Chapter 22: Mamas' Boy
Yes, he definitely recognised this room. Here were the same columns, rising up to the ceiling, the same pointless bend in the otherwise straight red carpet running otherwise parallel to the walls, the same throne, with the same, silver-clad knight sitting, slumped as if a corpse, upon it. Too familiar for comfort, even from the markedly different vantage afforded by his being an adult.
Would the Master Sword make that much of a difference, charged with the power of only five of the six Sages? He felt small, helpless, fragile, before the giant heap of armour. Who knew if, beneath that suit, there even was a body?
Nevertheless, he forced himself to approach. Halfway across the corridor, he pulled out the bow, notched an arrow, fired a gerudo arrow at the miniboss. Nothing. The arrow snapped on impact. The iron knuckle remained motionless, as if it really were a mere suit of armour. Navi glanced at him, understood, gave him a sympathetic glance.
He walked over to it, swung the Megaton Hammer at it, sent the hammer away in time to leap back from the monster as it rose to its feet. The ground quaked beneath its heavy tread as it swung its axe at him. He dropped to the ground, rolled, came up, drew the Master Sword, and slashed at the temporarily exposed breastplate as he came to his feet. The iron knuckle raised its axe overhead, as if in response, and Link knew that it was about to swing it down, with a single blow that would slice right through his head. Right. Retreat was in order.
He backflipped, twice, considering whether or not he should use Nayru's Love. Shouldn't he conserve his magic energy for as long as he could? Then again, the magic did him little good, if he died from a blow from the axe. And, it wouldn't take more than a single blow, he was sure.
He shook his head, refocusing on the task at hand, holding the Master Sword out to the side until he felt it burn blue, backing away from the monster as he did, until he felt a wall at his back. That was not good.
He glanced at Navi, glanced back at the monster. He could cast Nayru's Love, and lose the energy he'd poured into the Master Sword, or he could attack and risk being cut to pieces. He swung the Master Sword in an arc, not bothering to watch the monster stagger back, as both the Sword and the arc of energy extending from it cut deep into the breastplate. Navi waited until he'd somersaulted to the right, out of the miniboss's immediate range, before informing him of these facts, her grin savage and triumphant.
He somersaulted to the right, again, and dove behind a column, just as the monster destroyed the column between them, breaking it into so many pieces. Link leapt for the iron knuckle in the brief moment whenever it adjusted its stance to swing again, cutting clean through the heavily damaged breastplate, and falling to the floor again. The monster snarled, a low growl emanating seemingly from nowhere, and raised its axe high overhead.
Link dove to the side, again, rolled over, and then dragged himself to his feet in time to leap backwards again. Now, he was heading back towards the throne. He focused magical energy into the Master Sword, trusting the extra damage it did to outweigh the amount of time it took to charge. At this point, he needed to defeat this foe in as few hits as possible.
As the iron knuckle approached, he swung the Master Sword in a circle, unleashing the magic energy as he did. The spin attack. Truly a useful technique.
The armour clattered to the floor in pieces, and his eyes widened as he saw the familiar white cloth that he knew covered a tough chainmail hauberk. But, of course, the Master Sword was a superior blade to the kokiri one. Perhaps, it should come as no surprise that it had done this much damage, this quickly.
But now, before Link was ready, the iron knuckle was several times faster, unencumbered by the great weight of its protective suit of iron. If only the iron boots made Link himself as tough!
He somersaulted to the left, rolled behind a column, and came around at the monster's left side before it had fully recovered. It was already turning to face him, trying to follow his movement (and doing much better than it would have before), but Link cut deeply into its side, and it grunted, faltering, and then swiftly recovering and swinging the axe at him.
But, Link had already gone. Now that the armour was off, he'd be thankful to score what blows he could. He glanced at Navi, clinging to his shoulder, and then back at the iron knuckle. Wasn't there a better way to fight this thing?
As it approached, and arced its arm back, readying a horizontal slice, Link thrust at its temporarily unprotected chest, and it staggered, blow forgotten. It held the axe back, again, and Link lashed out for a third time. It staggered back again, forgot what it was doing…Link noticed a trend, and exploited it without any ruth. Necessary, in such a battle.
Finally, the iron knuckle collapsed in a pyre of blue flames, until nothing remained of it but the scatted bits of armour it had shed earlier. The bars behind the throne rose. Link turned to Navi, and then back to the door. She gave him a nod, and he walked over to the door, ordering it to open.
It obliged, rising up into the ceiling, following its protective bars, and revealing the crisp, cold air of a desert night. He stepped out into the darkness of full night, cut through by the light of the stars, and of the full moon overhead.
He carefully slid down the statue's arm until he reached her hand, where a treasure chest awaited. It was a plain, big treasure chest, identical to the one across the way. A gap of several meters separated the two.
Unbidden, memories filled his mind, of seven years ago, Naburu dragged beneath the desert sand. He scowled, and Navi noticed, but said nothing. He walked over to the chest, and twisted the clasp, pushing the chest open, and reaching inside to withdraw…a very familiar shield.
It was the same size as the hylian shield, and much the same shape, made of beaten silver, embossed with the familiar axe and moon indicative of the gerudos' treasures. A thick, shiny band of red ran along the outer edge, gleaming in the moonlight no less than the silver part.
He lifted it out, taking great pains not to damage it, knowing full well that that was ridiculous; this was a shield, a tool of combat—and not caring. This, then, was the answer to the question the Hero of Winds had pondered in the Earth Temple. The silver gauntlets and the mirror shield had come of the same source—the gerudos, ostensibly the enemy.
He hefted the mirror shield, found it to be of a weight with the hylian one. He sent the mirror shield to his inventory, and then switched it out with the hylian shield. The weight on his back didn't seem to change. The mirror shield was, if anything, lighter. He knew that it had mystical abilities, which perhaps explained its unusual light weight. Who knew?
He pulled it off his back, and stared at it, as the Waker of Winds had. Perhaps, it was a bit shinier than it would be in the future, but for comparison, it seemed mostly untouched by the passage of years. He ran his hand over the embossed symbols, and puzzled over them.
