The Queen's Keep was situated on a flat ridge along the leeward side of the mountain, the fortress built near the edge of a sheer drop, a rushing river running next to it to fall into icy mist. It was in an ideal location since running water didn't freeze easily, and so the keep would always have a supply. The large building was surrounded by a wall on three sides, the fourth being the side with the dropoff.

Link looked at the front of the keep as they crossed the stone bridge that spanned the rapid river. The building was blocky and black, the roofs high and peaked, and marked with metal spires and points like the manor of some rich lord. Unlike a lord's home, the keep had smaller windows to keep out the cold, and perhaps as a matter of defense. It made him think of a castle.

"Is this thing a fortress or a mansion?" he asked, looking up at the looming building as they approached it. He noticed that the lights he had seen before were two torches on the front that Yeto had likely lit. The windows were dark.

"It's both." replied Ashei. "The whole thing is a solid stone fortress, but the front has a facade to make it look nicer. The queen was a vain woman."

A perfect match for an idiot king, he thought.

They went through the heavy studded double-doors and into the foyer of the "mansion". It was flanked by large suits of plate armor, far larger than a human would wear. He thought that perhaps the armor was made for Gerudo or even a tall Goron, but the shape of the head was wrong for either race. It appeared the helmet was designed for something with a snout. What could have wore something like that? Or perhaps they weren't actually functional armor, and were an art piece to make the place appear more intimidating. Considering their location, that was likely the reason for their odd design.

There was a large sweeping staircase that went up to a second floor, and halls that went in either direction, but both were dark. A large painting of a Hylian woman with brown hair and a delicate winged crown was situated at the very top of the stairs. Her face was beautiful and calm, and her features reminded him of Zelda.

"Is that her?" he asked, even though he already assumed the answer was yes.

Ashei's masked face blankly stared at the painting, her expression unreadable through the covering on her head. "Yes, that's the queen."

"And that's the second queen, right? Not Zelda's mother?" He also had assumed that this was the keep for Queen Lizbeth, not Queen Constance. The woman in the painting looked quite a bit like Zelda, though.

The warrior stopped looking at the painting. "Yes, but she looked quite a bit like the first queen. If Lizbeth hadn't been from Labrynna, people probably would have assumed that the two women were sisters. People assume that's why the king married her, because she looked almost identical to his first wife. He certainly didn't marry the woman for her personality."

Link kept looking up at the painting, at the blue eyes of the woman who had lead to the tragedy in his life and the life of many others. He had no idea how to feel about it, this queen who had been dead for years, who did far more damage to the kingdom of Hyrule than she ever came to realize. He thought that she should feel anger, but he felt nothing. There was nothing to do, nothing to say. The woman was dead, and the past caused by her death gone with her. He tore his eyes away from the painting and followed Yeto through a lit doorway.

The room beyond was a dining room, lavishly decorated in shades of reds and pinks and lit by a fire in its white marble fireplace. There was a dusty crystal chandelier hanging from the white plaster ceiling, a long carved wooden table, and matching chairs with maroon upholstery. The dining set was shoved along the wall near the door, its table too low and chairs too small for the Yetis to use.

There was instead a pile of mismatched cushions and pillows piled in front of the fireplace, as well as a few blankets and a fleece. The female Yeti was not there. Yeto shook his head with a grumble while looking at the vacant bedding, and then walked to the swinging white door at the left end of the room and went in. His deep voice carried clearly through the door. "I told you to stay in bed! Come on back."

The door opened again, pushed ajar by Yeto's large gray hand, and a second, smaller Yeti entered the room. She shuffled as she walked, the tired gait of a sickly person, and she held a clay pitcher in her brown hands. "I'm sorry, but I was thirsty." she said to her husband. "I had only gotten up to get a drink of water." She stopped short to stare at the two humans in surprise. "Oh, humans!"

Yeta was nearly two feet shorter than her husband, with brown skin instead of gray, but she had the same dark brown eyes and patterned ivory-colored fur and flat tail. There wasn't much indication given that she was female since like Yeto, her fur was shaggy and thick enough to hide the features of her body. The only differences other than her size were her smaller fangs and womanly-sounding voice. She did not sound like a growling beast, and her voice would have fit coming from a female Hylian or Zora. Yeta wore a few bangles around her wrists made of carved bone, and had glass beads woven into her curly fur here and there. The only article of clothing she had on was a bear pelt, the fanged head perched on top of hers, the front paws tied up around her neck.

The female Yeti blinked blearily at them and shuffled back to the pile of cushions. "I must apologize for my reaction." she said. "I'm not myself today. I didn't mean to be rude." She sat on the fleece and sipped at the pitcher, which was an appropriately-sized cup in her large hands. "I see that you are a male one and a female one." Again, that weird phrasing. "Mates? Siblings?"

As Ashei removed her white hood, Link spoke to the Yeti. "No, we're friends."

Yeta's brown eyes moved back and forth between the two of them as she compared their appearances. "Ah, I see. The female one has dark hair, and the male one has light hair. Not siblings." He honestly didn't understand how that would mean that two people weren't related, but then he remembered that the poor Yeti had a fever, and likely didn't see too many humans as it was.

Yeto had remained in the doorway to the kitchen, and he held up his red-scaled catch from earlier. "I'm going to start preparing some fish stew, all right? Yeta, please stay here. If you need anything, you can ask me. Male human, I would like to talk to you and your shadow being friend. Please come into the kitchen in a little while." He then went into the next room, letting the door swing shut behind him.

Midna spoke softly into Link's ears. "If we're going to talk to Yeta about the mirror, we need to be careful. Yeto said that she was obsessed with it. I don't think we want to make her angry."

The female Yeti had no idea that Midna was speaking to him, and she turned her attention towards Link while speaking in a voice that was both friendly and tired-sounding. "It's quite warm in here, male one. Please remove some of your winter gear if it will make you comfortable."

