Aloy sits on the floor as she gazes at a wall. Link is sitting nearby as well. She not so much gazes at the wall, but through it using her focus as she is staring up at the Akkala Sheikah Tower. The wall she is staring through is missing a large section, but is plugged entirely by Malice as it makes an ominous red glow tinged with black while pulsating and oozing without flowing, and giving off a faint but perpetual deep syrupy churning sound that can be heard over the downpour outside. At times though it is all momentarily drowned out by the sound of thunder, which was sometimes painfully loud.
It was supposed to have been a jaunt up the steep hill to the Akkala Citadel Ruins, then up the Sheikah Tower; it was instead a battle as Guardian Skywatchers, Bokoblins, the black variety, and a Moblin slowed their progress. When they had finally reached the hilltop, the duo were confronted by a lake-sized glob of Malice covering most of the ruins. There were also more enemies as well, including an active though paralyzed Guardian that needed destroying. Once the duo had finished the arduous task of eliminating their enemies, they next had to figure out how to get up the Sheikah Tower without touching the Malice hugging its lower part. But between the enemies they had to fight off and searching for a way past the Malice, the day was growing late. To make matters worse, the sky clouded over and it started raining, complete with lightening and thunder. Confronted with this added danger, they desperately sought out shelter and found this small stone building that is still relatively intact and with an opening in the wall low to the floor that is only high enough to crawl through, which they had blocked with a wooden chest that they found inside here.
Aloy suddenly sits forward with an intent look of which Link notices and asks her what it is.
"I think," Aloy began slowly, "I think I found a way to get up there. The problem is getting to it. Anyway, there is a narrow passage on the towerside through the Malice that can be crawled through. It's a very narrow passage, so it won't leave much room to crawl though. Or more accurately for you since I don't really need to climb up there with you."
Link agrees. There is a moment of quiet between them, with only the sounds of the rain and thunder, especially the nearby strikes as it hits metal every now and again. They are safe inside this place.
Link next asks Aloy about her life growing up.
"Like I mentioned before, I never had any parents," she answered. "There never was a father, only two mothers; one was named Gaia, a machine created to resurrect life on earth and then sacrificed itself to stop a dangerous subroutine from taking over, and the other was Elizabet Sobeck, its creator who was already hundreds of years dead by the time I was born out of a glass vat . . . But of course, I never knew any of that until recently." Bitterness enters her tone. "I was shunned by my tribe since birth, what that means is that no member of the tribe is to speak nor acknowledge you." Then her tone lightens. "I was raised by a man named Rost who was also shunned from the tribe long before I existed. He taught me how to survive and hunt."
Aloy would go on to tell Link the same things she had told Paya and Impa. Link listens with fascination about her life and her world.
"Your world and my world parallel each other, Link," Aloy said. "Both were devastated by a monsterous event. Both have ruins that point to an ancient civilization. Then there's us . . . Both of us stumbled into a quest that we found ourselves having to fulfill . . . What about your life? The life you lived one hundred years ago before all this?"
Link sighs, then admits that he doesn't remember very much. Only bits and pieces, due to the amnesia he had suffered.
"I can't imagine what that must be like," Aloy said softly. "Losing your memories. Not being able to recall on everything. That which you took for granted becoming strange and unfamiliar . . . You wanna eat something before we turn in?"
Link nods and they each take out something to eat. They engaged in idle talk and eventually drifted off to sleep, due to the sound of the nearby Malice acting as a twisted lullaby.
Aloy awakens in darkness, save for the sinister glow of the nearby Malice. The storm had mostly passed over as only a light rain is heard falling over the faint deep syrupy churning of the Malice. Using her focus, she looks through the walls to see that it is still night. If it were daytime, the sky would be entirely solid colored, be it clear or cloudy. She looks over to see the shape of Link lying on the ground, her focus reading him as a Hylian, then as Link. She smiles slightly for an instance, then carefully shuffles over next to him, careful not to wake him. The glow of the Malice gives a bit of light and she can make out his sleeping face.
He looks so peaceful. Aloy mused inwardly. And yet so troubled. Like he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders . . . Just like I did.
