Chapter 17: Beating the Drum of War Went He
The future was a desolate place, but by now more familiar than the past. He had little trouble returning to Kakariko Village; that was what warp songs were for. That he didn't have to face the redead in the market remains was a bonus.
He considered heading back out to the town proper, to see if he could find Sheik, but thought that she would appreciate it more if he just hurried and entered the Shadow Temple, already. It occurred to him, also, that he hadn't contacted Saria in a while; he'd seen her in the past, but that wouldn't help her now, now would it?
But, Sheik had sounded so urgent that he dared not to delay. He'd restocked what supplies he could in the past, returned to the Temple of Time, drawn the Master Sword, and barely staggered at all at the sudden difference in height, in muscle strength, in appearance…in just about everything. He'd made sure that Navi had followed him back to the future, and then played the "Nocturne of Shadow".
Now, he stood once more in the room filled with unlit torches, face set in determination. He was sure that he knew what to do. In the centre of the room was a platform, with no torches standing on or near it. He stepped onto the platform, swiped his hands right, and then left, with the too-familiar appeal to the goddess Din. He expanded his will outwards in a circle, and the torches lit, not one at a time, but in fours and fives (and sometimes threes, yes).
He knew when to stop by the sound of stone grating against stone. He let the flames die, and turned to watch the heavy stone slab blocking the entrance rise into the hill. Predictably, it led into darkness. He wasn't close enough for faerie magic to reveal what lay beyond. He'd have to enter and hope that no ambush awaited.
He walked into the temple, found himself almost immediately at a bend in the path, and turned a corner to find himself staring at a painting that stood on the other side of a wide gap. On the ledge of the far side, he could see the concentric circles marking the path for a hookshot. Not that he had time to sufficiently analyse the room before a disembodied voice spoke,
"You will go no further without the Eye of Truth handed down by the shadow folk," said the voice, and then the painting vanished, revealing a room lying beyond. It seemed to be an ordinary room, made of the same grey bricks of the rest of this temple, but Link knew better than to trust appearances when it came to the "shadow folk", by now.
And, just where had that voice come from? He turned to Navi, silent question expressed with that mere action, and their weeks (years?) spent together. She shivered, and returned a look that quite plainly proclaimed her ignorance. He shivered in reply, but withdrew the hookshot, aiming for the circles. He'd have to cross the gap, first.
He walked through the space where the illusion of a painting doubtless still remained, entering a broad room with an abyss on the far side. In the far centre wall behind the abyss was a closed stone mouth, a statue of a head that was almost all mouth, with tiny eyes on top. The mouth was shut, and Link found himself glad of it.
He turned, shuddering, away from it, and caught sight of the circle of poles, each topped with a skull, arranged around a stone carving of a bird. The bird was decidedly predatory, all sharp angles and lines, with a wicked, pointing beak, narrowed, evil-looking eyes, and horns sticking back from its head. The wings were spread as if in flight, and it rested sharp-taloned claws on a plinth with a stone slab sticking out of it.
He found himself thinking of the wedges outside the boss's lair in the Forest Temple, and frowned, looking at the floor beneath the statue, where the bricks were cut into curves, forming around the statue as if this part of the floor had been constructed at a different time from the rest—or perhaps covered a trapdoor, he realised, with a glance over at the abyss that still gaped on the far side of the room. As he stared at the ring of skull poles, the skulls vanished, one by one. Illusions all, but why? To intimidate outsiders without needing as many…materials? Or for some other, more sinister, reason?
He shied away from the bird and its surrounding circle of rounded bricks as he walked along the wall through which he had entered. Even from here, he could see the grotesque painting at the far wall, and he was beginning to think they were meant to indicate hidden doors.
What followed, when he walked through those doors, was something that he couldn't figure out even looking back on it years later. He found himself in a hidden chamber, with those horrid paintings stationed here and there on the walls, and wherever the paintings weren't, walls engraved and sculpted so that the rounded shapes of human skulls poked out, as if hundreds of thousands of corpses had been used to make the temple.
Which was nothing compared to the intermittent mutterings of the disembodied voice, as he struggled to find his way through the maze of a hall (he walked through a painting at one point, convinced he'd be returned to the evil-looking bird statue, only to find himself in another corridor identical to the one he'd just left). "You will go no further without the Eye of Truth handed down by the Shadow Folk," it occasionally said, jarring him away from his thoughts. Hadn't he adequately proven that he possessed it?
"This is the Shadow Temple. Here lies Hyrule's bloody history of greed and hatred," it said, as he considered the door before him. It was indistinguishable from the others. Had he been through it, already? The first two had contained nothing but redead.
He forgot what he was doing, turned away from it, continued on, returned to it later, unwitting, when he got turned around. Within was a redead, of course…but also the map. Not that it helped. According to the map, there were several small rooms off a strange, unevenly arranged corridor, filled with hidden crevices and niches. And he couldn't rightly think when,
"The shadows hide many secrets. If you lose your way, you will never make it out of here without joining them."
Without that. Superficially veiled threats, from an unseen, omnipresent voice.
Weren't Temples difficult enough without adding in psychological warfare? Eventually, he found the compass, and was able to tell better where he had and hadn't been by noting which rooms had treasure chests, and which didn't. This particular compass also was willing to show him in which direction he was facing, and approximately where he was.
Somehow, he found his way to the opposite side of the corridor, and a unique door hidden behind a painting. He opened it to find a gibdo, which he dispatched with much greater ease than he had the gibdos he'd encountered at the bottom of the well. For one thing, the Master Sword was a much more powerful weapon than the kokiri sword, charged as it was with the power of four Sages.
When he'd defeated the gibdo, a violet light spiraled around in the customary circle, leaving behind the last of the normal-looking large treasure chests. Within must be the dungeon item. This was awfully early to be finding it. Perhaps, this dungeon would be easier than the others?
Not a chance. For one thing, he wasn't sure that, even with Navi's detailed explanation, he understood the function of "hover boots". He didn't see how they would help him to progress at all. They allowed you to walk or stand on air for brief periods of time? How long? What was the use? How did it work?
