Alright everyone, I'm back. I know how you must be drooling for another long chapter, and here it is. So without further ado, here is Clockwork Darkness ch. 20. R&R plz.
The Legend of Midna: Clockwork Darkness
Chapter Twenty
Cailin felt a sensation of falling, saw a rush of blue color surround her, and, as soon as it began, felt her feet touch down softly onto stone.
Hello, Cailin, said an all-too familiar voice. I've heard a lot about you. I understand you're a pretty capable mage. Daughter of the Winds, they call you, or so my father said before that little fiasco all those years ago. Well I tell you the truth, you'll need more than wind magic to make it out alive. Good luck.
"Oh that's great," Cailin said to herself. "He knows who I am. Hopefully all that about more than just wind magic is a bluff." She then paused to take in her surroundings. She found herself in the center of a large hexagonal room, each wall bearing a door. "Hmm…" she puzzled, "which one of these is the way out, I wonder…" She strode up to the door directly in front of her, turned the handle, and barely reacted fast enough to roll out of the way as the door fell towards her, hitting the stone floor with a cacophony of noise. "Ok, so it isn't that one."
She had to try two more doors before she got the right one. The next one she tried was to the left of the first door she had tried, and it sank into the wall upon having the handle turned. The one next to it exploded, throwing her to the floor.
"Damn!" she exclaimed as she hit the floor. "It's a miracle I'm not dead after that. This Zagros guy is nuts!" She got to her feet, and then tried a door on the wall opposite from where she started. Hesitantly she turned the handle, and much to her relief, it opened, revealing a long, narrow corridor.
"Thank the gods," she breathed in relief. She headed down the hallway until she came to the door at the other end. She went through it, and found herself in a slightly wider corridor. She took a step forward, and immediately jumped back. She must have triggered some switch or something, because the moment she tried to walk through, an endless array of arrows came hurtling out of the left wall into perfectly aligned slots on the right wall.
"That definitely complicates things," she said to herself. "Well, this is nothing some wind magic can't handle." She then focused her energy and generated a sort of bubble composed of roiling wind around her. Then she darted through the center of the corridor as fast as she could. As the arrows shot towards her, they hit the wall of wind surrounding her and fell to the floor. After a moment of sprinting, she reached the other side, leaving a mess of broken arrows in her wake.
"Ok, now to rest a minute," she breathed. After allowing herself to catch her breath, she continued onward. She stepped through the archway, and found herself outside in a sort of netherworld, oddly reminiscent of the Twilight Realm, but with a more malevolent ambiance. She allowed herself once more to take in her surroundings. She appeared to be on some kind of fortress. There were other structures like the one she was on, standing on individual islands suspended in the ether of this strange netherworld, each connected by stone bridges. Directly ahead of her was a bridge with what appeared to have once been an awning, but most of it was missing, possibly the victim of erosion, although what could have caused it she couldn't have guessed.
"I guess I need to get over there," she said to herself. She started across the bridge, her goal in her sight. Then something happened that threw her completely off guard. Before she could finish her next step, she was overcome with the sensation of falling, and then felt herself hit hard again stone. For a moment she laid prone. Finally she regained her composure, got to her feet, and continued breathing normally. Then she realized what had happened: before her, the path dropped off into nothingness. Above her, the path spanned to the next island, from which the fortress tower hung upside down. Truly, the entire realm had been turned on its end; she silently said a prayer to the goddesses that she had been fortunate enough to land on the remaining portion of what had once covered the bridge. Then the daunting task sunk in.
"How do I get across now…" she pondered absently. It seemed that she was trapped on this patch of stone. She had to get across somehow, but she had no idea how. Then finally the idea struck her.
"I've got it!" she cried in triumph. Holding her hands out, she focused her energy and created a force field out in the expanse. She jumped to it, now standing out over an endless abyss, a magical platform the only thing between her and infinity.