It was quite warm in the room, or felt relatively so after spending the past ten or so hours out in the cold. He pulled off his fur-lined gloves and after tossing them on the table, extended his hands towards the flames. It felt quite nice, although he noticed that his fingers were red. "You can call me Link." he said, and then nodded his head towards the woman standing nearby. "And that's Ashei."

Yeta's free hand flew to her mouth in shock, her brown eyes wide. "Oh, dear me no! That would be improper. We've only just met!"

Ashei leaned her skis and the snowshoes up against the wall, and went to retrieve one of the maroon-upholstered dining chairs. "It's all right." she said, setting the chair down near the fire and then having a seat in it. "Humans call each other by their names. It's normal for us. Don't worry, we'll still call you Yeta."

Link removed his hat and combed his hair with his fingers. "Is this one of those cultural differences you mentioned?"

The young woman removed her mittens and gauntlets, and held her hands out towards the fire just like he had done. "Yeti don't reveal their real names to others, not unless they become close. Family, spouses, that kind of thing. Their names aren't really Yeta and Yeto, it's just a placeholder name that says what they are, kind of how they keep calling us 'male one' and 'female one'." She turned to the Yeti and smiled politely. "By the way, a male human is called a 'man' and a female human a 'woman'."

Yeta peered at her over the rim of the pitcher at Link, sipping at her water. "Are there special names for the kind of human with long ears like m- uh, Link? You're still a human, right?"

"I'm human, but my race of human is called Hylian." he told her, understanding that the Yeti hadn't had much exposure to humans so far. If the two Yetis had recently been married, then Yeta would probably be a young adult like he was. "Hylians aren't too different than regular humans. There are only a few differences; we are more likely to have magic, live about thirty years longer, and of course have long, pointed ears." He tugged on one. "But other than that, everything's the same." He sat down on the carpeted floor near Ashei's chair, extending his booted feet towards the fire. "Yeta, your husband told us that you've been sick. Can you tell us about that?"

The Yeti focused her brown eyes on the fireplace and stared into the flames. "Yes, of course. It started not too long after we exchanged our gifts and declared ourselves married. I started to feel funny and tired, and at first we thought I was pregnant. That happens with many newlyweds, you know." It didn't only days after newlyweds were married, but it was possible Yeta didn't understand how conception actually worked. "But anyway, I started to get a fever and became very weak. Yeto says that sometimes I pass out. He brought me human medicine that will help me rest, but I'm still weak."

Her voice became quiet. "He thinks that it's my mirror that's causing it. I know a gift from him would never harm me, so I don't know why he would think that. He wants to keep it from me, but I love it. I would love anything he gives me. It doesn't feel fair that he keeps hiding it, but I know that he's trying to be a good husband and protect me." Yeta continued to look into the fire, her eyes half-shut as if talking so much was tiring.

It was clear the mirror was a source of contention between the two Yeti, and conflict was not what one wants early in a marriage. Link hoped that his questions about the subject wouldn't upset her. As Midna said, he had to be careful. "Would you mind if we took a look at your mirror? I'm familiar with certain kinds of magic, so maybe if I look at it I'll be able to figure out if it's actually making you sick or not." He hated to lie to the polite Yeti, but he wasn't going to get the shard with honesty alone.

The Yeti yawned, showing sharp teeth that were reminiscent of a baboon's. "Pardon me. Yes, I think it's fine if you look at it. It's quite pretty and I'm proud of it, so I don't mind letting you see it."

"Do you know where it is?" Ashei asked.

Yeta gazed into the fire blearily, humming tunelessly for a moment as she considered it. "I...think so. I know his hiding spots." She yawned again, putting a large hand over her mouth. "Oh, pardon. I'm certain this this time he hid it in the big room in the basement, the one with the big cages. He tries to move it far away from me but...I still go look at it."

Ashei looked down at Link. "I know where that is. I used to live in this place, so I remember the layout."

He nodded and looked at the drowsy Yeti. Her eyes looked far-away and heavy from her fever. He decided he shouldn't ask her any more questions, at least not at the moment. "I'm going to talk to Yeto." he said, rising to his feet. "Here, Yeta...why don't you lay down and rest? You don't have to be a polite host to us if you're unwell. We understand."

She nodded, holding out her pitcher for him to take. He set it down next to the woodpile near the fireplace, and then walked back over to the Yeti, who was laying down on the fleece and placing her head on one of the cushions. Link took one of the blankets and covered her with it. Yeta smiled and patted his hand. "You're a very kind male...uh, man." Her large brown hand was hot on his, burning with fever. She let go of his hand with a tired sigh and closed her eyes.

He picked up his gloves and motioned to Ashei, and after retrieving her own furs and gauntlets, the two of them left the room through the swinging door. As he expected, the next room was the kitchen, and it had all the large stoves and piles of shining copper-bottom pots he also expected. It was far larger and more well-equipped than the kitchens in Kakariko or Mido.

Yeto was at one of the prep tables, chopping fish with a broadsword of all things. Then again, a regular meat cleaver or knife would have been too small for his large hands, and using the sword was far safer for him. A large stock kettle stood on one of the wood stoves, set to boil. The Yeti looked up from his work. "Oh, there you are. I'm making plenty, enough to fill the bellies of both Yeti and humans. Please, stay here for the night and eat dinner with us. There are plenty of rooms in this place, and plenty of human-sized beds for you to sleep in. You are far better resting up and worrying about the mirror later."

The Yeti raised his eyes up from what he was doing to fix them on Link. "Especially you, male one. Not only did you fall down the mountain, you don't seem to be very large for a human male. Are you fully grown?"

Ashei couldn't help laughing at that, covering her mouth in a vain attempt to keep the laughter contained. "Sorry." she said to Link, who fixed her with a withering look.