He put them on, briefly, lifted up his foot, brought it down experimentally, bringing it to rest about an inch above the floor. He tried to lift his other foot, but very quickly realised that the reason that the other foot felt as if nothing were supporting it was because nothing was. So, no, he couldn't just suddenly step off into the air.
To make matters worse, the boots had so little traction that he was slipping even on the coarse, unsmoothed bricks of the Shadow Temple. There had to be some sort of use for these, but he had a sense that he had to either wear them constantly without taking them off, thus putting himself in greater danger because they were slippery, or somehow accurately guess where they would be useful.
He switched them back out with the kokiri boots, and spent the next hour trying to find his way back to the room with the bird statue. Because, apparently, there were no other rooms on this floor, and the room with the bird statue connected to the way down.
Standing at the edge of the abyss was a sign. He walked over to it, read it, cocked his head, turned to Navi.
"'Sacred Feet'," he repeated, nonplussed. "What do you suppose 'Sacred Feet' are?"
Navi read the sign aloud to herself. "'Only those with Sacred Feet can safely cross to the gate to the underworld'," she murmured. "Well, I would have to suppose that it's a reference to the hover boots. After all, sacred beings are often mentioned as having the ability to fly…like Yours Truly!"
He stared at her, blinked, looked around the abyss. What was the "gate to the underworld", then? Why did he have the sinking suspicion that he already knew?
He stared at the closed giant jaw of the statue in the dead centre of the far wall. It wasn't even open!
And then, he remembered the stone statue of the bird.
He trudged over to it, casting wary glances behind him at the close-lipped statue. He stepped into the bird's stone circle, and heard a voice. The same voice he'd heard several times before. It seemed to be coming from the opened beak of the bird itself.
"Make my beak face the Skull of Truth. The alternative is descent into the deep darkness."
He walked over to the slab of rock jutting out of the statue, and began to turn it, putting all of his weight into it, and staring straight ahead, and twisting his head around constantly to stare at each skull-pole as it approached, waiting for one that didn't disappear when he stared at it. Truly, the command of the stone statue sounded…ominous.
At last, he noted the approach of the skull, and sent Navi to fly over to it, and to tell him when the beak was facing that skull. Navi left without a word, probably hovering out of sight next to the skull. When he'd twisted the statue enough, she squeaked out a hasty order for him to stop!, and he obeyed, the tension leaving his shoulders, as he turned to look across the abyss, where the mouth of the statue slowly dropped open. A long, stone tongue unfurled from the open mouth, ending in a narrow platform that was lower than the main floor, where Link now stood.
Link remembered the speech the sign gave about "Sacred Feet", cast the spell known as Farore's Wind, and switched out the kokiri boots for the hover boots. Then, he ran across the gap (somehow, somehow!), not daring to look down, at the empty air he was striding across as if it were solid ground, until he felt the "ground" give out beneath him—the hover boots had reached their limits—and he began to fall. He was not even standing over the edge of the tongue yet, but as he fell, he managed to grab onto the edge of the tongue, and to pull himself up.
He climbed up the tongue, leant against the door hidden at the back of the statue's "throat", and tried to stop shivering. That had been far, far too close. He thought that he should immediately use Farore's Wind, again, if just to avoid having to make that harrowing crossing.
He bent over, folded in on himself, and tried to calm down. Navi, for once, did not scold him his recklessness, perhaps realising that he'd had no other choice, and instead alit upon his shoulder, whispering soothing words as Link struggled to master himself.
Gradually, his breathing evened out. Gradually, his heart stopped racing. Gradually, he forced himself to his feet, but when he did, it was to throw out his hands, and to bring them back towards himself again, with a murmured prayer to Farore. He didn't even think this qualified as a waste of magic.
He turned back to the innocent-looking door before him, ordered it to open, walked through into a winding passage, the first of many. It was a corridor that repeatedly made sudden, sharp turns. Here and there windmakers reminiscent of those he remembered being in the Wind Temple appeared, big and ungainly, and creating great gusts of wind that threatened to drive him back, and then tapered down to complete stillness, and then built back up to those great gusts again.
There was even a series of steps leading down—great, tall steps that he could barely have climbed back up. The result was that the strong gusts of wind always had something to batter him against, until he replaced the kokiri boots for iron ones. Then, they ceased to be able to push him around.
Eventually, Link reached the last turn of the corridor, and found himself in a room with three doors, all hidden, and a beamos in the centre of the room. He threw a bomb at the beamos, timing it so that the explosion would also case the beamos to explode, and then turned to the door in the far wall. It was locked.
He turned to the one to the right. Locked.
He turned to the room to the left, and found himself in a room with no readily apparent threats, except for a number of fire keese flying overhead, and a strange, metal on stone shrilling, and the whoosh of blades through the air.
Wooden planks lay scattered around the walls, and silver rupees glinted in various corners of the room, but he was distracted by the inexplicable noises he heard…that was, until he looked more closely at the centre of the room, whereupon a giant, silver set of spinning blades became visible, constantly spinning, just as with the frozen blades he had seen in the Ice Cavern.
Looking up, Link saw the concentric target circles appear on the ceiling, as the Eye of Truth peeled away the layers of illusion. There were also three hidden alcoves—two with silver rupees hidden in them, and one that seemed to lead into a dead end, until he saw the painting and realised that there must be some sort of hidden path, there. Of course.
He was standing at the top of a ledge overlooking the room, and a silver rupee was just past the edge of the ledge. He could reach it if he leapt, carefully, and timed a grab just right.
He leapt off the cliff, grabbed the jewel, landed, rolled to minimise the impact, and then rolled away from the spinning blades, hoping that being lower to the ground would make it more likely to miss him.
He found a jewel hiding amongst the wooden beams, and had soon collected four coins—with only the final one, hanging over the blades themselves, remaining. He drew the bow, sighted, aimed at the first keese, hit, aimed again, struck a second keese, drew the Master Sword as the last one dove for him.
With the last of the keese gone, he could devote his entire attention to the spinning blades. He used the hookshot, timing his trip for when the blades wouldn't be cutting through his most probable landing area, and sent out the chain.