Her heart skips a beat and a ticklish tingly feeling jabs in her palms, soles, and groin as she slowly lifts her hand and pushes a strand of hair out of his face. Aloy pulls her hand away as if she had touched something white-hot, but continues to stare down at his sleeping face.
Why the hell did I do that?! If he wakes up from that . . . ?!
As if on cue, Link turns away from her, causing Aloy's heart to pound hard as she fights against the urge to dart away from him. Slowly, ever so slowly. She lies down and turns away from Link. Her face red, either from the glow of the Malice or her embarrassment. She is forced to lie there with her back just inches from Link's back. She could almost feel his body heat. She could hear his soft breathing.
Sleep! Fall asleep, Aloy!
Aloy awakens, feeling relieved that she had fallen asleep. She uses her focus to see that the sky is more of a fuller color, meaning that dawn has arrived. She wonders if she should wake Link up. A hand touches her hip, causing her to gasp and give a start. The hand is quick to be pulled away and she looks over to see Link facing her with eyes open and giving her a confused look.
"Oh, ah! S-Sorry Link!" Aloy fretted as she gets up and backs away. The glow of Malice hides her reddened face. "I . . . I found it hard to sleep in that spot and I was l-looking for a better spot. And . . . And I thought that maybe the spot near you was better because you were s-sleeping so well. Anyway," as her tone becomes more intent, "I can see through my focus that it's dawn now. And the storm has passed over. So let's go outside and see if you can climb that tower, since I've noticed a spot you can crawl past."
Link agrees and they move the chest that they had put there and crawl outside. They smell the crisp fresh air of the morning with a mostly clear sky as the sun rises.
"Link, over here," Aloy said as she beckons him to follow. She stands at a spot and points it out on the Sheikah Tower. "There. See that gap between the Malice?"
Link exclaims that he sees it and thanks Aloy for her observation. He climbs up on top of where they took refuge last night and jumps, landing upon the grating of the Sheikah Tower. He climbs upward and across until he gets to that very narrow gap and just barely crawls between it, but getting clear of the Malice and crawls up to the platform for a rest.
Aloy watches from the ground as Link continues climbing ever higher until he is out of sight. After what seemed to be a few minutes, the orange core of the tower begins glowing blue, showing that he had successfully activated it. She sees Link high up above and waves up to him and he waves back down. He leaps and whips out his paraglider to glide back down near Aloy.
"Now that this is done," Aloy said. "We can go to that tech lab."
Link concurs and they look out at the direction they need to take. The road forks once again with the upper road going downhill, through a depression, and off into the distance to meet up with the other road once again. A road that had other roads meandering from it.
"So we should take the upper road because it is the simplest one," Aloy said.
Link nods and they head down the hill and to the road, where they continue their journey to the tech lab to meet this Robbie.
The morning progresses as they walk upon their designated path. The area they walk through is relatively treeless land with abundant fields of grass. As usual, they encounter monsters, but are able to kill them. It is around midday by the time they reach the other fork in the road that they had seen from far off Akkala Sheikah Tower, now a blue spike on the distant horizon. The road also begins going uphill. They keep walking and soon see a Sheikah Shrine up ahead near the road, and just across the road from it is another stable. Link and Aloy find out the name of the stable from the owner and learn that it is called, East Akkala Stable. The stable they had read on that sign yesterday. They next look over at the shrine across from them and Link decides to go check it out.
Aloy and Link enter the shrine and go to the bottom, learning through the voice that it is the Katosa Aug Shrine. They find themselves standing on a piece of wide floor with a chasm before them where a width of floor hovers with an indentation at one end under an arch with a Sheikah Eye, and what looks to be a large hammer suspended in midair upside-down next to a large sphere. At the end of their floor is a device that looks like a gyroscope. Link walks over to it and begins manipulating it, causing the hammer to move.
Aloy watches as Link carefully hit the ball with the hammer, causing it to roll across the floor and into the indentation. A black platform up ahead suddenly starts pulsating blue and moves toward them. Link and Aloy step up to the platform, but it is a small one.
"You first since you got it working," Aloy said.
Link steps on the platform and it carries him across. It goes back to Aloy and she gets on it next and is soon next to Link.
"That was an interesting test," Aloy mused. "It looks like that could almost be . . . a game of some sort."
They look up at the monk, who has his hands raised.