He did his best not to be offended. To be fair, he wasn't as tall as most other men, and Yeto had only made an observation. "I'm eighteen years old and an adult, but I'm pretty sure I'm still growing. I grew two inches in the past year, and my father grew until he was twenty-one or so." He turned to Ashei. "I'm really not joking when I say I'm still growing, all right? I get defensive about it and how thin I'm built because people don't take smaller men seriously. You're the same age and the same height as me, but at least you've gotten the chance to fill out. I still have a few years to go."

"So you really were angry when I called you skinny?" she asked, as if she hadn't realized her teasing had gone too far. "I was just kidding and thought you were playing along."

"I was not trying to offend you, if your size is something that bothers you." Yeto said, carefully slicing off a large fillet from the fish. "I think I understand how you feel. I'm very tall for a Yeti, and my shoulders very wide. It isn't that I don't get respect from others, it's that others are frightened of me. That's why I wear this thing on my head." He shook his head back and forth to make the stirrups swing comically. "It's a funny hat, so if I try to make myself look ridiculous, I won't scare humans and other Yeti so much." He paused in his work and pointed the broadsword at Link, the blade covered in blood and fragments of fish. "If you say that you're still growing, then I will be sure to feed you well."

The Yeti went back to slicing the fish, beginning to cut it into cubes, his huge hands working just as deftly as a human's. "It will be a couple of hours before it's ready, though. I estimate around sunset. I can make some tea for you and Yeta and you three can sit by the fire and talk while I cook. Do humans like to drink mint tea?"

"Yes we do, but Yeta's resting right now. She talked to us for a few minutes, but then she seemed really worn out. I suggested she lay down to rest. We can always talk to her later when she feels a bit better." He figured he ought to at least clue Yeto in to what they were doing. "Do you mind if we look around? You mentioned rooms with beds, so we should find someplace where we're going to spend the night."

Yeto waved a large gray hand at the back door of the kitchen. "Sure, try going out that way. There are bedrooms there. Just be careful to not go outside, since there are those ice monsters I mentioned out there. You should be safe if you stay indoors. Remember, dinner at sunset." He then set aside the makeshift knife and scooped up his cubed fish, and dropped them into a nearby wooden bowl.

"Thank you. We'll be careful." Ashei said, and she walked across the kitchen to the rear door that the Yeti had indicated. She went through it, and Link followed her. There was a dark, cold corridor beyond. He pulled the heavy gloves back on, and she pulled on her hood, which he now realized was made to look like a Yeti's face. The fur mittens were stowed away somewhere beneath her fur coat. "All right." she said. "I haven't been here in six years." She stared down the hall, her face unreadable through the mask once more, and started striding down it. "This way."

He followed her, peering into open doorways as they went past. There was a dry goods storage on the right, although it appeared that there wasn't much left in it, Brent's men having taken the food when they abandoned the keep. The left and the outside wall was occupied by a large room that had a piano and a harp in it, the polished floor still shiny despite a layer of dust. Beyond that was a library, not quite as big as the one in Hyrule Castle, but still packed with a large amount of books. Tall windows with snow clinging to their mullions lit the rooms with a faint, colorless sunlight.

"Will we be able to scope out a place to sleep?" Link asked, taking in the library. He didn't doubt that Midna saw it as well, and wondered if she'd take some of the books. "If there's a fireplace, we can warm it pretty well and be comfortable."

"Yeah, I have a few ideas." Ashei said. "There was a room at the end of the hall that was for the chef and head cook. It has more than one bed in it, a fireplace, and there will probably be things like spare blankets in it. But for now, I want to get that mirror shard."

"Right away? It's not going anywhere." He figured they'd wait until after Yeta had gone to bed, take the mirror while she was still asleep, and leave in the morning before she woke.

Midna sighed from within his warm shadows. "Oh, Link. You can be a real bonehead sometimes. If something in this keep is causing the snow, then it should stop if we take the shard away. If not, we can find the magical relic that's the problem, and then the people of Mido won't have to worry about a snowstorm in summer."

"Yeah, that makes sense I guess. I was thinking that we'd take it late tonight and then leave early so Yeta wouldn't notice." His ears were already feeling a bit cold, since he hadn't put his hat back on. "If you take it and hide it away in shadows just like you did for the Fused Shadows fragments, it should cut off the mirror's magic from this place." He smiled, knowing Midna would see it. "The ice locked in the box. It's still cold inside, but you can't tell from the outside."

The Twili laughed. "Exactly! You remember that conversation."

"I hope Midna's right. Something needs to be done soon. Our potatoes and carrots are probably fine, but if the snow doesn't stop soon the ground's going to freeze and the crops won't have a long shelf life." She stopped at a room and looked into it, and it turned out to be the room that she suggested they sleep in. "Looks good. Two beds, a fireplace, even a couple of lamps."

"Oh, lamps. That's right. Hang on a minute." Link stepped into the room past her and started opening drawers in the desk, and then one of the dressers, reporting out loud what he found in them. "Let's see...paper, ink, pounce...nope. Heh, somebody left their socks in here. Spare blankets...that's good. Ah, there." He finally found what he was looking for, and pulled out a square metal container quite clearly labeled "OIL" and sloshed it around. After unscrewing the cap he gave it a sniff to make sure it was what he thought it was. The smell made him wrinkle his nose. "Ugh, yeah. That's Chu oil." He took the cracked lantern off his belt and began to refill the reservoir. "If you recall, my lantern ran out of oil while we were waiting in that Yeti den."

"Trust me, I haven't forgotten." There was the slightest edge of humor to Ashei's voice, but he knew that her experience with the avalanche was horrifying for her.

"If we plan on nosing around in any basement, we'll need a light." He capped the oil and left it on the desk for the time being. If the bottle wasn't so large, he'd consider taking it with him, but his carrying space was fairly limited.

