I woke up as early as I could the next day considering the amount of sleep I got. Which ended up being about 6:20. With a quick curse and a fast shower, I shoved any bits and bobs I thought I might need into one of my magic pouches. I never got tired of shoving an entire arsenal and a change of clothes into a bag the size of a mason jar.
To my surprise, Shade was waiting downstairs for me as I left. "The hell are you doing up?" I asked as I grabbed a container of yogurt from the fridge and started shoveling it into my mouth.
"Never went back to sleep. I'm impressed you could after seeing zombie monsters try to eat us last night." I shrugged noncommittally.
"Not the worst I've seen. You don't know fear until you've seen swarms of demon wasps and giant acid-spitting plants." Shade stared at me for a moment, entirely deadpanned, before speaking again.
"If it was anyone else, I'd be calling them a liar. But, unfortunately, I know that you've actually fought those." He sighed deeply and I heard him mutter a few words. "How is it that you're this grand hero and I'm just here?"
I immediately paused in my frantic search for something else to eat and looked at my brother, who was staring vacantly at the oven. "Being a hero isn't some cakewalk, you know. I can't tell you how many times I could have died so far if I had just been a little slower or a little less cautious. It's dangerous, terrifying, and practically nightmare inducing." Shade nodded slowly.
"But you love it." I jumped to deny it, but he kept going. "You're exhilarated by the challenge. Every new danger is a new test of your unshakable resolve. And you're a part of something bigger than yourself. You have a goal, your life has meaning, and you have a place you know you belong in the world."
I leaned back against the wall, trying to come up with the best way to answer. I thought I could see what was bothering him, at least a little.
"I won't say you're wrong. Being the Hero is the perfect fulfillment of everything I am. But, Shade, that doesn't mean what I'm doing is any different than you. It's just that my call is a little more on the nose. In a way, I envy you." His absentminded stare jumped to focus on me. "You get to find out what you'll do. You know that I don't have any plans for after I kill the big bad? I know I might not survive. I don't want to get my hopes up. I'm not saying I plan on dying. I've got plenty to live for. You, Zelda, Sheik and Hunter, and all our friends." I gazed at my twin, his face and heart so much like my own. "You get to choose your future. Because whether I like it or not, I'm locked into this. I have to fight Ruin. But you can do anything. Become a chef, marry Midna, become a comedian, get famous, wander the world, or any hundred other things. You-" I cut myself off before starting again. "Don't be jealous of me. I know what my life is now, but that might not always be the case. I'm living a fantastical life right now, ridiculous and magical and wonderful. But there's nothing stopping you from doing the same." He stared at me for another minute before standing up and walking out of the kitchen.
"Better get going, you're going to be late. Say hey to Zelda for me, I'll catch you later." I watched him leave, not sure if I made things better or worse. Obviously, I hoped it was the first, but only time would tell. Time… I quickly realized I was out of time. I ran out the front door, activating the Master Cycle and jumping onto it as soon as it materialized. I drove to Zelda's house, doing my best to not make too much noise with my bike. I wasn't surprised to see Zelda sitting on the front steps of her house, waiting for me.
"Morning," she said cheerfully, climbing onto the motorcycle behind me and pressing a quick kiss to my cheek.
"Good morning. Shade says hi," I replied, driving the Master Cycle towards the highway that would be the fastest way to the castle.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. I shouldn't have been surprised, she had become well attuned to my mood over the past few weeks and months.
"No, well, not really," I stuttered out, not really sure how to explain everything I thought my brother was thinking. "It's just something with Shade. It'll be fine." I heard Zelda hum slightly behind me. I felt her move slightly a few times, but I couldn't turn to see what she was doing. A minute later, she spoke again.
"Well, now he'll have Midna to keep him company. Maybe she can help him figure it out. And if not…" She laughed. "I'm sure she can find some way to distract him." I couldn't help but groan at the tone in her voice.
"Not you too. It's been bad enough having to deal with Shade alluding to who knows way. I don't even know if the two of them have done anything."
"I wonder," my girlfriend said, in a way that said she knew more than she let on.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Sorry, girl's promise. I can't say anything."
"Tease."
