Chapter 3: Aria of the Ancients
With black roses etched into it, the sword of the Great Fairy is the most powerful of all blades. -Ancient Texts
Navi and Kafei stood at the mouth of Zora's River where it joined the rest of the waterways of Hyrule. As the Adventurer's Guild had told her, the river was flowing very low. Maybe three feet of water ran over the riverbed while indents in the dirt and stone marked a place some six feet higher where the water had been reaching till recently.
"Come on." Navi said gesturing Kafei over a narrow bridge crossing the water. They continued on an upward incline following the path the river traced through the ground. It was some time before the silence between them was broken.
"So," Kafei said quietly "this temple we're visiting, it's in Zora's Domain?"
Navi shook her head. The temple had been there long before the Zora, an amphibious race of people had settled the area. The Zoras now acted as guardians to Hyrule's water supply, keeping it clean and continuous. However, their species was only a few thousand years old. Long before the Zoras had claimed the river system, the fairies had been at there. "The temple we are going to is old, far older than Zora's Domain. They say that the first of my people to take this form," she said motioning at her own body, "The first Great Fairy, carved the temple in the rock. They called her the Ascendant. Her temple was supposedly the greatest concentration of fairies in this realm. It fell into disuse though. With so many settlements and populations developing, the fairies didn't feel safe in the open anymore. Most returned to the Faerie Realm, some took up residence in the depths of Faron Woods." She glanced upwards. "We're almost there."
"But," said Kafei a look of worry on his face. "You talk like it's a myth, like the stories my Nana used to tell about the first Hylians living on a floating island in the sky. If it's some fairy legend, how do you know we're heading to a real place? Even if it's there, how do you know where?"
"I've been there." said Navi simply. She remembered her first visit to the temple.
Still a child, floating in the air by the shoulder of an old friend dressed in the ceremonial red garb of the Gorons, a gift from the rock people. They were in a room whose every surface was covered in ice. "Navi look at this…" he said gesturing to a large brazier that burned with azure flames. "This blue fire... it doesn't seem natural." He reached out to touch it but drew his hand back immediately. "It burns cold. What do you think? Maybe we can use it for something?" She wasn't listen though. Her eyes were drawn to the frosted walls. Behind the clear surface was a set of runes carved into the rock.
"Years ago, Zora's Domain was covered in ice, a friend of mine and I went to find the problem and we stumbled on the temple accidentally. It was also frozen over so we never saw anything but the ante-chamber but there was an inscription on the wall that promised the ancient Black Rose had been laid to rest within."
"Black Rose?"
"Your people would have called it the Great Fairy Sword. Its true name came from the two black rose designs set into the blade."
They lapsed into silence again as they continued the march along Zora's River. Eventually they came to a place where a large overhang of rock shadowed the river. There were torches set into the stone which marked this as the entrance to Zora's Domain.
The Domain, very much like the Goron City, was built directly into the rock. The cavern that housed the domain was open to the air hundreds of feet up where its rocky walls gave way to blue sky. A massive source of Hyrule's water flowed through the area falling from on high in a majestic waterfall into the basin below.
As they entered the area though it become very clear that something was wrong. Navi who had always associated the place with the smell of clean water and fresh fish now detected something acrid, like rotting meat. They saw too that a massive dam had been constructed at the place where the waters of Zora's Domain flowed into the river. All the water behind the dam had a very slight greenish tinge, detectable now only because it was standing still. A troupe of nearly a dozen of the aquatic Zora people stood over the dam working frantically. Despite this though, only a trickle of the river's full potential was flowing out of Zora's Domain.
Navi stopped a passing Zora. He had smooth damp skin on his face and much of his front that ranged from almost white to deep blue. His back was decorated with silver scales that caught the light with a bluish sheen while smooth fins curved down from his forearms and the back of his hairless head. He wore no clothing but that was of little concern to Navi for such trappings were not normal for his people except for ceremony.
"What's happened here?" she asked
The Zora stopped, clearly in a great rush to be somewhere else but also not wanting to appear rude. "The water coming into Zora's Domain from the mountains has become polluted, we're purifying it as fast as possible but it's not enough. If we can't fix the problem soon Lake Hylia will run dry." His speech was slightly distorted as though he was more used to speaking underwater.
"What of Lord Jabu-Jabu? Can he not protect the purity of the water?"
The Zora looked at Navi, his features twisting into an expression of incredulity. "Lord Jabu-Jabu? Now is not the time to rely on fairy tales to save us. We've a real crisis on our hands."
Navi watched the Zora hurry past with some confusion bordering on alarm.
"Who's Jabu-Jabu?" asked Kafei, his gaze also following the departing Zora.
"A water spirit, guardian of the Zoras and the river systems of Hyrule. He is a deity to the Zoras. Their Royal Family have served as his stewards for generations. His sanctuary is directly adjacent to the entrance to the temple. Though…" her voice dropped as though she was speaking only to herself. "Maybe it has been too long. He might not be around anymore."
