The large skeletal spirit moved quickly as it charged at Link, and it brought its heavy black sword down on him with equal speed, screeching in a hollow voice. Link was not wearing his shield, and he had to parry the blow from the rushing creature's sword with his own. The strength of the robed spirit was incredible, and it sent him stumbling back, sending vibrating pain up his arms. He gritted his teeth and re-assumed his stance, holding the Master Sword ready in two hands in front of him.

"Get out of the room!" he shouted at the others. Right now the ghost was focused on him, but he didn't know how long that would last. While he and Midna may be fast enough to avoid its attacks, he had his doubts about Auru and Auren. Not only that, but he knew that he and Midna were probably the only one who could see this thing, just like the other ghosts. "Go! I know you can't see it!" he continued, seeing the group still standing there dumbly while watching him deflect another attack.

"How did you know that?" Auren asked, pulling out her bow. Like a bow was going to do anything here, but he couldn't blame her for drawing her only weapon.

He did not answer her question, busy hopping to the side to avoid the large sword. "Midna, get them out of here! Go protect them!" Even though he never took his eyes off the large ghost, he could see her ushering the others out the door with his peripheral vision. Good. Now he only had to worry about himself.

The other spirits that they had encountered hadn't put up too much of a fight other than to swing their lanterns at him, but this thing was different. It had a certain agility and grace to it even though it wielded a massive weapon, and since it relied on agility it was more of a match for Link. Its purple eyes glowed through the dark cloth covering its long face, which had some kind of snout. Whatever it was while alive, it was not human.

The specter rushed at him again, bringing its sword down in a vertical swing, still focused on Link while Midna ushered the others out of the room. He had no choice but to block the blow with the Master Sword, catching the black blade near the gemmed hilt of the legendary weapon. It was truly a block and not a parry; he stood there and grunted as he fought against the unbelievable strength of the ghost, the monster pushing down its sword with two hands. It whispered something and gave a dry laugh, which it stopped doing suddenly as the dark sword began to smoke from where it came in contact with the Master Sword.

Even then, he was slowly losing this shoving match, and knew that he could not rely on his own strength alone. This time he actively used Courage, the triangles flaring golden on the back of his glove, and with one step forward and a shove, he pushed the monster back and sent it flying halfway across the room. Good, he was able to do that on command. When he used it earlier, it simply happened.

The spirit staggered, making a startled sound in an echoing man's voice. It pointed at him as it had initially done, and said something in its language, the only word of which he could understand was "Triforce". He got the general idea, but some of what the monster said was with the tones of insult, and he wondered what kinds of insults a horned undead monster would use.

You do not wish to know. It is vulgar.

The monster said something else in response to the faint flicker of light on the blade of the Master Sword as it spoke, and it howled and attacked again with a quick flurry of slashes. Link still hadn't managed to get his shield out, and wished he had used that brief moment to do so. He had to resort to side-steps and parries, and then another block as his blade caught the cursed sword's downward swing. The two swords ground together, and the dark blade began to smoke from where it was caught as Link and the monster shoved each other back and forth. The sacred sword flared with a burst of light, and the black weapon turned red-hot where it came in contact with it.

Shielding its eyes from the light, the ghost was pushed back again. It flipped up the veil on its face to trail it down the back of its head, revealing what appeared to be a ram's head with sharp canine teeth, its purple-tinged skin stretched tightly over its skull just as it had been for its hands. This was not the spirit of a human at all, and was something far more sinister. Instead of speaking, it opened its mouth to shriek in anger at the man with the holy sword, and shot into the air and up near the domed ceiling. It began to circle the room, slowly the first time but then swiftly the multiple times after that.

Link turned his head and body to try to keep facing the monster, but it could move far faster than he could. He managed to dodge one swoop that he saw coming at the edge of his vision, but did not see the one that clanged against the shield on his back and sent it flying. He turned to watch the heavy shield land a few feet away from him, and reacting to that distraction was a mistake. Another attack happened that he did not see, and he was hit full in the back with the flat of the heavy black sword. It knocked the wind out of his lungs and sent him sprawling on the floor.

"Move left!" Auren called from the doorway, her eyes on the sword. They were still watching him fight, even though they couldn't help him. As he rolled to left and avoided another blow from the ghost, he wished that Auren could see it. There was no way he could reach the damn thing with his sword while it was up near the ceiling, but she would be able to hit it with her magical fire arrows.

He then remembered the gift given to him by Ralis, and that a few of the enchanted electric arrows were currently in his quiver. Rolling again to avoid another attack, he kicked his legs, flipped up to his feet, quickly sheathed the Master Sword and immediately pulled out his bow. The thing above stopped circling for a moment to laugh and say something, probably commenting on how the foolish human had put away his holy sword while fighting something evil.

The time it stopped to speak gave him the time he needed. It wasn't hard for him to find the arrows by feel alone, since the shafts for the electric arrows were narrower and had longer fletching on them. He pulled one out and set it, waiting for what he knew would come. The spirit said something else and swooped down towards him, not realizing that the arrows that Link planned to use were not of the ordinary kind.

He drew and quickly fired as the monster came at him, the arrow crackling with blue-white electricity as soon as he loosed it. The arrow itself flew through the evil spirit, but the magic spell it was enchanted with did not. Electricity enveloped the creature and prevented it from swinging its sword, and it shuddered and dropped its sword with a clatter, falling to the floor to land on its hands and knees.

Link quickly put the bow in his right hand and drew the Master Sword, and with a forward lunge swung the sword with a backhand and decapitated the ghost while it was vulnerable. There was a brief moment where white holy flames spluttered on its neck and severed head, but then they stopped. The creature stood, then carefully stooped and picked up its severed head, placing it back on its neck. The purple flesh melded together and healed within seconds, and it tapped at where it had been decapitated with one bony finger, laughing while saying something in its language.

Well, that was unexpected.

He dodged a horizontal swing with a backflip, putting some space between himself and...whatever this thing was. It was not an ordinary ghost. Sword, what the heck is this thing?

It is a lich, a sorcerer that has gained immense power through undeath. Can you see what is within it, Master Link? Please use your spell of truth to see what I am referring to.

Wasn't he using that already in order to see this thing? Maybe not, or maybe only a lesser version of the spell. He focused as he watched the lich circle the ceiling, and saw an ornate stone box about the size of his fist in the creature's chest, where its heart would have been. Is that its weak point?

Affirmative. That is its Phlyactery, the source of its power that prevents it from truly dying. The sword suddenly chimed in warning. Beware!

This time when the creature came at him from behind, he rolled to the left. Its black sword screeched against the ancient stone floor, sending up sparks from the trail it traced. He sheathed his sword again, and the thing bellowed in rage at him, infuriated that he kept putting away and taking out the sacred sword that it clearly hated. From its viewpoint, it probably thought he was taunting it.

It unwisely once again gave him the few seconds he needed to pull out his bow and another electric arrow, the creature wasting time by screaming in fury. The lich barreled towards him from where it hovered near the floor, and he fired another arrow, this time in its face at point-blank range. It then moved through him, its ghostly form able to pass right through his flesh and bone as easily as any other solid substance.

The first thing he felt was a terrible, chilling sensation that went all the way down to his bones. The second thing he felt was the jolt of crackling electricity that had enveloped the lich and was passed on to Link second-hand. The latter was dulled by the former, the electric spell dampened a bit by the unearthly cold that permeated his body. It still made his chest hurt.

Then it was past him, groaning as it fell to its knees and propped itself up with its massive sword. He wasted no time and switched the bow to his right hand again so he could draw his sword. He focused again and the Phylactery was visible once more, and he thrust the Master Sword through the creature's back and into stone box. The sacred weapon flared with blue-white light, and the box burst into holy flames. The lich screamed in agony and clawed at its chest, and then shuddered as it arched its back to raise its face with a final howl. It did not burst into flames like the other ghosts had, but dissolved into a mass of buzzing black flies that flew up towards the domed ceiling, turning into wisps of black smoke as they went. The dark sword disappeared in the exact same way, leaving no trace of the evil monster that had been sealed in the room.

