking another life. He wasn't sure if it understood that.
I do not experience human emotions, yet I do understand that humans such as yourself feel pain for taking the life of another. Humans have been this way since the gods walked the earth. They have ever been a caring, empathetic race. You in particular exhibit these traits quite strongly. As Midna said, you have a lot of love within your heart, and even though that is a particular emotion I do not understand very well, I also understand that it is very important in your role as the Hero of Hyrule. Do not weep, Master. Now is the time to enter the Arbiter's Grounds, and your tears can wait until you have a moment alone.
It fell silent, and he glanced over at the others to see if they had noticed the sword talking to him. None of them reacted, not even Midna. The Master Sword had secret, quiet words for him in an attempt to comfort him and set his mind at ease. The way it had gone about it was done in a strange, alien way, but it meant well. Thank you, he said to it in reply.
I exist to aid you, Master Link. No matter what the task.
They walked through the worn pillars that led up to a long, broad staircase that ended it a large stone door. There was a lower floor, half-buried in sand with a few small, high windows that were little more than slits in the stone, and more properly barred windows on the main floor. They began the climb up the worn stairs.
"I wasn't here when the people captured in the magic purge were brought into the desert." Auru said somberly. "I was at Hyrule Castle doing my job, even though my heart was heavy and I hated what the king did in his madness. I knew the man when he was younger, and he was once kind and sane. He was my friend." The scholar fixed his dark blue eyes on the door at the top of the stairs. "I hid within my work, just as the Gerudo hid within their city. The Hylian military came in numbers large enough to kill every woman and child in the city, even though Hida told me that the amount of people they brought here was small. It was as if there were far more that died on the way."
"That wasn't cowardly." Midna told him. "It sounds like your king lost his mind in only about ten years, and I think the magic law and the purge blindsided everyone. The Gerudo were smart to hide away. A mad king that would kill his own people would have no reservations about killing another race."
The old scholar gave her a small, sad smile. "Thank you for your kind words. I have come to realize that there was very little to be done about King Adelbert's actions. All we can do is try to pick up the pieces and move on, as Hyrule has done in the past." They stopped at the door, and Auru raised his eyes to look at the massive stone structure. "The Sages have always been able to open this door, as has any Princess Zelda." That didn't explain how Auru opened the door, or how the Hyrulean soldiers had five years ago. "They each had their unique powers, and now a Link does as well." Auru turned to him. "Open it."
"What, push it open? I guess I can use Courage to give it a try…" He stepped up to the carved double-door.
"No, not with strength. With magic. You were using magic when fighting last night." The man raised a dark eyebrow. "Surely you know how to cast a spell?"
The Twili gave a laugh. "I guess we never told you about that. Link's been using magic, but he isn't following any rules. He simply does it without thinking, and the things he does vary and don't seem to follow a pattern."
Link frowned thoughtfully. "Still, I can give it a shot. At least I understand that when I use Courage, it's because I either need to do something, or really want to do something." He raised his left hand and looked at the door in front of him. "I guess I need to tell the door that I want it to open?"
Midna shrugged, palms up. "More or less. Maybe you need to touch it. Go up, put your hand on it and give a verbal command. Let's see if that triggers your magic. We'll play this by ear, okay?"
Not exactly understanding what he was doing, he placed his hand on the Crest of the Triforce that lay on the middle of the door. Courage lit up, and he raised his eyes to look at the large stone door. "Knock, knock."
The crest beneath his hand flared with the same gold as his piece of the Triforce, and the double-door began to shudder. The two doors opened, slowly swinging inwards with a grinding, grating sound. Cold, stale air blew out and ruffled his hair for a moment.
Midna broke into laughter, wrapping her arms around herself and holding her sides in glee. She bobbed in the air like a cork in water, barely able to hold herself aloft as she laughed. "Knock, knock? Knock, knock?!" The Twili produced a snort, something she did when laughing hard. "I expected 'open' or 'let us in', and you give us 'Knock, knock'?"
He felt his face flush at her reaction. "Look, it's the first thing that came to mind. It wasn't a joke this time, okay? The words popped into my head, and my mouth said them before I could even think it through." He frowned grumpily at her, sulking a bit. "It's not that funny."
"He opened the door, which is the important part." Auru said, although he was attempting not to laugh as well. "...and it was funny."
"I'd call it cute. Baby's first spell." Auren said with a teasing grin.
Link grumbled under his breath and stepped into the dark ruin, taking his chances with the ghosts inside rather than listen to the three of them make fun of him. He blinked in the dim room for only a second, the interior not as dark as he thought it would be. There was a steady blue light coming from a group of metal braziers that stood on the floor or in sconces along the wall. Brilliant blue flames danced in them, casting a pale light yet completely silent, the fires not crackling or spitting as expected.
"Sheikah flame." Auru said as he came to stand next to Link. "It does not burn hot, and consumes no fuel. It is not known if any remain who know how to make it."
"The Sheikah built this place?" his daughter asked, looking down at her feet. A circular round crest had a line of the flowing, curved Gerudo script tracing its outside, surrounding a pair of Sheikah characters. "But this is written in Gerudo...very old Gerudo. We don't use these letters anymore."
"The Sheikah and the ancient Gerudo built this place together, and they built it for the royal family. It was during a time of peace when the peoples worked together, before the Interloper War tore them apart." Auru said. That would mean that the Arbiter's Grounds was well over two thousand years old.
Auren slowly turned in a circle as she read the words beneath her feet, still able to read the ancient language. No doubt she learned how due to her father's influence. "Let the damned be judged here by divine decree."