"Maybe that's why the water's turned sour." Said Kafei. "Why would he a protect people that don't believe in him anymore?"
The question hung in the air between them palpably.
Navi, not wanting to dwell on what would happen to Hyrule if all its spirits of nature abandoned it, decided to keep moving.
"There's a path to the top of the domain behind the waterfall."
The passage they took was cut directly into the rock. At points it had a view of the falling water which sprayed the path with a light mist. As they climbed they encountered several Zoras rushing to and from the top of the falls. They appeared in a great hurry no doubt due to the current state of the water. As they reached increasingly greater heights Navi noticed that the waters of the basin below, normally churning with the Zora folk, was still, except for the falls. If the Zora could not enter their own waters the circumstance was direr than Navi had first thought. The aquatic people, though capable of living on land, required periodic contact with the water to rehydrate, otherwise they became deathly ill.
At the top of the falls, the fairy and her Sheikah companion walked over a grating that had been built over the river to allow easy transit without impeding the flow of the water. They passed through the great coral archway that marked the entrance to the throne room of the Zora leaders. Inside was a cavern, dwarfed in comparison to the size was Zora's Domain but still spacious in its own right. Stone pillars that appeared to be natural formations held the roof of the circular room. The river that fed into the main domain flowed out of a massive pit of water in the center of the room. Navi couldn't see the bottom of the pool but assumed that it was fed by underground springs. On the opposite side of the pool was a massive stone plinth that had been formed into the shape of a seat by decades of Zora rulers sitting upon it.
A little ways from the plinth was a tall Zora woman kneeling on the ground, playing with a Zora child. When she heard Navi's footsteps, the woman said without looking up. "I said I was not to be disturbed unless the situation worsened. What has happened?" her voice carried great authority leaving Navi with no doubt that she was the Queen of the Zoras.
"My Queen," Navi said, bowing respectfully and motioning for Kafei to mimic the gesture. "We are not of your people. We come here on a matter most urgent."
The Zora Queen glanced up and after taking in their appearance she spoke to the child softly. "Laruto my dear, go play with your friends for a while." The little one smiled brightly, her scales reflecting off the wall before she disappeared back into Zora's Domain.
The Zora Queen straightened up and walked to her throne so that she stood facing them directly over the pool in the center of the cavern. She was, Navi thought, beautiful. A growth of dark coral flowed down her head giving her the illusion of having hair and her scales, unlike those of her subjects, were a soft green, like seaweed, and gave a golden shine when the light caught them.
"I am Queen Mipha II. What has brought outsiders to my domain?"
"I…" Navi stumbled, how to phrase her request. "I am an emissary of the Great Fairy of Magic who makes her home at the height of Death Mountain. My companion is from a proud line of those that protected the Royal Family for generations, the Shadow Folk." As she spoke Navi registered Kafei shift uncomfortably but she was too busy calculating her words to process it. "We seek entry to the sanctuary of the Zora's guardian, Lord Jabu-Jabu."
Queen Mipha seemed to consider them for several moments. "A remnant of a mythical people and a Great Fairy outside her fountain, wearing the green of the Hero no less. It is quite an impressive audience I am host to. In my youth, the Great Fairy of Courage made her home in a fountain adjacent to our fair domain but she departed many years ago. I have enormous respect for the Great Fairies of Hyrule, however, I cannot grant your request. Lord Jabu-Jabu is a story. A legend used to frighten and comfort the children. I cannot grant you entry to that which does not exist."
Navi was stunned into silence. She had been sure that even if the common Zora no longer believed in the whale lord, the Royal Family would remember him. At the very least she had believed that they would know where he once resided. If the geography of area had changed that drastically in the last two hundred years Navi didn't know how she would ever find the entrance to her fairy temple.
"Surely you don't expect us to believe that." Said Kafei quietly. "I mean no disrespect, noble Zora Queen, but your family has tended to Jabu-Jabu for generations. My fairy guide has met the whale lord. We know he's real so how can the family who rule the Zoras because of their bond with the Zora patron have no record of him anywhere but your legends?"
Navi glanced back at him. She'd never considered that the Zoras would lie about their god. What would be served by denying his existence?
Mipha considered them again, choosing her words carefully. "How long ago did you meet our guardian venerable Great Fairy?" Her words were respectful, but her tone held some unspoken accusation.
"Many ages ago, Queen Mipha." Navi said, inclining her head. She had no desire to insult the Zora, but they did need something from her. "He was laid deathly ill by dark magic, the last youth that I shepherded had to venture inside him to destroy the curse before the whale lord succumbed to it."
Queen Mipha paused for several long moments. Then she turned away from them. Navi feared they had lost any hope of getting help from the Zora when Mipha turned back to them. She had retrieved from somewhere on her person a brilliantly beautiful pendant constructed of three clear sapphires joined together by gold outlines.