He fell to the ground; a chest appeared in the corner; he rolled away from the blades, standing up at a respectable distance from them, and approached the treasure chest hidden behind a bulwark palisade of logs protecting the chest both from view, and from the scythe blades…that is, if they'd been able to reach that far.
He kicked it open to find a small key, and was about to return to the door through which he'd entered, determined to choose the right door, when he remembered the strange dead end he'd seen on the other side of the room.
He followed the blades in a counterclockwise perimeter of the room, until the first blade passed, and he had time to enter the long tunnel, which ended before a pit that suddenly appeared before his feet, with the painting hanging from a narrow strip of solid ground, for once.
"I can hear the spirits talking here…'If you want to see a ferry to the Otherworld, come here'. That's what it's saying. But…."
Ah, yes. That explained the suddenly appearing pit. He shuddered, looking down, to think of just how far he would have fallen, had he not been walking cautiously, gaze fixed upon the floor. Probably, he would have stepped right off into the pit, twisted—or worse, broken—his leg, and possibly even died. The wire mesh covering the wall leading down into the pit went down…and down…and down…. A "ferry to the Otherworld," indeed! Link thought. More like a direct route to your own demise by falling!
He'd descended at least two stories before he finally reached the bottom of the pit. He walked the short path, to where a giant block with the symbol of the crying eye blocked passage into another room he could see beyond. He couldn't even reach the block from here, but from the other side of this wire fence, he could create an easy door between rooms. According to the dungeon map, he was in floor 4B. And then, he looked up, away from the map, and noticed the proud prow of a long, elegant boat, with bells attached into its front, no sails, no oars, nor any other viable way for it to sail. He stared.
A literal "ferry"? Was it really a route to the Otherworld? He stared and stared, and stared at it. He turned to look at Navi, who clung to the wire mesh of the fence with her thin fingers, as she stared too.
"Do you suppose that's really…?"
The question was left unfinished, and unanswered.
Well, for the moment, it remained unanswered. Things were a bit different once he finally reached that room in 4B.
But, before he did that, he'd had to fight the redead guarding a small key in the northern room off the room with the beamos, and then traverse another winding path complete with fans. He'd had to then navigate a room filled with invisible knives, and invisible skulltulas, which had dropped down on him without warning as he'd rounded the bend of the twisty, fan-filled corridor.
He'd dispatched the skulltula, staring hard at it and not daring to blink, lest he lose track of it, and then put on the hover boots, and began crossing the platforms hovering in the midst of a vast abyss—all of the platforms at a different height, naturally. Some of the blades weren't invisible; some were.
He could hear the screech of metal against stone as they rose and fell of their own volition, impacting with the base of their wooden frames with a heavy thunk, screeching their way up and down their posts, to fall and rise and fall again, indefinitely. The knives were each several times larger than Link, with the average blade being about as tall as he was, but many times longer.
He'd timed his passage under each of the blade for that narrow period of time when they wobbled at the apex of their paths, wiggling themselves out of alignment until they would come crashing down. By then, he'd been and gone.
At the far side, away from the threat of knives, he replaced the hover boots with the more reliable kokiri boots, and looked around.
On the far side of the room, he'd discovered, by staring unblinking at his surroundings, that there were invisible platforms, each of them square, and connecting the visible platforms to doors set into the walls—one to the left of the twisting path through which he'd entered, and one to the right. The one on the right had a beamos, and the map seemed to suggest that it led deeper into the dungeon, and thus, Link took the left-hand path, and was ambushed by a pair of stalfoi. Judging by Navi's indifference, these were of the non-regenerating kind. He might almost have sagged in relief.
Instead he kept his guard up, quickly holding the Sword out to the side, focusing magical energy into it, and releasing it in a charged spin attack, which he then followed up with leaping straight down at the one holding its shield out in a defensive position. The Master Sword cut deeply into it—it should have fled, instead—and Link withdrew the Sword, and leapt backward. He was very, very conscious of the abyss all around him.
He threw caution to the winds, casting Din's Fire in an attempt to retain his ground, without being knocked off into the abyss. Naturally, the stalfoi were unaffected. They had the nerve to laugh at him.
He gritted his teeth, stood, hacked indiscriminately on the one to the left, eventually dealing enough damage to it that it collapsed in blue flames, allowing him to turn his attention to the sole remaining threat.
He took advantage of the let-up to move to the centre of the platform, that it might be his opponent, and not he, who risked being knocked into the abyss. He slashed and sliced at the stalfos until at length, it, too, burst into blue flames, allowing him to jump onto a second invisible platform, and thence to the left-hand door.
But, of course, beyond this room was another scythe room. The blades spun in an endless circle around and around and around, and Link stared, trying to understand. What was he supposed to do?
Meanwhile, he heard the telltale whooshing noise of a wallmaster about to drop on him, just as he noticed the small chest hidden across the room. It had better be another small key.
He cut down the wallmaster, collected the small fortune it left behind, and kept his gaze fixed upon the spinning silvery blades as they whirled around and around. He'd noticed that he needed to keep his eyes on something, or it would vanish until he stared at it again. He couldn't afford not to know where the blades were.
At least there was a silver small key in the chest. Not that it mattered. Connected to this central room was another maze of corridors snaking about, beneath the current floor (B3). He spent several hours gaining and losing small keys, and had a violent encounter with another dead hand—this one ringed by eight hands sticking up from the ground. But, the Master Sword was truly an amazing weapon. It made short work of the more powerful foe, leaving Navi to grudgingly admit that, perhaps, she saw its appeal.
Eventually, they made their way back to the room with the spinning blades, a couple of small keys richer than they'd been when they first entered,, and so exhausted that Link was surprised that he could even stand. Normally, he didn't feel tired in the Temples, or hungry. Time elongated and compacted at the same time—he spent days in there, in what seemed to be hours, but his body reacted and behaved as if it were only a few minutes.
But, not here. It was probably a consequence of the energy he'd expended fighting redead, gibdos, and now a dead hand, and climbing down (and now back up) strange, turning corridors filled with windblowers.
This did not stop Link from casting Farore's Wind the moment he landed on the shelf of rock that held the beamos. He knew he needed to retreat, rest, and recover, but at the same time felt that he must press on. If he went back in time and rested, would it recover his energy? No, he decided. It would only affect his child's body, but not this adult one. How confusing time travel made things!