"The two characters in the middle are in Old Sheikah, and mean 'time' and 'gaoler'. Time is the gaoler. The damned were imprisoned here forever, when they were not executed or sent to the Shadow Realm through the Mirror." The scholar came to stand on the crest with his daughter, looking down at it with her. "Some of the worst criminals were brought here, but not only that. There were dark, evil things that could not be killed that were sealed here by the Sheikah. When the world lacks a Zelda and a Link, the Sheikah step in to do what they can to protect us all."
Link looked around the room and did not see any ghosts, or piles of bones for that matter. If people had been left here to die, they would be laying dead on the floor. Perhaps they were dead in cells, if this was indeed a jail. There were three paths; a hallway on either side of the large, square room to the left and right, and a set of steps flanked by Sheikah flame that ended at an odd curved wall. "Let's hope the dead don't want to say hello. Where do we go, Auru?"
"I believe to the left, but let me check." He pulled his book bound in red leather out of his pocket and flipped to a page marked with blue ribbon. Midna came to peer over his shoulder. "Yes, to the left and down the stairs. That is where we will find the device to open the wall ahead of us, and open the path to the Mirror."
"Device? I thought you said it was a key?" Link put his hand on the grip of the Master Sword, feeling uneasy. Something was wrong about this place.
Auru chuckled and ushered them along. "It is a key of sorts, that fits into a lock of sorts." he said mysteriously, his eyes amused. The old man enjoyed withholding information from them. "You go first, Hero of Hyrule. You're the one here with the magic sword and pair of eyes that can see Poes."
The hall beyond was darker, only lit by the occasional Sheikah flame. Even in the dim blue light, the rows of metal cell doors on either side were visible, and a few were even left open. At the end of the hall was a larger blue flame, and a doorway that presumably led down. There were no signs of ghosts.
"Maybe it would have better to have sent the people from the purge through the mirror." Auru said sadly. "They could have continued to live their lives."
Midna nodded at him as she floated along. "Before Zant, the Twilight Realm was a place of peace. We Twili may have descended from dark sorcerers, but we have long learned from the mistakes of our ancestors."
The old man shook his head. "A pity, then it would have been far better. The people were left here in the prison." He waved a hand to indicate a nearby cell door. "While it's possible that some escaped into the desert, the Gerudo have no records of any Hylians arriving at their city."
"We would have welcomed them, even the males." Auren said. "Our people would not let them die out in the desert…" She trailed off when she heard something.
There was a groaning sound that came from an area in shadow ahead, where the scant light of the blue fires could not reach. Link only saw it once it began to move, a huddled form along the wall that slowly stood and unfolded its gaunt limbs.
Beware! You will need my power! The sword's tone sounded urgent.
He drew his sword, and it faintly glowed with the same silvery light as he had seen before. Whatever was slowly approaching them, it was evil, and it was also not a ghost. The thing slowly shuffled two steps towards them, the silhouette of a withered form in tattered clothing. Then two red pinpoints of light glowed within its head to reveal a decayed face, and it opened its mouth and let out a blood-curdling shriek.
The sound almost made Link's heart stop in his chest.
From all around them were answering cries, as undead rose from where they died in their cells. Auren wrapped her arms around her father and clung to him in fear, horrified to the point where she could do little but stand there and tremble. Auru was in a similar state, his eyes wide. Midna hovered next to them, not moving from the spot.
Link stood frozen like them, shaking at the sight of the undead approaching him, his mind recalling the horror that he had seen in Kasuto. No, not here. It was supposed to be ghosts. Not this! He can't handle this!
Courage! Have strength! You must protect your allies!
The sword's words gave him the determination to fight, and it blazed with light. He promised Hida that he would protect her family, and no matter what, he was going to do that. The zombie slowly reached out its arms towards him and shrieked again, and Auren whimpered quietly behind him. The scream chilled him to the bone, but he didn't freeze in place this time. He lunged forward and ran the thing through its skeletal chest, and he caught a glimpse of a desiccated, eyeless face in the light from the Master Sword before the creature burst into silvery flames. It collapsed, but there were more shrieks from all around.
"Link, the cells!" Midna called, her voice anxious. They had made it partway down the hallway, and now they were surrounded. Figures slowly shuffled from the open cell doors, all in the remains of clothing, all dried corpses brought back to life by their hatred and resentment of the king that had sent them here. The Twili hovered protectively next to Auren and her father, obviously frightened but willing to fight.
Steeling himself, he rushed past his three companions to meet the ones coming from behind. They did not move fast, but he was determined to kill them quickly and be done with it. His first attack was another thrust, but the next one that shrieked at him was taken out with an excessive forward slash. His movements became more frantic and unpracticed, and soon he was no longer fighting with his normal grace. All he was doing was hacking at these creatures that could not die, these terrible things that smelled of death and shrieked horribly.
His mind shifted, and he wasn't standing in a ruin. He was in a barn in Kasuto, glowing red eyes from its former residents staring him down, the single person that survived. They would not die. They could not die. He shouldn't be here.
His breathing quickened and he met more shuffling zombies with frantic attacks, his eyes wild, panic fluttering in his chest. Someone called his name, but he didn't hear it. These things would not die. They needed to die. They needed to be gone, away from him so he could escape. He shouldn't be here!
Link looked around frantically, looking for more undead in his way, looking for the way to escape Kasuto. No, this wasn't Kasuto, was it? Where was he? Why was he here, trapped with these undead? A man's voice called his name in the distance, the voice sounding far and distorted, and it was nearly drowned out by the roar of his own pulse in his ears. A different voice dimly spoke in his head, warning him of his behavior, but he didn't heed it. He needed to get out of here, away from this place that used to be his home, away from the dead things that refused to stay dead, away from the voices calling his name.