Unlike the hylian shield, this one was most definitely made of solid metal, save for the straps attached on the back. Link did not let this deter him. He settled the shield back on his back, returning to the door through which he had come outside.
Hence, he backtracked, until he returned to the room with the mirror in it. He turned to the third door, which, according to the dungeon map, led to a series of corridors, and somehow was unsurprised to see that the bars had retracted here, too. Perhaps it had been the defeat of the iron knuckle that had prompted this; perhaps not. He didn't much care, stepping through the open archway into the rough-hewn chamber beyond.
Inside this chamber was a conspicuous landfall bulging from the left-hand side of the room, a mirror sitting in a patch of sun, and a lizalfos. He raised an eyebrow at it, where it stood guarding the mirror (with the mirror's conspicuous handles sticking out to either side, he suspected he knew what to do next), but drew the Master Sword, lashing out at the lizalfos repeatedly, until it collapsed on the ground, freeing him to set about turning the mirror to face the blocked-off passageway.
Light seemed to seep through cracks in the rocks. He nodded to himself, took a bomb out of his bomb bag, and, breaking the fuse, threw it at the rockfall. While he waited for the explosion, he turned to Navi.
"It has to be asked, Navi: How is there a beam of sunlight in the middle of this chamber, when the ceiling has no holes in it, and we both know that it's the middle of the night, outside?"
Because he could accept many things about dungeons, but this was ridiculous in its impossibility. Navi sighed, huffed, and folded her arms. "It's a dungeon, Link. They operate by their own rules; surely, you've noticed that by now."
Did that mean that basic concepts of time did not apply to them? He'd thought that they at least had to follow some sort of logic, although, looking back, he wasn't sure what justified this assumption. The Forest Temple had bent all concepts of space and directionality until they broke; the Water Temple had its strange inconsistencies in the manner in which rooms flooded, and the Shadow Temple…well, the less said of that, the better. Why not patches of sunlight in the middle of the night? Was it truly any stranger than the idea that somehow merely defeating every enemy in a given room would unbar a door?
The bomb exploded, sending rock shards flying, and Link crouched down low, holding out the mirror shield before him. When the debris ceased to fly at him, he walked through into a second room, with another rockfall, and another mirror (with the light of the sun shining on it, sending another beam of light shining in Link's eyes, and another door, to Link's right, which was locked, and, oh yes, a skeletal head trailing a streak of white light, that Navi informed him was a white bubble. Sure.
As Navi commanded, he waited until the bubble stopped moving, losing its streak of white light, and then lunged at it, cutting it clean in two with a single blow, freeing him to decide which way to face first—the right hand door, or the left-hand, blocked off, passageway. He chose the right-hand door.
This room had another mirror standing in the middle of another patch of sunlight, with a circle of suns ringing the walls, and another locked door to Link's right. Any further examination of the room was forestalled by Navi's cry of "Watch out!"
Link dove to the side, out from under the falling shadow, and sighed when he heard nothing land on the floor with a fwump. Invisible enemies. That never got old.
He impaled the wallmaster with the Master Sword, and then swiftly set to hacking it to bits, staring at it, unblinking, to ensure that it didn't vanish from his sight. It didn't seem to take as long for his Eyes to See the Truth, anymore, as it had in the beginning, which might mean that they were adjusting. Still, it would be better if they came to the point where he could see such things straight off, without having to stare for a while at something before it came clear to him.
The wallmaster collapsed in blue flames, and Link sheathed the Master Sword, retrieving the eighty rupees it had dropped, and staring around the room at the suns stationed around the wall.
He reached for the familiar handles on the mirror, and began to rotate the mirror to the first sun design. As light hit the sun sculpture, its eyes opened, and it began to hum and shine. Who knew that the sun had green eyes? A treasure chest fell to the ground beneath, and Link continued turning the mirror, curious.
As light struck the second and third suns, activating them (the previous ones continued to glow), he noticed two more chests appear beneath them. But when light struck the fourth symbol, he heard a loud rushing noise, and rolled out of the way of the dropping wallmaster, turning to impale it with the drawn Master Sword. He hacked at it several more times, until blue flames consumed it, leaving behind a pile of blue rupees.
He abandoned his current pursuit for the moment, walking over to the first treasure chest, glancing at Navi, and then kicking it open. Within were five bombchus. He peered at them, head cocked, contemplating the question of how they came to be here before remembering that this was a dungeon, and dungeons sometimes did strange things. He sent them away to his bomb bag, in his inventory, and moved on to the second treasure chest, containing a bundle of twenty arrows. He refilled his quiver, and left the rest in the chest.
When he turned to the third treasure chest, Navi fluttered before him, hands stretched out to the side, blocking him.
"I don't think it's a good idea," she said, fluttering over to the chest. She landed on it, and flew right back off. "The lid—it's freezing!"
Link stared at her, noticed her expression, and accepted her warning; abandoning the idea of seeing what lay within, he returned to the mirror, considering. But, perhaps it wasn't worth it to try to activate the last three sun sculptures. After all, the only thing he needed to progress to the next room was something he already had—a small key.
He walked over to the door, fitted the key inside, and twisted the handle of the door himself, walking through into a room with three floormasters and a gibdo awaiting within. Right. He was not risking having all of his life energy siphoned off by these monsters, each of which, individually, was capable of draining him to death. He walked to the centre, swiped his hands to the right, swiped them to the left, murmuring his prayer to Din as he did, and focusing a wall of fire out, away from him. He made sure to keep his back to the gibdo, because he could not risk being held in thrall by that sreeching.
A giant blue treasure chest appeared. Link stared at it forming, in its ring of orange light, and then stepped over to it, flipping up the lid, pulling out the orange-eyed boss key. He glanced at Navi, who landed on his shoulder, smiling. One step closer to discovering what had become of Naburu. Perhaps, he wouldn't like the answer, but he needed to know.
He returned to the room that had held a white bubble, now without small keys, and withdrew a bomb from his bomb bag, breaking the fuse and hurling it at the blocked wall. He drew the Master Sword again, and was ready to pass through the makeshift doorway the moment that the rubble cleared.