"Follow me." She said simply before she placed the gem into an indent in the front of her throne that fit it perfectly. Mipha turned the jewel sharply and her throne sunk into ground revealing a staircase below that led into a dark tunnel.
Queen Mipha disappeared into the darkness. Navi met Kafei's gaze and with a shrug they circled the pool and ventured down into the tunnel after the Zora Queen. Once they had cleared the staircase the throne reasserted itself over the opening, sealing them in darkness.
Kafei and Navi walked through the dark, the only illumination the soft blue glow that emanated from Navi's skin and eyes, normally concealed by the sun or moonlight. "That was smooth back there Kafei." Navi said quietly.
Kafei shrugged "The Sheikah served the Royal Family as intelligence gatherers. Intelligence doesn't really do any good if you can't interpret it."
"How did you know I'd met Jabu-Jabu?"
"Tone of your voice. When you talked about that Black Rose sword I could tell you're sure it's there, but you've never seen it. With Jabu-Jabu, it was like you were talking about something concrete, somewhere you'd visited."
As they talked, the passage began to slop upwards and Navi spotted a light near the end of the tunnel illuminating the green scales of Queen Mipha some ways in front of them.
They emerged from the passage at the edge of a small reservoir. At once, a smell like the rotting of a hundred moldy corpses hit Navi and Kafei like a galloping horse. A few inches of water surrounded the stone path they walked, the liquid was stained a sickly green color like bile.
Queen Mipha led them up to a dais with four large ornate columns marking the four corners of the structure. Past this the water deepened significantly and in its center with his massive head resting inches from the stone platform was a huge whale. Ten meters high and twice that long Lord Jabu-Jabu was a leviathan of immense proportion.
When they reached his head Queen Mipha turned towards Kafei and Navi. "As you said Great Fairy, Lord Jabu-Jabu was cursed some two centuries past, after he was restored to health, to protect him we concealed the entrance to his sanctuary, we wiped all historical record of him save for the Royal Family's personal archive and within a few generations the common Zoras and the rest of Hyrule began to think of him as a legend. It appears, however, that our precautions were not enough. He is deeply ill, our best and most trusted physicians can find nothing wrong with him but still they believe he is dying." Queen Mipha gestured out at the water surrounding the whale lord.
Navi realized suddenly that the bile colored water grew denser and more contaminated the closer it got to Jabu-Jabu's body. He was the source of the poison corrupting Zora's River.
"Can you help him Great Fairy?" Queen Mipha asked, looking at Navi desperately.
Navi met the Zora's gaze, realizing suddenly their mistake. Her eyes flicked up to a craggy slash in the rock wall on the whale lord's opposite side which was their actual goal. Then she looked back at Queen Mipha. Navi was not a curative fairy. Those with the power to heal wounds had a pink aura not a blue. Still, as a fairy of knowledge she might know something that could help the whale lord and she was sworn to protect the inhabitants of Hyrule.
"I can try Mipha." She said solemnly.
She approached the great whale and held out her hand. Her eyes turned green but unlike the green of the water surrounding them Navi's were a pure clean color, like forest grass after a rain. Her hand glowed lightly with the same color and she pressed it to Jabu-Jabu's skin. He felt hot and despite being half submerged, his skin felt dry.
She moved the glowing light over him and it illuminated glowing green chains the same sickly color as the water below tracing over his entire body. They were of course symbolic, a product of Navi's illumination magic visible only to her, but she nonetheless knew what they meant.
As she was about to turn back to the Zora Queen the whale's eyes shot open and his enormous mouth parted a few inches. From his throat came a few words in an ancient Hylian dialect that had long died out. The language had been dead longer than Navi had lived but she had studied it in her youth. At least enough to translate what Jabu-Jabu had said.
"I… am… fading… life… force… diminished…"
Navi nodded, she hadn't needed the whale lord to tell her this. The presence of the sickly chains was evidence enough but she was glad to see that he was still capable of speech. Perhaps it was not too late for him.
She leaned down and whispered in her best approximation of the old language. "I know Lord Protector. I will do what I can."
Jabu-Jabu was a nature spirit. He may had adopted a physical form but his essence was still maintained by ancient magicks. This was another sign that things in the Faerie Realm were worsening: Jabu-Jabu's life force had been compromised. As his spirit faded away, his body decayed, his corrupted blood and fluids spilling out into the water supply. Divinity turned rotten and mixed with the lifeblood of the Zoras. It was unsurprising they had such difficulty filtering it.
"Can he be moved?" Navi asked the queen.
"No, my best physicians say it would kill him and if he dies I'm told that it would take a century to clean the contamination from our waters. Can you heal him?"
Navi chose her words very carefully. "Possibly. However, he is beyond the conventional healing magic of the fairies." She bit her lip preparing for the lie she was about to tell. "The last time I visited there was a cave in which a number of ancient herbs capable of boosting a fairy's power grew."