Suddenly Midna was there, hands pressed to his face, pleading with him to calm down. "Link! It's all right! Please stop, Link. You're all right. They're gone now. You got them."
He stared at her, his chest heaving, cold sweat running down his back as he snapped back to reality. The Arbiter's Grounds. The Mirror of Twilight. He was here with Midna, Auru and Auren. He lowered his sword and swallowed hard, feeling bile in his throat, feeling his body shake. Link reached out with his right arm and pulled Midna close, resting his face against her small body as he felt his eyes fill with tears.
"Sorry. I'm sorry." he said, his voice ragged, still breathing hard. "I don't know what happened…"
She put her arms on either side of his head in a hug. "You fool, you frightened me just now."
He didn't respond, doing his best to control his breathing and calm down. It was difficult. He still wanted to run. He wanted to run out the door of this wretched place, sit on the front steps, put his head in his hands and cry. Midna's hand moved to his hair soothingly, and he felt his body slowly relax.
"What just happened? Is something wrong with Link?" Auren asked, stepping forward to stand next to him and Midna. He felt her hand on his arm, but he didn't react. It was all he could do to hold on to Midna and slowly recover. Anything else he tried would make him break down for sure. "He's shaking...father, do you understand what's happening?"
"I believe so. He told me briefly about his experience in Kasuto. That was a town wiped off the map by the magic purge, and his old home. He visited it more recently and said its residents turned into undead." His voice moved closer. "Is that right, Link? Was it much like this place?"
He nodded, not trusting his voice.
"We were trapped in a barn and he had to blow up a bunch of zombies so we could escape." Midna said, still smoothing back his hair. "Once we were away from that place, he was in rough shape, but I thought it was because of what had happened to the town. Maybe it was a combination of things."
"He's been through a lot, Auren." Auru said quietly. "Some things can wound the body, and some things can wound the mind. He hasn't told me everything, but I know enough."
"I had no idea." she said softly, giving his arm a squeeze. "Is there anything we can do for you?"
He let go of Midna and lowered his eyes, feeling ashamed that he lost control of himself. "I don't know. This hasn't happened before." He wiped at his wet eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "A friend of mine has this problem, I think. She experienced something terrible that makes her panic or cry, or even faint. That's a bit like what's happening to me. I wanted to kill everything so I could run." He hugged himself with his right arm, Master Sword still held in his left hand. "I'm sorry you saw this. This isn't right. I'm not right."
"You still were able to fight those things. The two of us were unable to move at all. Something about the screams…" Auren shivered. "You're still very brave, in spite of everything."
"I promised your mother I'd keep the two of you safe. Even when I've completely lost my mind, something deep within me doesn't want to go back on a promise." He took another deep breath and let it out. That seemed to help. "Midna, I think I'm okay."
The imp took her hand from his hair and put it on the side of his face again. "Listen, you need to focus. I'll keep you sane, we all will...but you need to tell us how you're feeling. I know you don't like to do that, but you really need to."
The sword softly chimed. Trust in your friends, Master. They are the key to getting you through this, as well as the key to helping you overcome your fear. This is your trial.
"My trial…" he said, considering it. There was something he needed to do here, and it wasn't only for himself. His eyes met Midna's again. "I know what I need to do." He turned to Auru. "After what you told me of the people who were left here to die, I can't leave them like this. I can't leave them to roam this ruin until they crumble into dust. Their souls need to rest."
"You have a good heart, Hero of Hyrule." the older man said, his eyes proud. "If you wish to give the dead rest despite your fear, then we'll do whatever you need us to do."
"We go through this place carefully. All cells, all levels. Every single place will be searched. No soul will be left behind." He turned to Midna. "You'll have to open the doors. One at a time, please. I don't need to lose myself again." He took a step to point to the one at his right. "This one first. I don't hear anything in there, but we should check."
"Why don't we go to the beginning of the hall?" Midna suggested. "That way we won't backtrack." She led the way, floating along easily to the first door on the right, one that still was within the light of the Sheikah flames from the main room.
Link walked up next to her, noting that this time the other two kept their distance. He couldn't blame them. "All right, open it." he told the Twili.
Midna tapped the lock of the door with one finger, and there was a little crackle of shadow energy and then a click. She pushed the door open with her hair and peered inside. "Just some bones. Whoever was in here has been dead a long time."
"How did she unlock that?" Auren asked, impressed.
"If she can throw around Gorons and carry Bulbins with her shadow magic, she can do something as simple as open a lock." Link was starting to feel almost normal now. Even though he knew it would be terrifying and difficult, he had a purpose. There was more he needed to do in this place other than go to the Mirror of Twilight.
"Bingo. And I opened a lock before, remember?" Midna said, moving to the door directly across the hall, which had faint sounds behind it. "Next up…" The door unlatched with another tap from her hand, and she carefully pushed it open with her hair. As soon as the door was open, five pairs of glowing red eyes lit up, and there was a chorus of shrieks.
Auren whimpered behind him, but he had to ignore their reactions unless they were in trouble. He had his own fear to worry about and control. The group inside the cell all shuffled to try to get through the door, but only one managed to push its way out, its mouth still agape after screaming. He patiently waited for it to approach, and then ran it through. It made a groaning sound as it burst into flames, and then fell over onto its face. The others stepped over it, and then again over the next one that fell, Link slowly giving ground until the last collapsed. It was wearing a tattered blue dress, and curled up into a fetal position as it burned.