He approached the beamos, threw a bomb at it, but didn't have the opportunity to stand aside and wait for it to explode, because two more stalfoi rose up from the floor. He groaned, looked to Navi, who gave him a sad smile, and fluttered off to help him keep track of the foes.
Din's Fire was out of the question, as were bombs (weren't they usually? It took too long to use them for most purposes). He could use the bow, but what would he aim for? Could it even harm a skeleton? The hookshot took even longer to use than a bomb—at least with a bomb, all he had to do was will the bomb bag into his hands, reach inside, pull out a bomb, break the end cap off at approximately the right length, throw or drop it, and then wait. The hookshot had fewer steps, but waiting to see whether or not the hook could latch onto what it hit meant waiting for the chain to pay out, and then there was always the risk that it wouldn't work.
Link felt that he had no choice but to continue working as he had. He blocked some of the blows of his current opponent (the other waited out of reach, saving its energy that it might be a fresh opponent when its fellow was defeated), avoiding as many as he could, taking the brief moments in which it lowered its guard to lash out at them. He had to make sure that they committed to an attack before he counterattacked—they could be counted on to feint five times for every genuine strike, and at his level of fatigue, he'd have trouble keeping up if they got in even a single blow.
Eventually, the first stalfos fell. The second had not been paying sufficient attention, and the sides of its legs were singed from the explosion that had destroyed the beamos. It seemed to glare at him, no matter what people said about rictus grins, ever-grinning skulls.
As the stalfos made its approach, he held the Sword out to the side, until it burnt blue, taking advantage of that short time it took for the monster to come within striking distance. It wasn't enough distance. Link kept on the move to give himself time to focus his attack, and then released it in a wave of blue fire and bright steel (if that was even what the Sword was made of).
As it staggered back, he followed this with a chained attack—left, right, up, down, cutting straight through the rib cage. A human would be dead several times over, but the stalfos just raised its shield in defence, blocking the final blow, and pushing Link back. Link returned his shield to a defensive position, mimicking the skeleton soldier's movements.
It was impossible to tell anything of a stalfos's plans by the glowing coals of its eyes. He carefully watched the twitching wrist bones, instead, and the legs, to try to discern its next actions. He blocked a blow to his left shoulder, realised he was leaving it unprotected, shook his head, angled the shield to push the foe's sword aside while the monster was open, and lashed out with his left hand, under his shield, in a singularly tangled jumble of limbs. He wouldn't have tried such a move except in desperation, but it worked, and the stalfos collapsed to the floor, flames already consuming its body.
Across the room, in the far wall, bars shot up from over a door. He sagged, took out the Ocarina of Time, and played the "Nocturne of Shadow", hoping that it would work.
A moment later, he stood in a twilit dusk, looking back at the room full of lit torches that he had just exited. He looked at the sky, looked at the gossip stone standing innocently near the grate barring access to any sane person, and slammed his fist down on the stone, which wobbled up and down wildly, before saying.
"The current time is 18:36!" in a monotone. It was too late to go to the apothecary, or even the old woman who sold the ultimate medicine. He hoped that Sheik would forgive him if he took a brief rest. The Shadow Temple was a horrifically complicated place, as was the case with the rest of the temples.
Link awoke the next morning, ate from his provisions, cooked and ate a cucco egg by taking advantage of the Shadow Temple torches (he knew he'd lit them himself, with Din's Fire, after all). He climbed over the fence, dropping down into the cemetery below.
At some point, the poes he'd slain had been replaced, or had regenerated. He avoided them. When Ganondorf was sealed away, they'd go too, and they couldn't hurt anyone as long as they didn't head into the village. He'd yet to see any there; it stood to reason that they were stuck here.
He made his way through the slowly waking town, climbing down a flight of steps, and then up two, until he came to the apothecary's shop. He replenished his supplies of life medicine, nodded to the apothecary, and then headed outside, seeking for a more secluded place in which to play the "Nocturne of Shadow". He suspected that if anyone noticed him disappear, that it would seem…unusual. Even in a society saturated with magic.
Right after that, he ran back into the Shadow Temple,
The first thing he did was to return to his warp point, and the first thing he did upon returning to that shelf of rock was to examine the door, to make sure that it was still unbarred. That would tell him better than looking around the shelf of rock whether or not any of the enemies had returned.
Satisfied that he was not about to be ambushed by stalfoi, he approached the door, ordered it to open, walked into a room with two paths. There was one with steel bars governed by an eyeswitch overhead, and there was another, that was locked. The locked door led to a single, corridor-like room, long and narrow. The eyeswitch door led down to the fourth floor of the basement (4B).
He nodded, already withdrawing a silver key, which he fitted into the lock, twisting it, opened the door.
Beyond was a nightmare of falling spikes and high cliffs, with a narrow corridor between shelves constantly pounded by said spikes. The falling spikes were each set in rows and columns, attached to a rounded slab of rock. They fell in a rhythm that reminded him of the ever-plummeting knives of the knife chamber he'd recently returned to. Only here, he'd be impaled, not bisected, if he made a wrong move. It might be just as painful, but he was more likely to survive. Maybe.
He stared hopelessly around the room as he approached. Slowly, a block stuck into the wall began to materialise in the wall to his right. That ought to arrest the downward movement of these spike traps. If he could just climb onto the rounded tops….
The block was, thankfully, located outside of the nightmare corridor. Link pushed and pulled it until he could push it down along the narrow corridor. Sure enough, even as the edges of the spike platforms hit the blocks, they hit the solid surface, and stopped, trying and failing to fall any further. He noticed that their upper limit was about level with the top of the walls of the corridor.
He climbed onto the block, and thence onto the knife block itself, using that to climb onto the wall. There were several shelves of rock, some hollowed out into areas, perhaps former cells, that lined the passageway. This might once have been a prison.
Link shuddered at the thought of anyone ever being held here. But, dungeons were thinking places, right? Maybe they'd made this corridor more dangerous than it had once been, or created it out of whole cloth, so to speak.