Queen Mipha nodded, and pointed to the opening in the rock that Navi had spotted earlier. "Our people call it the Labyrinth. It is a twisted mess of tunnels and open rooms filled with traps. The few of our warriors skilled enough to survive inside took days to return after becoming lost. I would not advise entering such a place. However if it is the only way to save the Lord Jabu-Jabu I will send a small number of the Zora warriors with you. To ensure your safety."
"No," said Navi a little too quickly. The queen narrowed her eyes and to cover her reaction Navi said. "As you said the rooms are full of traps. Both my companion and I are small and nimble, we can navigate more quickly. A company of Zora warriors, no matter how skilled, would only delay our quest and Jabu-Jabu does not have much time left."
Queen Mipha still looked suspicious but she nodded her approval.
Navi turned to Kafei, "How we going to get you up there?"
"What about you?"
"I've got my own way up, you're the one we need to worry about."
"Would this help?" Kafei pulled from his belt a green cylinder six inches tall and about as wide as the average sword grip. From the end of one side protruded a nasty looking spear connected closely to the base by a chain which disappeared inside. "It's a Sheikah design, my father called it the Hookshot."
Navi nodded, she'd seen something similar years before.
"Problem is," said Navi "It's just rock up there. There's nothing for the spike to grab onto." Navi thought for a moment then said, "Release the chain."
Kafei squeezed the handle and pulled on the spike. More chain that it appeared could physically be held within the handle came spilling out. Satisfied Navi grabbed the spike side of the device and removed her hooded green pinafore.
Beneath it her wings as they had been for many years were pressed flush with the skin of her back. With a grunt of effort Navi unfurled them. They were sore and stiff from lack of use but as she flapped them experimentally Navi was pleased to know that they still worked as well as the day she'd got them.
Now released from their prison, Navi's wings glowed with a brilliant aura that bleached the transparent membranes the bright color of the sky. They were like butterfly wings which extended a few inches past her shoulders and fell just past her waist.
Navi smiled at the stunned look on both Kafei and Mipha's faces before she jumped off the ground and her flapping wings carried her into the air. It was not a long journey to the cave entrance but Navi found that her years of neglect had cost her something. By the time she reached the cave entrance and set down on the worn rock just inside she was covered in sweat. She turned around and ground the head of the Hookshot into the stone at the base of the cave.
"Proceed at your discretion."
Kafei clicked the Hootshot and the chain was sucked suddenly back into the handle yanking Kafei where the other end was secured in the rock. Navi caught his arm and helped steady him as he climbed into the cave. She then pulled the head of the Hookshot out of the rock in case they had need of it in the future. They started to walk further in.
"What are we looking for?"
"A chamber filled with blue crystals whose ceiling seems to reflect the night sky."
"That's where we'll find the herbs?"
"Excuse me?" Navi said, remembering the lie she'd told.
"You told Queen Mipha…"
Navi cut him off. "We're still going after the sword."
Kafei stopped suddenly. "But the Zoras…"
Navi stopped too and turned to face him. "Will have to get along without help."
"You lied to her."
"Yes I did, how can you find that so shocking? You're Sheikah, your entire species exists in a web of lies. Why do you think they call you shadows?"
Kafei seemed stunned into silence by her words. While she had him quiet she said suddenly. "Do you know what a Force Gem is?"
"No." he said finding his voice again.
"It is calcified life force, magic that's be hardened into a crystal structure. Very rare. They say the Black Rose was forged from a shard of a massive Force Gem free from any imperfection. If that's true, I can use it to bolster Jabu-Jabu's life force. Buy him some time while we repair the damage at the source."
"And if it isn't true?" Asked Kafei his gaze accusing. "If the sword was made from something else? What then?"
"Then the Zoras are on their own."
"You promised to help."
"No I didn't, all I said was I'd try." Unbidden, Leaf's words of a few days before floated back to her. Mastering the technicality must be a very useful skill for a common thief, Navi. She pushed the thought away unwanted.
"You'd leave them to die."
She hated herself for saying it but it was the truth. "It comes down to the numbers Kafei. Without help Jabu-Jabu will die and the Zora's water will be polluted for a hundred years. They'll suffer, many will perish but they will survive. If we don't get that sword my people and yours are facing extinction."
"You sound just like her." Kafei spat.
"Who?"
"That Great Fairy friend of yours." He twisted his voice into a cruel imitation of Emheralda's. "That will be a great loss but there are bigger concerns. Some things are more important than the bottom line. You can't put life on a scale like that."
"Hey! Listen!" Navi shouted. "You think I like this? I knew Mipha's grandmother, she was a proud Zora who is probably rolling in her grave at what I said but my integrity is a small price to pay for the lives of my people."
"The road to the Dark Realm is paved with good intentions." Kafei snarled, a disgusted glint in his crimson eye.