"Now I've just got to figure out how to go about this," she said aloud. Then a thought occurred to her. "I wonder if this will work," she puzzled. Then, focusing her energy, she used her wind magic to produce a gust of wind behind her. Luckily, her idea worked, and she found her force platform sailing forward thanks to the force of the gust. A few more bursts of speed from her wind magic, and Cailin found herself finally on the other side of the expanse.
"Ok," Cailin thought to herself, "now how do I get to that fortress. Everything is still upside down." Seeing no other option, she took a leap of faith towards the island holding the next fortress. Mid-jump, the world righted itself, and Cailin once again fell toward the ground and landed hard.
"Well, at least I made it," she groaned as she nursed her right elbow. She had landed directly on it, and it was now in excruciating pain. Determined to make it out of this place alive, she continued on into the next fortress.
Once inside, she was rather unimpressed by what she found. She was in another hexagonal room, in the center of which was a hole covered in thick spider webs. All around the room, the walls were decorated with the images of mountains, culminating in a scene depicting a powerful goron wielding a hammer against a fierce dragon. Knowing of no better option, and eager to find anything that could help her, Cailin began inspecting the walls. Finally something caught her eye; in the scene of the goron and the dragon, she could see that the dragon's eye was set with a bright red stone. She reached out to touch it, but was blinded by red light that shone from it when she attempted to touch it. When she could once again see, she saw that stone was gone from the engraving. Then a voice that seemed strangely familiar spoke inside her mind.
Cailin, your ancestor did terrible things, but you have a clear mind and a just heart. We will aid you, and he can be redeemed through you. You have these powers already, but we will unlock your true potential for you, and then you will be capable of truly great things. Look at the headband you wear. She removed it and saw that now, next to the central black jewel, there was a red one exactly like the one she had seen a moment ago in the dragon's eye. These crystals will unlock your true potential in elemental magic. Although you did not know it, your potential in wind magic has already been unlocked; you are capable of more than you think. Now your potential for fire magic has also been unlocked. Fare onward, and fully redeem your ancestor.
"Huh…" she thought aloud. "That was weird. So, if what whoever that was says is true, I should be able to handle whatever Zagros has planned for me with no trouble at all." She then turned to the webs in the center of the floor and produced a jet of fire, reducing the webs to smithereens. "Nowhere to go now but down," she said confidently. Without a second though, she took a leap of faith down the hole to wherever it would take her.
Upon reaching the bottom, she found herself in a situation that logically should not have been possible. The first thing she noticed was the intense heat. Then she took in her surroundings. Where there should have been stone walls and floor of the fortress she was in, she found herself on an island of obsidian looking out over a sea of magma and fire. Around her were stone wall, but they were rough and unworked. Streams of magma flowed freely out of crevices in the walls, and fire fell from the rough cavern ceiling. On the other side she could see a normal door. All she had to do was reach the other side. The only problem was that the only solid surfaces in the cavern were the one on which she stood and the one that held the door.
"There's got to be a way across," she said to herself. Then she remembered what the voice had said. "That person said my potential was unlocked in fire magic. I wonder…" She focused her energy into fire magic, and produced a glowing red bubble of sorts around herself. She stepped out into the magma, and as she had hoped, she felt no pain. She continued on, wading through the lava until finally reaching the other side. With a quick thanks to the goddesses, she stepped through the door.
Once through, Cailin once again found herself outside. As she started across the bridge leading to the next fortress, she saw that a massive portion of the bridge was missing.
"Well that's great," she said. "I can't jump that. How am I supposed to get across?" Then something occurred to her. "He said my potential in wind magic had already been unlocked..." Hoping that her crazy idea was crazy enough to work, she focused her energy into wind magic. Once her energy was sufficient, she produced two jets of strong wind that lifted her off the ground. As she fought to maintain her concentration, she maneuvered the wind jets in such a way that she was able to cross the gap and land safely on the other side.
"I can't believe that worked," she breathed with excitement. "I'd better not do that too much, though. I'm already starting to feel the fatigue from using all this magic. Much more and I won't be worth a damn." Nevertheless, she continued onward in her journey to escape the netherworld and reunite with her comrades.