Or, maybe it had been worse. While Link had met only two sheikahs, that he knew of, and liked both of them very much, in different ways, he had to confess that they were a truly alarming and disturbing people, with an unnatural predisposition to violence. This was a race of warriors and assassins, he reminded himself, and some violence was to be expected, but….
They were the keepers and stewards of the Shadow Temple. And that temple was genuinely filled with "the bloody remains of Hyrule's greed and hatred".
He leapt across the narrow passageway to the small chest waiting somewhere above the hidden alcove where he'd found his block. It had a small key, which was just as well. It was, however, possibly not worth coming here for.
He checked around the room, found nothing else of consequence, headed back to the previous room.
He shot an arrow into the eyeswitch, and approached the door. Beyond was another winding passage, complete with the powerful fans. Finally, he was in a room in a level with the boss—the lowest level of the Shadow Temple. But, there was one last room before he reached the room he had seen before—the one with the "ferry to the Otherworld".
There was, first of all, a hidden exit somewhere in the left-hand wall. There was, further, a series of fans, arranged with a fan on the left hand side of the wall, and then one on the right, and then one on the left, and then one on the right, with the final one on the right. And then there was the matter of the sourceless voice, which Link had been hoping he'd never hear again.
"Those with sacred feet will let the wind carry them to the secret road."
Which was an obvious road to take, but wearing the hover boots, the fans would toss him about as they might autumn leaves. He frowned, but saw no other choice. Let's just hope that he doesn't fall into the abyss lining either side of the narrow walkway, above which all of those fans sat.
And the wind did push him about. He was growing dizzy, and thinking that he should have thought this through more, or at least created a warp point, when the final fan shoved him through the wall, and safe into the room on the other side.
He approached the wall created by green-enameled steel bars woven into a sort of net, and pushed the block that it no longer block his path, and provide a way to climb onto a higher ledge. Now, he could return to this place at any time, coming and going via the hole in the gate. The spinning blades were not terribly far from the tongue leading down into the basement. But, Link didn't much care. Even crossing the abyss to reach the tongue was an alarming adventure.
He took the opportunity, as he approached the banks of a broad and rushing river, to create another warp point. He climbed back onto the ledge, and leapt from there onto the deck of the ship. There was a strange sentiment (almost nostalgia) as he thought, despite himself, about Tetra's pirate ship.
But, this was a ship with no visible means of propulsion. There were, as he'd noticed before, no sails, nor even a mast, no banks of oars, nor a place for rowers to sit. There were two, huge bells attached to the prow, and the mark of the Triforce, painted huge on the floor of the deck. There was no crow's nest, nor captain's cabin. Indeed, there wasn't a below decks. It was only what he saw of it now, with all the complexity of a canoe.
Except that canoes couldn't move on their own.
He stood on the mark of the Triforce, played "Zelda's Lullaby", and rocked back as the ship began to move, the bells jingling almost merrily as they cut through the subterranean river, on a course Link couldn't predict. Their pace was swift and unflagging. Link was sort of but not surprised at how quickly he adjusted to the rocking of the ship underfoot. And, it was just as well that he adjusted, for here came a pair of stalfoi.
He spent the next several minutes fighting for his life, observing little of the swift passage of the ferry along the river, until he and the stalfoi lost their footing, and were thrown forward, as the prow of the ship collided with the wall of the temple. For a minute, he was unsure of what was happening. The stalfoi lashed out at him, he dodged, but Navi fluttered around his own head, avoiding the stalfoi.
"Link! Link! The ship is sinking! You have to get off while you still can! Hurry!"
Was the water of the underworld even water at all? Were the banks so steep that he couldn't get out once he fell in? The ship was sinking?
He leapt off the side, rolling onto the ledge of grey brick lining the waterway. He turned back, ready to fend off the stalfoi if they pursued, but they seemed content to go down with the ship. How odd.
On the far side of a square canal of water, across the way from him, in the opposite direction of the river, was a tall column, with a bird-statue the same as that near the entrance carved on top. Bomb flowers happily grew near the base. He could cross the canal using the hover boots, he supposed, and use the bomb flowers to topple the column, to make it easier to pass back and forth.
He turned to his right, saw the ornate, huge, violet door. Locked, of course. He didn't yet have the boss key, either.
He crossed the canal, plucked a bomb flower, and set it back down among its fellows. The strength of the chain reaction ripped the column in half, sending it toppling beak first into the far side, granting ready access back to the boss's lair.
Two doors stood on the far side of the wall before him. The one set into the same wall as the boss's door, was locked. The other was readily accessible. According to the dungeon map, the locked door to the right led to a huge room with several smaller rooms situated off it. The other door led to just such a small room.
He turned the knob of the unlocked door, first, and entered to find a room with a huge human skull grinning at him. As he watched, it lazily twirled on its plinth, occasionally returning its rictus grin to him. Blue flames blazed from the top, and the walls of the room were monitored by hanging keese. With a couple of ice keese flying overhead, of course.
He pulled out the bow, and began picking them out of the air, and then switched out the bow and quiver for the longshot, and took aim at the nearer of the wall-hanging keese. With the last of them slain, a treasure chest dropped out of nowhere in front of the skull-torch.
Link looked between the bomb flowers ringing the back wall, and the treasure chest, and then climbed back down the ramp leading up onto the ledge that rose above the skull, and opened the treasure chest that had just appeared. Within was a bundle of arrows.
He closed his eyes, sent the arrows away, and walked back up the ramp, plucking one of the bomb flowers that lined the walls, and throwing it into the torch. What else were you going to do in a such a room, but watch and see whether the freezing fire believed itself to be inherently hot, or inherently cold?
The skull exploded in a rain of thin, sharp pieces, like broken glass. Underneath, he found another glass bottle, filled with the ultimate medicine. He could learn to like the sheikahs, after all, he decided. The potion was almost certainly still good, after all. These medicines didn't seem to go bad.
He stared at the bottle, which looked different again from the bottles he'd seen scattered throughout Hyrule. This one was tinted green, for one thing, and had a lid that screwed on. In some ways, the design reminded him more of the bottles to be found all over the Great Sea.