"It's not just a basement, it's a lab." she said, and that made him look up at her. "You remember what my father said, yeah? The queen was carrying out a bunch of magical experiments in this place. I don't know exactly what she was doing, but it involved a bunch of Lizalfos in cages and some alchemy. There might be some strange things down there." Her voice was unemotional as she spoke, the warrior Ashei telling him of the horrible things the queen had done. "My father told me that they let all the Lizalfos out, but Bess had all kinds of hidden rooms throughout this keep. Something she made might still be here, maybe even the thing that's causing the snow."

Link hung the lantern from his belt again, in its usual spot at his hip. "It wouldn't surprise me. Every time I've had to go get something or find something, it always wound up far more complicated than I expected." He raised his eyes to look at the impassive hood that prevented him from reading her expression. "Lead the way."

Ashei brought him to a heavy door at the end of the hall, set into utilitarian stonework. "We'll have to go outside. I know Yeto told us to stay in, but I don't think he realizes that we're a pair of human warriors, even if we are wearing swords." She pulled open the thick door and light spilled in, as did a few snowflakes. It was strange that the doors of a keep would swing in, but it probably was difficult to push a door open against a pile of snow. "Let's go." she said.

The two of them stepped outside, and Link looked around. They were in a narrow passageway that was open to the sky, and there were arrow slits along the walls. Through one of those slits he could see outside of the keep, and the grounds of the place abruptly ended at the cliff's edge. A heavy iron gate coated with snow barred the way into the central courtyard, which had a row of cannon barrels stacked near the corner, a stone gazebo in the middle, and something that moved around. It was difficult to see in the falling snow, but icy humanoid figures with spindly limbs wandered around aimlessly, holding jagged spears of ice. Ashei pulled on his arm and put a finger up over where her lips would be, indicating to him to be quiet and follow. They silently went down to the other end of the passageway, and through another heavy door studded with iron.

Inside was a circular tower, with winding stairs going up or down. It was still cold and his breath created clouds, but at least it wasn't snowing in here. "You have snow in your hair." Ashei said.

"Oh." He brushed at the wet snow clinging to his dirty blonde hair, and Ashei reached out with one of her armored hands to help remove the snow caught in his bangs.

"What happened to your hat?" she asked.

"It's all wet from sitting in the snow after I fell down the mountain." he said. "I'm not putting something wet on my head in this cold. I'll wear it again when it dries. Until then, I still have my hood if my head or ears get cold." He probably should have put his hood up, in retrospect.

Her brown eyes peered at him through the eye holes of her Yeti mask. "You look better without it anyway. It's a stupid hat. It's like a bag, or a sock for your head."

Link put his hands on his hips. "You're insulting the gods with your trash talking of my hat. I'll have you know that whole green ensemble was gifted to me by them."

A snort that was half a laugh came from behind her mask. "Yeah, well the gods have bad taste. And they let me live in this keep with crazy Queen Lizbeth. As far as I'm concerned, they can take your dumb sock hat and shove it." Her tone had started out jovial, but turned sour at the end. She obviously did not like this dead queen. Ashei turned and walked down the stone steps.

He followed her, understanding her frustrations with the gods, having his own. What he didn't fully know was why she hated Lizbeth. "How crazy is crazy? Like...crazy in an intelligent way? Or crazy as in bathing in the blood of her enemies?"

She removed her hooded mask and stuffed it into her belt as she went down the stairs ahead of him. He caught up to walk next to her, and saw that her face was not calm like he expected. She looked bitter and angry. "Crazy as in my father was fearing for my life. Batty Bess went through a few extra servants in her time here, and they disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Sometimes it was kitchen staff or stable boys, but other times it was her own handmaids." Her eyes grew flinty. "Sometimes it was other children...my friends." Ashei blinked and assumed her calm, knightly expression to hide her emotions. "Not long after that, some of the soldiers and even one of the knights went missing."

He had no idea that the queen had taken her own people to experiment on them. If this was the woman Adelbert married, no wonder he went mad as well. "So since you were about the right age, Brent was afraid that you might be taken too? If a knight was taken, that probably meant nobody was safe."

Ashei stopped walking, her face impassive. "You might want to light that lamp of yours." she said quietly.

She clearly didn't want to talk about it. He thought he had gotten her to open up to him, but she still had some things she didn't want to tell him about. That was fair; there were things from his own life he wouldn't dare tell her. He lit the lantern and continued down the stairs. "Let me go first."

Link led the way with his lantern, lighting the way as they descended the stairs to the bottom floor and another heavy door, this one entirely made out of iron. He pushed the door open with a squeak, and tried to see what was in the dark room beyond. The entered a large room with a high ceiling, the basement lab far deeper than he had initially expected, although they had walked down the stairs for what felt like a few floors.

He held his lantern up to try to illuminate things better, but it only made a circle of light that extended so far around them. What they could see was a stone floor with a few rust-brown smudges on it and a row of square cages extending into the darkness. All the cages were open, and they were large enough to hold something at least man-sized, if not larger. The round bottoms of different cages were above them, hung in some from fashion from the ceiling above. The whole place stunk of old urine, blood, and of some unknown acrid smell.

Midna appeared next to them, her runes glowing with an aqua light. "Brent told me about this lab, and what he told me was horrible. 'Batty Bess' was trying to do two specific things, and she was using both alchemy and shadow magic to do it. The first thing she wanted to do was increase a Hylian's life span, which of course she was. Many alchemists are after the Philosopher's Stone, which is a mythical relic that supposedly can be crafted with alchemy. It's supposed to grant immortality, which is a stupid thing to want. If she wanted to live forever and watch everyone she knew eventually die, she really was nuts."