Inside the next fortress, she was met with a similar sight as the previous. The walls were lined with engravings featuring an ocean, and zoras, and finally what appeared to be a massive whale wearing a crown. Cailin noticed that the crown was set with a blue jewel similar to the red one in the previous fortress. She proceeded to extract it from its resting place. A blinding flash of blue light, and that crystal became part of Cailin's headband as well.
Well done, Daughter of the Winds. Your potential in water magic has been unlocked.
"Sweet," Cailin declared. "Now let's see what else I have to deal with." As with the last fortress, there was a hole in the center of this room as well, only instead of a straight drop down this one was a slide. Knowing what she had to do, she proceeded to slide down into the next chamber.
Once at the bottom of the slide, Cailin found herself in a chamber filled with water. At the other end was a tiled platform bearing a door.
"Alright, so I just have to swim across," she said to herself. "That's easy enough." Just as she was about to jump into the water, she noticed something deadly in the water. Swimming beneath the surface was a horde of deadly-looking fish of varying sizes and shapes, but all with the look of crazed hunger (as well as a fish can show) and deadly killing power. "Damn, glad I didn't jump in. I'd be something's lunch." Then an idea came to her. "Wait a minute, I have water mastery, and ice is still made of water…" She focused her energy into water magic, and proceeded to produce a platform of ice in front of her. "I just hope it's strong enough to support my weight."
Cailin stepped out onto the ice platform, and sure enough, it held. She repeated the process, successfully avoiding the killer fish and reaching the end without expending an enormous amount of energy.
She stepped through the door and found herself in a room similar to the one from the upper level of the fortress. She was once again in a hexagonal room with engravings on the walls, these being a repeated motif of the Sheikah eye. In the center, a purple crystal was fitted in the center of the eye. Cailin proceeded to add this one to her headband.
Your potential for shadow magic has been unlocked.
"Shadow magic?" Cailin argued to whoever it was that kept speaking inside her mind. "Can't Siobhán already do that?"
What Siobhán performs is Twili shadow magic. What you have mastery over is the magic passed down through the generations of the Sheikah.
"I see," said Cailin definitively. "Well then, let's see what's waiting, then." She looked toward the center of the room to see how she was to descend, but found that there was just solid ground.
"That complicates things," Cailin murmured. "So now what…" She puzzled over her predicament for quite some time until finally coming to a conclusion. "Well, I gained mastery of Sheikah shadow magic, so let's see how that works." She focused her energy into her newfound mastery of Sheikah shadow magic, not really knowing how to go about using it but knowing only that she wanted to find her way out of this room, and then something happened. A reddish haze filled the edges of her field of vision, and as she scanned the room she found that where one wall had been, there was now a short corridor with a door at the end. She proceeded forward through the door.
Upon entering, she found herself in a large chamber, which was empty. On the other side was another door.
"This is too easy," Cailin said aloud. "All I have to do is get to the other side. I guess Zagros forgot about this room."
Cailin started forward through the vast expanse, but when she got roughly halfway through, her legs refused to work anymore.
"What the hell is this?" Cailin spat in frustration. Inexplicably she was paralyzed. No matter how hard she tried, she just could not get her legs to move. "Something's got to be going on. Time to find out what's what." Again she focused her shadow magic, and had she not already been paralyzed, she would have been frozen in horror at what she saw. Lumbering towards her was a massive hoard of Redeads, their gazes fixed on her.
"Oh dear goddesses," she muttered under her breath, her voice filled with genuine panic. "Redeads…I hate Redeads." Before she knew it they were upon her, ready to suck the life right out of her. Then Cailin had an idea.
"Oh man, I sure hope this works…" She mustered all the strength she had and broke the Redeads' paralyzing stare and crouched into a tight ball. Then, focusing her energy as best she could, she created a whirling wind around her. The Redeads stopped for a moment, unsure of what was happening, but then continued to advance. Then Cailin put her plan into action. Once every Redead was caught in her wind, she refocused her energy and ignited it. In a flash, each and every Redead caught fire, and the rushing wind's roar was drowned out by the nightmarish wail of the burning undead. Once the roar of their anguish had gone, Cailin stood up straight and continued on out the door.