"They must have metal rods put into them in order to keep them in that position," Aloy said. "Because death stiffness doesn't last long."
Link is about to touch the blue forcefield when he leans to one side, looking intently past the monk. He walks around.
"What is it?" Aloy asked as she follows after him.
They end up going down a set of stairs into another room where there is also a hammer and ball like the first one, save that its floor is curved around. Off to their right is a platform with a treasure chest upon it.
"And of course, you want to get that chest," Aloy sighed.
Link goes up to the device and begins manipulating the hammer just so. He hits the sphere, but ends up hitting it off the platform. He pulls the hammer back and the sphere pops up through the floor from its spot. Link carefully hits the sphere at an angle and it bounces off the railing up above it. The angle was too short and the sphere falls off.
"Do you really need to get that chest?" Aloy said. "It could be something useless in it."
But Link was not going to give up, telling her that if he left, he would be wondering what was in that chest. Once more, the sphere comes back up and once more Link manouvers the hammer and hits the sphere, causing it to bounce off the railing and this time roll over to the indentation and spirls into it.
"Finally," Aloy rasped. "Maybe now we can leave this place sooner."
Link steps onto the platform and rides it over to the chest. He opens it and discovers a great frostblade, a large sword that freezes its enemies. Then discovers that he does not have enough room to take it with him. He turns to Aloy as he takes out the shock rod that he got back up on the trail to Zora's Domain from that Wizzrobe. He calls out to Aloy for her to catch it because he does not have enough room to carry the frostblade.
"Seriously!" Aloy called back in humorous frustration. "What if we come across some other weapon that you might like even more? Are you going to end up having me carry it too?"
Although she can relate as she too at times had to dispose of less important items in order to take what she had found. But there was no frivilousness in it, as Link is currently doing.
"Fine," Aloy sighed. "Toss it over."
Link throws the shock rod over to Aloy and she catches it and examines it. She turns elsewhere and swings the rod, making a yellow seething ball of electricity go flying, albeit slowly, until it disappears.
Link is back with Aloy and together they return to the monk, where they receive the spirit orb and leave. Back outside, they travel up the hill that is covered with deciduous trees and soon see smoke off in the distance, along with what looks to be a large telescope.
"That must be the tech lab," Aloy said.
As they head past an outcrop next to the road, they encounter a ruined Guardian. An active, but ruined Guardian as it looks at them with that single glowing eye that shoots a red beam of light at Link, since he is the closest.
"Behind the rock!" Aloy shouted as she pulls Link along with her, getting them out of sight. "Phew! At least it can't move. And I bet they don't get any visitors because of that thing either. Anyway, this is the perfect time to make some more tearblast arrows since I have enough materials left for them."
Aloy goes ahead and creates more tearblast arrows.
"There we go," Aloy said as she holds up the last one she had finished creating. "It's too bad I won't be able to make any more of these, since none of the materials I've seen can be used to make such arrows. Now then," as she takes out her hunter bow, "let's turn that thing into scrap."
She jumps out with her hunter bow and a tearblast arrow at the ready and Link also readies a shock arrow. Aloy releases and the tearblast strikes the Guardian, then explodes. Next, it is Link's turn and the Guardian begins to glow ever brighter and twirl around, then explodes, leaving parts behind for Link to take.
"Let's just hope that there are no more surprises waiting for us before we get to that lab," Aloy said.
As they walk up the trail, Aloy looks off to her left and gets Link's attention quietly as she points down a hill to a ruin where a Moblin lies fast asleep on the ground.
"Let it sleep for now," Aloy whispered, and Link nods.
They walk up the hill and crest it to finally come upon the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab. It was originally a lighthouse as the large broken light fixture on the property shows. There are also ruined Guardians about the property as well. The top of the lighthouse had broken off long ago and some bricks have come loose. The top is replaced with a crane, a large telescope, sheds, and a windmill on the back. Next to the entrance is what looks like a large metal balloon, which turns out to be another furnace like the one at the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab.
"This place looks like something an Oseram would enjoy," Aloy said. "They're one of the tribes that live in my world. They like to tinker with machines and stuff. I just hope this Robbie can make something like a paraglider for me."
Link hopes so too as he and Aloy walk up to the lab door. He opens it and enters, with Aloy close behind.