Beyond was a third chamber, also with a mirror. No sunlight shone into the chamber, perhaps because Link hadn't bothered to turn the mirror in the previous room to shine light through the doorway.
On the left-hand side of the chamber, he saw the grate leading to the room with the hanging mirror, and understood.
But, there was no time to arrange everything just so; two white bubbles aimlessly wandered the room. Link watched them closely, following one of them. He waited for it to halt, still spinning, but no longer guarded by its protective streak of white light. He clove through it with the Master Sword, and without waiting to see his success as the bubble burst into blue flames, he turned to the other, which Navi had been monitoring, following it, and cutting through it the moment it stopped moving.
Then, he bent his will, and his back, to the task of positioning the mirror in the room to both receive the light of the mirror in the room previous, and shine it into the room past the bars.
With it in place, he returned to the previous room, and rotated the mirror ninety degrees, so that light shone from the first mirror, to the second, to the third, which shone sunlight through the bars until it reflected in the wall over the lower chamber of the room, where the hanging mirror lay. There was a satisfying sense of completion in how everything lined up properly, a rightness to it, and he smiled, despite himself, at the sight of his success. Then, he returned through the rough-hewn rooms, back to the room beyond the grate, absently holding up the mirror shield to deflect the jars that flung themselves at him.
He stood in the reflected sunlight, shining it on the first of the two sun sculptures on the walls. Nothing happened. The sun turned into a puff of white smoke, and dissipated. But, when he shone the beam of light on the second, a hidden panel in the ceiling over the mirror slid slowly aside, releasing a beam of light to fall onto the mirror, as the chains slowly paid out, lowering the mirror into the room below. Heedless of the flying jars, Link leapt off the cliff, and then further, down onto the mirror. Shards of pottery slashed at his clothes, but the rest of the jars were unable to reach him in his descent. Good enough.
The chains paid out with him standing on the mirror, which bathed him in the warm light of the sun still streaming from the hole in the ceiling (which probably wasn't a hole, either). It was inevitable that the chain would run out at some point, but Link hadn't expected it to set him down, facing the head of the statue of the goddess. Now, what?
He shielded his eyes from the bright light, staring at the statue for some clue as to what he was meant to do next. His very best efforts would never enable him to cross the expanse of air separating his mirror platform from the statue's face, but according to the dungeon map, the boss's lair somehow lay beyond the statue, somewhere behind it.
His only thought, remembering the recently encountered sun sculptures, and the way the glare of the sun was currently hurting his eyes, was to shine light in the statue's eyes, and see whether or not it responded. The eyes were closed, just as the suns' eyes were. Perhaps it was intended for a hint.
He removed the mirror shield from his back, and shone the light of the sun into the statue's left eye, holding it steady, and waiting. The rock of the eye socket crumbled, and Link winced, flinching and turning away. Navi laughed, shaking her head, and then crossing both arms and legs simultaneously.
"Oh, Link…if the goddess were going to react with divine wrath, she wouldn't have guided you all this way. And she must have done, because this is her temple, and unlike the other earthly temples, this one has a chamber—this very chamber—that seems not yet corrupted by the presence of evil. I'm sure that, if evil lurks in the heart of the temple, she'll forgive any damage you do her statue, within reason, naturally. You needn't fear. Keep going!"
Link gulped, looking down at his feet, mirror shield lowered and aimed at the southwestern corner of the room. But when no divine retribution visited him, he raised the shield again, and struck the right eye of the statue with the beam of light. The second eye, too crumbled away, and he stared, as both eyes glowed, and the face of the statue…vanished. Beyond was a metal grille, and barely visible beyond the barred lattice was a great orange door. How to reach it, though? He could tell just by looking that the hover boots would never carry him far enough.
He ticked off possibilities in his mind. The hover boots wouldn't be sufficient, and therefore neither would leaping. He had tried and failed to scale the statue before, and even from the statue's outstretched hands, the ascent would be impossible to make. Scaling the statue from any point he had previously reached, or had cause to think that he could reach now, was out. The only other tool he had that enabled him to cross distances and gaps was the hookshot. He cocked his head, studying the angle, little trusting this ability to latch on to a metal grille. But the hookshot latched onto the strangest things. He shrugged, withdrew the hookshot, aimed it at the bars of the square net.
Sure enough, the hook caught on the metal—Link believed that the hook had manage to lodge around one of the horizontal bars, but wasn't about to question how, precisely, the hookshot had accomplished what it did. He merely let the hookshot carry him across the gap.
As he approached, the crossed metal beams rose like a portcullis into the ceiling, pulling Link up with them, ensuring that he didn't injure himself banging into the entrance to the hidden tunnel as he approached it.
He suddenly realised that he hadn't replenished his supplies, and had a moment's indecision. But, he suspected that everything would begin to move very fast once he had gathered together the six Sages; now was his last chance to be sure that he was stocked up on supplies even for fighting Ganon. Also, it was the middle of the night, he'd recently fought an iron knuckle, and who knew how long he'd been exploring the temple? He conceded to himself that now was not the best time to confront the boss, whoever it was (as if there was a question!)
He raised his hands to the ceiling, the corridor so low that he actually brushed the ceiling overhead, and brought his arms back down with a murmured prayer to Farore. He realised that he'd wasted his last warp point, but this one…who knew whether or not he'd return to this room to find the statue once again whole, or in pieces? Perhaps he'd have to do everything again. Farore's Wind would bring him right back here.
He leant back, exhausted, physically and mentally, as the bright green ball of light formed overhead, and then vanished.
He shook himself, and then pulled out the Ocarina of Time, reminding himself of what he still needed to do. Mindful of the proximity to the boss's lair, he decided to sleep outside of the temple. He warped to the graveyard of Kakariko Village.
He returned after a second journey back to teach songs to the frog gods in Zora's River. Anticipating a painful confrontation to come, and one that would eat away at his magic, he returned to his warp point with several bottles of the ultimate medicine, and one or two with the medicine of life, almost just in case. The ultimate medicine was expensive.
