Chapter 24: Banished

"Stop," Navi said. "I hear something."

Link and Mido froze. The three of them had been inching along a narrow ledge for the past few minutes, overlooking an open courtyard they had stumbled on in their search for the ghosts. The ledge had no guardrail, leaving them free to tumble to the ground fifteen feet below.

Link shielded his eyes out of habit, though the sky had continued to darken since he entered the temple. "What is it?"

"Over there." Navi pointed to a ripple spreading across the surface of a pond in one corner of the courtyard.

"It's just a fish." Mido rolled his eyes.

Link motioned for silence, and they waited. The ripple had almost dissipated when another suddenly replaced it. "I heard it, too. It's coming from the wall." He pointed to a spot just above the lake.

Mido growled. "I don't hear anything."

"You might if you shut up." Navi flicked the boy's left ear.

"You're one to talk."

"Quiet!" Link shook his head and peered closely at the wall. "I don't think it's a ghost."

Mido scowled. "Why not?"

"If it was, it would probably just come through the wall," said Navi. "Right, Link?"

He would have nodded, but the wall ruptured with a clap, sending out a cloud of dust and shards of brick from a hole large enough for several bodies to pass through abreast. Two undead skeletons with swords and round shields barged through the hole into the courtyard.

"Get down," Link hissed, throwing himself on his stomach.

The two skeletons grunted and stomped their way through the courtyard. Flowers, grass, and other flora wilted as they passed by. Nothing dared to disrupt their passage—until they had neared a certain ledge and an arrow sped from above, the broadhead entering through the nasal cavity of one skeleton and smashing out the back of its skull.

Both warriors paused, glaring up at the ledge with suspicion. The one with the arrow in its head jumped, swiping at the underside of the ledge with its sword.

"Hey, listen!"

The skeletons spun to face the tiny foe at their rear. As soon as they had turned about, Link dove from the ledge and tackled the one he had shot, severing its head from the spinal cord with one swift sword stroke.

The other skeleton might have avenged its companion, but Mido quickly prevented this by following Link off the ledge. The Kokiri Sword flashed as he caught the skeleton by the neck and drove the blade in and out of its mouth, breaking several of its teeth. In an effort to mimic Link, he hacked at the skeleton's spinal cord near the head, but the blade stuck in the bone.

"Down!" said Link.

Mido ducked as the Master Sword cleaved vertebrae, sending the skeleton's head and upper spine into the pond beside him. With his hands wrapped tightly around the Kokiri Sword, he tumbled to the ground, landing on his tailbone.

Link sheathed his sword and helped Mido to his feet. "Is that what you get for spending less time with the sword and more with Saria's Skulltula Pie?"

"Funny." Mido pointed at the hole in the wall. "I say we find out what else is in there."

"Maybe one of the ghosts," Navi said.

Mido scratched his cheek. "So who's going in?"

"I insist." Link gestured at the hole with his free arm. "Women and children first."

The army of Stalfos beside her grumbled with impatience, eager to attack the enemy. They all sensed the presence of Farore's blade as it entered the hall, proving that her two scouts had served their purpose in drawing the foe here; now she had to keep the rest of her companions silent for a few more minutes while they waited.

Our plans have changed, sister. The voice of her one remaining sibling echoed in her spirit. The master himself desires to confront our enemy. You must lead them here.

The green ghost blinked. What of the Stalfos?

If they kill the intruder and his companions, so be it. If not, keep away from the sword of Farore, but be sure you are followed.

I obey. Green brushed the visor of the helmet screening her face. They will not escape.

When Link and Mido stepped through the hole, they found they had entered a dingy hall paved with rotting carpet. On both sides, for as far as they could see, there were suits of armor crammed against the walls, most of them half-rusted. Navi's light bounced off the metal, setting their nerves on edge at the sight of their own garbled reflections.

"The smell. It's like in Hyrule Castle Town," Link whispered. "Like something dead." He turned to the nearest suit of armor and lifted the visor. "Check the others."

"What are you doing?" Mido stopped. "Those look like they haven't been touched in a hundred years. How could anything be hiding in there?"

"Just do it," Navi said.

Mido stomped toward one of the suits. "Fine, but I'm telling you this is a waste of—"

The suit of armor in front of Mido tore apart, shredded from the inside. A skeleton jumped out at him, swinging a sword that would have cut off his head if he had stood at Link's height. Startled, he fell over backwards, dropping the Kokiri Sword.

Link raced forward, sword and shield guarding his face. Intent on Mido's aid, he never saw the threat approaching from his blindside.

But Navi did. "Watch out!"

The green ghost bowled him over, throwing his sword to the ground. Somehow, he held onto his shield as he went down, gripping it with both hands as the ghost tried to set him alight with its torch. Link avoided the flames by batting the torch aside with his shield so that the fire dropped on the floor, sending up curls of acrid smoke as it ate through the carpet.

