Chapter 30: The Water Temple

Knowing your own darkness is the best method
for dealing with the darknesses of other people.

~Carl Jung

Epona's hooves chewed a trail in the ground northeast from Lon Lon Ranch to Zora's River. Link made no attempt to disguise that trail, knowing that if someone decided to follow it, there was little he could do to discourage them.

Regret at taking Epona in such a way discouraged him, though Malon had offered to let him keep her. Still, the fastest way to the Zoras' kingdom was on horseback, and if the Sage of Water needed him, he had no other choice.

"Link, do you remember the story of how Din and her sisters created Hyrule?"

As they passed the ruins of Hyrule Castle Town, Link struggled to keep his attention on where they were going. "Of course I remember."

"Do you think Ganondorf believes that story?"

"Maybe he's never heard it." Link shrugged. "Why?"

"I think he has. Everyone in Hyrule probably knows it somehow." Navi's tone was strangely thoughtful. "But I don't think he believes it. He believes in the Triforce's power, but if he really believed the goddesses had made Hyrule and that they cared what everyone does in it, I think he'd be afraid."

"Sometimes a person believes what they want to believe," Link said, gripping Epona's reins tighter. "I think he takes what he can and tries to forget there might be someone out there who will punish him for everything he does."

"Wouldn't that be terrible for him to find out the stories were true?"

As the river came into sight, Link slowed to gaze at the water. "Yes," he whispered absentmindedly. "Yes, it would."

The air was surprisingly cold, the water far more sluggish than it should have been. Epona whickered uncomfortably as he forded across to the bank that would take them to Zora's Domain.

"He's done something here, too," Link said.

From their expressions, it appeared the end had come suddenly. Most of the Zoras had been caught in the middle of their everyday activities. Adults and children alike were frozen in sheets of ice that choked the entire cavern.

Navi kept her voice low as if afraid she'd disturb them. "Are they dead?"

Link shook his head. "I don't know."

"What if one of them is the Sage of Water?"

"There's no way to know that until we do what we have to do at the temple."

By that time, they had been in the domain for a quarter of an hour at least. So far, not a sound had greeted them, but as they neared the throne room, they heard a blubbering voice that seemed vaguely familiar.

"Oh Ruto, Ruto. Gone again. Darling daughter. What a handful she is."

At one time, King Zora had been snared in the ice with the rest of his people, but he had gotten out of it somehow—and recently, since the remains of his frozen prison were scattered in chunks around his royal seat.

Link helped the King to a sitting position. "We've met before, Your Majesty. My name is Link."

"Oh dear. Are you the boy who rescued my Ruto? I thought I recognized you. What a fine young man you've become. But you should have returned much sooner, Link."

"I'm sorry. Can you tell us what happened here?"

The King jiggled nervously. "It was Morpha."

Navi flew closer, hovering near the King's stomach. "Who's Morpha?"

"Morpha was a demon our ancestors once imprisoned at the bottom of Lake Hylia. It is said he had the power to control the weather."

Link frowned. "He created the ice?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid it was that man Ganondorf who freed him. It was strange, too, because this time Ganondorf didn't ask for anything, like our Spiritual Stone. He just freed the demon, and the demon seized control of Lake Hylia, killing our fish and plants."

"It looks like your people didn't have time to realize anything was happening. How did you find out?"

"Ruto saw the demon out on the lake just before it happened, so she was also one of the first to be trapped in the ice. Someone named Sheik freed her, and she came here to tell me."

"Where is she now?"

"She believes the demon will make his lair in the Water Temple now that he's free. I didn't want her to go, but she insisted. She said we had to be free of Morpha once and for all."

"We have to follow her now, Link," Navi whispered. "Use the Ocarina!"

What had once been Hyrule's greatest body of water was now little more than a bowl of earth hundreds of feet in diameter, with perhaps twenty feet of water remaining at the distant bottom. Sheik stood on an island in the middle of the lake, facing west. Behind him, a chiming split the air, and a strange flash of light came and was gone like lightning.

"When you told me I could use the sacred melodies to reach the temples, I didn't believe it at first."

Sheik turned to face the stone at the center of the island, a stone inscribed with the image of the Triforce. "It is well you should make use of the Ocarina of Time. It may yet prove a more valuable tool against evil than the Master Sword."

Link stepped away from the Triforce stone, still recovering from the dizziness of a near-instantaneous journey from Zora's Domain. He approached the edge of the island until he stood beside Sheik. "The entrance to the Water Temple?"