The Twili stopped hovering in the air next to them and moved up to look down the row of cages. Then she turned back to them, her rounded features lit from beneath by the lantern's glow. "The other thing that she was trying to do was breed a new kind of soldier for the army. Well, I said 'breed', but it was more like 'create'. She observed that Lizalfos can adapt to any climate, and can survive for weeks without water and months without food. The idea of having soldiers with that ability was far too appealing to her. If I had to wager a guess, she had designs of being an immortal queen with an unstoppable army. Completely crazy, like I said."

Midna turned to float down the row of cages, and the other two followed. "You know those missing people? They met their end here. The older ones were used to try to make a Lizalfos-human hybrid, and the younger ones were used for the eternal youth experiments. They found the bodies of some, and others went missing entirely. Brent knew what was happening here, but he was torn: did he defy the queen to stop her from harming others, and risk the wrath of the king? Or did he try to ignore what was happening in order to keep his title, which has been in his family for generations? The Mabes were like the Lons and Bannens, and their family tree goes back quite a ways. In fact it's believed both the Lons and Bannens are descended from the Mabes, or so Brent told me." She stopped and eyed Ashei, her pale gray features sad. "He was unsure if he should worry about his daughter's safety, or worry about her future as a knight."

Ashei's expression was cool and impassive, not even her eyes betraying how she felt. Not seeing any response in the woman, Midna continued. "He never had to make that decision, because before too long the queen's two experiments combined, and she transformed herself into something not human and went out of control." The imp paused and looked down at the stone floor beneath her. There was a dark rusty stain, with smeared trails extending from it due to something being dragged towards the door. "The knights had no choice but to fight her, and kill her. They couldn't tell the king, though."

Midna raised her red-on-yellow eye to look at him. "The king wasn't mentally stable, which you know. He began to lose his mind once Queen Constance died, and the knights knew that he'd possibly become completely unhinged when he found out what happened to Lizbeth."

"He became completely unhinged anyway." he said quietly, subdued by everything Midna had been telling him.

"Unfortunately yes, but there was no way to hide what happened here, not completely. They buried her in the courtyard, since they didn't want the king to see what she had been transformed into. The knights and soldiers were afraid that she wasn't really dead, or that she may come back due to alchemy, so they dragged a bunch of cannons on top of her grave."

Link thought back to the row of snow-covered canons in the courtyard, stacked near but not quite against the wall. It was an indignant, crude grade for a horrible woman. He wondered if Adelbert was buried in a similar way on the grounds of Hyrule Castle somewhere.

"They all swore an oath to not tell the truth of what happened here, not even to the families of those who lost people to experimentation." Midna continued, staring down at the old bloodstain on the stones of the floor. "They told the king that the queen's magic had backfired, and there wasn't enough of her body left to bury at Hyrule Castle." She fixed her one red eye on his blue ones. "We can now see why suddenly Adelbert wanted to ban all magic after that. He was mad, but he was right about one thing: magic can be dangerous. If only he had used the queen's death as a motivation to teach the people how to be careful with magic instead of banning it entirely."

"We can't think about what ifs, Midna. What's done is done, and all of us Hyruleans are changed because of it." He lowered his eyes to the bloodstain. "It's telling how much Brent trusts us by letting us know what happened here."

"He still feels guilty, to this day. While he had no choice in fighting and killing her, he did have a choice about what he told the king. I think he might feel like he's partially responsible for the magic purge, even though there's no way he could have known." The Twili sighed and shook her head, and turned towards a nearby table that was situated between cages, its back side covered in glass vials and tubes. "The mirror isn't here. It was, but it's gone now." She pointed to a spot on the table, where the dust of six years had been disturbed. The marks were mostly indistinct, of something set on the table, but there was one very large handprint: Yeta's.

"I followed her footprints in the dust, since I can see in the dark." Midna said. "She already came in here, but I wasn't sure if she took the shard until I followed the trail here." The Twili gestured at the dark and frightening room. "Yeto picked a horrible and terrifying place to hide it, but she still had to go and get it anyway. I think he's right. I think she's obsessed with it. The sad part is, she doesn't realize it's killing her."

"Wait, it's killing her?" Ashei asked, her stoic routine fading a bit. "She looks feverish, but not like she's dying."

Midna stretched with a grunt, and crossed her legs as if she was seated in mid-air. "There's an incredible amount of magic in the Mirror of Twilight, which is something made by the gods themselves. Since it's the portal that connects this world and mine, it's chock full of dark magic, more magic than mortals can handle. I can't be sure since we haven't found it yet, but I think the shard is sucking out her life energy and replacing it with its own. She stinks of dark magic. It's fine for a Twili sorceress like me to use it, but for an innocent being like that sweet Yeti?" She righted herself and began to float back towards the door, and glanced over her shoulder. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's killing her."

Midna led them back out through the dark laboratory and through the heavy iron door. Once they were back near the doorway leading back outside, she stopped. "We shouldn't tell Yeto about what the mirror is doing to his wife. He's already figured out that it's dangerous, and that's probably hard enough on him. He'd be really upset if he knew that the mirror was slowly draining her life." She disappeared, a shapeless mass of black orbs that surrounded Link and vanished. He could feel a chill against his chest, meaning that she was going where he didn't want her again. He didn't say anything, knowing that this was not the time or the place to argue. Instead he extinguished his lantern and stowed it away, not wanting to make himself an easy target for the ice creatures outside.

They quietly moved back through the outdoor passageway and past the iron gate, the snow falling thickly in big fat flakes. Link looked over at the pile of cannons in the back corner, and thought of the terrible woman buried there. The woman who had instilled a fear of magic in her followers and the king, but then went and used dangerous shadow magic herself. Hypocrite. Changing into a monster and then being killed by her own retinue seemed to be a fitting end to her. He thought that he would feel the same bitterness about the queen as he did about King Adelbert, but he felt that justice had been delivered already.