Zelda laughed again. "Careful what you say. Or you'll see just how much I can tease you. Or did you forget you can't reach me like this?" I rolled my eyes even thought I knew she couldn't see me.
"I think you're the one who needs to be careful. We're not going to be on this bike forever; I'll get my revenge." Zelda giggled, leaning her head on my shoulder as we roared along the highway towards Hyrule Castle.
We made exceptionally good time, arriving at the Castle less than an hour after we left. To my delight, the same guard that we had met the first time we were there was manning the same booth. He had the distinguished pleasure of letting us onto the palace grounds, and I had the pleasure of watching him look at us with confusion the entire time. Probably wondering what the hell we were doing back at the castle.
Zelda and I were immediately escorted to a small lounge like the one we had been in previously, only without the fixation on the color blue. Within a few minutes, Princess Felia joined us, along with two guards.
"Please, leave us. I trust these two with my life and we have private matters to discuss," she said to the guards, giving them no choice to but grudgingly leave the room and close the doors. Once the doors were closed, the princess sighed and collapsed onto one of the couches. She laid there a moment before Zelda said something.
"Felia, are you alright?" Felia just half-heartedly waved her hand.
"I'm fine, just tired. Like I said, we had a little…incident here last night. I haven't exactly slept." I was personally horrified. To be forced to go without sleep was a fate I'd wish on no one.
"Did everything turn out okay? Was anyone hurt?" I asked, wary of the reason for the attack. The princess was quick to reassure me.
"Everything's fine. It was just a bunch of cursed monsters, likely the same thing that attacked you two, from what you said Zelda. The Sheikah managed to deal with them easily. Particularly your cousin Sheik, Link. Guardian Forester has done a remarkable job training him." Felia stopped talking for a moment before heaving herself upright again. "That's not why I asked you to come here though. I believe that the monster attack was a distraction for something else. A few guards and a Sheikah reported that they saw someone in the library's Archives, which is barred from all, with a few exceptions, and holds a number of ancient and secret texts. What more, the guards believe that the infiltrator was Ganondorf Dragmire."
"I thought he disappeared," I interrupted, and Felia nodded.
"He was indeed missing, and his sudden reappearance is worrying. He seemed to make every attempt to remain unknown inside the castle and made no effort to assure anyone of his safety. We believe this indicates he is working with our enemy, though we haven't been able to deduce what he was looking for in the Archives."
"Would it be possible for us to look at the contents of the Archive?" Zelda asked. "Ganondorf was probably looking for information that could only be found there, so if we can figure out what it is, we may be able to discover his intentions." The princess nodded thoughtfully.
"A good idea. And as a member of the Royal Family, I am permitted to access the Archives along with any I deem worthy." She shot us an amused grin. "I'd certainly say you two are worthy." We all laughed. I would certainly hope a reincarnated goddess and hero would be allowed the same rights as the Royal Family of Hyrule.
We all quickly made our way to the castle library, through a heavily locked and magically sealed door, and down an extensive flight of stairs that spilled out into a rather small room. A few bookshelves were positioned around the small chamber, some with more books than others. A portion of the room had a few tables and chairs placed around to give anyone reading the books a place to sit.
"I hope it goes without saying, but absolutely none of the information in this room is permitted outside of it," Felia said as we started poking around the shelves. "That means no notes, no pictures, and not breathing a word of anything down here to any of us not present." Zelda and I agreed, and our search began in earnest.
In truth, the Archives didn't hold a very diverse collection. Many of the books were about certain forms of magic that, from the sounds of them, had good reason to be hidden away. Dark, necromantic practices, the harnessing of souls, and flesh manipulation were the three I found before deciding that I'd maybe look somewhere else first. On the plus side, my appetite disappeared, assuaging the hunger I had been feeling.
At some point in our search, Zelda called me over to look at the medium sized book she was looking though, laughing slightly. "What's up?" I asked, curious as to what had her so amused.
"Turns out royal scandals weren't as uncommon as we thought," she said, pointing at a passage in the book. I looked it over twice before I understood what I was looking at. It was a record of all the women a previous monarch of Hyrule had slept with, along with dates that I had to assume had something to do with when he had slept with them. Zelda flipped to a different page in the book and pointed to a small section in particular. I looked closer and saw it was a record of a prince of Hyrule's marriage to a woman named Elaine, along with the note that she had borne a child before her unfortunate death a few years later.