He approached the great orange door, retrieved the boss key from his inventory, placed it in the lock, twisted, watched the boss key disappear, and then finally ordered the door to open. And swing open it did, and then close quietly behind him after he had passed through. Bars shot down over it. From this side, it was decorated with geometric shapes, in beautiful, bold colours. Not that he paid it much heed; the creeping dread presaging a dangerous opponent, a perilous evil, made such observations too trivial to humour.
He stood in a room far too similar to ones he'd seen before; despite the dungeon map's showing only this room, marked as the boss's lair, there was a barred door at the far side of the room. Before the barred door, right at the bend in the red carpet that ran down the centre of the hall until that point, was a throne, and on the throne slumped a pile of metal, silvery, with white fabric decorated in turquoise and red designs upon it. Columns flanked both sides of the corridors. The only recognisable difference was the fact that the two despicable gerudo sorceresses stood—no, floated—on either side of the slumped iron knuckle.
Although he thought he'd entered in complete silence, something must have given him away; the gerudo sorceress to the left spun her broom around to face him. Now that she was stationary, and much nearer, than she had been in the desert below, he could make out details of her appearance. She wore loose-sleeved black robes, large bulbous earrings, and a cloth head-covering that completely hid her hair. For half an instant, he thought of Zelda, in her ridiculous pink-and-white headdress, and then of Sheik, in her inadequate gauzy headwrap. But, there was something suspicious about this head-covering. He didn't think she'd been wearing it before, for one thing. It seemed to have a purpose other than merely covering her hair.
In the middle of the witch's forehead sat a diamond-shaped stone the colour of shadows on snow. Was this, perhaps, the frost witch?
She gave a deep chortle, raising her hand, hidden in its deep sleeve, to cover her mouth as she snickered at him, in a deep, booming voice.
"Looks like we have a visitor, Komei," she said, still stifling her snickers. Link didn't see what was funny.
But, at her words, the other witch, dressed just like her sister, but with a bright orange diamond in the middle of her forehead, cackled, also turning to face Link. Her laugh was shrill and piercing, as a whistle.
"It does indeed, Kotakei," she agreed, voice muffled on account of the sleeve covering her mouth.
"How foolhardy to enter the inner sanctum of our temple. He'll never be prepared to fight us!"
"No, indeed not, Kotakei," Komei agreed, nodding. "But why waste the effort on a mere child?"
Link edged closer, hoping that they wouldn't notice. He saw no sign of Naburu. Had they perhaps slain her, those seven years ago? But then, why would the carpenters have heard of her?
Kotakei narrowed her eyes, studying him. "Why indeed, Komei?" she asked. "When we have a lovely minion willing to do anything we say?"
Komei nodded her agreement. Link contemplated the merits of charging at them, swiftly decided that that was a bad idea, with an iron knuckle right there.
"Oh, loyal minion," said Komei, in a creaky, oily voice.
"Destroy this intruder for us!" cried Kotakei, in her gravelly voice. The twins spun in twin circles, and each vanished, Kotakei in a puff of blue smoke, Komei in a puff of red.
Link stared, watching as the iron knuckle stood without his engaging it first. It lifted its arms as if to shake the axe for a battle taunt, but then realised that it had no axe. He'd never seen an unarmed iron knuckle before, and the sight was food for thought, and strangely incomplete, as if they are inextricably bound. Which raised the question of what was different about this one. Was it perhaps merely an unfinished project?
It snapped its fingers; an axe appeared, and the battle was swiftly joined. Link drew the Master Sword, holding it out to the side, and focusing energy into it. As the monster approached, he released the arc of energy as he spun in a circle. He then backflipped to gain some distance, mindful this time of his distance away from the wall behind him. It would not do to be trapped again.
He ran in a wide circle around the monster, gaining access to its back briefly, for what good that did. He considered trying to use the parry attack against such a foe, and straightaway decided against it. A single mistake against such a foe as this would be deadly. This was no time to be taking risks.
Instead, as the monster approached, he lunged towards it with an accompanying thrust, creating a huge gash in the armour of the monster's breastplate. It reacted far too quickly, and Link was forced to duck and roll to avoid its hasty counterattack, a downward chop of the axe. He rolled over on the floor, and stood.
He sheathed the Master Sword and, with a murmured prayer to Nayru, slammed his hands together, slowly forcing them apart in time with his quiet prayer. A blue haze settled across his vision, proving he was now shielded from direct harm. He felt himself relax just slightly, briefly lowering his guard, as the monster swung the axe at him, sending him flying into a column. It buckled upon the impact, cracks radiating from the point of impact. Somehow, he managed to keep the shield intact. He stood, shaky, and drew the Master Sword once more, watching the iron knuckle carefully.
"Link…there's something wrong about this fight. I just can't quite figure out—" Navi said, distracting him, but not to the extent that he couldn't focus, still, on the tall blue shield surrounding him as if an invisible wall.
He glanced wildly at Navi, but even she didn't understand what she herself meant. It was just an impression, a sense, a warning.
The ground shook beneath the iron knuckle's feet, as it pursued Link. As it came close enough, Link noticed the very instant that it bent back its arm to swing the axe, and lunged, thrusting the sword into the chest plate, which the Master Sword should have cut through as if it were paper.
Probably, the witches had been adding protections to it to increase the durability of the armour. He grimaced at the very idea. Still, he readied his sword, staring out at the approaching iron knuckle. The moment it was close enough, he lashed out again. It staggered back with a high-pitched noise, almost like a squeal, and Link hesitated for a moment. The monster lashed out at him again, sending him flying. He crashed into the very same pillar of before. Again, however, he managed to keep thinking about the blue haze before him, feeding it energy.
He pulled himself to his feet, staring unblinking at the approaching miniboss. He leapt at the armoured knight as it approached, before it was close enough to attempt attacking him. It struck the monster in the chest. He dragged the Master Sword down through the metal, and then wrenched it free, and leapt back. As the monster arced its arm back, he lashed out, twice, with two horizontal slices. He leapt back, again, and then scored it twice more with the Master Sword as it swung its arm back, again. It staggered, forgot its attack, and stomped towards him again.
He turned back around again, realising that he had almost run out of hallway in which to fight.