Link relaxed, feeling tired after that fight. He used his magic for both the "spell of truth" as the Master Sword had called it, but also used Courage to make his body stronger than normal. He still had to generate that force somehow, so it felt like he had used extra energy to become extra strong.

Affirmative. This appears to be how Courage enhances your abilities. It takes not only magical energy, but physical as well. It is fascinating to see how the fragment of Farore's power may be used.

Fascinating? That's not how he would have phrased it, but it certainly was useful. He sheathed the sword and winced a bit as he reached over his shoulder. The spot where he got thumped on the back by the side of the massive black sword hurt. This time he doubted anything was broken, but it was still going to be sore for a while.

"Is it dead?" Auren asked, still standing in the doorway. "The sword disappeared, so I'm going to guess that whatever was holding it is gone too."

"It's really dead this time. You can come in." He stooped to pick up his shield, grimacing a bit as he did so.

"That whack on the back really hurt, didn't it?" Midna asked, coming over to place a small hand on his shoulder.

"Nothing's broken. Trust me, I know what that feels like now." He hung the shield back up on his baldric. "I'll bet I'm going to be black and blue tomorrow, though."

The Twili frowned and watched him as he shouldered his bow a bit more slowly than usual. "Are you going to be okay to go through the Mirror later? While I know of safe places we can go in the Twilight Realm to rest, it's possible that some of Zant's allies are still around and you'll have some fighting to do."

"I'm sure I'll be fine until we can find someplace to hole up." Link turned to Auru, who came into the circular chamber. "Now that our little obstacle is gone, you can get that device."

"Indeed, although I must apologize for breaking the seal and forcing you to fight whatever that was. You're injured because of me." The old man looked not just apologetic, but guilty.

"I'm a little banged up because I protected you, just like I promised your wife I would, and just like I would have wanted to do even if she hadn't asked. To your credit, you really tried to get through all those ropes. I don't think that we could have gotten through the room without breaking the seal on the lich, so don't worry about it." He expected to get hurt sometimes, after all. Not that he didn't try to avoid it, but it was inevitable.

"A lich?" Auru raised a brow in surprise, and then gave a small laugh. "No, I shouldn't question what you're able to do, not after watching you fight after the past two days. If you'll follow me, the thing we're looking for is over here."

The scholar led them to the back side of the room to a shallow alcove along the back well. Within that alcove was a few gears partially visible beneath the stone surface of the wall, and not much else. Auru set down his lantern and dug around in his various pockets and pouches, muttering to himself about possibly misplacing something before finally pulling out what he was looking for. "Ah! Here it is." Calling it a "key" was only partially accurate, since it looked very little like one. It was similar to the key the Goron Elders had given him, complete with something that looked like a gear on the end of it, only this was made of an unidentifiable kind of stone instead of metal. At least it looked like stone.

Auru put the mechanical key in its mechanical lock and carefully spoke a series of words. The small key lit up with veins of light blue light, and the gears within the wall began to whir. The lower half of the alcove slid out with a faint scraping sound, revealing what was essentially a stone storage drawer. What looked like a large stone gear sat in a round recess in that drawer, lit from beneath by pale blue light. The blue was almost exactly the same as that of the Sheikah flame.

"It's a gear?" Link asked, confused. There was more to the thing, but the fact that it had a gear on top didn't make much sense...not unless this thing was like a larger version of the key that Auru had just used. Except this seemed to be more than that, and had two rectangular metal plates on top of it.

"Not exactly. It has gears, since it is in fact a complex machine. I suspect ancient Sheikah magic is involved, but I know very little about that subject. All I know is that like most ancient Sheikah devices, it still works." The scholar put his hands on either side of the object and lifted it out with a grunt, revealing that it wasn't simply a gear, but a cone-shaped device that had two more layers of interlocking gears along its circumference, situated between the flat top and its bluntly-pointed metallic tip. All told it was about three feet wide, and a foot and a half tall.

"This is…" Auru grunted as he lifted the device and set it point-down on the floor. Blue lights gently glowed on its underside, originating from the gaps between the interlocking gears, and it balanced perfectly on its tapered end. "...uh, I don't know what it's called. Neither do the Sages, not even the oldest among them. We've been referring to it as the 'spinner' for want of a better name."

"Let me guess, it spins?" Midna asked mildly. "It certainly is an interesting…thing."

"It's just like that key you just used, isn't it?" Link had suspected that before, but now seeing the layers of gears he figured that they locked in place with gears elsewhere. This thing probably nested in places just like the recess it had been housed in. "Except it opens much larger locks."

Auru gave a satisfied smile and pointed at him. "Yes! Very astute, Link. This device is meant to be ridden into recesses found in specific places within this ruin, and is used to open the way to other areas. There were two of those recesses in the very first room we entered that lead to levels even lower than this one, but what we're after isn't down, it's up."

"Oh, so that's what this is…" Auren said, understanding what she was looking at. "Mother told me that you two took turns using this thing when you were both in here a few years before I was born."

"Yes, and I was in my mid-thirties at that point, so it was far easier for me to carry it around and use it." He clapped his hands on both of Link's shoulders. "That duty falls to you, young man. I may have Auren use it here and there much like I had her mother do for me, but you will be doing most of the leg work."

"Leg work...which means I have to tote this stone thingamabobber around, great. How heavy is it?" He bent his legs to pick it up, and grunted in effort as he lifted it from the floor. "Gods...this thing has to weigh nearly as much as I do. You carried this around?"

Auru smiled. "We took turns, yes. Figuring out how to carry it is the easy part; learning how to actually use it is a different matter. Put it back down." he instructed, and watched as Link lowered it back to the floor. "When I spoke of 'leg work', I wasn't only talking about walking around while holding it. I mean that you will need your leg strength to operate it." He reached down and tapped one of the brass-looking metal plates that sat on the top of the device, which were spaced about a foot apart. They had high lips along the edges, and were likely related to the fine web of thin gold lines along the dark stone surface of the spinner. "You place your feet on these. Push them apart parallel to your hips, and you make it move forward. Push them apart multiple times, you move faster. Think of it like pumping water; the more you move, the more it moves."

It was a strange device, but it made sense, in a way. "Huh, so it takes the energy spent by moving your feet and translates that into forward momentum. Cool." Link said.

The old man laughed. "That is a very good way to describe transferring kinetic energy from one object to another. I may make a scholar out of you one day, my boy. All right, get on. Let's show you how to use it."

The device sounded simple enough in description, but it took some practice for him to drive it properly. That was the only way he could think of it: driving. Only he wasn't driving a cart pulled by animals, he was driving something that relied on his own movement. The very first thing he did was slam into a wall, which didn't damage the device, but was not pleasant for him. After a minute he figured out how to steer, by moving a foot forward in whichever direction he wanted to go. Braking meant pulling his feet together, and making the gears quickly flare out and spin rapidly meant pushing his feet apart quickly.

"Why would I need that? Is that how I actually turn the gears when it's in one of the locks?" he asked, gliding across the room with far more grace than he had only a few minutes ago.

Auru stood near the wall with his hands on his hips, watching him ride the spinner around along with with Midna and Auren. "Yes, but it's also so you may jump. Not jump in place, but jump tracks. The gear teeth on the outside connect to rail systems in this place, and sometimes you must ride them. If you need to launch yourself off of them for any reason, you make the spinner 'jump'. It will send you flying horizontally, and the harder you push, the farther you will go. There is a particular spot where you must do this to reach one of the lock slots." He smiled. "And that is the part I will not have my daughter do. She's afraid of heights."

"You didn't have to tell him that." Auren said a bit sourly. "I've been working hard to make him think I'm an amazing person, and now you're tearing down all my hard work with that one statement."

Her father laughed at the joke and patted her on the back. "You certainly are amazing, and I doubt Link's image of you is tarnished."

