Chapter 127: A New Task
…
Link's walk back to the Library's hidden entrance was much longer than expect, although this was due in part to him trying to find Layna. He would stop and suddenly spin around in an attempt to find her. He had thought it would be easy to catch her in a large field of grass that even he could not hide under if he was on his belly. Layna's cover was so perfect that Link was concerned that he might have left her at the tower. Calling to her alleviated his fears, but he still could not figure out where she disappeared to; once his eyes left her, she was gone in the next second. He considered making her wear a bell in the future; if anything, it would at least warn people when she would sneak up behind them after being called. He entered the back of the Library and, per Madame Seilon's request, locked it. Then, worried that he might have locked Layna outside, he called for her one more time. He shouted in surprise when she appeared behind him.
She remained beside him as he returned to the large study room. Madame Seilon was already waiting for him near the door. "Did yeh finish what yeh needed?" she asked him.
Link nodded. "Yeah. I gave the sword back. Have you found anything yet?"
Madame Seilon shook her head. "I'm afraid no'. An' I think I know why. I looked in on the weather fer the days Cale mentioned. It's been overcas' mos' o' those days. An' if they lef' a' nigh', no' even our astronomers would've seen 'em. I'm sorry, Link."
Link sighed and scratched his head as he looked off to one side. "I was sure we'd find something down here. Are you sure it's been overcast the whole time?"
"If i' wasn', we'd 'ave thick cloud cover."
Link nodded. After a moment of thought, he told her, "Okay, so it just means that people here in the Forest Realm didn't see anything. That leaves four other realms we can check; not all of them could have cloud cover at the same time."
"I wouldn' think so," Madame Seilon said with a nod. "I jus' 'ope someone was lookin' up a' the time."
"LIIINK!" Link and Madame Seilon cringed at the sound of the girl's voice calling from the bookshelves behind Madame Seilon. Link became wide-eyed when he watched Valley, dressed in a bright pink shirt and white work slacks, shuffle her feet toward him with her arms raised in the air. "LinkyLinkyLinkyLinkyLinkyLinky!"
Link promptly had a flashback of Leeta smothering him in a bear hug. He closed his eyes and braced himself. Then the shuffling stopped. He opened an eye to find Valley grinning in his face and immediately flinched backwards. "Va-Valley!" he said, his voice straining out a friendly tone.
"How is you?" Valley asked.
"Fine, fine," Link replied.
Valley ruffled his hair. "Good," she told him. "You noes helped Irleen? She's still a fairy."
"We're working on it, Valley," Link said with impatience tingeing his voice. "The Sorians are gone. We're trying to look for them; we think they might have come down here to the surface."
Valley gasped and spun to Madame Seilon with a large smile on her face. "Yeah, yeah," Madame Seilon told her when Valley clasped her hands together in the form of a plea. "Yeh go' dibs if we find 'em."
"Woo-hoo!" Valley cried out, jumping up and down.
Her hair whipped around, and Link reached out to grab her arm. "Valley, Valley!" he gently called as he held her to the ground by her upper arm.
"Huh?" Valley replied. She turned to him in confusion, although she was more confused by the fact that he could so easily hold her to the ground rather than what he was reacting to.
"Hold still," he told her as he carefully brushed her loose, silvery-blond hair aside. She turned her head when she realized he was looking at her ear. What he found was a coppery earring shaped into a triangle dangling from a gold stud that had been punched through the top point. Link would not have reacted to it if he had not seen the smooth surface. He put his fingers on either side of the triangle and carefully turned it while Valley gave him a suspicious look. The backside of the earring was rough and uneven. It was thicker at the top point, giving Link the impression that it had been chipped off something. He squinted at the earring for a long while, trying to see anything in the surface.
Valley finally tried to say, "What is yo—"
"Shh," Link hissed at her. He switched the hand holding the earring so that he could pull his blues harp from his pocket. He pressed it against his lips and adjusted his hold so he was not covering the open end. Then he drew on the key that the technoworks responded to.
The earring began to brighten its color, something that would not be very noticeable if Link had not been standing so close.
Link grinned. "I knew it."
"Link!" Link started at the high-pitched voice and peered past Valley at the bookshelves. Cale stood staring wide-eyed at him while Irleen hovered over his head. "Ah you joking!?"
"Wha-what?" Link asked.
"Link," Valley spoke up. He looked back to her to find that she was pointing at his hand. "It looks like you's gonna kiss me."
Link immediately jerked his hand away. "Yikes!"
Valley giggled. "Jealousy is funny."