He was trying his best to not notice the clothing, the wisps of hair, the occasional pointed ear still attached or the jewelry around their necks. Just like the Shadow Beasts, he tried dehumanize them. Except this time, there was no guilt. This time, he had intrusive thoughts he could not dismiss, of these people when they were alive, wondering who they were, if they had family, or children, or where they lived. There was no separating what they were from what they had become, because they had become this way due to a cruel law.
The process repeated, one maddening cell at a time. He approached each with apprehension and walked from them with relief, only to have that same apprehension rise again seconds later as Midna calmly moved to the next door. A few times he stopped and shut his eyes for a few seconds, breathing slowly, trying to will his heart to slow. It wouldn't have been as bad if they were silent, but they shrieked and groaned, sounds that were still vaguely human.
Link's hands began to shake as they neared the dark area near the end of the hall where the single sconce of Sheikah flame's light would not reach. He had suspected that there were some hiding in that shadow, and unbidden his own magical ability kicked in, and he could see seven huddled shapes, the largest group so far. They slowly rose with the same screams that had driven him to madness before, arms reaching out, empty eye sockets glowing faintly red, dried mouths hanging open. He mad a promise though, and none of these would get near the others with him, not even near Midna.
He moved more quickly this time as he fought, using his agility to dance around them and dodge their slow grabs for him. Each shriek made his heart pound faster, and by now his fingerless gloves were soaked from his sweating palms. The last one got fairly close, a dried brown corpse wearing a Sheikah robe with its hair intact in a white topknot. It burst into flames like all the others, but this one said one word.
"No…" it said in a dry whisper, clawing at its chest, falling over as it finally was able to die.
Link's eyes went wide, and he took two unsteady steps back. It spoke. It was aware. He could hear his shield rattling on his back as he shook, he was trembling so hard. He raised a shaking hand to his face, feeling like he should run and give all of this up. He could fail this trial the sword had mentioned. They were here for the Mirror of Twilight, not this.
Yet he was the only one that could help these poor souls, and he knew it. He drew a quavering breath and spoke as he heard someone step up behind him. His mind was so distracted he couldn't tell whose footfalls they were. "I need...I need a minute. They keep screaming." He felt Auru's arm go around his shoulders and he shut his eyes, that physical contact a lifeline connecting him to sanity.
"You don't need to do this." the man said gently. "I can return to Castle Town and gather some Priests of Hylia to take care of them."
"I have to." he said weakly, still covering his eyes with his hand. "These people need my help. Priests can offer prayers to drive away evil, but I'm the only one that can destroy it. There are some things only I can do, and this is one of them."
"Are you certain?" Auru asked.
He dropped his hand and stared at the stone wall ahead of him numbly. "Yes. There's another reason why I have to do this. I'll have to do it again in Kasuto. Now that I have the Master Sword, I'll have to go back there to free them."
"Then we will be here with you." the scholar said. "We go at your pace. If we're here all night, so be it."
Link gave a weak laugh. "I'd rather not make it last all night, if it's all the same to you." He took another slow breath. "Just another minute, all right?"
And so it went, through the last few cells and then down to the first basement level. The light was equally dim on this floor, with intermittent sconces of Sheikah flame casting their pale blue light throughout the long hallway. There were far more zombies on this level, hidden in the shadows of the hall or within cells, laying where they had died, or huddled together in a manner that looked like they were trying to gain comfort from one another. He could see them with his magical ability, and they did not catch him by surprise again.
Whenever he got close, they would slowly rise and let loose their horrible screams. He attempted to be patient and methodical about it as he cut them down, and tried to distance his emotions from what he was doing. However every time they stood up and shrieked at him, he teetered back towards panic. His terror was cumulative, and the more they screamed, the more he began to shake. Even though he had killed many at this point, it wasn't getting any easier.
The long hall was full of them, groans and shrieks coming from closed cell doors, shuffling corpses slowly moving into the ethereal blue light, all having risen from the screams of their brethren. He did not get an opportunity to stop when he needed to, and his actions became more frantic, his slashes far more crude. His breathing became more rapid and he began to look for a way to retreat, to get away from these monsters that once were human beings.
No, he gave his word. He had to protect them. Hida said that her family was her life.
"Link, stay with us!" Midna called. "We can't get through this place without you!" She was right. For Midna to admit that she was useless in front of others was unusual, and it hammered the point home: they needed him.
"I-I...I know!" he cried, trying to focus on finding the words, and making a small frightened sound in the back of his throat as another group screamed at him.
"Listen, we're almost to the halfway point of this hall. We can get that far, right?" the Twili said, able to talk through the terrifying sounds the zombies were making. She wasn't standing farther back fearfully like the other two were. "If we get there, we should be able to stop. I want you to stop, all right?"
"I want me to stop!" His chest tightened from anxiety even though Midna's insistence that he stop when he already wanted to was kind of annoying. Couldn't she see that he was having a difficult time? He was going to stop when he had the chance.
"Then we're both in agreement. Just a few more and then you can stop, and I can stop telling you to stop." She continued, floating somewhere behind him. If he wasn't busy he would have turned around to tell her to shut up. "I get the feeling that it isn't just these things here, either. The four of us need to be prepared to fight other things, maybe things that we won't need the Master Sword for. Who knows, though? Hard to tell in this place. There could be anything locked away here."
This time he took a few steps back to angrily glance over his shoulder at her. "What the hell is the matter with you? Shut up, I'm busy!"
"Excuse you? You're telling me to shut up? I'm the one helping you out!" She put her hands on her hips, but that was all he saw her do before he had to turn his head back to focus on what he was doing. "Auru said that we're here to support you, so here's some support. Stop bitching about it."