"Oh no, that's it. She can't be my friend anymore. I'm done." Link said as he traced a figure eight on the stone floor of the room with the spinner. Even though there were dozens of metal rings set into the floor, they didn't slow the spinner down at all. It was a very curious device that had no good explanation for how it worked. Perhaps it was part device, part magic.

Auru smiled in response to that while his daughter gave a little laugh. "I think your turn is done, Link. It's her turn to learn."

It took the Gerudo about the same amount of time to figure out how to control the spinner, and she actually had problems with making it move too quickly. Her long, strong legs provided more than enough energy to send the device zipping forward. She quickly adjusted and before long was doing circuits around the room.

"Good!" her father said approvingly. "Now comes the hard part. Make it stop so Link can carry it."

"He doesn't have to carry it." Midna suggested as she watched the woman slow the spinner to a halt. "He said it weighs almost as much as him, and I've carried him around a few times. Instead of tiring Mr. Hero out, why don't I carry it around until we need it?"

"Please." Link said, preferring Midna's idea. "If I have to carry it, I'm going to be exhausted by the time I get to the Mirror of Twilight."

"You would be, trust me." Auru said with a bit of an ironic smile. "I was worn out, and I hadn't spent my time fighting to get down here like you have. Neither one of us has the strength of a Gerudo, either. Hida had a far easier time carrying it."

"Then why ask Link to carry it when I'm probably stronger?" Auren asked, watching as Midna formed the giant hand out of her long orange hair and picked up the spinner like a child picking up their toy top. The Gerudo shot her father a sullen look. "You're not babying me again, are you?"

"Maybe a little. You aren't as strong as your mother was, you know." He began to lead the way out of the room, carrying his lantern. "Follow me."

Auren huffed a frustrated breath and followed. The more that he saw her interact with her parents, the more he realized that Hida and Auren still saw the archer as their little girl and not a capable warrior. No, not just a warrior; they still did not want to view her as an adult. If they only had one child, it may have been hard for them to accept that she grew up. Or not. Link wasn't a parent so he couldn't make a comparison.

The climb back to the main floor was far easier with Midna carrying the spinner than it otherwise would have been. He couldn't imagine carrying something nearly his weight up two flights of stairs, and then to wherever else they needed to go with the device. It was bad enough that pumping the thing with his legs was tiring.

Auru brought them back out into the main room, which was still lit by blue flames. On either side of the large stairway leading up, there were two slots for the spinner next to the wall. He guessed that most likely the wall moved out of the way to reveal a door, and when he focused on them he could see the hidden doorway behind said wall. His vision blurred then, and he felt a dull pain in his head. What was that?

You have used too much magic today, Master Link. It appears that you have not fully recovered from using me and the Triforce of Courage yesterday. While you do have large magical reserves, you are not yet skilled enough to moderate your magic usage, and have drained most of them. I would refrain from using any more unless absolutely necessary.

Link had no idea that being low on magical power would give him a headache; he had assumed that it would only make him tired, much like using too much physical energy. He relaxed to stop the spell, and the walls looked ordinary again. Then they were climbing the stairs past them, and he couldn't see them anymore anyway.

They stopped in front of the curved wall that was beyond the top of the stairs, and just past a round recess set into the floor. The round hole tapered to become narrower the deeper it went, and there were a few gear teeth visible in the brown stone along the sides. It was quite obviously designed for the spinner.

"I put this thing in that hole, right?" Midna asked, still holding the ancient device with her prehensile hair.

"Yes. Then one of you two need to stand on it and push it a bunch, like you're trying to propel yourself forward." Auru instructed. "You decide. Just know that past here is something that Auren will most likely not want to do." He reached out and put a hand on Link's shoulder with a smile. "I hope that you have no problems with heights, because you need to do it either way."

"I went over the Great Bridge of Hylia without any problems, so I should be fine." Link said, watching as Midna deposited the spinner in its receptacle. The device whirred and spun itself around in the circular slot until the two metal foot plates were positioned so the operator would be facing the wall while using it. He had no idea how many slots he had to do like this one, but he ought to do the ones on the way to the mirror. "I'll get the slots going up. Auren will probably have to do some on the way back down, right?"

"That's correct, although it will be fewer. She will also have to carry it." The scholar gave a mild smile at his daughter, looking a bit amused with his own self. "That was my real reason I suggested he carry it up; you'll be carrying it back down once the two of them go through the Mirror of Twilight. You are not as strong as your mother, but you're certainly stronger than I am, even when I was in my prime. I wasn't babying you—at the moment."

The Gerudo sighed and crossed her arms. "Father...can you please not pull that kind of joke with me? You know I find it annoying."

"No." Auru said with a completely straight face.

"Auru, no offense but you're an enormous smartass." Link said, stepping up onto the spinner.

"After spending some time with you, I believe you also fall under that category." the old man said to him. It was an admission, but he was dragging somebody else down with him.

"Guilty." the young Hylian said, without adding what he was thinking: At least I stop when people aren't laughing anymore. Auru's, and by extension Hida's sense of humor was a bit on the rough side and bordered on bullying. Even so they were his elders, so he wasn't going to disrespect them if they didn't do it out of malice. Besides, he was about to be busy pushing his feet on the spinner to get it going; he wasn't about to nag when he was doing something that may get him out of breath.

While he had used his legs while fighting, he hadn't been doing that much running. The little bit he had driven the spinner around the room downstairs hadn't stressed his legs, but that was when he was simply riding on the thing. Pushing while it was slotted and connected to a mechanism was a completely different matter. Auru was correct in saying that it was like using a pump to get water, and that the more motion made things move easier, but starting that motion required some leg strength.

As it slowly began to turn the gears and inner workings of machinery hidden within the floor and walls, the resistance on the spinner lessened, and a rhythmic clacking sound began. Then the wall before them shifted and began to retract to the left, not grinding stone-on-stone, but with the loud metallic rolling sound of many wheels on tracks. As the wall went to the left, he could see there was a second one past it that moved to the right. The two sections of wall revealed a circular room beyond that began to glow with Sheikah flame as the walls moved. Sconces following a pattern went up towards what was a high ceiling, and a few were on the sides of a tall stone pillar situated in the center of the room. It wasn't just a room; it was a tower.

Then suddenly, there was a loud shuddering clunk and the foot plates on the spinner wouldn't move anymore, as the walls had finished moving. Link stepped off of the device, hoping that there were only a few of these mechanisms he had to move. Pushing hard enough to make the building move its walls had make him feel the effort in his thighs, and he wanted to put off being sore until tomorrow morning.

"That was really cool!" Auren exclaimed, having watched the process with an excited grin.

"What would really be 'cool' is if we could go through the doorway that's on the other side of that pillar and take the stairs to the roof." Auru said, beginning to cross the room towards the right side. "Unfortunately, when we came here four years ago, we discovered that sections had crumbled." The older man frowned and crossed his arms, looking down at a metal track. It appeared to follow the sconces up the tower. "That's why we had to take a different route. The roof of this place where the Sages reside is still accessible if we go up these stairs, and through the largest prison cell of this place."

"What stairs?" Midna asked, picking up the spinner with her hair.

"The ones that Link must activate, of course. They're currently retracted into the wall." He gave his daughter a small smile. "Do you see that metal track that goes all the way up? He must ride the spinner up there. Not only that, but he must make it jump to the center pillar, since the walkway at the top has also crumbled. I believe you can now see why I'm having him do it, not you."

The Gerudo's orange eyes followed the rail up, and she clutched her hands in front of herself. "Um. Father? I still need to climb these stairs?"

"You'll be fine." the older man soothingly, as if he was speaking to a child and not a woman in her twenties. "You sit at the top of the canyon walls while on guard with no problems."

"The top of the canyon wall is still the ground. You're asking me to climb mechanical stone stairs that are thousands of years old." she said nervously, still holding her hands together in front of her. Poor Auren. He had seen her afraid of her own death in the burning stable, he had seen her frozen in fear from the shrieks of the undead, and now she had to endure her phobia. She had even apologized for being afraid of things before, so the Gerudo likely saw it as a weakness.