He picked his way through the rubble of the shattered skull, returning to the room where the ferry had sunk. He hardly spared the toppled column a glance, instead heading through the other door on this far side of the canal.
He found himself in another maze, this one visible only by using the eye of truth. A quick glance around the room showed the many floormasters lying in wait, patrolling the corridors. But, his focus on any given point of the room revealed invisible walls, forming a maze. If he never saw another maze, it would be too soon.
He glanced at Navi, with her hand on her shaking head. He rather suspected that she'd tired of them, as well. He began his cautious march forward, noting every dead end, and every turn. He kept his gaze fixed upon the floor; it wouldn't do to fall into a hole on account of inattention. Of course, concentration was hard to come by once he reached the first of the floormasters.
It saw him first (did monsters have Eyes of Truth? It seemed unfair for them to be born with innate skill that he'd risked his eyes, and his life, to acquire), turning green as it rushed him. It mistimed its jump, however, and Link had continued moving. As it landed, returning to its ordinary wrinkled, mottled purple-brown, Link drew the Master Sword, and sliced clean through it.
Then began the hunt for the three, smaller hands. This was hampered, somewhat, by the invisible walls all around them. He glanced at the locked door he could see behind him, realising that it was probably too close for another wall to be blocking it off. If all else failed, he'd run for the door. For now, he bent his whole being to the pursuit of the three mini-floormasters.
Once he'd dispatched the three of them, he pulled out his second key (only two left!), and opened the door. Here was another room filled with keese and a spinning skull torch. A ring of skull-poles were posted around it, each of them real. Two ice keese flew overhead. He sighed, and set about removing the threat posed by the numerous keese. When he'd finished, there was nothing left to do but to throw a bomb flower from the high landing of the back wall into the torch.
It spun round and round in circles, faster and faster, before stopping, when the bomb exploded, with the skull's grin facing forward. It shattered into a thousand silvers, leaving behind another treasure chest. This one contained fifty rupees. Link sighed. He hadn't really expected to find the Boss Key, not when he'd seen the chest. The boss key was invariably in a blue ornate chest, not the plain dark wooden ones.
He returned, rather disheartened, back to the room of the maze, and continued his slow navigation of it. He opened several other unimportant doors, some locked, other unlocked, each disappointingly devoid of that blue treasure chest, eliminating floormasters as he went, until he came to the door at the very end of the maze. He stared around. Yes, this was most definitely a dead end. The passage edged up against the wall, before stopping here, at this door. The boss key must be in this room.
He opened the door, and then froze as the low moans of redead reached his ears. He looked around, but saw nothing. Were they invisible? But no, if he stared around the room, and didn't see them, then they must be hidden somewhere, out of sight.
He heard one shriek at him, but since he couldn't see them, the shriek was useful only for instilling fear—which it did very well. Link's legs were shaking, his heart racing, his breathing laboured, not from exertion. Then, Navi had to speak up.
"Link, is it just me, or are the walls closing in?"
The walls were closing in. And, if the fact that they could easily crush him weren't enough, they were lined at regular intervals with spikes. There were, however, holes in the two approaching walls. Through the one on the left, he could see the lumbering form of a redead. There sounded as if there were one on the right, as well.
What happened next was born of panic, as he admitted to himself the moment he could think well enough to realise what a foolish move this was. He cast Din's Fire, expanding the bubble of flames as far as he could, and holding it up as the redead gave agonised screams that rang through the room, the screams of long condemned souls, either now released, or forever trapped, by his actions.
Redead were the reanimated corpses of human beings, resurrected after a fashion by magic, and magic in a concentrated form remained after they were defeated. The question was, did they retain their spirits and sense of self? Link shuddered at the thought of a human mind subsumed by the unnatural predation of the monstrous undead creatures. He fervently hoped that they were just reanimated bodies.
He let up on the taxing fire spell, to find that nothing remained of the two walls, nor of the redead. A spark of light whirled about in a circle. Slowly, an ornate blue treasure chest formed.
Link listened, bent over in exhaustion, for any hint of the presence of redead. When none came, he approached the treasure chest, twisted the clasp, pulled out the boss key, nodding at the amethyst colour of the key's eyes. Emerald, sapphire, ruby, amethyst…who knew what the spirit boss's key would have for eyes. The spirit medallion was…orange?
He had the vague memory of a strange woman, with dark, tanned skin, and bright red hair, holding an orange medallion with the spirit sign embossed on it over her head. Presumably, she was the Spirit Sage.
He shook his head, thinking about nothing in particular as he returned through the maze to the far side of the canal. He crossed the canal, and turned to the great door marking the entrance to the boss's lair. He still felt feeble, and faint, suggesting that he'd run himself out of magic energy, and had started drawing from his own life force. Nevertheless….
He threw out his hands, and drew them back to his chest, murmuring a prayer to Farore as he did. Navi gave him a sharp look, but he ignored her.
He staggered against the wall, pushing against the rough surface to keep himself upright. He needed some way to return. Now, his energy was drained enough that he had no qualms downing the entirety of the ultimate medicine he'd bought from the apothecary during his last visit.
His body flooded with magic and vitality, and he realised just how fatigued he'd become during his latest adventures. Too tired to think straight, perhaps. The Temple seemed to have that effect on him. He straightened up, gave Navi a sheepish smile, pulled out the Ocarina of Time, already considering what to do next.
Beyond was the lair of the boss. Perhaps, he'd be fine with his current supplies. But, given the nature of this particular Temple, he might want to buy more supplies before returning.
On the other hand, with a warp point, he could probably return here at any time. He wouldn't trust himself to avoid a boss's blows long enough to play through a warp song, but Farore's Wind was a spell that required little time to activate—and the Great Faerie had recommended he use it to escape from danger. Perhaps, he would be fine….
He stuck the key into the lock, twisted it, ordered the door to open. He turned to look at Navi, who frowned, crossing her arms, but made no comment.
He slowly walked further into the room, which was completely empty. He knew better than to believe that by now, however.