Sheik nodded at the bottom of the lake.

Link flinched at the hundred-foot drop. "And how do I get there without killing myself?"

"The ability to breathe underwater will be crucial."

Link snorted. "That won't be a problem, as long as I don't have to stay underwater for more than three seconds."

"I know," Navi said. "You're going to turn Link into a Zora!"

"That would be beyond my abilities." Sheik folded his arms. "A tunic like the one you wore in Death Mountain, but with a different magic embedded in its fabric, would serve just as well."

"A tunic to keep me from drowning?" Link guessed.

"Precisely."

The water hit Link with a terrible slap. He had kept his eyes open as long as he could, hoping he would land in the deepest part of the lake. Bubbles foamed around him. He held his breath, not quite ready to trust his life to the Zora Tunic, as Sheik had called it. For now, it was enough that he find the entrance to the Water Temple.

Disoriented, he swam forward, only to bump his head against the bottom of the lake as it sloped upwards from the island. Had he jumped a little further, or fallen in with just a little more force, he realized, he would have been smashed on the lakebed.

Ignoring the sting, he opened his eyes just long enough to get his bearings and found that he could see clearly—more clearly, in fact, than he had ever seen in the water before.

Okay. Let's get it over with. He exhaled and breathed in, half-expecting to drown. Instead, he felt oxygen penetrate his lungs, though the water itself never did more than dampen his nostrils.

Grinning, he kicked his arms and legs into action. Now that he was confident of his newfound ability to survive underwater, he had no need to shut his eyes against imaginary fears.

It didn't take him long after that to find the entrance he sought.

At first, he assumed the light in the water came from the moon. But the further he swam, the more the light increased, making that explanation unlikely. He could see details in the Water Temple's stones, details so fine that he knew, somehow, it was the tunic allowing him that sight.

"I hate water. It feels getting your wings caught in tree sap."

Link was about to reply when it occurred to him that he shouldn't have been able to understand Navi's words in the first place. "You can breathe?"

"It's easy once you learn how," Navi said.

"I mean underwater."

"Oh. Weird!"

"The tunic must be affecting you, too. I guess we're more connected than I thought."

"Scary."

"You don't have to tell me that."

Finally, he climbed out of the water onto a narrow ledge overlooking a cavern; judging by the size of it, he had reached the Water Temple's main concourse. It contained three stories spaced equally apart. Only the upper story, where Link stood, remained dry.

"I don't even know what a demon looks like," Navi said.

"It's hard when you've never met one before." Link eyed the bottom two floors, made his decision, and jumped. A flash of something metallic had caught his attention.

"Wait for me…behind you!"

Link heeded the warning too late. Something rammed him in the back, hard enough to pierce him through had he not been wearing his shield. The collision sent him spinning through the water, fumbling for a weapon, any weapon.

The first thing he pulled out was the Hookshot, the iron rope-like contraption Sheik had given him outside the Forest Temple. When he pointed it at his assailant, he wasn't sure at first what he was facing. It looked like a clam, but he had never heard of a clam with iron spikes on its shell.

The clam opened its mouth, exposing the tender flesh inside. Link closed an eye and fingered the trigger that would send the Hookshot into that same flesh, but someone else beat him to it: a harpoon shot from somewhere to his left and split the clam apart.

"Link, isn't it? You've got nerve, showing up after all these years. What made you think I'd wait this long?"

Before he had a chance to escape, Link felt two arms wrap around his neck and pull him forward. He tried to take a breath, but someone else had smashed her lips on his, cutting off his air supply. It felt like being kissed by a fish.

"Ruto." His eyes flew open as he pushed her away. "Why did you do that?"

The scowl she leveled on him made the idea of meeting a demon seem pleasant. "I'm your fiancée, you dolt! Did you forget the vow we made?"

Link knew his cheeks were burning, but the power of speech had temporarily failed him.

"Link didn't forget you," Navi said. "He just didn't expect to meet you like this!"

I never promised anything, Link thought, cursing the day he and Ruto had become engaged, however unwillingly on his part, over the Spiritual Stone of Water.

Ruto swam close enough to slap him, hard. "You're a terrible man to have kept me waiting for seven long years."

Link groaned and rubbed his cheek. "We can talk about it later. You came to save your people, and we came to help you."

"Do that, and I might just find it in myself to forgive your carelessness."

"Right." He shook his head, hoping it would be enough to clear his thoughts. "What do we do from here?"

"We split up."