No, it was only a weakness if it prevented them from doing what was important. Link stepped up next to her, trying not to think about the twinge of nerves he felt about the ride he needed to take in a minute. "Hey." he said, looking at her from the side. When she didn't respond to him, he stepped in front of her. "Auren, you've made it this far. After going through all those undead, climbing some stairs is nothing."

"Easy enough for you to say." the Gerudo muttered, looking right over the top of his head and at the rail track. It was difficult to step into somebody's line of sight when they were ten inches taller than you. "You're special and can get over your fears, because your gods gave you the power to do anything."

He did his best not to be angry about that comment. "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that, because you're upset right now." It was an insulting thing to say, but she probably didn't realize it. She knew how difficult things had been for him, and now was being a little irrational now that she had to face one of the fears she was familiar with. He reached out and took one of her hands, and she finally looked down at him. "Listen, I don't know what I can say that will help. It's obvious I deal with fear differently than you. What I can say is you owe me and Midna a date. A double-date, remember?" He gave her a small smile that started as a smirk, but then turned into something more genuine. "Tea and a chat. Don't leave us hanging."

That seemed to cut through her anxiety, and she gave a small laugh. "That's right, we can't forget about that. I suppose I'll have to get you to the Mirror, so you can take care of things and then get back here." Auren took her other hand and put it over his, patting it lightly. "Don't worry, I won't cancel and break your heart."

Midna watched this exchange with a smile, still holding the spinner with her odd orange hair. "If that's settled, where do I set this down? There isn't a slot, just this rail."

"Anywhere over here is fine." Auru said, gesturing vaguely at the stone floor around him. Once the Twili had deposited the device on the floor, the old man turned to the other Hylian. "Link, what you'll want to do is approach this track while riding right next to the wall. The gear teeth should connect, and you'll begin to ride it up. It will maintain momentum while on the track." He pointed up towards the top of the pillar, where there were the remains of a crumbled stone bridge. "Your goal is to be above the top of that pillar in the middle, and make the device jump down to it. Aim for the slot and it should catch you. I do not recommend missing."

Link looked up at the top of the pillar, which looked like it was about three floors up, and perhaps one floor below the lit alcove near the ceiling that was presumably a hall. It was a long way down if he screwed things up in any way. He made a small, worried sound as his eyes followed the track near the top. "Great. I'll keep that in mind."

"I'll stay with you." Midna offered, or perhaps it was a statement. She was being fairly protective of him ever since they came to the desert. "Got your back, remember? I'll make sure you won't fall." She thoughtfully put a small hand to her chin. "I think the spinner's too big for me to easily carry you and it with my hair alone, but I can probably bring both of you up, if you don't mind floating."

An image of him helplessly floating upside-down while thirty feet in the air came unbidden to his mind, and he shivered and dismissed the idea immediately. "No, that won't be necessary. If Auru did this, I can do it." He stepped onto the ancient device, which was balanced neatly on its narrow tip. "Sticking with me so you can catch me if I fall will be more than enough. Let's go."

He pushed on the metal plates and the spinner started moving, slowly at first and then gradually picking up speed as he drove it around the group in wide circles. When he had it at what he felt was an appropriate speed, he skirted the wall and the teeth of the gears connected to the metal rail with a clacking sound. The metal track brought him up the wall in a slow spiral, and he did his best to not look down as he ascended. He caught a glimpse of Auren watching him worriedly, but then she was out of view as he discovered something annoying about riding the spinner on a rail. The spinner's platform did not stay stationary as he rode the track, and he slowly rotated in the opposite direction the outer gear was turning. It made no sense to him either, since the speed that he slowly spun to the left was contrary to the speed that the gears rotated as they connected to the rail. He had to keep turning his head to focus on where he was going.

Midna followed him up, gliding through the air next to him and giggling at the fact that he was slowly spinning himself. He shot her a sour look, but didn't have the time to complain since the point he estimated would be the best spot to jump was coming up. When he got about one-quarter of the way around the room past where the ruined stone bridge was, he braced his nerves and pushed out with his feet to make the spinner's gears flare.

The device flew off the track in a shallow arc, dropping about as quickly as he anticipated. What he hadn't anticipated was how far the spinner's jump would carry him horizontally, and he went right over the center of the pillar and the slot that he was supposed to aim for. Link let out a startled, wordless yell as he approached the edge of the pillar, but then Midna's hair was there in the form of a giant orange hand. He collided with it and the large orange fingers gently wrapped around him, bringing him to a halt near the edge of the pillar. It was a rather soft landing, since the giant prehensile appendage felt like normal human hair even though it was truly a piece of the Fused Shadows.

She gently pushed him towards the slot, and when the spinner fell into the recess she used her hair to gently pat him on the head. "See? I told you."

He let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks." Now that the spinner was in its slot, he began to push on the metal plates with a grunt, this one taking more effort than the previous one. "You know...I think I'm starting to hate the spinner." he said as a grinding sound began from all around them. It wasn't the terrible grinding of stone on stone, but more like machinery all along the wall coming to life after years of not being used. The rail proved to be on the side of the stairs themselves as they slowly slid out of the wall, a means to ride up instead of walking up. All things considered, taking the spinner probably took less energy than walking up four flights of stairs.

Another thing happened as well; a circular metal framework descended from the shadows of the ceiling above to settle along the edge of the pillar, and surround him and Midna in a cage of metal. It wasn't a trap, but a means to ride the spinner up a metal track in that framework that led directly to the hallway at the top. The only problem was getting the device out of its slot with both him and Midna inside the metal frame. It wasn't as if he had a lot of room.

"Hey, Auru?" Link called from within the frame. "Is there a way to get the spinner out of the slot without picking it up?"

The scholar was slowly ascending the stairs, holding his daughter's hand as she timidly walked next to him. She was in between her father and the wall, but even though she wasn't near the edge, she was clearly nervous. Auru turned his head and looked up as he made his way up. "Pull the two plates together and then push them apart quickly as if you were jumping."

Doing so was simple enough, and the device hopped out of the slot and forward. The frame surrounding him had a second purpose then, to prevent the spinner's rider from jumping it out of the slot and off the edge of the pillar. He wouldn't have been able to stop in time if it wasn't there, and since there was a rail on the frame, the spinner connected with it and began to ride it up. The tight circles going around the track made him dizzy, but he was at the top quickly enough, the track simply ending and depositing him on the stones of the hallway.

He braked the device and stepped off of it, his legs feeling a bit rubbery. It didn't seem like it was going to be too much work when Auru described what he would have to do, but actually powering the ancient machinery with his own physical strength was beginning to get tiring. He decided to use the opportunity to sit down and rest while he waited for the other two to reach the top.

The climb was slow for the scholar and his daughter, due to both his middle-aged body and her phobia. Auru was winded as he reached the top, and he let go of Auren's so she could scramble up the last few stairs to safety. The near-frantic Gerudo hurried past Link and the spinner, and collapsed to the floor next to the wall, sinking her head into her hands. She was visibly trembling.

"This place sucks." she said unevenly, sounding like she was on the verge of tears. At the sound of her voice, Link rose and came to stand next to her. He was tired, but he could relate to how she was feeling right now. Not only that, but even as worn out as he was, the sound of somebody in tears tugged at his heartstrings.

Midna came and hovered in front of Auren and reached out to gently pat her hair. "Nobody's denying that. I'll see if I can teleport you and Auru back down once we get to the top. No promises, since the Mirror of Twilight distorts the ley formations in this area. I'll do what I can for you."

"Thanks for coming along even if everything here is lousy." Link said, sitting back down next to the Gerudo. "You're hanging in there."

"My mother wouldn't be a wreck like this." Auren said miserably, cupping her long-fingered hands around her face. "She's been in here twice already, and even was attacked by ghosts when only Shad could see them. What have I done while here?"

"It's all right." her father said from where he was seated nearby, still catching his breath. "Neither you or I have been able to do much other than help Link and Midna, but that was what we expected. This isn't like the battle outside the city, my dear."