In the centre of the room, a circular hole provided a view into a chamber below—doubtless, the true boss's lair. There was nothing visible there, either, but he could see little of the room. The floor below was made of a ring of toxic purple water around an elevated, broad arena. The arena itself was circular, and horn-coloured. He thought of the name of the boss, "Bongo Bongo", and briefly humoured the notion that the similarity of the arena to a drum were merely a coincidence.
No, he decided. One way or another, whether by cause or effect, mimicry or verisimilitude, that circular expanse below was intended to resemble a drum.
His landing in the room below was very soft. As with the skin of a drum, the horn-coloured platform was supple—flexible, with a bit of give, but not enough that it wiggled and jiggled. His landing made a sound very close to a drum beat. Although, not as close as the two that followed, not caused by Link.
He turned around, looking at the place where the drum-skin wavered up and down as it settled. DUM-da-da-da. DUM-da-da-da. DUM-da-da-da. Each beat of the drum sent Link into the air. He switched out the kokiri boots for the hover boots.
Huge, short, stubby fingers appeared, attached to muscular hands, huge even in comparison to those fingers. Above them loomed a stranger sight—a huge, glowing red eye on a stalk, connected to an invisible face. The eye saw him, noticed him looking at it. It ceased from its rhythm.
"Here lie the foundations of Hyrule's success—the wars fought and blood shed by generations," whispered the voice of the Shadow Temple.
Link started, cursed his own inattention, and whirled around, seeking out the boss.
"This must be Bongo Bongo," said Navi. "It's over here—I didn't lose sight of it. Don't be stubborn; aim for me!" she cried, flying off towards a target only she could see.
Not that it mattered. There was a strange familiarity to this experience, one he knew was born of the simple fact that the Wind Waker had fought a similar foe—one with two eyes, and a yawning maw that spewed flames, the judge of the goddesses. He knew to aim for the hands. He hoped Navi knew the same.
She hovered by something, and Link pulled out the bow, aimed, fired, noticed Navi still hovering there, fired again, and again.
Navi couldn't see the other hand approaching, but Link felt the whoosh of air that heralded its approach. He rolled out of its path, turned to look behind himself, staring hard at the other hand, following the disturbance of the air by its passage, until it came into view. Navi flew over to the other hand even before it came clear to him, and Link took careful aim, fired three shots in swift succession, watched the hand wringing, as he tried to discern the location of that glowing red eye.
It wasn't between the left and the right hand, no matter that it should have been. It was on the opposite side of the platform. He could feel the air rush in a breeze, blowing him back, as it approached him. He took aim at the red eye, fired, watched as the boss fell to the ground, dazed, hands still hanging limp. Link stalked over, knowing that running would be impossible in these shoes, counterproductive, and worse in the kokiri boots.
He impaled the great red eye, thrusting the Master Sword as deeply as he could in, repeatedly hacking at the stalk that connected the eye to Bongo Bongo's face. But, it picked itself up off the drum, and the hands rose again, and Link closed his eyes, just briefly, in a prayer of gratitude to Farore that this boss, at least, didn't seem inclined to spit fire.
The face and the eye slunk into the deeper shadows surrounding the pool of toxic liquid, and Link could only keep his eyes on one of the hands at once. He ignored Navi, for the moment, as she tracked the other of the hands, trusting her to know what he was doing, and to warn him if the hand was about to crush him, or grab him…or approach at all, come to think of it. Instead of attacking that which Navi followed, Link aimed the bow at the other hand. He considered the idea of using fire arrows, briefly, but decided against it. He had the sense that somehow, the hands would only burn up…and then return, unscathed, a moment later.
He struck the hand thrice, and turned to Navi's hand, aiming at Navi herself per her request. Three shots to the hand brought the boss himself out of hiding. Link was getting the hang of this.
He sent an arrow into the red eye as Bongo Bongo soared toward him with the speed of an approaching hurricane. It crashed to the ground nearby, and Link hurried over, working to sever the eyestalk, stabbing the eye when he sensed the monster about to rise up again.
He kept his eye on one of the great hands, and Navi on the other, already aiming for the hand he'd chosen as Bongo Bongo sank into the shadows once more.
Hit the right hand three times, turn to the left hand. Hit the left hand three times; stare around until Bongo Bongo's whereabouts become clear. It was the best he could do.
Predictably, it wasn't good enough. Bongo Bongo rushed him, shoving him off the platform, too far for the hover boots to prevent his contact with the corrosive substance ringing the arena. He heard Bongo Bongo laugh as he pulled himself to his feet, cringing at the feel of the substance eating away at his clothes, the kokiri boots he'd switched to to walk through this stuff, and, oh yeah, his skin.
He climbed back up onto the drum, and started staring frantically around for either of the hands; Navi, in her concern for his well-being, had followed him, rather than continuing to track the formerly incapacitated hands. He didn't have the heart to scold her. Also, the pain was rather distracting.
He raised the bow, knowing his priority had to be to at least incapacitate one of the hands. When he felt the air move to his left, he whirled and shot at the hand before he could even see it. Navi, meanwhile, had caught sight of the other hand, and had flown off.
He followed his first arrow with two more, and then withdrew the medicine of life he still had from the apothecary, sipping sparingly at his bottle, and then putting it back away to withdraw the bow. He couldn't wait too long, or the hand would recover before he'd taken out the second one.
With both hands once more hanging limp, Bongo Bongo once more appeared. Link aimed at the eye as it approached, and waited until it was almost upon him to release the arrow, hitting it dead centre of the eye, sending it crashing down to his feet. Even from this close, Bongo Bongo's shadowy form was hard to discern. He didn't much care.
He cut through the stalk of the eye, and the bright glow of the red eye faded away. Bongo Bongo shrieked, and began to ram itself against the walls, tearing at its face with its hands. Blue fire licked at the form, consuming it utterly as Link watched its rapid spread. He still couldn't tell Bongo Bongo's form, or how big it was. The arms did not seem to be attached, but they began to burn at the same time as the rest of the boss.
Its agonised cries rang around the highly acoustic chamber.
Link covered his ears, that he not hear the eerie wails. He closed his eyes, too, and waited.
