Chapter 18: Division

It was as the engine hissed up to the cavern's station, leaving the crying wind trapped outside, that he first realised just how grand their destination was. Sunlight pierced through the icy wall behind them, coating the cavern in a cool blue light. But as striking as the cavern seemed, it was overwhelmed by the fort filing the interior.

It seemed to have been melded into the cavern walls, as if someone had begun digging it out but gotten bored halfway through. Flanking the fort's front stood two stone pillars running from roof to floor. From here the shimmer of light washed over them, allowing carvings of oddly shaped birds finely etched into the towers to stand out from the icy sheets enveloping the cave. Attached to the front was a door tall enough that even Alfonzo could fit through it with ease and made of stone so dark he couldn't even pick out a flicker of light on its surface. That wasn't what stood out the most though, that honour went to the single great eye emblazoned onto the front, staring towards them as if waiting for their approach.

Zelda showed her typical patience, hopping onto the decrepit station below before the train had even come to a stop. Stumbling as she landed, she spent a moment delicately placing her feet around the cracks that cut the tiles into a jumble of miss-matched shapes. Seeming satisfied she was alright, her face glowed with curiosity as she began perusing the grand building.

"Well that's peculiar," she said, each tile creaking as she stepped along the station, "where'd all the ice go?"

"What do you mean?" Link asked, letting the last of the steam whistle out from the engine before carefully stepping down to join her, "there's ice everywhere in here."

"Not on the fort," she pointed towards the pillars, her hand travelling in a small loop shifting between them, "it stops around the pillars."

He followed her gesture and sure enough, while the ice coated the cavern walls and crawled towards the centre, the fort itself was completely clear. In fact, a giant ring had formed around it, as if the ice refused to come any closer.

"That doesn't make sense, this is literally the coldest place in New Hyrule."

"Then it's a mystery," Zelda said and he caught the glimmer of excitement in her eyes, "that means we have to solve it."

She charged ahead of him, running off to inspect the architecture before he processed her words.

He plodded behind her, ice and snow crunching beneath his feet. His eyes fell back to the door's own as it stared towards the pair. Something scratched at his mind. It wasn't that the symbol was familiar, in some ways it was strangely the opposite, yet something still seemed distinctly off about it. A pit opened in his stomach, screaming at him to not get too close. Reaching the edge of the icy circle, the crunch of snow stopped as he took a hesitant step forwards.

Blinding light overtook his vision and he leapt backwards, sword and shield in hand within a moment. Before his feet even skimmed the ground, a white hot light shot from the eye's pupil, scorching the ground where his foot once was.

He pulled his shield between him and the eye, muscles tensed as he awaited a second shot. A moment passed. Another. But nothing came. Peeking out from his protection, he just caught the light dimming in the carvings pupil before vanishing completely. He waited a second more before his nerves allowed his arms to drop.

"What was that?" Zelda's voice approached from his side, a noticeable shake ringing through it.

Sheathing his sword and dropping the shield onto his back, he turned towards her.

"That eye. Seems like it answers our mystery," he said, pointing towards the circle, fresh scorch marks smouldering at its edge.

Zelda's gaze followed his gesture, before moving towards the eye, relaxing a little as she caught on. "So we're safe here then. The question is, how do we get closer?"

It was a good point, clearly just walking up and knocking wasn't going to work. Then again, maybe they didn't have to? His hand fell to his satchel, finger toying with the bow inside as the idea formed in his mind. It was probably worth testing at least, experience had taught him there was only one thing to do when eye symbols appeared, right?

Without missing a beat, he pulled the small bow from his satchel, nocking an arrow with the same movement. His target was quite far, maybe thirty-five…no…forty metres? He raised the bow a fraction, aiming slightly above the eye.

The arrow twanged from his hands, and he watched as it pierced through the chilled air. Then continued watching as the arrow bounced off the wall besides his target, spinning through said air before landing unceremoniously in the snow.

"That was awful, someone's not been practising," Zelda said, teasing tone in her voice.

"Sorry, but I'm far too busy to 'practice' as much as you do, by all means feel free to take over," he said, lazily dangling the bow towards her.

She swiftly seized the bow from his hand with her own, using the other to filch an arrow from his satchel.

"Alright, but if I hit it you need to come practice with me sometime, can't have you getting hurt because you don't know what you're doing."