"You're still the guide, father." She rubbed at her nose, sniffling. Now that he could see her face, she looked angry. She wasn't angry at her father, but at her own self. "I'm a do-nothing warrior along for the ride, just a placeholder for the Chief that should be here."

"Don't talk yourself down like that. You warned me when the sword was about to come down on my back, even though you couldn't see the monster holding it." He attempted to put an arm around her shoulders, but she was far taller than he was, even when seated. He settled for her waist and hoped it didn't seem to personal. "Don't think you're useless. The two people I wanted to come with me are here. Don't tell your mother, but I'd rather have you along."

Her anger deflated a bit. "Thanks, Link. I know I'm whining a bit, but...you understand, right? Especially since you've gotten me out of trouble a few times before. I said I want to stay in your shadow when you fight, but sometimes I feel like nothing more than that shadow itself." She gave a small, humorless laugh. "I'm here to give you support in this broken old jail, and here you are trying to cheer me up, even though I can see that you're tired."

"He's like that. Link hugs people." Midna put her small hand beneath Auren's chin and tilted her head up to face her. "You're not getting in our way, if that's what you're thinking. I want you here, too. I haven't made very many friends in the light world, so I really value your company. I want the last thing I see when I go through the Mirror of Twilight is your face. I want my new friend to be there to see me off."

"Midna…" Auren sighed and muttered something in Gerudo, and put her arms around the two of them, pulling them closer to her. "You two are going to make me sad when you leave, even though I know you'll be back in a few days."

"I'm offended that I don't get a hug too." Auru said from where he sat.

"You'll get over it." the Gerudo said, releasing her two new friends.

"Now that everyone's all right, can I ask what's in the next room? It's lit up pretty well." Link asked, getting to his feet. "It looks big, too."

"It is. It's another prison cell, like I said. What was imprisoned there is long dead, and no threat to us. We passed through there four years ago with no problems." The older Hylian slowly got to his feet. "I suppose I've rested enough. Midna, will you please take the spinner again? There is another slot that must be activated."

"Oh, goodie." Link said, watching as Midna grabbed the device with her prehensile hair. "Here's hoping it's easier to turn than the last one."

"It should be, provided it doesn't have sand stuck in the mechanism again. It gave Hida a bit of trouble last time." Auru said as he led them into the large room beyond.

Once he had entered the large circular room, Link could understand why Auru had mentioned sand getting into the machinery. There were tall narrow windows along the top edge of the room, and heaps of sand had piled up around the room, blown in by the frequent sandstorms of the desert. The room was lit by blue flame, the only source of light since the moon outside was too high to shed light into the room. Not only had sand piled up around the wide stone walkway that circled the room, but it had settled into the center of the room, filling what appeared to be an empty space below the circular walkway next to the walls.

There was another walkway straight ahead of the door that led to what was likely another pillar with a spinner slot in it, situated in the dead center of the room once more, but this time it was far wider. The top of the pillar—or perhaps, the platform—was wide enough for all of them to stand on it, and was lit by a pair of blue flame braziers. Just past the round stone platform was something very large and very dead, half-submerged in the sand.

It was a dragon, or at least it used to be. Now it was little more than a skeleton, with tatters of dried flesh and scaled skin still attached to its spine near the base of its skull. It lay on the sand not far from the platform with its forelegs rested at its sides, its neck extended, as if it had lay down in that spot and died. The rusted remains of chains lay next to it, fettering the creature to whatever was below the sand, the chains disappearing into it. The dragon was chained at the wrists and its neck, and perhaps somewhere else, but only its upper half was above the sand. Its long spine disappeared into the dun-colored sand, the rest of its body buried who knows how deep. By the look of things, the sand had began to fill the room while the creature was still alive, and it had eventually climbed to the top of the heap only to die on top of it.

Link took in the large horned skull, its curved fangs, the talons on its feet and shook his head. "I'm glad it's dead. I mean, actually dead and not undead. I don't want to ever fight a dragon, especially one of this size."

"Trust me, if it wasn't, we would have given up on the idea of bringing Shad to meet the Sages." Auru said. He pointed at what looked like a door on the other end of the room, which was about halfway up the concave stone wall. It was sealed shut. "That is the way out. When you use this slot, the entire floor of this room will raise up to the level of that doorway. Then the way will open up to outside, where the stairs are still intact."

"The door back down will be blocked, right? Does this slot move the floor back down?" Auren asked her father, watching as Midna moved to the central pillar to stick the device in its slot. "I'll be the one using it, if they're going through the Mirror tonight."

The scholar shook his head, walking across the stone bridge that connected the outer ring with the inner platform. "No, there is another one near the doorway. The system is designed so nobody can get stuck."

"If the ancient Shiekah and Gerudo were able to make a prison that can hold a big nasty dragon like this, they can design a fool-proof system." Link followed Auru as he talked, reaching the spinner. "I have to wonder if this room was why the whole thing was built." He stepped onto it, preparing to get the thing moving. With any luck, he would be done moving machines with this particular slot.

He suddenly heard a group of strange staccato notes, a different tune than the one he was familiar with. Someone dark was suddenly standing on the skull of the dead dragon, and when Link looked up he saw Zant perched there. The false king was holding a dark sword in his hand, its blade faintly glowing with aqua runes. Link drew his own sword in response, caught by surprise.

The helmet turned towards him. "I'm surprised you're still alive. That curse would have killed most people." the Twili made a vague gesture with his thin hand at Link, the tassels on his sleeve fluttering. "Amazing. No, not just amazing; impressive. No wonder some call you 'hero'."

"How dare you!" Midna cried, her tone furious. She angrily pointed a small finger at the other Twili. "You have no right to touch that sword, you bastard!"

"I'm a bastard now, am I? The Lady of Shadows ought to know that my bloodline is pure, and traces back as far as hers." There was that title again. Did that mean that Midna and Zant were equals before he killed the king? He laughed lightly as if he had just heard a pleasant joke, chortling at her fury as she spluttered, unable to formulate a response in her rage. "Oh, the look on your face! Beautiful. The sword may as well go to me instead of sitting packed away somewhere. It wasn't like he was using it anymore, anyway."

"Easy…" Auru said, placing a hand on Midna's shoulder. "Don't let him get to you. That's what he wants."

"You should listen to your elders, Midna. That includes your king, little Lady. You are a child in the presence of a man." The sorcerer in the helmet held up the sword to look at the softly glowing runes. "This blade belongs to me now, no arguments. Besides, I can find a far better use for it than its previous owner ever could." He reversed the sword in his grip, and plunged it into the skull of the dragon with both hands with a strength his thin form belied.

The dark sword's pale aqua runes turned bright purple, the same purple as the portals scattered across Hyrule, and the lines of color extended out of the blade and over the ivory bone of the dragon's cranium, flashing bright. There was a faint sound, or perhaps a faint tune that came from that skull, and the bones of the long-dead creature began to twitch. It slowly rose, snapping the chains that had bound it for millenia, Zant clinging to the sword as he rode the creature up. Two pinpoints of red light glowed in the empty eye sockets, and it righted itself to stand vertically above the sand. Auren pulled her father back to the wall, bow in her hand, her amber eyes unafraid as she assessed this new threat.

Zant peered down at them from where he stood on his high perch. "You managed to survive last time, and I admit my mistake and am willing to learn from it." He touched his robed chest with his long gray fingers. "A man of my intellect would naturally learn from his mistakes. I intend to remedy my previous mistake." He moved that thin hand to give a jovial wave at Link, who was still on the spinner, sword in hand. "This is the last time I'll see you alive. Goodbye." Then he was gone, vanishing in a flurry of black squares while the faint tune of his teleportation spell played itself out. Link knew that he was the only one hearing the faint songs of the spells, but now was not the time to talk about it.