Yeto was dropping the fish's head into the huge pot when they returned to the kitchen. "You were gone a while. Did you find a suitable place to sleep?" The large beast-man looked them over, and took in the snow that clung to their boots and their shoulders. He frowned disapprovingly, baring his lower fangs. Tusks, not fangs. Yeta had fangs, Yeto had tusks. "You went outside. I warned you that it's dangerous out there. Are you all right?"

Ashei spoke up before Link had a chance. "The human village we come from is full of warriors. We're both wearing swords, and are used to fighting side-by-side. I appreciate you looking out for us, but we can handle ourselves." She stomped the snow off her furred boots, and calmly looked up at the Yeti. "Yeto, I used to live in this place with my father, when our queen lived here. Some horrible things happened here that caused it to be abandoned, and I needed to show them to Link and Midna. It's important that others remember what happened here."

Yeto wiped his large hands on a towel that looked comically small. "You were in the basement, weren't you? That place smells of death and evil magic." He took a few steps to look down at her, towering over the two humans, and considered her with his rounded brown eyes. "May I ask you what happened here? We know the humans left suddenly, but we Yeti never figured out why."

"The queen was performing magical experiments, specifically using kinds of magic that are taboo." she told him. "She wound up killing herself and others because of it."

"Hmm." The Yeti put a hand to his shaggy chin, not liking what he had heard. "Now there's this heavy snow, and the ice creatures. Perhaps it is as the shadow creature said, that something else is here causing the snow and ice magic, and Yeta's mirror is only indirectly affecting things." He returned his attention to the two humans. "You two are warriors, and the shadow being has strong magic. If you're willing can you investigate the rest of this keep, and make sure nothing dangerous was left here? Perhaps you will find the thing that's causing the snowstorm. I dare not leave Yeta alone to look for things myself." He shrugged and picked up the broadsword he was using as a knife, and a potato that was dwarfed in his hands. "Besides, it will be some time before dinner, anyway. Oh, and I put some tea out near Yeta if you would like some. If she's still asleep, just be quiet so you don't disturb her."

"Thanks, Yeto. We'll have some and warm up, and then check things out for you." Link watched the Yeti cook, and thought it was interesting that Zoras ate their food raw, yet Yetis cooked theirs. Perhaps the Yeti were even more civilized than the Zora were.

The two of them went back out into the cozy dining room, and Yeta turned her head towards the door as they entered, seated on the floor with a delicate teacup in her large hands. She was drinking from fine bone china, something intended for Queen Lizbeth, yet here it was in the hands of a Yeti. "Oh, humans, I'm so sorry…" Her tone was apologetic. "I forgot that I had already taken the mirror from there. That place is so terrible, please forgive me for sending you there. I'm not myself right now."

"That's all right." Link said, reaching for the teapot that Yeto had set on the hearth to keep it warm. "I think we needed to see that terrible place anyway. It turns out our queen did some horrible things here, and not many humans know about it. Ashei, tea?"

The young woman sat back down in the chair she had placed by the fire earlier. "Please. I've been thinking about a warm drink all day."

Yeta watched as Link poured for himself and his friend, and then giggled in an almost drunken manner when he handed a cup of tea to Ashei. "You humans really do use each other's names all the time, don't you? How funny." Her smile remained on her face as she stared at the cup in Ashei's hands for a moment. Then she gave a start and looked around. "What were we talking about? I'm sorry, I'm not myself."

He looked at the muddled Yeti, who had beads of sweat standing out on her nose and forehead. She really was not well. The sooner they found that mirror, the better. "We were talking about the terrible things our queen did here, and the two of us investigating that." He paused to take a drink of the hot tea, and although it could have used some honey, it still warmed his belly. "While we're out doing that, maybe we'll be able to look at your mirror too. Do you remember where Yeto hid it?"

"Don't count on it." Midna muttered quietly in his ears.

The Yeti furrowed her brow in concentration, trying to get her fever-fogged brain to remember properly. "Yes, I think so. There is a large room with many human weapons in it, with some of those metal suits that are like the ones by the main doors of this building. I know it's on this floor. There are a bunch of boxes...no, trunks? Chests? There are some of those, and I know he put the mirror in one of them, but I couldn't tell you which one. I only remember looking at it when it lay in the chest." She sighed, tired from speaking again. "I'm sorry I can't be more helpful."

Ashei looked up at Link, holding the teacup between her bare hands to warm them. "I know where that is. It sounds like the armory. It's in the back corner of the keep, opposite of those stairs that went down into the basement. We should take the right door out of this room."

He drained his cup and set it down on the hearth near the teapot. "Then that's where we're headed next."

They pulled their gloves back on and left the sick Yeti behind. The room beyond was a dark seating room, and had a door to the hall along its back wall. The next hall was similar to the one on the opposite side, but this one was a bit more spartan. There were no paintings on the walls or plush carpets, only two long rooms along either side of the hall: a barracks and a mess hall. The light that came through the narrow windows of the barracks was dimmer, either from the heavier snowfall, or from the sun sinking low.

However, the mess hall was well-lit due to the large hole in the exterior wall of the keep. Most of a window and its frame were simply gone, as were some of the stones surrounding it, and snow filtered gently through the gap to settle on the floor. When they walked up to it, Midna materialized next to them and they stared at the destruction caused by something large that needed to escape.

"I don't like this." Link frowned at the hole rent in the side of the keep. "Whatever did it is gone, but it's possible there's more of whatever did this. We should be on our guard." He pulled the shield off his back and set it on his arm as a precaution.

They continued down the hall and had their hands on their sword hilts when they went through the iron-bound door leading outside. Their caution was what saved them. Right outside the door, in a far wider passageway was a thin-limbed humanoid made of ice. It had an angular head and hands, but lacked a face. It reacted immediately, turning to swing its spear made of ice at them, but Link was faster. In two quick strides he was next to it, swinging his right arm wide to smash it with his shield. The spindly creature shattered into fragments, its arms and midsection destroyed, leaving a pair of thin legs standing motionless in the snow for a second before they toppled over.