He struggled to hide his grin as she pulled the bow back. She was quick and smooth as she ran through the motions, unclouded by unnecessary overthinking. She paused, her breathing steady as she made minute adjustments in her aim. In. Out. In. Out.

The focus on her face was captivating, a certain sharpness peeking through her usually soft, rounder features. There was no stress in it though, if anything she seemed relaxed, completely at home in her element. It suited her, and he'd be lying to say he wasn't keen on it himself.

The arrow thunked into its target before he could turn to watch it. By the time he caught up, the crack of splintering stone boomed from the door. The eye had begun to shudder and, as if it had forgotten what to do and was gradually working it out, it slowly started to spin. Faster and faster, it kept picking up speed as smoke began billowing from it. Zelda crept to his side as he pulled his shield between them and the eye once again.

A bang echoed around the cavern, the force shaking his bones. As the ringing died down, he risked peeping over his shield. The eye had fallen from its perch, now face down in the snow as the smoke cleared above it. Zelda spun to him, cheeky grin on her face.

"So I'll see you at the castle sometime next week then? Don't worry we'll start with some beginner targets and build up, just for you."

Link scrunched up his face, sticking his tongue at her while setting off towards the now clear door, "fine, but let's focus on this first."

As he approached, his eyes were drawn to the mechanism on the floor. The remains were no longer smoking, but they'd clearly broken something important as the back was blown out to reveal a mix of cogs and thin wires underneath. He pulled his sword out as he crouched over it, using the weapon to chip away the remains of the shattered back.

"Any idea how it works?" Zelda asked from behind him, herself focusing on the now clear door.

"I recognise some parts but I'll need some time to properly check. It's complex I'll say that much." He stood, turning towards her just as Zelda gently pushed the door open just enough to glance inside.

"Do you think it's ok to go in?" She asked, angling her head to look down the corridor, another arrow already partially nocked into the bow, "I'm guessing that was put up to stop people rummaging around."

"Can't say I'm completely sure, but we need answers so I don't think we have much choice at this point," he nodded to the bow in her hands, "keep that ready just in case."

She nodded and the two moved to flank the door. He tapped his shield against the door, pushing it open enough to allow a little more light to seep in. As it did, an odd sensation ran over his arm. Something was coming from inside.

He scanned the hall. While he couldn't make out much, there was no movement - he was sure of that much. At this point there was no sense in waiting, if something was there it'd be best to surprise it right? With that rather foolish thought in mind, he threw his weight into the door and it flew inwards.

Now a little clearer, he found that he was right. While scanning around revealed some of the royal family's symbols and ceremonial weapons mounted on the walls, the hall itself was empty of life. Still, something else was off, something he couldn't see. Then, as the sensation fully wrapped around him, his brain finally caught up.

"It's warm."

He heard the Zelda's steps as she followed him in.

"What? How?" She asked. But she stopped mid step, no doubt taking a moment to make sense of the soothingly fresh heat. "This place is bizarre."

She'd barely finished speaking before she whipped off her coat, moving to squeeze it into the already overstuffed bag on her hip.

"You're kidding, right? That coats barely thick enough for summer, let alone here."

"You can feel how warm it is," she said, wrapping a red potion in the coat before once again trying to fit it back in the bag, "I may actually pass out if I have to keep this on."

He chuckled as he moved through the hallway. She really could be daft sometimes. He passed through an open archway, behind which the walls peeled away as they opened into the fort's main chamber.

The room was huge, enough so that what little light came from the outside quickly faded into darkness, shadowing the far walls from his view. Still, some light bled through, allowing the slight edges of scattered furniture to form. A large square table sat in the room's centre, a few chairs fallen at its side. Numerous items were scattered atop the table, a few books – seemingly tattered beyond repair - and more importantly, candles. He grabbed one, snapping a match across his sword to light it.

He blinked away at the light, having to force his eyes open as they adjusted to the lack of darkness. As everything came into focus, he set the candle into a holder, grabbing at a few more and doing the same. After five or so candles lit up the room, their light pushed away enough of the darkness that he could see finer detail and lifted the anticipation from his shoulders. He caught a glimpse of Zelda moving around the room and began inspecting it himself.