"What's so important about this section?" I asked my girlfriend, who was still laughing quietly.
"You remember how I said my grandmother said one of my great-great-great-something grandparents was married to a prince?" I nodded, still not sure what she meant. "Her name was Elaine." My eyes went wide, and I couldn't help the laugh that spilled out of me as I looked back at the page. Another look showed that the prince's name had been Tiberius the Fifth.
"Well," I said, still laughing. "I guess we know when the Royal bloodline split now."
Another hour into our search and we hadn't found anything in any of the smaller sections that seemed likely to be what Ganondorf had been looking for. Unless he wanted record of a tiny, inch-tall race that had once lived under Hyrule's nose or transcripts of Hyrule's dealings with other worlds and dimensions. However, we had one section left to search, one of the larger ones in the collection.
I was the first one to start picking through the books, many of which were much, much older than the others we had been searching through. Almost immediately, I figured out what the topic of the section was.
The Triforce.
"Holy shit," I mumbled as I scanned through the various books, scrolls, and papers. All of them referenced the Triforce and its many appearances through the history of Hyrule. It was the inciting incident in wars, not only within Hyrule, but with foreign lands and other worlds too. But most of all, they confirmed that it wasn't just the symbol of Hyrule, of the three virtues of power, wisdom, and courage, and of the Golden Goddesses. It was real. The ultimate power upon the earth, the magic of the gods in our midst.
Of course, I had already known that, but it was one thing to hear about the sacred relic's power and another to read actual accounts of it. Some of the feats accomplished with even one piece of the Triforce were incredible to say the least. Out of curiosity, I tried to find the earliest account of the relic's use. The closest I got was a copy of a copy of a copy of a tattered and faded journal that was so old the writing was barely legible. But if what it said was true, then it was an account of the destruction of the Demon King Demise at the hand of the first Hero. The segment had likely been passed down through millennia. And though I didn't have any proof, as I looked at the words recorded on the page, I had the sneaking suspicion that this wasn't the first time I had found this record.
Putting the page aside, I kept looking through the section, looking for anything that Ganondorf might have been looking for. After flipping through a few books detailing previous wars for the Triforce, I found a small journal that looked somewhat newer than most of the other books. Paging through it, I found the contents rather sparse, just a few passages talking about travels around Hyrule back before it had been largely modernized. From what I could tell, whoever had written it hinted at a few hiding places of some sort scattered around Hyrule. Whoever had written it had been ridiculously vague, not even mentioning where they were in Hyrule, merely saying that they had either found a suitable spot or decided against another. A few later parts alluded to construction of some sort. One of the last mentioned the binding of 'old power' to 'strongholds.' The passages ended there, seemingly ending the story. I turned the last page of the journal and saw there was one last thing written in the book, etched into the leather backing of the book.
"Guys, I think I found something," I called out, bringing the journal over to one of the tables as Zelda and Felia crowded around me. "I found this in a whole section on the Triforce. Listen to this.
"'Those who seek the Divine Gift;
Three trials lie between you and it.
Mountains mark their long repose;
One hot, one cold, the last below.
Courage takes the greatest risk;
Resting among the molten cliffs.
Long dead bones point away;
Behind the flow, your challenge lay.
Power, dangerous, stares into the pit;
Looking out, on cliffs it sits.
Heat below and cold behind;
Dark doorway, in the ruins find.
Wisdom, subtle, unsuspecting;
In between the high peaks, resting.
Mountains stand, eternal sentries;
By still water and shelter: entry.
Warning figures from Hyrule's past;
Watching, guarding, testing last.
Foolish users seek to guide;
Final lesson, their fate denied.
Beasts and trials, no caution spared;
Ensuring seekers approach prepared.
For Power, Wisdom, Courage united;
The Triune Force, once more ignited.'"
We all stood still, taking in the cryptic words of the poem. "What do you think it means?" Felia asked quietly, looking over the words once again.
"If I had to guess," I said hesitantly. "I'd say it's giving directions to three places in Hyrule. 'Three trials,' like it says. I think we found what Ganondorf was looking for." The two girls looked at me, and I could see that they were thinking the same thing I was. "We just found the map to the Triforce."