The iron knuckle made a pass at him as he ran by, but he was too far away for its success; he ducked as it passed overhead. He then whirled, and lunged at the miniboss. It raised its axe overhead, and swung it down, but Link somersaulted to the left. The iron knuckle's left side was less well guarded. As he was in the air, he positioned himself to drag the Master Sword down the iron knuckle's side on the way down.
Navi was right. There was something different about this particular iron knuckle. It was stronger, more resilient, and hardier than the previous two. Link shuddered, inwardly, but outwardly merely adjusted his stance, and analysed the miniboss's movements. As the monster approached, and was swinging the axe backwards in a horizontal arc, Link leapt at it with the Master Sword, again. The iron knuckle's blow landed, and Link was flung back across the room where he connected heavily with a different column, this time, but didn't feel the impact. It was muted.
He pulled himself to his feet, and raised the Master Sword. As the iron knuckle made its heavy, ground-quaking way to where Link now stood, he grimaced, but raised the sword once more. It swung the axe up, and he somersaulted to the left in time to avoid the sharp, heavy blade. The moment he landed, he lashed out at the suit of armour twice more, and pieces of the suit began to fall off, hitting the floor with metallic noises. He didn't notice the blue haze dissipate, no longer thinking about it at all.
There was no chainmail hauberk underneath the heavy plate. The pieces fell off, one after another, to reveal a familiar woman standing in them. She wore pale pink, and had bright yellow eyes. As he watched, Naburu sank to her knees, unsteady and unstable on her feet after so long in captivity. Link approached, to try to help her. But then, Twinrova appeared, both simultaneously, both on the far side of the hall.
Naburu strove to keep both in her sight at the same time, even as she struggled to stand.
"Well, well, looks like the spell wore off, Kotakei," said the witch with the orange diamond on her forehead.
"She's just a child, but she commands such respect amongst the gerudos, Komei," said the one with the blue diamond.
"Hm…" said the orange-diamonded one, with a shrieking cackle of horrid delight. "I have an idea. She's still useful; we should brainwash her again!"
Link's body and mind both froze. Brainwash. So, that was what they'd done to Naburu, why the carpenters told such horrible falsehoods about her. She'd been brainwashed, and turned into a monster, and who-knew-what-else. Again, the foreign tide of anger rose within him. His head snapped up to glare at the two witches, who were ignoring him. He took a step towards Naburu, to close the distance he'd been forced to maintain when she'd been an iron knuckle, lest he be hit by that axe.
"Yes, an excellent idea as usual, Komei!" cried the witch of the blue diamond. A ball of blue energy formed in her now raised hand. He recognised the pose, how it appeared as though she had her hand clenched around an invisible ball. At the other end of the hallway, Komei did the same with a ball of red energy. They hurled the energy at Naburu, and she gained her feet, ran, shrank and disappeared as the combined lights of Komei and Kotakei hit her, sending her away.
Blood rushed to his ears. He couldn't believe how heartless the witches were. Anger had slowed his reaction—foolish, foolish!—but he stood there and seethed, as the witches disappeared as if they'd never been, and the bars rose from over the door to beyond, as if this had been an ordinary fight.
Link, heedless of consequence, marched over to the door behind the throne, barked at it that it open, and stormed through into the chamber beyond. Navi sat on his shoulder, and hoped that he didn't remember that she was there anytime soon.
He emerged on the other side of the door, out of the reach of the dungeon map, perhaps, into another world. He stood in a low, level area punctuated by four platforms rising up out of the floor, situated at each cardinal direction. There was a square arena in the centre of the room, and each of the platform-islands stood near the centre of each of the arena's four walls, providing an easy way to access the arena. But, the walls of the arena were made of brick; there were handholds that Link could climb. Without looking further at the lay of the room, he struck out for the nearest of the area's four corners, and began to climb. Navi flapped her wings to keep her balance; in this mood, she wasn't sure that Link would notice if she fell.
He reached the top, and surveyed the room, but there was no sign of the twin witches. This room, with its four points in the four cardinal directions, and plenty of open space, with no obvious functions…it seemed to be the sort of place where you might conduct a magic ritual. He walked over to stand upon the sign of the sun, painted upon the floor, half-expecting a beam of sunlight to emerge from the ceiling and flood the darkened room with light.
Instead, he heard a malevolent booming laugh; it didn't seem to have a source, but instead to come from the air all around.
"Look at the stupid kid!" said one of the witches, but, sight unseen, he couldn't tell which by ear alone.
"He came to offer himself up as a sacrifice to the Great Ganondorf! Hohoho!"
A presentiment of ruin, destruction, danger, stole over him, and he whirled, following his intuition, to see Kotakei rising from the platform to the east. She emerged from a strange icy nexus, which breathed frost, with a chill that could be felt even in the centre of the broad arena, where Link now stood.
"Well, then! With my frost, I will freeze you to your soul!" she cried, spinning around on her broomstick faster and faster, and a blue flame engulfed the turban on her head, exposing her hair as being made of the same blue fire he'd seen before, the fire that froze. That was…not good.
There was a cackling laugh, higher-pitched, behind him, and against his better judgement, his body automatically spun around, to see the second witch emerge from a nexus of fire, covering her mouth as she cackled madly, before returning her hand to the handle of the broom.
"And with my flame, I will burn you to your bones! Heeheehee!"
She rose from the nexus, as if from a hole leading into the depths of the underworld, and whirled around on her broom, faster and faster. This time Link knew what to expect, and barely reacted at all to the bright orange flames eating away the turban covering her head. He glanced at Kotakei, who was now approaching, and then at Komei, who finished her ascent, and slowly flew over to the arena. He suspected that the speed was not of her choosing, and that the brooms, or the witches themselves, were just too old to allow for speedier travel. He was glad of it.
They began to circle him, at opposite sides of the arena, making it impossible to face them both at once. One or the other would be out-of-sight no matter what he did.
He grimaced, pulling out the faerie bow, and grabbing hold of a gerudo arrow. He watched the sorceress sisters closely, as Navi floated nearby, biting her lip, head whipping back and forth, trying and failing to keep an eye on both of them at once, awaiting orders.