Something exploded into fragments of ice on the wall behind him, having been thrown by another creature farther down the passageway, but Ashei was already running towards it, sword drawn. It raised its hand and formed another javelin of ice, but that was as far as it got before she slashed it in two. The female warrior stomped her boot on its head and arms just to be certain it was dead, if it was ever alive in the first place.

Another spear impaled the snow next to her, and she whirled to look above the door they had come through. Since she was not currently wearing her mask he was able to follow her gaze, and saw another one of the creatures standing on the roof of the hall they had just come from, its hand extended from hurling its javelin. He saw the ladder that led up to the roof, and in a split-second decision came to the conclusion that he was far better equipped to draw the creature's fire than Ashei.

He quickly backed up to her, shield held up in front of him. "Climb the ladder!" he told her, holding up his shield to deflect another thrown spear. "I'll tell you when to get to the top!"

She understood and sprinted towards the ladder, a flying spear missing her as she ran. Thankfully, the creatures did not have the best of aim when it came to moving targets. He watched her sheathe her sword and climb the ladder until she was a few rungs below the top, the creature still out of her line of sight, meaning she was out of its view as well. Another missile of ice hit Link's shield, and he swung his arm in an attempt to deflect it back, just as the previous Link had suggested he could do. It instead flew into the wall below Ashei and shattered. Oops. He'd have to work on that. "Now!" he shouted.

Ashei hauled herself up quickly, drawing her sword and slicing through the ice monster in one fluid motion. Its two halves fell to the stones and shattered into pieces from the impact. Suddenly another spear flew and crashed against the outer wall of the keep behind her, and she turned to look over the parapet before ducking to avoid another spear. A third one thudded into the parapet she crouched next to. She was pinned down for the moment, and there had to be more than one creature lobbing ice at her.

He took a step forward to look through the iron gate, but it was difficult to see the creatures through the thickly-falling snow. It didn't matter if there were two or five; he needed to get their attention. "Hey!" he shouted, banging his sword against his shield to make a ruckus and get their attention. He was rewarded with not three but four spears that flew through the gate and shattered on both the wall and his shield.

Ashei used this opportunity to leap down into the snow of the passageway, run past him and shove the heavy door open. "Come on!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" He replied and backed through the door after her, more ice shattering around him. One spear narrowly missed his right leg, but then they were through the doorway. Ashei pushed the door shut and leaned on it, panting.

"Let's hope they don't know how to use doors." Link said, still holding the Master Sword ready.

"Let's not find out." she added, and she turned and ran down the hall. He ran after her, their rapid footfalls echoing in the empty stone keep. They heard no sounds of pursuit, but continued to run until they reached a tall double door at the end of the L-shaped hallway. Ashei did not hesitate and pushed the door open to rush into the room. As soon as the two of them were inside, she slammed the doors shut, casting them into darkness.

The room was dark, but not entirely, lit by a few high grated windows, metal bars set into the stone with a crisscross pattern. A few snowflakes flew in through the grates, settling on the floor nearby. As his eyes adjusted, he could see weapon racks and the outlines of tall suits of armor that stood along the far wall. He knelt and lit his lantern again, then stood holding it high to light up the room.

Rusted swords and spears glinted dully on their racks, the weapons falling into disrepair without anyone to maintain them. There were armor racks along the left wall, some still sporting chain mail, others bare. The right side of the room had a line of equipment chests along the wall and beneath the grated windows; large trunks of leather, wood and iron that were covered in a light dusting of snow. Other chests stood here and there around the room without any organization, signs that the men that had lived here took what they needed and left the room as it was. Four of the large suits of armor stood along the back wall, dusty tapestries interspersed between them.

Link walked to the center of the room and took it all in, still holding his lantern aloft. "Midna? Are you able to see tracks in here again?"

The Twili appeared next to him and immediately started scanning the floor with her one red eye. "Some, but they go all over the place. There's this snow that came through the windows that's covering the floor near those chests." She put her small hands on her lips and pursed her lips. "I suppose we'll have to look in each one." She moved to the far end of the room and flipped open a trunk with her hair.

Sighing, Ashei moved to the opposite side as Midna, and opened it up to rummage around inside. He turned to the disorganized chests on his side of things, and decided that he may as well try those, picking one closer to the door. He knelt in front of the large leather-bound trunk and set down his lantern, and undid the latch to peer inside. There were leather gauntlets and vambraces similar to the one he was currently wearing, and the smell of unused leather wafted up to him. He began to paw through the stacks of gear, trying to see if there was someplace between them the shard could be hidden.

This was going to be a pain in the ass.

"Ugh, this is going to be a pain." Midna complained while hovering in front of an open chest, her words mirroring his thoughts. "And it smells like something died in here."

"Rat's nest, probably." Ashei said, moving to another chest. "I'd wager there's a few dead rats or mice in this room."

He moved over to the next chest after fruitlessly searching the first one, wondering if there was some way to more quickly check the chests without looking through them. Maybe he could get Midna to dump them out on the floor, although he doubted she would like that idea. He considered asking her if she had some spell to detect the location of the mirror like Rauru did, and then stopped suddenly.

He stood up, realizing that he had such a spell himself. He had a shadow spell that allowed him to see the truth of things, and had used it to see the Sages' true forms, as well as many other things so far. If he was able to see the true nature of things, then he could determine whether a particular item was hidden somewhere or not...at least he thought so. He wasn't exactly sure how the spell worked, but it was worth a shot. He relaxed and focused, letting his eyes sweep around the room, at each chest among the weapon racks, then over by the massive suits of armor.

A set of double doors stood out to him through the center tapestry, his eyes seeing both the hanging fabric and the door behind it.