At that very moment, miles away, two horses thundered across Hyrule Field, heading northeast from Lon Lon Ranch. Talon and his daughter rode one, with Ingo trailing behind on the other. Malon had complained about the escort at first, but her father had insisted; he would never let her out of his sight again, he had said, and the best way to keep track of Ingo was to let him come, too.

Talon turned his head slightly. "What makes you think he'd go the village?"

Clinging to her father's back, Malon wrinkled her nose. "I don't know. We've met him there before. It's as good a place as any to look."

Talon grunted. "I don't care how much he's helped us. I'll wring his neck if anything happens to that horse."

"She's his horse now, dad. I gave her to him."

"What'd you go and do that for?" At her crestfallen look, he grimaced. "Sorry, hon."

"It's okay, dad. You don't have to wring his neck," Malon said. "I might just do that myself…"

Wary of a trap, Link stepped into another strange room with Navi at his side. When the door had first opened, the room had been empty. Even now, it was difficult to tell with a white light concealing everything. His feet splashed through a thin puddle of water, but that was all he could be sure of. It was as if he had stepped into a zone where nothing existed on either horizon.

"What is this place?" Trembling, he took another step forward.

"Listen," Navi said. "I thought I heard something!"

Link glanced down. "The water?"

"No, it was something else."

Suddenly, Link found himself standing on a sandbar in the middle of the sea of white. A palm tree in the center of it overshadowed him. One minute, he had been seeing pure white. The next minute, the island had appeared in front of him.

On an impulse, he leaned over the edge of the sandbar and stared at the water. His image stared back at him, reflecting the puzzled expression on his face. "Why would the Zoras create a room like this?" Inexplicably, he thought of the words Sheik had spoken before they had left the ranch. The clear water's surface reflects growth.

Without warning, the reflection began to change. An oily gray film spread across his tunic, transforming it into something cold, hard, almost metallic. Even his flesh was melting, vanishing altogether, leaving a darkness where his face should have been and a pair of angry ruby lights in place of his eyes.

For a moment, Link was paralyzed by fear. As terrible as the image was, it wasn't the image itself that held him in awe, but what the image suggested to his imagination. Is this my true reflection?

"Look out!"

As soon as Navi spoke, he drew his sword and swung blindly. The blade should have swept through thin air, but it hit something solid so that the force of the blow knocked the sword from his hand. He bent to retrieve it and came face-to-face with his own reflection—only now he wasn't looking at the water. What was in front of him was as firm as his own body.

Startled, he pedaled back into the tree, forgetting it was there in the first place. He ducked as if his reflection had taken a stab at him, but instead it did what a reflection might be expected to do: it did the same thing. When he stood up again, going for his shield this time, he saw that the other Link was grabbing one, too.

Feigning to the right, he cut in from the left and felt the other Link's blade strike his shield at the same time the Master Sword struck his opponent's shield. A chill rattled his spine. There has to be something I can do that it can't.

Before he could form a plan, his reflection leapt forward, stabbing him in the shoulder. His head swam with pain. Dropping his shield, he placed his hand over the wound and found it wet with blood. Once more, terror seized him as he realized he had found the one enemy he did not know how to fight.

Himself.

You are not who you think you are. There is no evil others are capable of that you are not capable of yourself. He shuddered at such thoughts as if his reflection were speaking them aloud and all his friends, past and present, were listening. What was worse was that he knew, somehow, they were true.

"—Hookshot!" Navi was saying.

"What?"

"Use the Hookshot. He doesn't have one!"

Though it was difficult to comprehend anything when his body wanted to shut down, he felt himself moving to obey. Training the Hookshot on his reflection, he waited to see if it would follow. Since it had no such weapon, the other Link could only mimic him by pointing its sword in his face as if the blade might fly off and skewer him.

The Hookshot buried itself in his reflection's armpit. Though the point didn't go all the way through the metal body, the chain did pull the two of them closer together when it retracted.

He met that dark stare calmly this time. This doesn't have to be me. The Great Deku Tree's stories showed me something better. Zelda showed me something better: the Way of the Hero.

His reflection, unable to move because of the spike lodged in its arm, cried out as the Master Sword sank through its face. Another time, that sound might have paralyzed Link, but he felt instead a peculiar joy at the destruction of his twisted self, like a burden lifted off his heart.

Unfortunately, the loss of blood had weakened him more than he realized. Now that his adrenaline was fading, the pain in his shoulder became overwhelming.

If the wound wasn't dressed, he'd be dead by night's end.