"If I'm wrong about the sword, Kafei, there is nothing I can do for Jabu-Jabu anyways, and telling Mipha that will lose us our chance at obtaining the weapon that could save my people. Sometimes there are no right options."
"What if it came down to my people or yours?" Kafei whispered. Navi couldn't answer that question and the words she didn't say hung in the air, forming a dense uncomfortable silence that grew like a wall between the two. Not able to look at the expression on Kafei's face any longer, Navi turned and continued walking down the tunnel. From the sound of nearly silent footsteps behind her she knew that Kafei was following along behind her.
The tunnel curved gently rightwards then suddenly turned left before it ended in an archway. Past the arch the tunnel opened into a great cavern. The arch hadn't been visible the first time she'd visited for the ice that had coated the walls. It was covered from the edge to edge in ruins set deep into the stone.
"What does it say?" Kafei asked from behind her.
Navi approached the arch and examined the runes. "It is ancient fairy text."
"So you can read it?"
"Maybe, this language was ancient and nearly dead when I was a child. I learned some of it, but it is a very complex language. Very flowery and poetic, so much depends on context that could very well be lost to time." Navi bit her lip and moved closer to the runes. "The trial… of the flower of darkness… Sorry that'd be the Great Fairy Sword, flower of darkness, Black Rose." She shook her head and moved further along the string of glyphs. "The trial of the Black Rose… tests the skill of…" she trailed off looking at the following words.
"Tests the skill of what?" Kafei asked looking at Navi to hurry up.
"That's sort of the problem. I told you the old fairy language was very poetic. The next two words come out in a half dozen different ways. Heart and Soul, Dark and Light, one context could put that as Design and Action. If I had some reference materials. Some of the old texts that Emheralda works with."
"You don't, all you've got is what you've got."
Navi gritted her teeth and looked through the rest. Deciding to keep her thought process to herself. When she was done she turned to Kafei and recited what was the most accurate translation she could come up with under the circumstances.
"The Trial of the Black Rose tests the skill of Darkness and Light. The Labyrinth and the Temple are the equalizers of man and spirit. Venture not into its depth if of these you are unprepared."
Kafei paused for a moment. "Not exactly the clearest message. Might as well have just put, danger do not enter."
"Well," Navi said shrugging. "In ancient fairy script that's pretty much what it says."
With no other recourse Navi stepped forward into the circular cavern within. She tried to remember the way forward. Her true fairy gift, the virtue of knowledge, let her bring the memory of the ice cavern to her mind as crystal clear as though it had happened yesterday but the memory was two hundred years old from a time when the cavern had been covered in ice. The shape was similar, but the interior looked so different that Navi couldn't be sure which led towards the right room. There were three archways much like the one they'd just passed through, but clean of inscription.
"It's this way." She said motioning to one of the three.
Which the pair stepped through. They continued on through another narrow tunnel that twisted and turned at odd angles till they came to a circular cavern so similar to the previous one they'd stood in that Navi wouldn't have known they were different except for the extra stone arch set into the wall.
"Here." She said pointing to another archway.
The next tunnel sloped slowly rightwards then sharply turned left at a jagged ninety-degree angle. At the moved they passed another archway inscribed with runes. Navi stopped for a fraction of a second to get a closer look and was horrified to see the first few glyphs. The Trial of the Black Rose… They were back at the beginning.
Navi looked into the first cavern room again. "I-I think it's this way." She said pointing towards the archway opposite that which she'd chosen the previous time.
"You think?" Kafei asked suddenly not troubling to keep the frustration out of his voice. She turned around to face him "You don't know?"
"It doesn't look the same." She said, her voice pleading for him to understand and at the same time taking a step back through the archway.
Three things happened very suddenly. Navi heard a faint click audible only to her ears, her eyes glowed red and Kafei shouted "DUCK!"
She hit the ground like a falling sack of flour as a blade flew from the air from the wall, disappearing into a crack in the stone on the opposite side. At the same time, she heard another barely audibly click and her eyes glowed red again. She rolled to the side suddenly as another blade flew a few inches above the ground right where she'd been lying. Another click and flash of her eyes and she leapt to her feet diving most inelegantly over another flying blade. The floor was covered in pressure plates and every time Navi touched it another blade flew from the wall intent on slicing her in two. She timed her movement as best she could towards one of the archways hoping desperately that the tunnels acted as a safe zone. She was a hairs breath away when with a careless flip one of the blades caught the edge of her shoulder slicing a clean deep gash through her hood and through her skin. The momentum of the blade cut through the edge of her shoulder but did not stick deep enough to impede its movement and it flew off to rejoin the wall. She gave a gasp of pain and dove for the archway as more blades were launched at her.
On the other side of the room Kafei was shaking his head though she saw a look of concern on his face. He waited a few seconds before he two launched himself into the room. Unlike her he moved gracefully. He leapt, skipped, rolled and pirouetted with grace, not a single one of his movements setting off one of the traps. It took him several minutes to reach Navi, as he could not move directly over the ground, but he got to the opposite arch in the end.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, looking angry.