Fear was overridden by anger. She had gone from obnoxious to downright infuriating. Link moved more quickly so he could dispatch the last group of undead before the next large patch of well-lit hallway, which seemed to be larger and brighter than the others. "I am not bitching, since I need to focus here!" he said, grunting in-between his words as he sliced through withered skin and bone. "You are not helping, not in the least!"
"Midna, maybe you should stop. He really seems angry…" Auren said, her voice still fearful.
"Of course he's angry! Angry is his default." The Twili gave a dismissive snort, which he hoped was not directed at him. "In fact, it doesn't take much to get him there. Look at him. I'm only trying to help by talking to him, and he's gone and gotten all hot and bothered about it."
"Shut up! Godsdammit, shut up!" He growled, moving far more like he normally would in a fight, his fear no longer hindering him. An undead in a craftsman's overalls shrieked at him, and he cut it down as soon as it did. "You shut up too!" he shouted at the zombie as it fell. He took one step forward past its burning body and turned to the right, setting his stance sideways, and then swung his arm in a wide backhand with a yell. Courage lit up and he cleaved the three remaining undead in two, their bodies falling apart as they fell.
"Good. That worked." Midna said, satisfied.
He whirled around and stalked up to her with a snarl. "That worked? That worked?! What, rambling on like an idiot to the point where I'm angry? You know how easily I-" He stopped, his anger fading as he realized what she had just done. Link turned back to stare at the smoldering ash that was a group of nine undead, which he had dispatched in half the time it had taken for him to fight smaller groups.
"Ah, I see. Very clever, Midna." Auru said, nodding approvingly.
Link wiped the sweat from his brow and gave a sigh. "All right, I get what you were doing. But...don't, all right? We both I'm not rational when I'm angry. I was about to use words in front of a gentleman and his daughter that I would have regretted. Next time try talking to me normally to distract me."
The imp crossed her arms. "You don't think it's a good method? I tried to just plain talk to you when you had that problem in Lake Hylia, but it only seemed to do so much. I think the fact that you were caught up in the rhythm of swimming like a Zora helped distract you more than me talking about Keatons and Rito."
"I'm too irrational and reckless when I'm angry. The old Link that wanted to punch people's faces in comes back, and we want the new Link that's managed to grow up a bunch and be reasonable. I should not be using Courage when I'm mad, like what happened just now." He looked down at the Master Sword, which was still glowing, but dimly. The blade was clean, whatever disgusting ooze left on it in place of blood searing away immediately in holy flames. He sheathed it, and took his hat off to scratch at his hair. Fear sweat was still sweat, and it was making his scalp itchy.
"I'm learning a lot of unflattering things about you." Auren said, stepping up to him. Her shoulders were tense and her amber eyes were still a bit wide. "You wanted to punch people's faces in? And you were frightened in a lake?"
"Thalassophobia, according to King Ralis of the Zoras. It's the fear of open water. That was not my proudest moment, finding out that I had another phobia in the middle of doing something important." He put his hand to her back and guided her to the wall directly beneath a sconce. "Sit. You're still shaking."
"I've been shaking the entire time." she admitted, sitting on the stone floor to rest. Midna came and stood on the floor next to her, putting a hand to the woman's arm kindly, but didn't say anything. Auren gave her a weak little smile before continuing. "I thought being trapped in a burning building was bad enough. This time I don't think I'm going to die, but something about the screams…"
"I know." he said gently, adjusting the long scabbard of the Master Sword so he could sit on the floor next to her. "I've been shaking the entire time too. This place sucks." He began to fold up the long green hat to put it away, deciding that he didn't want to wear it if he kept sweating.
"What's the other phobia?" The Gerudo leaned a bit to the side to rest her head against the cold stone while facing him, the quiver and bow on her back preventing her from sitting normally.
"Arachnophobia."
"Oh, dear. Then I'm not going to tell you about the kinds of spiders that live here in the desert." Auru said, lowering himself to sit on the floor in front of them. The man didn't need to tell him about them; Link had read about tarantulas. "Link, if anger is not a good solution, then perhaps if you start thinking of something else it may work. Distraction does seem to be the key."
"I'll try it. I'm not sure what I'll think of, but it's worth a shot." He stowed his folded hat into one of his square leather pouches and pulled out his waterskin to take a drink. Now that he had sat down, he realized he was terribly thirsty. Breathing frantically through the mouth will do that to a person.
"Can I have a little of that? Being scared all the time is making my mouth dry." Auren said, feeling the same way.
He wordlessly passed it over to her, and from that point on they sat in silence. Now that he was sitting down, he was aware of how tiring being afraid was. It was comparable to his time in Death Mountain, where being in pain while fighting Bulbins wore down his energy. If he didn't already know that he had large reserves of stamina, he would request a bit more time to sit down. For now, he was doing it more for Auren and her father than himself.
When the older gentleman pulled a pocket watch out of one of his many pouches, Link broke the silence. "How long have we been in here?"
"So far, nearly an hour." Auru said, looking at the face of the golden watch and then tucking it away again. "I admit, it feels longer than that."
"I'm tired and I haven't done any fighting yet." Auren admitted. "I want to fight and help, but I don't know if fire arrows will do anything or not. I'm certain normal ones won't."
"I'm going to guess they'd keep moving while on fire, until they burned up." He leaned forward to look past Auren to the right and down the hall, and at the piles of ash that were once zombies. "It's not the same as the holy fire made by the Master Sword, which burns them up in seconds."
Affirmative. She may wish to help, but you are the only one here with the ability to take care of the wandering dead.
"Did your sword just make a little sound?" Auren raised one red eyebrow. Apparently she hadn't noticed when it had done it earlier.