After a few minutes, the quality of light in the room changed, and he opened his eyes to the sight of the beam of blue light waiting for him. It stood directly in the centre of the drum. He closed his eyes, bowed his head, turned to look at Navi. He hadn't seen Impa even once since that night, seven years ago. Furthermore, she might even know the whereabouts of Princess Zelda. Dared he to get his hopes up? But, the thought of such a reunion with Impa did not bring him the relief that he had once expected. The world had become too complicated.
Navi landed on his shoulder, and said nothing. He could sense something (reassurance) through whatever connection they had. He smiled weakly at her, and stepped into the blue light.
It lifted him up into the air, and set him down in the centre of the Triforce, in the Chamber of Sages. This time, he was facing the violet insignia. He bowed his head, and raised it just as a familiar woman—looking not a day older than when he'd last seen her—rose from the floor, arms folded, right hand flexing, clenching and releasing…she might almost have been standing in the courtyard of Hyrule Castle, still. He swallowed, hard.
"Link Sylvanus, we meet again. You've grown into a fine, strong man, truly worthy of the title of the Legendary Hero, and of that blade you wield."
Link barely refrained from glancing at the Master Sword, girt at his side, instead staring fixedly at Impa.
"That night, seven years ago…none of us knew what lay ahead. You are not to blame for what happened. Remember that. Even forewarned, I was barely able to escape the castle in time with the Princess. We went into hiding, and she is now well-hidden, even from the prying eyes of Ganondorf. But, never fear. She is safe and well, or as well as she can be, given the state of Hyrule. I know that she blames herself for what happened.
"Link Sylvanus, we owe you a great debt. You are Hyrule's only hope in this desperate hour, and you and Navi have acquitted yourselves admirably. Sheik, too, has done much to make me proud.
"Although I knew from the start that I must surely be the Sage of Shadow, the evils of the well, and of the Shadow Temple, kept me from hearing the voice of destiny. I entered the Temple to seal the evil known as 'Bongo Bongo', but I soon realised that this was a foolish error.
"Almost right away, it became clear to me that my sheikah skills and training, no matter how strong or fast they had made me, were insufficient for the task. By some, it is said that Bongo Bongo is a god—an ancient god of war. I was arrogant to think that I might defeat it. But, our joint efforts slew the boss of the Shadow Temple. I am proud to have been able to work with you, Sylvanus."
She uncrossed her arms, bowed her head, looking down. She seemed suddenly vulnerable, somehow, and it made her look much younger. She lifted her eyes, but not her head, to stare at him through her bangs.
"I tell you these things for a reason. For this was not the first of the many errors I have made in my life. I would ask a favour of you, Hero of Time. Will you hear my request?"
Stricken speechless, Link closed his mouth, and nodded, instead. He could almost feel the curiosity emanating from Navi, as she leant over his shoulder, straining to listen.
"If I am not mistaken, you are acquainted with Sheik, isn't that right?"
Link blushed. "Acquainted" might be slightly too weak of a word. He shifted on his feet, scuffed at the pristine floor with his boots. Well, his clothes and boots had repaired themselves, at least. "I know her," he said, when he realised that Impa was waiting for a response.
"Ah. Then, you know also that she is not the man that she pretends to be. All along, she was fated to be your ally and guide on your quest. I have a message I wish for you to deliver on my behalf."
Her arms had still not folded themselves. Despite the loose posture, she seemed somehow tense and battle-ready.
"That battle with the War God, and my installation as a sage, has made many things clear to me. Once, I thought that I would live my life with only the ordinary regrets of a woman of a race of killers. But, my regrets, as it turned out, did not come from such a source. Now, I understand more fully the time I have squandered waiting. I would have waited forever. It is a difficult thing for me to admit, what I am about to tell you. I wish that I had your courage."
Link cocked his head, brow furrowed. His courage? He did not consider himself to be very brave. The very thought of redead made him shiver and shake, even now. He always seemed to cringe away from the threats presented by various connections—see how he'd ever even managed to ask Sheik on a date—accidentally!
Was there any courage about him? But, if there were, if it would help her, please let Impa take from his strength, such as it was. Help her on her way. He straightened his head, closed his eyes, as if in prayer.
"All of her life, Sheik has asked me about her mother. And, always, I put her off, told her that she would know more later. Now, I realise that it was long ago time to confess the truth. I do know her mother, no matter what I told her all her life. So I want you to tell her that…tell her that…I am her mother."
His head shot up, and hers lifted, a strange, wry grin on her face, a faraway expression in her eyes. "I know it seems strange. Perhaps, I seem too old, or not old enough…but it's the truth, nonetheless. So many years wasted, so many wasted opportunities. This is my regret—that perhaps I shall never have the chance to be the mother I always wished I were. Perhaps, we shall never have that bond we both always longed for. I don't expect you to understand my reasons for keeping this secret…I sometimes don't understand why I did such a thing, myself. But, I want you to tell her, now."
Link was pretty sure his mind had just ground to a halt, unable to function. Impa was Sheik's mother? What did that even mean? Did it matter, somehow, for their relationship? Just what did this new (or rather, old) development signify for any of them?
Impa was looking at him, and he knew that he was gawking, but he couldn't seem to make his mouth shut. He seemed to be absent from himself. Navi was slumped over his shoulder. He found himself about to ask a stupid question, maybe "how?". That would never do.
"That's all you want me to tell her?" he heard himself ask, with surprising calm. Perhaps, because his distance from himself ensured that all of his emotions were utterly divorced from his body.
"I would ask for her forgiveness for my behaviour, and for keeping such a secret from her, but such apologies are best made in person, or not at all. But, I vow this: when this is all over with, if we both survive, I will do what I can to make up for my years of absence—although there, I was merely not the mother she sorely needed, especially after what happened to her father. Thank you, Link Sylvanus. You are more than merely the Hero of Time. I suppose you are, in a sense, my own personal hero, too."
She folded her arms, gave him a stern nod, and then raised her hands over her head. A bright, violet light appeared there.
"But, enough of this! Take the Shadow Medallion, and add my power to yours! We're counting on you!"
The violet light formed itself into a medallion with the familiar sign of three dots around a triangle. She pushed at the medallion as Link raised his own hands to receive it. As his fist closed around it, the world vanished into blue light.