"What?"
"It's a loop labyrinth. Each wrong turn redirects you to the entrance."
"We could try every possible permutation?"
"You and I both know why that won't work."
Navi did. If any forethought at all had been put into the labyrinth then wrong turns would redirect to a few dummy rooms which would then link back to the entrance so one could never be sure when they'd made a mistake.
"Besides," he said pointing back at the room that had been firing off blades at them. "It looks like a number of traps have been armed. Makes sense really. First trip through is free of danger. If you're supposed to be here you know the right path and you pass right though. But if you're not one wrong move and suddenly the place is ready to kill you. I thought you knew where you were going Navi. You said you'd gotten as far as the ante-chamber before.
"I had but that was two hundred years ago Kafei, and the entire cavern was covered in ice, it must have nullified most of the traps. The way forward looks different now."
"And you didn't think to tell me that? Didn't think that maybe we could figure out the right path together? No, you just carried on pretending to know what was best till we had no idea where we're going and the caves are full of traps ready to cut us in two. Aren't you supposed to be a guide? Doesn't that require you to actually know where you're going?" He pushed her roughly and Navi slipped to the ground with a loud gasp of pain.
Kafei's expression changed almost instantly from one of annoyance and frustration to concern. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," she murmured "one of the blades nicked me that's all. Navi's shoulder throbbed painfully. It stung more than she was used to and injury wasn't that uncommon for her. Something was wrong, something was different about this wound.
"Let me see." Kafei's voice was much softer than it had been moments before there was a certain commanding tone in it that Navi didn't have the energy to argue with. Kafei peeled away Navi's pinafore to examine the wound more carefully. "Oh." He said quietly.
"What?" asked Navi, suddenly alarmed.
"It's… the blade caught the upper part of your wing."
Horrified, Navi probed the wound in her shoulder. She felt a nearly two inch tear in upper area of the membrane and a strangled cry escaped her throat. Her breathing was uneven but she managed to say. "How's my shoulder?"
"Not too bad. Your shoulder bone deflected the worst of it. It'll scar but it'll heal."
"My people don't scar." Navi said quickly.
"Oh, lucky you then but we should still tie it up." He took from his belt a small box within which was a roll of bandages, a needle and spool of thread and a few clothes that smelled as though they had been dipped in alcohol. "Should… should I sew up your wing? It looks pretty fragile but I don't want to just leave it."
"It'll heal on its own, just tie it to the shoulder over the other wound."
"All right," he said slightly uncertain with fairy anatomy. He tore a swath from his own tunic and used it to mop up the Navi's blood before he started to tie up with bandages. "I never thought fairies would have white blood."
"I can't imagine you thought too much about fairies at all before two days ago." Said Navi not quite able to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
"What do you mean?" he asked as he fastened the cloth tightly over her shoulder.
"What do you actually know about my people? Have you ever bothered to think about us? What we're doing when we're not helping the Hylians deal with whatever catastrophe they've managed to call down upon themselves this time."
"Hey, we're here because of a crisis that your people brought down on the rest of us in case you've forgotten." He said as he pulled her bandages tighter than was strictly necessary and secured them with a pin.
"Yes, one misstep in a hundred thousand years. That really stacks up against Hyrule's bloody history."
Finished with the argument, Navi pulled her damaged green pinafore over her shoulders and pulled up the hood so she wouldn't have to look at Kafei.
As they walked, Navi started to feel light headed. It was an odd sensation. Like she was somehow apart from herself. The wound on her shoulder throbbed and she wondered dully why it hadn't closed up yet. Fairy bodies were less substantial than Hylians and as such they healed more quickly. She felt like an answer was just in reach but the pounding in her head kept her from concentrating. As they walked she stumbled and Kafei was there in an instant to stop her from falling despite the argument they'd been having. "What's wrong?"
"I…" she swallowed. "I don't feel very good."
Kafei pressed the back of his hand to Navi's forehead. "You've got a fever."
"No," the fairy girl murmured meekly. "Fairies don't get sick."
"I think your wound is infected."
"That can't happen. It's not…" then the answer came to her. "The Labyrinth and the Temple are the equalizers of man and spirit."
Kafei looked into one of her eyes, checking her responsiveness. "I think it's gotten to your brain."
"No," she said shaking her head. "The inscription on the door. I told you ancient fairy script is a highly metaphorical language. Man in the right context means mortal and spirit immortal. It was a warning. In these walls the protections of immortals like the fairies are stripped away. It was probably added after the temple was abandoned to protect the sword."
"What does that mean for you?" Kafei asked warily.
"It means that as long as I'm in here my wounds won't heal. We need to go back, regroup."