The walls of the next chamber were covered in engravings of a vast oasis, its center culminating in an image of a mighty female warrior, the Goddess of the Sands. In her headpiece was set an amber stone, which Cailin added to her own.
Your potential in spirit magic has been unlocked.
"Ok, I'm not quite sure what that means exactly, but we'll see." Cailin then began searching for a way out. Finally she noticed that the ceiling was open.
"That must be the way out," she mused, "but how do I get up there. Wait," she stopped short, "I forgot I can use wind magic to basically fly. This will definitely take some getting used to." She focused her wind magic and lifted herself up through the opening into the chamber above, still not quite sure what was meant by "spirit magic".
Once she had reached the chamber above, the floor closed shut beneath her, denying her any opportunity to search for another way. She was in a long corridor that widened at the end. At the wide end, the wall was adorned with numerous emblems of a sun. In the center of the corridor, light spilled down from the ceiling. Also in the end with the sun emblems, there was an area in the floor that appeared to open, but there was no clear way of opening.
"This is strange," Cailin said to herself, "although this seems oddly familiar, but why…" She pondered on it for a moment before realizing why it all seemed so familiar. "Of course!" she exclaimed triumphantly. "This is just like what the Hero of Time did inside the Desert Colossus. I have to figure out a way to shine that light onto the sun emblem, but how…the Hero of Time had the Mirror Shield. Hmm…well, I guess I can see what this 'spirit magic' is." Cailin then focused her energy into what she assumed was spirit magic. A force field appeared before her, but it wasn't like any other she had produced before. Instead of being generally invisible, this one shone like a mirror. She maneuvered the shining disc into the path of the light, and angled in such a way that the light was redirected into the sun emblem directly ahead. As she had hoped, the area in the floor opened up, allowing her passage down and closer to her goal.
She made her way towards the opening, and once there proceeded to climb down the conveniently placed ladder. Once at the bottom, she found herself in what could only be a labyrinth. Walls rose on both sides of her, forming a T junction ahead. She wasn't sure what was waiting for her, but from the clunking sounds of iron and steel, it didn't sound good. She proceeded towards the junction, peered around the corner, and her suspicion was confirmed. Waiting at the end was a Darknut, its massive sword hungrily waiting to spill blood.
"Spirit magic," Cailin intoned. "This area is about spirit magic…how can I use spirit magic…Ok, this might work. I used it to divert light last time, so maybe I can do that again. Oh, I hope this works." Again she focused her energy into spirit magic, and proceeded to try to manipulate the light. As she had hoped, she was able to bend the light around her, rendering herself invisible. Quickly, she darted out and around the corner, leaving the Darknut none the wiser. She continued this until finally she had reached the center of the labyrinth, where another ladder leading down waited.
"Thank the goddesses," she breathed in relief. "Now maybe I'll be done." She proceeded down the ladder. At the bottom she found herself in a small room with a dirt floor. The only features in the room were the ladder which she had just climbed down and a small hole near the floor on one wall.
"Hmm…" Cailin pondered aloud. "What kind of magic can get me through there…" She thought it over, but no elemental magic she could think of could shrink her in size or cause the hole to grow enough that she could fit through. Finally it struck her.
"Duh!" she exclaimed, hitting herself in the head with the heel of her hand. "It's so simple, I can't believe it took me this long to see it." She then performed the magic that was so simple, yet had eluded her until now. After a brief second, the great white wolf filled the room, and then proceeded to dig under the hole just enough that she could fit through. She tunneled through to the other side and then transformed back into her normal self.
"I still can't believe it took me that long to figure that out," she spat. She now stood in front of a doorway exactly like the one that took her to the first fortress. Without hesitation, Cailin stepped through.