"Yeah. Sometimes it makes that sound when it talks to me. The Master Sword has a soul, which is why it's such a powerful weapon." He rose to his feet and scanned the hallway ahead of them. It wasn't only the halfway point of the hall, it was also a T-shaped intersection. There was another hallway that joined with this one, and even more zombies to take care of there. From where he stood, he could see the shapes of the undead in the shadows and within the cells, but he could see something else; there were blobs of what looked like flame in a few of the cells. Considering he was using his shadow spell to look for undead specifically, the blobs of flame must be something related.
None of the things he saw were close enough to be a threat to Auru and Auren, so he turned to Midna. "I think I'm okay again. We ought to go and clear out those cells while these two sit down for a bit."
The Twili rose into the air and moved to hover in front of him. "If you think you feel all right, then we'll get to it." She moved forward to pat his cheek with one small hand. "I'll try not to make you angry this time."
"It's appreciated. Let's go."
One of the cells not too far from the end where the two were still seated on the floor did not have zombies, but a mass of blue-white flame that hovered over a pile of bones. He frowned at it, not sure what he was looking at, but it coalesced into a lantern that glowed with the same light, and a transparent form with an agonized face appeared with a thin hand around the handle. It did not shriek, but let loose a low howl.
"What was that?!" Auren cried from nearby. He heard her footfalls as she ran up to where he stood, but he never took his eyes off the Poe. "What made that sound? Is something coming?"
"I can see it, just like the ones in Kasuto." Midna told him. "Remember Auru said that Shad could see them, but nobody else could?"
The angry spirit swung its heavy iron lantern at him, and he danced out of the way. "Auren, get back. If you can't see it, I don't want you to be near it." His warning was pointless, since the ghost took a moment to howl at him again, and in that time he cut through its incorporeal form with a diagonal slash. It shrieked and writhed as it burst into holy flames, dropping its lantern. That too was consumed by flames, and then was gone.
"Well that was anti-climactic." the little imp said, shrugging lightly. "Hopefully all the ghosts are that easy." She fixed her red eye on him. "Ready?"
This time, the rest of the cells did feel a bit easier. He was getting acclimated to the screams, or at least he felt slightly less like running away whenever he heard them. That didn't stop the visceral fear from growing in his gut and making him tremble after a few cells. He tried to think of something that was distracting, but it was difficult. When he thought of Ordon, his mind went to how he was attacked at the spring and that the place was no longer safe. That set off a different kind of anxiety, and it was nothing he wanted to dwell on.
Then he tried to think of Ilia, who strangely had not been on his mind too much since he came to the desert. Unsurprisingly, he missed her to the point that he felt a sharp jab in his chest. He didn't know what he was going to do when he returned to Kakariko if she hadn't remembered him by then. The young woman seemed like she had feelings for him, and while that was something he had wanted for years, the timing was all wrong and he couldn't pursue it. Even if they killed Zant in the Twilight Realm, there was still the Bulbin army to handle. He still did not have the time for Ilia that he wanted.
In the end he found it was better to swallow his fear and try not to think at all. The shrieks did not paralyze him and he was able to fight, which was the important part. As long as he didn't turn and run, then it was fine. He was able to tell which cells had zombies in them, and how many were in them. Some of them had gone back to sitting down in their cells since the group of living beings were silent while they took a rest. Whether they were sitting or standing in their cells didn't matter; they shrieked like banshees all the same.
Link was panting by now, and he leaned one hand against the wall while hanging his head, squeezing his eyes shut. Things were fine for him to fight until suddenly they weren't, and he'd be overwhelmed. He slid down the wall and sat with his legs folded next to him, not bothering to sheathe the Master Sword. He opted to simply set it down on the stones and sunk his face into his shaking hands.
"You're not going to cry, are you?" Auren asked to his left.
"Absolutely not." he said, his voice muffled by his hands. Of course he wanted to, his nerves frayed beyond the point of reason at times, but the words of the Master Sword came back to him: Do not weep Master. You do what you must. This was something he must do, and he was doing it. Slowly but surely, he was doing it regardless of how he felt.
That is why you have Courage. The voice of the sword echoed quietly in his mind. He didn't know if it meant the Triforce of Courage, or the concept of bravery in face of adversity, but both probably applied. Affirmative.
He raised his face from his hands. "I know it's contrary to how I'm acting, but I'm feeling optimistic. I'm doing this, and I think if I can't handle it all today, we can come back tomorrow."
"That is always an option." Auru said, slowly rising to his feet. "Yet you seem like you could fight for hours without rest."
"I can. I fought for hours while injured, I fought for hours after swimming for miles, and I can fight for hours while being terrified if I need to." Link grabbed the Master Sword and got to his feet, still shaking slightly but willing to push himself. "All right, the next section is up. You two can stay here. I think Midna and I will be taking that hallway to the left."
"It helps that you can tell where they're hiding so we don't have to open every door." Midna did not argue with his desire to keep going even though he hadn't quite recovered. It was his decision. She came and put her hands on his shoulder. "I'm with you. Let's go."
He steeled himself as he began to walk towards the first huddled pile of zombies laying in shadow. There seemed to be quite a few of them. He had been counting, but at one point his terror made him forget to keep track of how many he had rendered to ash with the Master Sword. "Midna? Have you been counting how many of these I've gone through?" The group on the floor rose together in one motion, and screamed together at him in response to hearing his voice. It made him tremble, but he waited for the shuffling corpses to approach.
"I did." Her voice wasn't fearful at all. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask, since the numbers have been growing pretty quickly and you didn't react well yesterday when I told you how many Shadow Beasts you killed." She paused as a zombie shrieked at him, and waited until he ran it through. "Ninety-seven so far, ninety-eight counting that one. I included the ghost. The first floor only had thirty-one, so you've gone through sixty-five on this floor so far. No, sixty-six." she said as he cut another one down. "We're a little under halfway through this floor, but I can make an estimate based off what we've done so far."