"No," said Kafei quietly. "You said yourself. If Mipha realizes that you… we lied to her she won't let us back in here and I don't think you have the strength to fly to the opening a second time. Kafei drew from an inside pocket of his tunic a small glass jar filled with a red liquid. "Here, I had a witch named Maple brew this up for me. It can't heal wounds but it'll stave off infection and give you a burst of energy for a little while. Let's hope that's all we need."
Navi nodded and took the bottle, downing the contents in a few gulps. It tasted nasty, like fermented mushrooms, but it seemed to do the trick. The pain cleared from Navi's head and she could hardly feel the throbbing of her shoulder. She stored the bottle in her pouch.
"Better?"
"Much."
"Come on."
Kafei led the way through the tunnel into the next room. At the opening archway they stopped and Kafei cautiously tested the edge of the floor for more pressure plates but when none seemed apparent they decided it was safe to enter.
The interior of next room seemed nearly identical to those of previous ones except this one had a large brazier in the center that was filled with bright burning azure flames that cast a cold light over the cavern, reflected by the stone walls.
As they passed by the brazier suddenly a half dozen bats that had apparently been roosting deep within flew out, their wings coated in the same blue fire.
"They're Keese, Don't let them touch you." Navi shouted drawing her long dagger. "Destroy them before they swoop down on you." She shivered slightly thinking I hate the cold.
"Thanks." Said Kafei keeping a close watch on the movement of the Keese. "I was thinking of letting them set up a nest in my hair before you warned me."
As one of the flying menaces came close, Navi slashed at it with her dagger, cleaving it cleanly in two. The severed halves fell to the ground, shriveling up into nothing.
Meanwhile Kafei had killed three of the Keese but ice from the cold flames was beginning to creep up the blade of his weapon.
When they were down to only one of the flying creatures, the blue fire brazier spit out another six Keese. Navi glanced around wildly for a solution. It was impossible to know how many of Keese had made their home in the brazier or indeed if the fire wasn't creating them itself. They couldn't keep fighting like this indefinitely. At that moment her eyes fell on several inscriptions that had been set into the floor at the base of each archway.
"This way!" she shouted grabbing his arm and dragging him towards one of the gateways into another tunnel. Mercifully the Keese did not follow them. It seemed they would not stray too far from the brazier they called home.
"This is the right way?" Kafei asked warily.
"Yes."
"You're sure?"
"There was an inscription on the ground. In front of this passage was 'Beware the Cold' in front of the other was 'The Warmth of Home'."
"What makes cold more likely than home? Wasn't this temple your people's first structure in Hyrule? Wouldn't that make it a sort of home to them?"
"Not bad." Navi conceded. "You're starting to think like us. Not quite though. The ante-chamber has a complex set of crystal structures surrounding the entrance door. They look a lot like ice, combined with the blue fire that lights the room. Hence, beware the cold. In the old language home has a certain connotation of safety and security and where we are going is neither of those things. Home in this case would be an exit."
The next room was rather like the previous except it lacked the brazier of blue fire. When they stepped in there was a howl like that of a tortured wolf that seemed to tear right through Navi, freezing her in place. From the center of the room appeared a creature the size of a bear with long claws, and teeth like knives set into its snarling snout, it was a White Wolfos.
It started towards them and in that moment Navi shook off the fog of the howl. "Keep it busy." She said to Kafei before circling the beast to get to the three archways that served as the major exits for the room. Like the previous cavern there were three inscriptions. As best she could read them they translated as 'Ascension is Key', 'Release from Obligation' and 'Followers Proclaim'.
She relayed these messages to Kafei who was fending off the White Wolfos with difficulty. "It's not option two, my kind were created as guardians, release from that means death to us. I don't know about the others, they both seem to talk about the temple!"
"Ascension!" Kafei shouted. "You said they called the sword's wielder the Ascendant. Which is the arch with that inscription?"
"This one." Navi said motioning. She used her dagger to draw the attention of the Wolfos while Kafei made a run for the arch. When he was close enough Navi herself turned and fled from the monster. It chased her but when it was a hair's breadth from grabbing her by the cloak it stopped. It seemed like all the other monsters of the place it would not leave its own cave.
The passage terminated, not like the others in a stone arch, but with a door marked with an elaborate snowflake design. Inside was a room of breathtaking beauty. Two more blue fire braziers stood against the opposite walls flanking a doorway and more fairy script. The walls of the room had been carved out of black crystal which, when reflecting the light of the blue fire, gave the appearance of thousands of stars winking at them from an infinite space. The door behind them was decorated with a growth of blue gemstones that grew at jacked angles giving the impression of ice. In the center of the room was a pool of water which Navi knew from experience led to a
Navi read the inscription over the doorway. "The Temple of the Ascendant. Only when both halves unite will the Black Rose be relinquished. All others will perish."
"You think it's safe?" Kafei asked "That doesn't sound inviting."
"No, it's probably filled with as many traps as an immortal with something to hide for all eternity can think of. But we don't really have any choice do we." Navi walked throw the doorway into the inner chamber.