"Would you be safe if you flew over to mark Kotakei?" he asked, as he clamped a fist over the arrowhead. If fire arrows worked, then perhaps ice arrows would, too. But, if the fire arrows didn't work, then the ice arrows, which might even be of Kotakei's magic, also wouldn't. Navi shook her head—not in a way that indicated a "no". It was an exasperated gesture, emphasised by the hands she put on her hips.
"You ask that question too often, and too greatly worry about the safety of others. We're a team! I'll be safe marking her for you. Try whatever it is that you're going to try, and call to me via faerie connection if you change your mind!"
With that, she flew over to the witch with the blue-flame hair. He raised the bow, sighted quickly along the shaft, and fired. The arrow struck true, or rather, it would have, had it not frozen solid as it approached the gerudo sorceress. She cackled in her deep, menacing voice, and raised back a curved, withered hand, lifting it off the broom. A ball of blue-white light gathered there, as Link stared at it, eyes wide. What to do?
He saw Komei approaching, continuing her circuit of the arena. He put away the bow—if she could freeze that arrow of the sun, then nothing he had could cut through that frost, except those weapons that would melt under Komei's doubtless scalding heat. When they had introduced themselves…those words hadn't been hubris and bravado. They were just that powerful. He swallowed hard.
If the weapons he had could not avail him—he daren't risk the Master Sword, save as a last resort…then the only thing to be done was…to use the powers of the sisters themselves!
"Navi, come back here!" he called via the connection, which he knew that the sisters couldn't hear. She sped over to him, the blue of the streak of her halo too like a ghostly precursor to Kotakei's nearly charged attack.
He whipped the mirror shield from his back, and held it up, tilting it to reflect Kotakei's attack back at her. The attack, a beam of solid ice, struck the shield, and rebounded, and Link tilted the shield over to Komei, where she hovered next to Kotakei. Kotakei cut the flow of ice, the moment she saw what he had done, but it was too late. The fire sorceress froze, briefly lost control of her broom, but then righted herself, glowering at Link.
Twinrova resumed their circuit of the arena, and Link stared straight ahead, face set in determination. He suspected that they weren't foolish enough to attack him whilst he had such a ready means of self-defence, and replaced the mirror shield on his back, whirling around, as Navi alit on his shoulder.
"Oh, Link, I'm so sorry. I can't guide their attacks…you're on your own, here. I'll keep watch for you, though. Behind you! Komei's charging an attack!"
Komei had stopped on her broom. She floated several feet above the ground to Link's left, between the eastern column and the arena. As Link watched, she raised her right arm, arcing it back as if about to throw something. Bright orange energy began to gather in it, and Link stared, momentarily transfixed. He saw Kotakei flying over to more closely examine the fight, and suspected that she flew over to make the occasional snide remark, as well. In fact, he could almost hear her saying something to the effect of, "well, if you think you're so much more competent, let's see you do this, then."
A sudden stream of fire emerged from her hands, as if her hand was a miniature dragon, or a volcano. It seemed impossible; how did they have so much power?
But, Link whipped the mirror shield off his back, aiming the attack back to Komei, and then suddenly wrenching the shield so that the beam of fire bounced off the shield and hit Kotakei, who shrieked, as Komei cut the stream of fire, murmured a quiet apology, and Kotakei huffed, but nodded.
Link replaced the shield on his back, and then resumed watching the sisters. He saw Kotakei begin to charge another beam of ice attack, and he waited until it was already moving to whip the shield off his back, angling it so that it hit Komei instead. Kotakei cut the flow, and turned to her icicle-bedecked sister.
Something about her put him in mind of the ice cavern, perhaps in the middle of the night, to one not gifted with faerie sight. The icicles lined her clothes draping from her sleeves, and her broom, and covered her chin as a wintry beard. They melted quickly, but not before Link paused, realising that for all that he'd hurt the witches, they were so powerful that even each other's attacks had little effect; the frost hadn't bothered to even touch Komei's hair, fizzing off as steam.
And meanwhile, the sisters sat there in the air, looking back and forth between sister and foe, conversing in low tones. Kotakei nodded, and the two of them rose high into the air, rising over Link's head, they spun around in circles, as if chasing each other, and Link furrowed his brow, turning to Navi, perplexed, his anger long since subsumed by the battle rush.
Navi shrugged.
"Komei and Kotakei's Double Dynamite Attack!" the witches screeched overhead, as they spun about, faster and faster, until their forms were indistinguishable, the one from the other, and then there was an explosion that rained snow and tongues of flame down on Link.
He leapt backwards, staring at the frost and sparks that pounded the ground, and then he looked up, and staggered back.
Where the two witches had floated, there was now one, enormous woman, twice his height. She had dusky grey skin, wrinkled and flabby with age, but she wore a revealing white costume with flared sleeves, with a low cut bodice, and an exposed midriff. There were the loose, billowy gerudo pants, the excessive makeup on the face—teal for the eyes, bright red for the lips, and a strange headdress resembling a crown, with a gem in the centre, the left half of the gem being that same, pale blue of Kotakei, the right being the bright orange of Komei. A pigtail of blue flame sprouted from the left-hand side of her head; a red-orange one sprouted from the right. She flew without need of the brooms, and instead she carried a sceptre each in one of her hands.
She winked at him, and he recoiled, but managed to avoid tripping and falling by virtue of being near the centre of the arena. She shot over to the side, and he pivoted to keep her in sight. She raised her left hand, holding its sceptre aloft, and then swept it down in an arc. Blue flames shot down at him, but he raised the mirror shield in time to take the blow…only it didn't reflect the shot back at her. He turned to Navi. She frowned, crossed her arms, bit her lip.
"I think that, maybe, there isn't enough energy for it to reflect. Perhaps, with magic, it needs a certain amount before the magic overflows, and that's when it starts to reflect the energy back. Didn't there seem to be a pause between Komei or Kotakei's attacks hit your shield and they started to bounce back?" He hadn't noticed one, but didn't say anything. Navi was smart; if she said there was, there was. "And that means, most likely, that the same attack from the wand she holds in her right hand will neutralise the energy you've absorbed, so you need to fill it with the same kind of energy."