It appeared to be some sort of gallery, with various paintings proudly displayed on the walls, three on either side of the room. Between each one stood suits of armour, four in total, all carrying identical swords in hand – only differing in where they pointed them, each to a different part of the room. However, as he scanned around, there was something else that brought him to pause.

The painting sat dead centre of the room's back wall, at least thrice as tall as it was wide. Etched into the canvas stood a looming tower, glaring over the room as it reached into the darkness above. At first he'd thought it was the Tower of Spirits, after all it was the only thing he knew of that could seem so imposing. However, this one was different. The Tower of Spirits was open and smooth in its design and, despite his own experience with the place, carried an air of comforting familiarity. This image on the other hand sent a slight shock down his spine. The tower was jagged, with chunks missing as if they'd simply been torn away. The strangest part however was the clouds. Instead of hovering around the tower's top like he'd expected, the painting depicted them as twisting around various parts of the tower. Some started wrapped around the spire, spiralling around and down to the tower's base. Others seemed attached to the side, running off the borders of the painting into the unknown, strained as if holding the tower in place. Yet despite the paintings scale, the more he studied it, the greater an unnerving pressure squeezed his arms, as if the room was closing around him.

He pulled his gaze from the image, landing on Zelda as she made her way around the room, now looking towards one of the paintings filling the westward wall. It was an odd one, as far as he was concerned. He'd expected something like the painting besides them - something grand and imposing - or maybe more traditional, like the family portraits he'd seen back at the castle. Instead the image was of a simple red wooden sail boat with a large lion like figure head, only large enough for two, maybe three people at a push, roaring over the rough waves beneath it.

"Do you recognise that?" Link asked.

Zelda must have been lost in thought, as she jumped at his words, taking a moment to collect herself before she spoke.

"I'm not sure, I definitely haven't seen it before but in some ways it seems oddly familiar," she said, face twisting as she thought, "this whole place gives me that feeling actually, as if I've known it my whole life."

He saw where she was coming from, between the armour and the paintings that decorated the walls, it certainly was reminiscent of the castle they'd left. Still, his gut told him things were a little different.

"It seems like they left in a hurry," he said, shifting back to the table and beginning to dig through the mess of items, organising them into piles as he went, "this all looks like it was just dropped in place."

"Why though?" Zelda said, moving around the room from one painting to another, "I'd understand if it'd been attacked, but this place isn't even damaged. In fact, there's nothing here at all, I'd expect some Chuchus or Keese at least."

That…was an excellent point actually. Even the mines, despite being used by the Gorons until only a couple of days before his visit, already had some monsters inside when he was exploring. This place on the other hand was eerily quiet.

"Link, come look at this." Zelda called, having moved to the centre of the giant painting, staring at something on the floor below it.

He grabbed a candle, heading over to her side as it's light pushed away the remaining mist of darkness. Zelda had begun to shift objects from the spot, shoving them aside into mismatched piles. As he reached her side, what she found became obvious. It was a circle and, while it was coated in a thin layer of mud and dust, he could still make out how it split into quarters of green, red, blue and purple.

"I've never seen that symbol before," he said, crouching down to better inspect it.

"Neither have I," she said, staying standing by his side. He heard the flutter of pages before she spoke again, "I can't find anything about it in my grandmother's diary either," she huffed, circling around him to the symbol's other side.

His hand skimmed along the blue stone and a sharp chill ran up his arm. He yanked it away on instinct. It was freezing, as if he'd reached into frozen water. He flexed his hand as the numbing sting faded back into feeling. It didn't seem injured, that was good at least. Either way, it seemed to be best not to touch it himself again.

"Don't touch it," he said, feeling around for some of the discarded objects piled around them, "not directly at least, it stings."

That being said, it was clear they needed to do something with it, this was obviously a puzzle after all. Then again, to say he had no idea what to do was an understatement.

"Have you spotted anything? Some hints in the paintings or something?" He asked as he set the candle down onto the blue stone. It seemed fine, the light still flickering and the metal feeling no cooler in his hand. Did that mean it only affected living things? This place really was weird.

It was then, as the scratches from his inspection echoed around the room, that he realised just how quiet his companion was being. Had she found something else to inspect? It was quickly becoming apparent that she had a knack for that. It was good though, maybe she'd found the solution somewhere.

But as he looked up Zelda wasn't at his side anymore. In fact, there was no movement in the room at all. Zelda was gone.