Curious, he strode up to it and grabbed the thick woven fabric in his hands, lifting it. Yes, there was another set of doors here, and from here he could smell what Midna was complaining about. Rat nests aside, he had found something interesting, and so he stepped back while still holding the tapestry in his hands and gave it a sharp tug.

"Link, what are you doing?" He could hear Midna behind him, her voice confused. He probably looked like a madman.

Ignoring her, he yanked harder with a grunt, and tore the tapestry and its fasteners from the wall in a shower of dust, revealing the doors. He sneezed from the cloud of dust and then gave the doors a satisfied look. He didn't know where they went, but he had found something with his own magic.

Midna floated past him to examine the doors, and then turned back to him. "You could see them, couldn't you?"

He nodded. "I thought I-" He sneezed again. "Ugh, excuse me. I thought I could see something in the room that was hidden and didn't belong, so I focused and...there were the doors."

She beamed at him like a mother proud of her son. "You're using your magic to help us out. Good work."

"It's my normal magic too, and it has nothing to do with Courage." He dropped the tapestry, sending up another cloud of dust. He shielded his face with his arm to prevent himself from sneezing yet again.

Ashei came up next to him holding the lantern he had deposited on the floor. "You have magic other than Courage?"

"Yeah. I'm still figuring it out because I didn't start using it until the gods gave me a new job and a green uniform." He knew a few magical songs as well, but he wasn't going to mention that to her. She'd only want to learn them, and he felt that they weren't his to teach anyone else. "Come on, let's see where these go. The mirror might be in there."

He pushed at the solid iron doors, but found that they were locked. That would figure. He found a hidden room with his magic, only to not be able to open the damn thing.

"It's possible that Yeto didn't hide the mirror in there, if it's locked." Ashei said.

"Or he had the key and locked it away to prevent his wife from getting it." Link mused. "He doesn't seem too concerned about us taking the mirror just yet, so it wouldn't surprise me if he locked it up somewhere. It certainly won't hurt to check. Midna? If you would, please?"

The little black and gray imp reached out with her hand and tapped the lock with her finger, releasing a jolt of crackling shadowy energy into it. It gave a solid thunk as the latch opened. She gave him a small smile, and he pushed open the heavy doors with a grunt.

The other room was not quite as dark, with more grated windows along the top of two walls, and it was far larger than the armory. As soon as they stepped into the room, the stink of decay hit them. Something was dead in this room, and with the better light, it was easy to see what. There could have been about a dozen bodies, but Link was unsure since bones, weapons and bits of armor were scattered across the room. Some of them were slumped against the wall, their armor peeled away to reveal white bones beneath withered flesh.

Even more disturbingly, the corpses were not human. The intact ones had short tails, and one with its helm removed had a skull that was the wrong shape, vaguely humanoid but with smaller eye sockets and far sharper teeth. They were all tall, far taller than even a Goron, and just as broad. The most disturbing thing was that these bodies had been gnawed on, sharp tooth marks on the bones, and even the exposed skull.

Ashei made a gagging sound, covering her mouth. The sight and smell made him want to gag too, at these creatures that were locked in this room and left to die, hidden from the knights and soldiers that abandoned the keep. They had resorted to cannibalism to remain alive, and even though there was a water pump in one corner of the room for them to drink from, after six years none of them survived. Three remained intact: one lay near the back wall with its thighs exposed, the flesh eaten way down to its femurs. Another in full armor sagged against the wall not too far from the water pump, a halberd in its dead hands. The third lay towards the center of the room next to a massive spiked ball on a chain, its armored back to them.

"Can we go?" whispered Ashei, her voice filled with disgust.

"Yeah…" he responded, hearing the same disgust in his own voice. "The mirror's not in here."

Suddenly there was a rumbling moan coming from somewhere in the room, and the sound of metal scraping on stone. The creature that lay with its back to them slowly rose, groaning in misery as it stood. It loosely held the chain that was attached to the spiked ball in one of its four-fingered hands, the chain wrapped around its arm. The monstrosity slowly turned to face them while moving stiffly, its visor raised but its face in shadow due to the light coming from the windows behind it. It heaved a few weak breaths as it faced them, and Ashei and Link drew their weapons in alarm.

Then the creature reached out with its free hand imploringly. "H...help." It whispered in a ragged voice. "Help me." it said more clearly in an alarmingly human voice; a man's voice.

Link pushed down his feelings of terror and revulsion at seeing something he thought was dead rise to its feet. It wasn't undead; it was breathing. He decided to speak to the creature. "It's all right. We can get you out of here." The armored beast was frightening, but it seemed to be in some tortured agony. He couldn't leave it here, especially since it had asked them for help. He pitied the poor thing, locked away in this room for years.

He took a few steps towards the monster, and could see its reptilian face within its helmet. The face was human, but with scales instead of skin, and two holes where a nose should be. A thin-lipped mouth revealed jagged teeth as it panted for breath. "Gods, what did they do to you…?" Link breathed, horrified.

The armored creature drew another heavy breath, looking at him with an unreadable expression, and then at the Master Sword. Its yellow eyes went wide and it pressed its armored hand to its face. "N...no." It growled through pointed teeth, clutching at its face and bending over as if in pain.

He took another step towards the pitiful thing, but it shouted suddenly. "No! Back!" It swung its large arm with unexpected speed and sent him flying with a backhand, catching him by surprise. His shield was knocked from his arm and he sprawled on the floor, sword still clutched in his left hand. He got to his feet immediately, ignoring the pain from hitting the hard stone floor and held his sword ready. The creature was breathing heavily, its breaths turning into deep growls. It lifted the chain wound around its right arm and started to swing the massive ball in a huge arc.

The abomination raised its face and stood up to its full height, and he could see madness in its yellow eyes, the pupils little more than slits. It clenched its teeth and spoke again. "Kill...me…." it grated, its voice desperate. Then it swung the spiked ball faster and hurled it at Link.