Surprisingly the interior of the temple was a single room. There was a path that was flanked on either side by a few inches of cool clean water. At the end of the path was a staircase leading to a deep pool. It looked very much like the modern fairy fountain, like where Emheralda made her home, but there were several key differences. The stone was ancient and brown, crumbling in places as though to protest the age of the place. Behind two staircases flanked the pool leading to a dais high on the rock wall where Navi could see the top of a statue. Carved into the walls along the path they were on were a number of pictograms. Navi tred over the shallow water to take a closer look at them.
On the right were a series of panels that seemed to depict the lifecycle of her people. The first showed a small indistinct ball with insect wings hovering in midair. Directly to its left was a teenage girl about Navi's size in a flowery dress with butterfly wings extending from her back. Following was a comparatively large woman who bore a strong resemblance to Emheralda with her three pony tails and vine spun clothing. The last portray on the line showed a vaguely Hylian figure. She had all the right parts, a head, two arms two legs and so forth but she seemed to almost have been carved of stone herself even with the medium used to display her. Her features were completely symmetrical and simple, which seemed to be the theme of her. It looked more like a rendering of a statue than an actual person.
"What are these?" Kafei asked from behind her.
"My people." Navi whispered. She motioned at the first. "Wisps, our infant form." She moved to the next. "Fairykin, the adolescent stage." She pointed to the vine covered figure "Then there's the Great Fairies, our adults and," she motioned to the woman who seemed to be carved from stone. "The Fairy Queens, our elders."
"What about these?" Kafei asked motioning to a pictogram that had been set above and perfectly between the stage of wisp and fairykin and another that had been placed below the Great Fairy.
"These are the Twisted." Navi said pointing to the one above. It depicted a ghoulish sight. A small figure with exaggerated almost inhuman features, a head that was too large for its body and no hair to speak of. "Wisps that cannot quite reach the stage of fairykin become trapped in a sort of in between. They cannot go back, they cannot move forward. They usually end up haunting the woods, playing tricks on travelers."
"Can't they be helped?"
"No. They eventually fade away."
"The other one?" He said in reference to the portray that hung next to the Great Fairy. He asked tentatively, as though he was almost afraid to hear the answer.
The image showed a mass of small figures that bore a resemblance to the twisted circling and churning over one another in a massive spiral.
"Stray Fairies. If a Great Fairy is wounded in combat significantly she may be shattered into a hundred of these which if not kept together will disperse across the land. Only by reuniting them can the Great Fairy reform. If not…"
"Yeah," Kafei muttered "they fade away."
The pair turned away from the pictograms and returned to the path. They proceeded up the stairs circling the pool till they stood on the dais with the statue. It was of a woman. She was beautiful but there was a severe glint to her stone eye reinforced by the angle of her lips. She looked imposing. In her hands however, drawn across her chest, cradled in her arms was a sword that looked to have been carved out of an enormous purple gemstone.
Navi touched the statue hoping to pry the sword from the stone arms when it suddenly moved. The arms moved, presenting the sword cleanly to Navi.
She was about to take it when Kafei grabbed her arm. "Nothing has been simple thus far. Why should it just give us the blade now? After that warning on the door."
"What else can we do?" asked Navi. "We're here for the sword, the sword is right there. Are you suggesting we don't take it?"
Kafei apparently had no retort to this and so stood aside and Navi gripped the handle of the blade.
The lips of the statue curved into a cruel smile and it said in the old language. "Perish thieves."
Navi had the sword in her grasp but the moment it parted contact with the statue the walls of the temple began to shake. Great stones fell from the ceiling as Kafei and Navi made a run for the exit Just as they were about to reach the doorway however a stone the size of Navi's head cracked loose from the wall and hit her squarely in the back. She was crushed the floor and she heard an audible crack from within her own chest.
Kafei, with the quickness inherent to his race, pried the rock from Navi's form and helped her to her feet. "How do we get out?" he asked desperately.
"The pool." She croaked. Her airways felt constricted. She was having trouble breathing. "In the ante-chamber, it leads back to Jabu-Jabu."
Soon as they cleared the door into ante-chamber Kafei dove into the pool dragging Navi with him. There was a strong current to the water despite it not being fed by anything which pushed them roughly through the narrow passage and spit them back out in Jabu-Jabu's Sanctuary. They fell from a cliff several feet in the air and landed in a tangled mess in the shallow water near the old whale lord.
As they hit the ground all the wind was knocked from Navi and she coughed roughly, trying to pull breath into lungs that didn't seem to want to fill. Despite her injuries, despite their arguments, despite the pain in Navi's chest she smiled. She had the Black Rose, the Sword of the Great Fairy clutched in her arms.
Author's Note: An expanded version of the Temple of the Ascendant has been planned out, using Design elements of Sakon's hideout from Majora's Mask. This will likely be implemented in the second draft.