"What is it?" he asked, dreading the answer. It was a means to distract him, but the amount of things he killed always made him feel ashamed or remorseful.
"If we estimate that on average that there are sixty-five per wing on this floor, and thirty per wing on the upper floor, we wind up with two-hundred and ninety. Nearly three hundred, and we don't know what's on the floor below us."
He gave ground, slowly stepping back from the advancing zombies as he turned the number over in his mind. Three hundred. Nearly three hundred people that were brought to this place to die, and it could be even more than that. Three hundred that were damned by their own king, who hunted his own people in his madness.
A small spark of anger ignited in him, but it wasn't the same as when Midna had irritated him before. This was the beast within him, raising its head, ready to hunt. Three hundred dead, plus the four hundred and twenty that had lived in Kasuto. Seven hundred and twenty souls that were cursed into undeath by King Adelbert's obsession.
"Damn the king…" he growled under his breath as he cut through another screaming corpse. It dropped and his eyes fell on the one next to it that shambled closer. It was human once. They were all human once. "Damn the king!" he shouted, running this one through. "Adelbert, you bastard!" Another one fell to the blazing Master Sword, bursting into flames as it curled up at his feet. "You've failed your people!"
The beast had taken over now, but it was a different rage this time. This was controlled, and he was aware of what he was doing. This time, it wasn't a loved one that had been taken away by Zant's army. This time, it was the kingdom and the people within it that were supposed to be protected by the king that ultimately sent them to their end. This time, it was the home that he had been chosen by the gods to save. "You failed Hyrule!" he snarled, his movements more quick and precise, his sword rapidly vanquishing the cursed dead.
The last one of the the group in the shadows fell, and he stared at the next patch of shadow, his magical ability revealing more zombies hiding there. More that he had to take care of, and more that he had to release from their torment. "And I'm the one cleaning up your mess…" His fear completely gone, he ran towards the next group, and cut half of them down before they even managed to rise.
His rage had a purpose, and he worked along with it instead of letting it bury his reason. This was what he was made for, and this is why he now held the Master Sword. The beast was not a curse nor a hindrance, but a tool to use. A deadly, efficient tool that gave him a fighting ability that was rivaled by no one.
He cleared the hall in only a few minutes, the slow-moving dead unable to fight back or even touch him. Link turned as soon as he killed the last in the hall, and looked back. He he had moved so quickly that there were still piles of burning zombies that the holy flames were turning to ash. Midna hovered not too far back, her face unreadable. However Auru and Auren had walked up into the hall, and were watching him with their mouths open. Neither one seemed to be afraid of him, and their reactions were more ones of awe than anything else. Good. It wouldn't do for them to be afraid of him.
Link pointed the Master Sword at the first door on his left, where groaning zombies were moving around in their cell. "Open the door." he demanded of Midna.
"Uh, is this wise? You said you don't want to be angry, and this is your crazy anger." She was apprehensive. What, did she think he was going to hurt her?
"Open the damn door!" he shouted, and she flinched slightly in response as the undead within the cell screamed in response to his loud voice. She wasn't reacting to the zombies, but was responding to his anger. He lowered his voice down to its normal level, although it was still tinged with fury. "It's the same rage, but I'm in control this time."
Midna looked him in the eye, judging him and his words for a moment. Then she nodded and moved to the cell, leaving him to continue fighting in his efficient rage.
It had taken them nearly and hour to only get through about the first third of the ancient jail and its cells, but this time it took him perhaps fifteen minutes. Midna wordlessly opened the cells for him, and followed him upstairs when he went to take care of the right wing on the main floor. The other two remained behind, and were still standing there in stunned silence when he returned only moments later. He didn't speak, but made a single motion for them to follow him, and he began to descend the stairs to the next level below.
There were even more undead hiding in the stairwell, but even the enclosed space did not slow him down. Their shrill screams were loud within the close walls, but did not last for long as he advanced. The floor below was not lit with Sheikah flame and was completely dark, but there were no more of the undead Hyruleans hiding there. The silvery glow from the Master Sword was the only light, and he led the way while holding it low at his side. It was the bottom floor, no other way down apparent, and bones littered the stones. Link walked through, simply touching the Master Sword to the spirits that only began to rise as pale flames from the long-dead skeletons. They screamed and turned to ash like all the others.
Once he had reached the stairs on the other side and taken care of the remaining few zombies there, he walked back downstairs, to where the other three waited for him. Breathing heavily from his rage and the effort of fighting, he lowered his glowing sword, which had dimmed now that there were no beasts of evil nearby. Sheathing it would have put them into absolute darkness, and as paltry as the light was, they could still see by it. "Done."
"Yes, but are you?" Auru ventured, cautious. "I have seen the warrior's rage before, and the woman who had it would attack her comrades."
"I wouldn't do that." He stopped and shut his eyes, taking a few deep breaths. The rage waned, leaving his usual self behind. "Even the times I was out of control, I didn't hurt anyone."
"I think what we saw him do is different, father." He heard Auren's sandals step up to him, and he opened his eyes to see her smiling down at him, her face lit from below by the Master Sword. "If he really was berserk he'd be attacking us and the walls too." She put a hand on his shoulder. "Hmm, not shaking. You're okay now, aren't you?"
"My sword arm's a bit tired, but I'm otherwise fine. I'll probably sleep ten or so hours again after today." He gave a short laugh. "Tonight? Gerudo time is weird."