The dragon lowered its head to look at the lone human standing on the spinner in front of it, and opened its fanged mouth to release a hollow, deep roar that shouldn't have been possible for it to make. Not waiting to see what would happen, Link made the spinner skip out of its slot and rode away from it as the massive skeleton made a swipe at him. Not thinking of where he was going, he went off the edge of the bridge between the two sections of floor and right towards the sand. The spinner glided easily over the sand as if it was solid, and in fact moved much faster than it had on the stone floor. Since he was no longer on the walkway, the teeth of the spinner's gears caught the edge of the outer ring, on a metal track that he hadn't noticed until he connected with it.

Link slowly began to make his way around the chamber, stuck riding on this track without a plan in mind. The bone dragon ignored him, instead trying to reach where the others were, thankfully doing so in vain. It pawed at the air ineffectively, its lower half still embedded in the sand. While Zant had intended for it to kill Link, it didn't seem to discriminate and attacked anything living.

"So now what?!" he shouted from where he rode the track. "Any ideas?!"

"He corrupted that sword!" Midna shouted back, still sounding angry. "He's using it and necromancy to power this pile of bones!"

"So what, pull the sword out?" he asked, now closer to them on his circuit around the room. He wasn't exactly sure how to stop without a proper end to the track, and he couldn't jump off the track towards the platform next to the dragon.

Auren drew her bow and fired an arrow, hitting the sword square in its hilt. All that managed to do was make the dragon swipe at the space between them. "Of course, I can't even shoot this thing. There's not a damn thing in this prison that I can shoot!" She was still frustrated, and Link couldn't blame her.

"Nice try, and I think you have the right idea." Midna told her. "Look at the runes. It's paired with the dragon now, and it won't come out easily."

"So then I figure out a way to get up there to destroy it. Easy!" Link called as he moved away from the group again.

From across the room, he could see the Twili shake her head. "No, you can't! That sword is an important relic of my people! It's important to me too!"

Master, if I may? The sword spoke politely in his mind. I believe if I come in contact with that sword, I can repel the evil that's corrupting it. Then it may be removed.

"The sword says that it can repel the evil that's controlling the dragon. All I need to do is hit it once." He was coming closer to them again. Having to alternate shouts with a normal tone of voice as he circled the room was really getting old. "One sword should be able to withstand a hit from another sword."

Midna hesitated, staring up at the dragon, which roared in frustration. "Do what you must!" she called from across the room, as he already had made it to the halfway point and was beginning to come towards her again. "Just…" she waited until he was close so he could see her anxious expression. "Just please, don't destroy it."

He nodded at her, and then he was past them again, continuing in this endless circle. Not only was he unsure of how to stop, he was also unsure of how he could reach the dark sword that was so high up. The dragon itself was nearly as tall as the chamber. His eyes scanned the skeleton, trying to think of a solution, and then they landed on the thick vertebrae of its spine. Sword? Can you use sacred flames on this thing? It's evil, right?

Affirmative. said the sword. It is a thing of evil and death, and you may use me in the same manner as you did on the other undead in this place. However… The sword paused for a moment before continuing. You have used much of my power in this place. While I am indeed the Sword of Evil's Bane, my own power is limited and can be depleted. I am strong, yet not as strong as I once was. It is entirely possible that once we defeat this dragon and finish our business in the Twilight Realm, you must either allow me to drain your own magical energy to recharge, or return me to the Pedestal of Time. I estimate that there is a forty-two percent chance that I will lose most of my power once I repel the evil of the sword.

He didn't like those odds. It was a coin toss on whether the Master Sword retained its power or not, and he didn't relish the idea of losing its magical ability. He needed to use it for Kasuto, and he wondered if he could even manage to do that with the fifty-fifty odds.

I said forty-two percent, not fifty. the sword corrected him.

Close enough. Even though there was a chance that the Master Sword would lose most of its magical ability, he had to risk it. There was no other way he could stop this bone dragon, and no other way to return the sword to Midna and her people. "Auren!" he called, at the far side again.

"Yeah?" The Gerudo still had her bow in hand, arrow nocked, but she was no longer firing.

"I need you to distract it for me once I start going to the other side again, all right? Keep shooting it." He gave her an informal salute as he passed where she was standing. "I'm counting on you."

Auren watched him go, and then raised her bow to fire directly into one of the glowing red eye sockets. The dragon pawed at its face as if it had actually been wounded, or perhaps because it saw the arrow hitting its eye. Then it roared at her, swiping the air furiously with its talons. Link used this opportunity to make the spinner jump off the track, and steered it towards the bone dragon. It failed to see him coming, and only noticed him when he smacked one of its vertebrae with the Master Sword.

The sword flared bright and the large bone burst into holy flames. He continued past it and back onto the track, and waited expectantly as he circled around the room. The bone burned to ash just like anything else, the flames traveling up to the other nearby vertebrae. Roaring, the dragon fumbled as it attempted to reach at its ruined spine, and suddenly it collapsed, its ribs and skull landing flat on the sand now that its spine was severed.

Link did not waste any time, and as soon as it began to fall he directed the spinner directly at the dragon with a strong push. Using the forward momentum of the device, he launched himself off of it with a leap and landed on the skull. The dragon struggled to rise, pushing itself up with its forelegs, and he held on to one of its horns with his right hand, just as Zant had a moment ago.

He held out the Master Sword to touch the black sword embedded in the skull, and the sacred sword shone brilliantly again. The light from the Master Sword infused the runes on the Twili weapon with its own silvery-white light, the purple runes spreading across the dragon's skull turning the same color before fading. No longer powered, the skeleton collapsed onto the sand with the loud crack of heavy bones, its skull landing right next to the spinner slot. Link jumped off the dragon with his sword still in hand and turned to look at it, waiting to see if he needed to do anything else. Nothing else was needed; the dragon was no longer moving, the lights in its eye sockets gone dark.

Auren cheered at him as he sheathed his sword. "That was pretty creative! And pretty cool." She walked across the bridge to the center with the others and grinned down at him. "You figured out that you couldn't burn up the whole thing, but you could burn a single bone, huh?"

"Pretty much." Link said, looking around for the spinner. It lay on the sand directly next to the dragon, and he began to walk around it in order to reach the ancient device. With a sigh, he climbed back onto it and drove it over to the center platform and back into its slot. "I'm getting sick of this thing. Riding in circles like that was annoying."

"This will be the last time, I promise." Auru said. "After this, Midna can pick it up and put it into the other slot in the room for Auren to use on our way back down."

He didn't reply, focused on the effort it took to push on the mechanical device beneath him. This time it was far harder than the other ones, and his legs strained against the strong resistance from the machine. The central platform began to rise up with a slow clacking sound, as did the outer walkway that circled the room, the two of them moving sluggishly. Inside the outer ring was a spiral spinner track that gradually made its way to the top near the bridge, likely there in case anyone fell down below. The dragon's body slowly slid from the platform as it rose, and eventually fell with a crash to the sand below. The doorway above opened, the stone door sliding to the right, and the outer walkway finally ascended far enough to reach it, grinding to a halt.

The spinner stopped spinning and Link slowly stepped off of it, dramatically flopping onto his belly on the floor while breathing heavily. It was only half a joke; he was worn out from that one. "My legs are on fire…" he panted, his cheek on the cold stone floor. "I hate it. I don't like the spinner. I don't want to use the spinner anymore, Auru. Are we done with the spinner, Auru?"

The older man leaned down towards him, putting his hands on his knees to support himself. "There's only one more slot at the very top by the Mirror of Twilight."

Link raised his head off the floor to stare at him in disbelief. "Wait, what? You said-"

Auru straightened, laughing. "There's one up at the Mirror of Twilight, but it's already been used! The Mirror's been raised up for centuries!" He laughed even harder, pleased with his own joke.

Groaning, Link lay his cheek back down on the floor. "Auru, how could you betray me like this? After all I did to get us here." When the man continued to laugh, Link didn't move, still worn out. "Auren, your father is being mean to me again."

"I'm aware of it. It's nice to have him bully somebody else instead of me for once." Her feet came to stand in front of him, and he saw her painted toenails instead of her painted face. "Do you need some help? I could probably carry you easily enough."