Link nodded. He supposed that was reasonable. Navi glanced at him, and then wordlessly soared over to a platform behind him, where Twinrova—the joint combined form of Kotakei and Komei—was raising her left hand again. She brought it down in an arc, and he held out the mirror shield, which flashed blue, briefly, as the attack hit it, and then returned to normal. He knew precisely where Navi was at the moment, and therefore knew precisely where Twinrova was.
He whirled around as Twinrova once again came to a stop behind him, in the air between a pillar and the arena. He waited, and then watched as she drew back her left arm for a third time, and then lobbed the energy at Link, who had already raised the shield to block it. It flashed blue, twice, and then began spewing out blue flames directly in front of him. It hit the Twinrova, and she shrieked, before managing to crawl onto the pillar, where she sprawled, gasping for breath. Link leapt over the gap, and drew the Master Sword. It was his go-to weapon whenever it seemed plausible—his first choice, now that she was grounded. He lashed out at her repeatedly, aiming mostly at her belly, because…well, because he hesitated to stab a woman, even a grotesque combined giantess such as Twinrova, in the chest. It seemed…rude.
He regretted his hesitance as she rose into the air, again, gaining altitude, and rearing back her right hand. He leapt across the gap, and spun in time to absorb the first attack with the mirror shield. At least he now had a plan, right? Even if it was a tedious, dangerous one.
He whirled around, aware of Navi's presence behind him, and watched as Twinrova reached her hand back, again, the right hand, and then threw another streak of bright orange at him. He raised the mirror shield to absorb it, and then closed his eyes as Twinrova floated away. Navi or no Navi, here Twinrova's continued insistence upon aiming at his back was predictable.
He whirled as she sent another ball of flames his way, holding out the mirror shield, in her direction, to hit her with the brunt of the blast from the start. Sure enough, the once-more overcharged mirror shield spewed forth a torrent of flames at Twinrova, who shrieked in a high-pitched, girlish voice that did not suit the hideous hag appearance, and then crumpled in a heap on the platform. Again, Link put away the shield, and leapt across the gap to the temporarily helpless twin witches. He drove the sword straight at their hearts, this time (although he wasn't sure that they had any such), hacking repeatedly at the vicinity (very careful to avoid damaging what scant clothing they wore).
But at last, Twinrova rose into the sky once more, raising her left arm out at Link. He lifted the mirror shield, and it absorbed the first blow, as Twinrova fluttered behind him, just out of reach, to land on the opposite side of the arena. He turned in time to see her raise her right hand, and froze, uncertain as to what he ought to do now. The ball of flames approached closer and closer. He dove out of the way, and ripples of flames and sparks and an impossible heat emanated from the point of impact. The ground of the arena seemed to hiss and bubble, but that had to be an illusion, because when he looked, he saw nothing but a swiftly disappearing pool of fire.
Twinrova was still behind him, of course. She threw another ball of…something…at him, and he raised the shield, unthinking, to absorb the blow. The shield didn't flash any sort of colour, and Link knew that he'd made a mistake. Back to the start, then.
He turned when Navi shouted, seeing Twinrova raised her left hand over her head, and then throw a ball of frost at him. He lifted the shield to absorb it, and then closed his eyes.
"Left!" Navi called, and he understood, whirling, and raising the shield, as a ball of frost leapt from the sceptre in Twinrova's left hand. It hit the shield, which glowed blue briefly, and then subsided.
He closed his eyes, listening as hard as he could for Navi's voice.
"Right!" she shouted, and without turning to look at the twin witches, he dove aside, as fire licked up the area in which he'd stood, and spread outwards, coming too close for comfort, but leaving him unscathed, even as—
"Right!" Navi called. He dove towards the edge of the arena, hoping that he wouldn't be forced to jump off the raised square to avoid the attacks. Behind him, the first attack ceased sizzling. He edged around the side of the arena, and then whirled in time to see Twinrova raise her left fist, whilst he was distracted. Tricky, eh?
He raised the mirror shield to meet the attack, and it hit Twinrova's legs, so he raised the shield, tilting it to hit her full force. She sank down onto the pillar behind her, and Link leapt after her, drawing the Master Sword, and bringing it down, impaling her in the chest, then wrenching the Master Sword free to lash out several more times in the same area.
Suddenly, there was an explosion, a shower of sparks that impacted with the goron's tunic, but did not set it alight, and of frost that seemed particularly chill, and the sorceress sisters rose into the air, and separated into two balls of light or of smoke or of vapour, one blue, and one red. They drifted down towards the ground, and resolved into the familiar, turbaned gerudo witches. The one on the left was Kotakei, and the one on the right was Komei. They shook their fists at him, bug eyes wider than was usual even for them, as they stared.
"Impossible! Ooh! I guess it's time to get serious now, eh, Komei!" asked Kotakei, still staking her fist at Link.
"I don't know…I feel…dizzy…" protested the other gerudo woman. The broomsticks crumbled beneath them, leaving them standing among the dusty piles of debris that had once been broomsticks. A cold white light shone down from the ceiling, engulfing them.
"Eh? What's happening, Komei?" asked Kotakei, squawking her indignation.
The light began to pull them up, and up….
Link relaxed, sheathing the Master Sword, and replacing the mirror shield on his back. They'd forgotten about him.
"I don't know, Kotakei!" the other witch snapped. "I think…we're dying…"
"I can't die! I'm only four hundred years old!" howled Kotakei. Link blinked, staring at them with his head tilted to the side, incredulous. "Only"?
"And I'm just three hundred eighty!" whined Komei. Kotakei leveled a furious glare on her.
"No, you're not. We're twins, nitwit! Don't lie about your age!"
"Hey! You're so old, it's made you forget your own age!"
"How can you be so rude to your older sister?"
"If we're twins, how can you be older, nitwit?"
They began to bicker louder and swifter, shaking fists at and kicking at each other. Link blinked, head shooting from one to the other as they exchanged verbal barbs in swift succession. Navi covered her hand to mask a giggle, which was when Link realised that she'd landed on top of his head. Well, if she liked. Apparently, he'd avenged Naburu. That was the important thing.