She gave his shoulder a little pat and turned to her father. "The undead are gone, so now all we need to do is go to where the device is."
"It's one of these doors down on this level. We need to find the one that does not have Sheikah talismans on the door." Auru came to stand next to his daughter, and pulled out his lantern, which he had hooked on his belt at his hip. "Let me give us a light and we'll look."
It wasn't long before the scholar held the lantern aloft, and began walking down the row of cells with heavy metal doors. Each door was plastered with strips of paper that had ancient Sheikah runes on them, and they clung to the walls and hinges surrounding them. If anyone tried to open one of the doors, the talismans would have torn, and the magical seal keeping whatever dark thing was inside would break. Because of that reason, they left the doors shut.
"Here it is." Auru announced, still holding the lantern up. "We shouldn't need the Master Sword in this room, Link. I think we're fine now. Midna, if you would please."
The Twili tapped the lock and pushed the heavy door open as she had all the others, and it groaned in protest, its ancient hinges not used for centuries. She moved into the room, which was as pitch black as the hallway outside, and the rest followed her in, following Auru's lantern. The scholar handed his light to his daughter, and brought out his book full of notes on the Arbiter's Grounds. After paging through it, he found what he was looking for, and carefully pronounced a few words in a language Link didn't recognize.
Blue flames flared to light across the concave walls of the room, the flames set into sconces, the room itself being perfectly circular. By the light of the Sheikah flame, they could see a large curved sword made of black steel suspended in the very center of the room by countless ropes. Each rope had a number of paper talismans attached to it, and the ends of the ropes were tied off to recessed rings driven into the walls, ceiling and floor.
"Uh, is the thing we need a big sword?" Link asked, eyeing the large weapon, which was longer than he was tall. Something about it made him uneasy. He was glad he hadn't decided to put the Master Sword away like the scholar suggested. The Sheikah had sealed the dark sword here for a reason, and he hoped they didn't need to use it for anything.
Auru looked confused as he stared at the sword. "No, it's an ancient Sheikah device, a machine. I don't know why the sword is here. The Sages never mentioned it. They put the device here in this room once I had left here four years ago, with the plan to shut all the locks again so the roof was not easily accessible. After the Hyrulean military brought people here, I couldn't blame them." He frowned. "Of course, they put it somewhere that's difficult to get to. I certainly hope they believed I can get to it."
"No problem. I can turn into shadows and shoot past all of these ropes." Midna floated up a few feet and put her hands on her hips, examining the ropes and talismans that sealed the evil sword. "Heck, I could probably fly through them normally. The space between the ropes near the edges of the room is big enough."
"I'm afraid that won't help much, unless you can read this." He held up his book for her to read, and pointed to something on the page.
She looked at it curiously, and that curiosity shifted to confusion, and then frustration. "I have no idea what that even is. I don't recognize the writing."
"It's ancient Shiekah, the same language I used to turn the flames on in this room." the scholar told her. "I'm afraid this writing existed thousands of years before your ancestors were sent to the Shadow Realm, and you won't recognize the words."
"Not a problem, just tell me what it says and I'll memorize it." She was still trying to make sense of the characters, or perhaps was looking at other things written on the page of the book Auru held.
"I shouldn't do that. If I speak these words before the mechanical key is in its lock, the place that holds the device will trigger a failsafe and it will be sealed in a way that we can't get through. Only a Sheikah or a member of the royal family will be able to get to it, then." He sighed, shutting the book and putting it back into its pouch. "The Sages put the device in here because this was its original storage room, but at some point that evil sword was brought here, and it probably was here when I first came to this place twenty-five years ago. The Sages can teleport and get past it easily, but I can't. It looks like I need to go through the ropes. We certainly should not cut them."
"Wow, what a pain." Midna shrugged. "All right, then I guess we wait here."
Auru took a deep breath, and let out another sigh. He did not look thrilled about the situation. "Let's get this over with."
The path that the older man decided to take was along the floor, where the way was more direct and had fewer ropes for him to step over. At first it seemed to be not too difficult, but then he had to get down on his hands and knees to attempt to get through the tangle of ropes and talismans. After approaching a particular low rope, he had to get down on his stomach and wriggle along.
However, Auru was not a small man. He was tall with broad shoulders, and still had a strong build despite being nearly sixty. While he managed to slide under the rope without touching it, something from his belt snagged on a talisman, and there was a tearing sound as it tugged the rope it was attached to and then ripped. The man froze, not looking back at what had just happened, and let out a delayed "Oh, no."
The blade in the center of the room lit up with red runes and began to tremble, jerking this way and that as it began to snap the ropes that had bound it, with Auru still on his stomach beneath it. Auren held out her hand towards him. "Father! Hurry and get back here!"
The man clambered to his feet, snapping a few ropes in the process, and ran back to where they were waiting near the door. There was a flash of light and a tone almost like a bell, and the Master Sword blazed with light in the presence of something truly evil. Link stepped forward between the black blade and the others, prepared to protect them against a sword, of all things.
The remaining ropes burst into flames and burned to ash within seconds, and as they did so something began to form behind the sword. It was large and in dark robes, had a pair of curling horns jutting from the sides of its head, and it was transparent like the other spirits in this dark place. One of its thin hands reached out and wrapped around the hilt of the curved sword to grip the hilt, and lifted it easily as if it weighed nothing. The creature raised its elongated face, which was covered by a black veil, and it looked around the room carefully as if it could see through the cloth.
Once its eyes fixed on the group near the door, a pair of eyes burned violet behind the dark veil, and it pointed a withered, transparent hand at Link. It uttered a single word in a forgotten language, and abruptly rushed at him with its massive sword.