Ooo, how do you like that? Kind of ominous, eh?
Hello, greetings, and salutations, comrades! It is I, Aro, triumphantly returning from whatever hole of non-motivation I fell into for the last month or so. Really sorry about that, but I just didn't want to write. That combined with school and work left me with a really great excuse not to write! Funny how that works, huh? Anyways, here's your chapter, I know it's a little short, but that riddle/poem thing took a lot of time. If you've ever tried writing poetry, you know how it goes. Plus I had to fire up good ol' BotW to actually figure out where these places were going to be. Which took a while, because you can't just plop a dungeon down anywhere, now can you? And then describing it in a cryptic but discernible way, rather tricky. Anyways, got it done and I like it. Feel free to try to figure out where I'm putting the dungeons, I'm curious to see if anyone can figure it out. And for those who don't know (probably all of you, come to think of it), this Hyrule is basically a modernized version of Breath of the Wild. So there you go, good luck looking.
Let's see, what else happens here? The return of Felia, Shade has a few problems (somewhat reflective of my own slight envy of people who seem to have their lives together, because I sure don't. I know they're probably the same way, but damn if we're not all great at faking it.), and the poor castle guard shows up again. Poor guy, probably has no idea why he's letting two random teenagers in to have a casual chat with the Princess. Oh yeah, and Ganondorf pops back up. What's he up to? Who knows, but we should see soon. -ish.
Review time, time for reviews. Twilit Lord, okay, yeah, it's not super discrete. But they're on a timetable. Also, I was going for Cursed Bokoblins, a la Skyward Sword, but close enough. Also, after a brief check (and I do mean brief), I shall assume you are correct that you have acquired all the wind based Zelda items. Not sure what you're going to do with them, but I'll just trust that it's fine and not world-ending. Foopuff, you deserved that rock. How dare you. Glad you liked the chapter and the fluff. I kind of figured that was why, but since I meant to type 'my', not 'me', I was slightly confused. I absolutely love your suggestion for what Midna and Shade are doing, so much that it is as close to canon in this story as what they're doing is going to get. I have a running joke with myself at this point that there's no confirmation that Midna and Shade are banging, so it is entirely possible that they're just playing a massive game of D and D, or something similar. Who knows? Not me. Sand Seal, I apologize. The way the reviews showed up on my end did a goof and so I missed your review. I apologize profusely and seek your forgiveness. Indeed the fluff, indeed the zombies. Again, Cursed Bokoblins. I suppose I could have emphasized their Bokoblin-ness a bit more. Yes, you'll get your dungeons, at least three more, we'll see where we go from there. I find your answers fascinating and thank you for them. I applaud you for your dedication to Skyrim, I have done similar when reading a good book. Oops indeed. Oracle of Hylia, thank you so much, both for your kind words and not plastering chemicals on your teeth. That stuff smells bad enough, I can't imagine what it tastes like. Probably death. And sorry, but that's not going to happen. The point of Shade is that he's basically a nobody in all of this. Everyone around him is special in one way or another, and he's not. The whole thing is part of his arc, if you want to call it that, as we see in this chapter. I don't think he needs magic to be interesting, at least I hope not. Besides, who needs shadow magic when you can cook?
Thank you all as usual for leaving your reviews, I love to read them and hear how you're enjoying the story. And to those lurking around, favoriting and following the story, I appreciate you too, I see every one of you. And hey, maybe drop a review of your own some time. I'd love to hear from you.
Also, to the observant of you, you will see that I posted a little oneshot about a week ago, so if you haven't seen that, be sure to check it out. It's not very long, but I think it's interesting and fun. It's called 'What He Fights For'. Please consider giving it a read (and review).
Okay, I think that's about it. For those of you wondering, the reason I love living in Minnesota isn't just for the 22 below temperatures, it's also for the 30 degree windchill. It's a bit cold up here right now. Not that I've gone outside. Screw that. Just a fun fact for you. Anyways, thank you once again for reading, please be patient with the next update (since I have no idea when it'll be out), and always, ALWAYS...keep snacks next to your desk. I've got a whole package of Nutter Butters here waiting to be torn into. Yum yum yum. Cheers all!
~Aro