"You're heartless! How can you be so cruel!" the witches said, punctuating their points by poking each other. Link could no longer tell who was speaking at any given time.
The light began to lift them, again, more swiftly, now, and they looked up, ceasing their bickering, and then turned to fix identical glares upon Link. They disappeared into the light, but their voices echoed back down to him, as if the last of them to be withdrawn from the physical world was their voice:
"You just wait! You haven't seen the last of us! We'll come back and haunt you!"
A blue light sprang up in the centre of the arena, near to where he stood. He hopped back across the gap, and stepped into the blue light.
He was unsurprised when it deposited him, not in the terrestrial world, but in the middle of the Chamber of the Sages. By now, this was routine. He took a moment to savour the routine, knowing that this was the end of predictability in his quest; from now on, he ventured into the unknown. The Hero of Winds had needed to face a final trial, in Ganon's Tower. Perhaps he would also need to do this. He had seen nothing of Ganondorf, and nothing to indicate his whereabouts, which suggested that he might have fixed a permanent location for his base. Or maybe not, and they had just somehow avoided another encounter since his awakening.
Naburu joined him in the Chamber of Sages, rising up out of a circle of orange light onto the small platform embossed with the insignia of Spirit. She crossed her arms in front of her, fixing him with a level stare, and then grinning.
"Well, well, well! What have we here? You…you're the man I saw in that brief instant before Twinrova entrapped me again. The one who broke their spell. I owe you a debt of gratitude. Allow me to properly introduce myself: I am Naburu, the Sage of Spirit! Ha!"
She uncrossed her arms, and stared down at the floor, bowing her head so that the few strands of her hair that weren't secured in her ponytail fell across her face.
"I was a fool, and thought that I was a match for the two legendary witch-mothers of Ganondorf himself. I knew that they would have to be powerful sorceresses, given how powerful a king Ganondorf showed himself to be, even in magic. Because of my folly and haste, I was kidnapped, brainwashed, and forced to assist his evil schemes."
Her eyes narrowed, and she glared across time at the witches who had held her prisoner for seven long years.
"I'm sure you're blaming yourself for what happened to me; you seem to be that type. I saw that look on your face when you saw just whom and what you'd been fighting. Hmm. Well, let me just say that what happened to me is in no way your fault."
She raised her head, grinning at him again, and returned her arms to their previous position—crossed across her chest. "Thank you, kid…no, thank you, Link Sylvanus, the Hero of Time! Because of you, I was able to awaken to my true calling as the Sage of Spirit! Oh, don't look so surprised…of course, I knew who you were."
Link blushed furiously, putting a hand to his cheek to feel just how hot it was. Yep, hot enough to cook on. He hadn't realised that he was that easy to read. He schooled his features into a more level expression, as Naburu continued (Navi stifling another laugh). "Kid, you really impressed me! Imagine that in seven years, the little kid grew up to be a master swordsman…or perhaps you were all along? Eh, I don't care.
"I messed up, and the fault is all mine. If I hadn't come to the Spirit Temple, the witches would never have caught me. No matter how you rushed, you couldn't have prevented their noticing me. I'm just glad they didn't capture you! Well, it all turned out for the best, I suppose. Imagine, Naburu, the lone wolf thief, elevated to such a position. Now, I can get my own revenge on those evil witches, by helping you to fight their son, Ganondorf! Ha!
"Instead of keeping the promise I made to you seven years ago, I will give you this medallion. It's the last one, the only one you're missing. With this, as far as I know, you're backed by the combined power of all the Sages. Take it with my best regards. Shoot…if only I knew you'd grown up to be so handsome…I wish I could have kept the promise I made seven years ago…."
He didn't even understand the hint until he heard Navi giggle. Then, his blush, which had begun to recede, returned full force. Was Naburu really suggesting—?
Naburu grinned, raising her hands above her head. A ball of orange light formed there, resolving itself into the final medallion, the Medallion of Spirit. He raised his hands over his own head, as Naburu pushed the medallion over to him. "Clobber them for me, will you?" she asked, as everything began to fade into blue light.
And a moment later, he was standing outside the Desert Colossus, clenching the Spirit Medallion tight in his fist.
As he stood there, in his kokiri's tunic, trying to figure out what he ought to do next, he heard a voice—not with his ears, as he realised almost instantly, but with his mind. He closed his eyes, where he stood on the steps before the Spirit Temple, the better to hear the voice.
"Link. This is Rauru. I have recently learnt that you have collected all six medallions. Well done! It is time to learn what you must do next.
"Ganondorf does not seem to be aware of our plans yet, but it is best to exercise caution, and not to rush at these final stages of a plan. Come to the Temple of Time. Be discreet, and don't use the 'Prelude of Light'; so much activity there in such a short span of time might attract Ganondorf's attention. There is someone who wishes to speak with you. Come as quickly as you are able, but remember, stealth is key!"
And with that, the sense of Rauru's presence in his mind went as if it had never been. Link blinked at the sudden intensity of the hot desert sun, even wearing the goron's tunic. Someone was waiting for him at the Temple of Time? Who could it be? He had many candidates, but most of them he knew to be in the Sacred Realm. They would remain there until it was safe. The kokiris couldn't leave the forest. Malone was on the ranch.
That left the (he had to admit) thrilling idea that it might just be Zelda…or even Sheik. They hadn't seemed to have a very good parting, now had they? He had to admit that he was almost desperate to find out just what he had done to make her so…reserved, again. But, if it was Zelda…well, she'd better be careful. He was sure the Ganondorf was scouring the land for her, even now. But, it would be good to see her again. He'd missed her.
It was without properly thinking through recent events that he used the "Nocturne of Shadow" to return to Kakariko Village, to finally replenish his supplies, and to ride back to Hyrule Castle (and to return Epona to Lonlon Ranch).
He didn't remember that he'd left her in the fortress until he'd played through her song on the other side of the bridge leading to Kakariko Village…and she trotted up behind him, over the bridge.