"I'm too damn tired to figure out if that was a joke or not." He had the image of being carried by one of these women, and didn't like it. He'd look like a boy in the arms of some of the larger Gerudo. Grunting, he got to his feet. "I'm glad I'm done with that thing. I don't want to see that damn Sheikah device for the rest of my life."

"What, you don't want to keep it after this?" Midna asked with a smirk.

He pointed a finger at her. "Don't you start too. I'm done with jokes and this horrible desert jail. All I want is a hot meal and to sit around and use my legs for absolutely nothing."

Her smirk turned into a smaller smile as she understood how he was feeling right now. "We still need to lure Zant through the mirror, which shouldn't be hard if he's still nearby. After that, I know of a safe place for us to go so you can rest for a day or so." The Twili picked up the spinner from the slot, and began to turn so she could float across the gap to bring it to the other slot on the other end of the room. Then she stopped and set it down on the platform, the device balancing neatly as always. "Oh, that's right. I want to get the sword before we move on."

"You did say that sword was important to you and your people. Why is that, if you don't mind me asking?" Auren inquired, watching as Midna began to float over the edge of the center pillar.

The imp stopped and turned just enough to look over her shoulder at the Gerudo. "For my people, it's one of our sacred weapons. For me...it's my father's sword." She turned away and sunk below the edge of the pillar and out of view, heading to wherever the dragon's skull had landed.

Midna's father was someone important, he was certain now. The man had possessed an important weapon, and Midna herself was called "Lady of Shadows", which implied that she held some kind of important role in her world. If she was a lady, then she was probably nobility. It was entirely possible that her father was the Twili version of a knight, and she really was the Twilight Realm version of himself. There were many questions he wanted to ask her, but he knew that the time to ask them would come soon, once they had entered the Twilight Realm.

A startled yelp came from below and Midna shouted in alarm as she shot up into the air. "It's not dead!"

All Link managed to do was draw his sword and turn towards her, expecting the skull to slowly rise up. What happened instead occurred quickly; Midna rocketed up towards the ceiling, exclaiming that the monster was still undead, and immediately after her came the dragon's bony head. It did not pursue the Twili, but instead rushed at the group standing on the top of the pillar. The skull narrowly missed Auru and his daughter, and caught Link full-on in a headbutt, sending him flying over the edge.

He heard the man call his name in alarm as he fell, and then hit the hard sand below flat on his back with a painful cry. There was nothing but pain for a moment, the agony disorienting him before he realized the horrible pain wasn't only from his fall of nearly thirty feet, but it was also due to him landing on his gear. His shield, quiver, bow and scabbard dug into his already-injured back, and all he could do is lay there and barely breathe in response.

"Link, get up!" Auren frantically called from the bridge, her head appearing over the edge of it.

He coughed, gasping for breath and stared at her, unsure of what was happening. Wasn't he just up there? Did he really just fall this far? She called out his name again, and the reason behind her frantic cries became evident: the skull was hovering just past the edge of the pillar and angled down to face him, its bony jaws agape. A bright light formed inside its mouth, and horror began to replace the fog in his mind as he stared down his impending death.

Something orange slammed into the side of it, and a ball of energy flew out of the skull's mouth and shot wide, hitting the sand some distance away to his left. Midna unfurled herself from the ball of her hair that she had wrapped herself in, and backed away when the skull turned towards her with a roar. The Twili turned and flew out of view, the skull giving chase.

She had saved his life again. This time death was certain, if that blast had hit him. He coughed again and rolled onto his side, and he could see half-melted sand congealing into a mix of pebbled clumps and melted glass where the blast had connected. He wasn't hit by that, but he was still laying on the ground in a lot of pain, and had taken a fall that possibly could have broken something.

It does not appear that anything is broken. The Master Sword had fell from his hand when he hit the ground, and lay nearby on the sand. I believe that your shield and quiver absorbed much of the damage, although you are still in considerable pain.

"No...kidding…" he wheezed, staring at the sword, and then beyond it. The spinner lay there, still balanced on its end like always, barely touching the sand beneath it while gentle blue light leaked out between its gears. It appeared undamaged, unlike him. There was a shuddering boom coming from elsewhere in the room as the dragon shot energy at someone, most likely Midna. Groaning, Link pulled himself to his feet. "Sword...why didn't it work? It's not dead."

As I said before, I am low on energy. You are as well, and I dared not take energy from your body in order to power myself due to your magical usage earlier. Since I did not have sufficient energy to do what you required, we must repeat the process. This time I must tap into your power, Master Link. I apologize, but there is no other way.

"Take what you need, I guess. I'm going to feel like garbage tomorrow no matter what I do." He bent over with a groan and picked up the sword, his back stiff with pain. "Is it possible for you to take some of the energy from Courage instead of me?"

Negative. The Triforce of Courage has bonded itself with your soul. Its magical reserves and your own are one and the same. If that was the case, it might explain why he used magic without following any rules. Master, I believe this time when we stun the dragon, you will need to pull out the Twili sword immediately. Removing it will effectively stop the necromancy that powers the skull.

"I hope you're right, because my body can't take much more of this." There was another boom, the curve of the wall lighting up with yellow light ahead of him. Midna came around the bend, the skull chasing her with its mouth open. Now that it wasn't attached to the lumbering body, it was quite fast.

He had to do something, since she couldn't keep fleeing from it forever. His eyes fell on the tracks running along the other ring, which slowly rose in a spiral. Examining the spinner tracks on the pillar, he could see that they went in simple circles at regular intervals. An idea began to form in his head, and he frowned down at the spinner that lay nearby. Ah, yes. Time to creative again.

In other words, time to get crazy.

Link pulled out his shield, gritting his teeth a bit against the pain in his back, and set it on his arm. He caught a glimpse of Midna kiting the skull behind her far above as he stepped onto the spinner, and he pushed hard on the plates to propel him towards the outer wall with speed. "Midna! Bring it near me!"

He slowly began to ascend the wall, following the slow corkscrew rail that went around the outer platform. As he had before, he slowly began to rotate counter to the direction the spinner's teeth were moving, which made his plan just a bit more complicated. Suddenly she was zooming past him, coming from the opposite direction with the dragon in hot pursuit. "No, not that way!" he shouted, hoping that she would hear him from wherever she was in the room. "Bring it around and go in the same direction I am!"

The walls trembled as there was another blast that flew overhead, and seconds later Midna shot through the air and caught up with him, pacing the spinner's ascent along the wall. It felt like it had been moving slowly, but now that she was next to him, he realized it was moving quickly as it climbed. "What's your plan?" she asked, raising her voice so she could be heard over the clacking of the spinner's teeth on the track.

"Pull it up next to me, so I can smash into it!" he called back, still slowly rotating counter-clockwise.

The Twili turned her helmeted head to stare at him in disbelief. "That's your plan?!"

They were now about two-thirds of the way up the wall, and he was running out of time before he had to hit the dragon. "You have any better ideas?!" he shouted at her, watching as she narrowly dodged a flaming projectile from the dragon's mouth. He could feel the heat of it as it hit the wall not far above him, although it did not damage the spinner track.

She shook her head, picking up speed and moving past him. She had no other ideas, which meant this one had better work. He was the only one who could damage the undead thing, and probably the only one able to quickly pull the sword out of it. The skull was next to him now, ignoring him completely and continuing to chase the black and gray creature that somehow kept evading its attacks.

He waited until his shield was out to the right and pushed on the plates of the spinner, launching it off the track. The jump was beautiful and long, and completely planned wrong since the skull was directly next to him instead of slightly below him. He flew beneath the dragon's head by mere inches, and the gear teeth scraped against the stone of the central pillar before catching on one of the rings of the spinner track there. "Well, damn." he said, not expecting to fail like that. Now his sword was facing out, and his shield near the wall. Pushing off with another spinner jump, he guided the device over to the outer wall again, where it began to climb again. "Midna! Bring it a little bit lower next time!"