Recovering from his initial shock, Mido danced beneath the skeleton's legs, staying out of range of its sword whenever possible. By then, the corridor had been choked with dozens of the undead and strewn with ruptured suits of armor.

Link, seeing it would be impossible to fight their way out, shouted above the din. "Navi, I need you to fly along the ceiling!" Retrieving his sword, he dove behind a scrap of armor and waited for the ghost's next attack. When it didn't come, he looked up to find the specter fleeing.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Navi drifting down the hall, on the track of the ghost. As he began to turn his attention back on the skeletons, he saw her pass a wooden arch. "Stop!" Crushing a skeleton's sternum with the hilt of his sword, he pushed his shattered enemy into a group of several other skeletons and grabbed Mido by the wrist.

"What now?" Mido frowned.

Link kept their closest enemies off with a wide sweep of his blade. Then, with only a moment to spare before the mob overwhelmed them, he sheathed the weapon and found the Hookshot Sheik had given him at the temple's entrance. Aiming the device at the arch Navi hovered by, he clicked the trigger. The spike ripped through the oak, and a moment later the chain retracted. As his feet left the ground, he seized a fistful of Mido's tunic and held on.

"Wait." Mido winced. "My sword!"

"No time!" Link flinched at the strain on his upper body as the chain withdrew into itself, flinging them high above the chaos below. Just before they hit the arch, he swung his feet out, allowing the chain to carry them forward into the corridor like a pendulum. When he sensed they had gone as far as they could, he squeezed the trigger again, detaching the spike from the arch.

As gravity hurled them down towards the floor, he breathed a silent prayer of thanks to Din, noting that they would land beyond the crowd of skeletons. In spite of a rough landing, he and Mido managed to run once they had gained their feet. As long as they didn't meet a dead end, Link felt certain they could keep well in front of any pursuit.

"Come on!" Navi led them around the corner ahead. "After the ghost!"

Panic. Betrayal. These were things the ghost hadn't felt in a long time. Their master had promised a swift end to the task he had assigned them, but two of her sisters had been sent to the Evil Realm by the sword of Farore, and now it pursued her as well.

They have me, sister.

Her one remaining sibling answered calmly. The master is in control now. We need hurry no longer.

He betrayed us to Farore.

The others were weak. They have served their purpose.

Weak? The green ghost careened into statues and walls in her haste to outrun the sword-bearer. We swore an oath, each to the other. The fate of one would be the fate of all.

Her sister's voice rose slightly. You are right to speak of betrayal. I knew the master's plan, and still I followed it!

"I told you it was leading us," Navi said.

The green ghost's flight finally ended in the grand hall, where the elevator booth Link had seen on his way in remained beneath the floor. With the defeat of the blue and red ghosts, the fire they had stolen from the torches had returned to its proper place, so that only two of the four torches by the elevator were now empty.

"The other ghost is probably here, too," said Link. "Keep an eye out."

Muttering, Mido slipped an arrow from Link's quiver and clenched it by the middle of the shaft. "I'll just take one of these since you left my sword to those things back there."

The green ghost had stopped by the elevator shaft. Though it had no readable expression, the fatigue apparent in its movements conveyed more than just physical exhaustion, if exhaustion was possible. It suggested sadness.

Link pointed Mido to the other side of the enclosure surrounding the elevator. "There. Make sure it doesn't run."

Before Mido could obey these instructions, the violet ghost appeared suddenly and thrust its torch through the green ghost's back. Screams mixed with the green and purple flames as the green ghost's form changed briefly through the billowing smoke.

Link's breath caught. The image of young Princess Zelda, wreathed in flames, threw him into a rage. Mido and Navi tried to restrain him, but he broke away and dashed towards the shaft of the elevator with a yell, stabbing at the ghosts. Since the green ghost was already fading, he focused most of his wrath on the violet ghost. But before his blade could touch it, the ghost split into four mirror images of itself.

All four honed in, surrounding him. Navi and Mido watched helplessly from the outside, unsure where to begin an attack. Link swung at the nearest image of the ghost, obliterating it in a cloud of vapor. Two of the other images vanished, leaving only the true image of the ghost.

Ignorant of everything else around him, Link took out the Hookshot and released it point-blank into the ghost's face. When the chain retracted, the ghost came with it, hurled forward by sheer force—straight onto the point of the Master Sword.

The violet ghost accepted her defeat without a sound. In the moment after her impact with the sword of Farore, darkness opened up, total, complete, profound. The shadows gnawed at her body until she had become one with the void around her. The pain was overwhelming, but she did not panic like the rest of her siblings, because she knew her master would call her back to reward her for deceiving the others.

But as the minutes rolled by, then the hours, the darkness never ceased, and the awful realization set in at last. She, too, had been betrayed. She tried to call out, but she had no voice. She tried to look for an escape, but there was nowhere to turn.

In the Evil Realm, she was alone. Now. Forever.

Because of her master: Ganondorf.