"Lower?!" her voice came from the other side of the pillar, and she circled around again. "What the heck do you want me to do? I'm getting tired!" Oh, she was getting tired? He was running out of the strength to make the spinner jump after fighting over a hundred zombies and a lich.

"Halfway between the track I'm on and the one below it, all right? Let's try again!" This had better be it. He wasn't sure if he had the energy to do much else, and the Master Sword had said it needed to draw some of his magical reserves.

The dragon's skull was to the right and just below the spinner, and he had to wait until his slow spin on top of the ancient device had oriented him with his shield facing out. Summoning what little reserves of strength his legs had, he pushed hard on the metal plates and connected with his target this time, smashing into the side of the skull with his shield. The impact sent ripples of pain through his injured back, and was strong enough to send the spinner, its rider and the dragon skull into the central pillar on the opposite side. Then they fell to the ground, the dragon's head bouncing against the sand before rolling to a stop on its side.

The ancient Shiekah device landed on its end without wobbling, the landing far softer than the one that had hurt his back. He quickly braked the spinner but didn't wait for it to come to a complete stop before leaping off of it, once again using its momentum again to propel himself toward the sword that jutted out towards him. He brought the Master Sword down on it with a fast swing, and the blade flickered white when it connected, turning the purple runes silvery before they vanished.

Not waiting to see if it was going to move this time, Link quickly sheathed the Master Sword and tossed his shield to the side, freeing up his hands. He grabbed the Twili sword with two hands and pulled with all his strength, bracing his left foot against the yellowed bone of the skull. Purple lights danced along the runes of the dark sword, and fearing that it would re-activate the undead dragon yet again, he used Courage to increase his physical strength. The golden triangles lit up, and he pulled the sword out, stumbling back and landing on his rear.

Panting, he looked at the dark sword in his hand, the weight of it far heavier than the Master Sword. It had a curling pattern on its hilt and down the center of its blade that looked similar to the whirling patterns on the Fused Shadows, and its etched runes softly shone aqua again. Whatever Zant had done to it had vanished, and the Twili weapon no longer emitted an evil aura. Link wearily got to his feet, and wordlessly handed the sword to Midna after she came next to him.

She took it with her orange hair, holding it in front of her and gently touching at the metal details on the flat of the blade with a small hand. Her expression was a mixture of relief and sadness. "Thank you. I appreciate that you did things in a way that let me recover the sword."

He nodded, still breathing hard. The last time he was this exhausted, it was in the Goron mine, when he had pushed himself even though he was injured. While nothing felt broken, he still hurt, and the pain and magical drain both made him weary. "It's your father's. I had to get it back." he said, after catching his breath.

Midna made the sacred Twili sword vanish into black squares, and came up to him to put a hand to his face. "You really pushed yourself today." She smiled slightly. "But I'm proud of you. You came through in the end, every time. I know you're hurt, but don't worry. The place we're going to hunker down in the Twilight Realm is a sacred temple, and many of the priestesses there are healers. They'll patch you up."

"Healers, like Renado?" he asked, stepping back from her and slowly walking towards his discarded shield and the spinner. Gods, he hurt. This time he overdid it for sure.

"Of course. They won't be able to do much to replenish your magical energy, but they can at least fix your body." She sighed ruefully. "I wish they could fix mine, but that wasn't possible. That was the first place I went after Zant transformed me, and even a group of holy women didn't have the power to lift this curse."

Link didn't have much to say in response as he picked up his shield. While it was interesting that they had places of worship and priests in the Twilight Realm, he was too tired to think much about it. He stepped on the spinner and looked over his shoulder at her. "See you at the top." He pushed at the plates weakly, and this time his trip around the outer ring was much slower.

It took him a few minutes to reach the top of the long spiral, but his slow speed meant that he was able to brake the ancient Sheikah machine on top of the bridge much easier than if he had been moving quickly. Auren hurried over to him when he stepped off the device, and put a hand on his arm in concern.

"Are you all right? You look awful." She leaned down a bit to look at his face at his eye level.

"Sounds about right because I feel awful." He pointed over his shoulder with a thumb at the metal shield hung from his back. "My shield and the enchanted quiver I carry absorbed a lot of the damage, but I'm still in a lot of pain right now. Once I get through that mirror, I'm going to be doing a lot of nothing for a while."

"You should sit and rest for a bit. The Twilight Realm can wait." The Gerudo hadn't let go of his arm yet, her face worried. He must have looked really terrible to get such a response out of her.

Link shook his head. "No, Zant is close. He can't be far away, and probably will be back to check and see if we're dead. I need to get to the Mirror of Twilight so he can chase us through it." When she let go of his arm with a disapproving expression, he ignored it and began to stiffly walk towards the open doorway on the opposite side of the room.

Their footsteps followed him, and he turned to look over his shoulder at the group just before stepping outside. Midna was not far away, depositing the spinner in the other slot of the room, and Auren still had her eyes on him, her expression worried. It was fine for her to worry if he was hurt, after all her father also looked concerned.

"I would tell you not to push yourself so hard, but you had little choice in what happened with the dragon." Auru said, falling into step with him as the two men went out onto the long staircase that spiraled around the outside of the round exterior wall. "It's a miracle that you fell so far and nothing is broken."

"Yeah." He stopped, hearing a small fretful sound behind him, and turned to see Auren still standing in the doorway, looking beyond the stairway's railing at the desert sands with a nervous expression. Not saying anything, Link walked back down a few steps and linked his arm in hers. Auren avoided his eyes, but let him lead her up the spiral staircase.

The moon was high and the small amount of its waning face was bright, lighting up the sands around the Arbiter's Grounds with a blue-white light. He had no idea what time it was, only that it was cold and he was tired and a bit hungry. His breath steamed in the freezing desert air as he made his way to the top, the woman to his right trembling as she walked next to him.

With tired legs, Link crested the top of the stairs, winded from the effort of climbing them. The arena structure at the very top of the Arbiter's Grounds wasn't a true arena, since there were no seats in it. There was only a semicircle of curved walls spanning between stone pillars, each wall having large openings in it almost like a giant lattice. Four massive chains extended from the tops of four metal pylons that jutted up from the edges of the arena structure, and they were anchored to a large rectangular boulder that sat near the center of the arena. At the very center and in front of the brown boulder was a large golden statue of a Gerudo sitting with legs crossed, hands at her knees, snake curled around her. It was the same figure that was on the Gerudo temple near East Oasis, but much smaller. A spinner track wound its way along the snake's side to land at a platform balanced atop the statue's head. Patches of sand piled up around the statue and near the arena walls, blown there by summer storms.

"There's another portal." Auru observed, pointing in the sky above the statue. A magenta portal hovered there, and its placement made sense. If Zant had brought transformed Twili to Hyrule, he would have brought them through the Mirror of Twilight. This portal was probably the one the King of Shadows had used the most.

"Huh, that wasn't there when I first came through the Mirror. Zant probably made it after he gave up chasing me." Midna said, lobbing a ball of energy at it. The portal turned aqua, and she nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Now he won't use it anymore."

"Provided he didn't plan on using it to get back here." Link said, and then he frowned. "No, that's not right. He can teleport wherever he wants. And it seems like he knows where we are at times, too. Luring him back here shouldn't be hard."

"Yeah, some of the things he's been able to do don't make sense, like the kind of magic he's using isn't very human. I guess we'll figure out whatever demon or evil spirit he's befriended once we're in the Twilight Realm for a bit. Speaking of which…" Midna floated up and around the golden statue and the massive stone at its back.

He turned to the scholar and his daughter. "We'll make sure you two are back out of the temple before we do anything. There's a portal-" He was suddenly cut short by Midna's howl of fury.

Link started running around the statue with no regard to his weakened state or rubbery legs, and half-stumbled his way around the gigantic brown stone towards where he had heard her voice. She stood on the stone roof of the Arbiter's Grounds, small hands balled angrily into fists at her sides as she faced a platform that was the base for a large rounded metal frame on a stand. Within the frame was not a circular mirror, but an uneven shard of polished black glass, its edges jagged.

The Mirror of Twilight had been shattered.