"It isn't jealousy," Irleen said as she and Cale approached. "It is annoyance."
"You sounds like Cale why?" Valley asked with a hint of irritation.
"Cale has my translatoh gem," Irleen replied. Then she turned to Link. "Just what weh you doing?"
"Valley has a piece of technoworks on her ear," Link said.
"She what?" Irleen asked. She turned to Valley, and Valley moved her hair out of the way to show her the bright-orange earring. Irleen moved closer to see. "Oh, wow. This thing's… really weak. How long have you had this?"
"Before we went to da Snow Realm," Valley said.
"There still might be some technoworks blocks down here," Link said. "I think Sello used one to make Drumstik."
"'Drumstick'?" Madame Seilon asked.
"Not in the least what it sounds like," Irleen said.
"Is theah some way to use the technowohks to find youh people, Ihleen?" Cale asked.
"Not really," Irleen said. "The technowohks only evah respond with othah technowohks. They weh nevah made to interact with anything else."
"Wait a sec," Link spoke up. "What about Bold Island?"
"Bold Island?" Valley asked.
Irleen sighed. "Right, well, that was the action of a Grey."
"Maybe," Link said. "But now that we know that the technoworks can actually respond to people, don't you think it might be possible to recreate that? All you have to do is… uh, that… thing you do with the blues harp."
"I don't know, Link," she said. "It isn't as if this will be like retahning the Sky Lines. This is some very serious magic at wohk. And we only have just this piece of technowohks (provided Valley lets us have it)."
"It helps Irleen find her people?" Valley said as she removed the earring. "Irleen cans have it." She offered the earring to Irleen. Then she put on an embarrassed face before handing it to Link.
Link took it and held up his blues harp. "Irleen, wanna give it a try now?"
"I suppose," Irleen said with a resigned sigh. She hovered over to the blues harp and remained there for a moment.
Valley's eyes shifted between Irleen and Link for a moment. "Dis is what works?" she asked Link.
"It's a little weird," Link admitted. "But this lets her read whatever magic thing she needs to use."
"Fah beyond me to doubt what you've said about the technowohks," Cale said, "but how will they allow us to find the Sorians?"
"I will gladly show you if you'd just shut up," Irleen growled at them. Valley snorted in response, and even Madame Seilon grinned at Cale's ashamed expression.
Valley leaned over and asked Cale, "Cans I has that translating gem? I wants to see someding."
"If you'h talking about making heh speak in that strange accent," Cale whispered back, "I would advise against it. Ihleen will likely notice if you ah making heh speak a dialect she does not like."
"Trust me; it's gonna be interesting."
"I can still heah you two," Irleen spoke up.
Valley wiggled her eyebrows at Cale. Cale sighed and dug into his pocket. Link watched as he handed the translator gem to Valley. He lowered his head so that his smile was hidden. He could not wait to hear Irleen talk in Valley's accent.
After a few minutes, Irleen let out a sigh.
"Salya, 'inu bilunak tab 'inu moytok 'oyfzhax lwayzagsiylw 'anw Giymadicab zasfiyt 'inoy na'di. 'Itab 'inan yayxwotak kwuhat. Nwik jiyt dhijilwak taf nadxwicikak. 'Al 'inan doyfos zagsiylw nway, nway nayx taynolak. 'Inan yayxwotak badi' 'axwickin."
Thump.
Link, Valley, and Cale stared at her in surprise for a long, silent moment. Madame Seilon did not stare due to only being able to give a brief expression of shock before looking up at the rafters, wondering what had caused that loud thump over their heads.
Irleen gave a small jerk, taken aback by the looks she was getting. "Dhol?" she asked.
Cale immediately grabbed Valley's hand to double-check that she was really holding Irleen's translator gem. Valley responded by—Pap!—punching Cale in the face. "AAH!" Cale cried out before hitting the floor.
"What the hell was that?!" Link shouted at Valley, his voice mimicking his bewildered expression and gestures. "You don't speak Hylian?! You're a Gelto?!"
"Dhol thikwufak?" Irleen asked, sounding confused.
"I's Hylian!" Valley defended. "I's just… weird."
"There's no one else that talks like you!" Link shouted.
"I a'ways though' 'er original accen' was strange," Madame Seilon said to herself.
"Her original accent!?"
Madame Seilon nodded. "Yep."
"I changed it 'cuz no one cans understand me!"
"How was this better!?" Link shouted.
"Eeeeeeh…" Valley just hung her head. "I noes knows."
Link sighed and let his arms fall to his sides. Then he looked over at Cale and asked, "Cale? Are you all right?"
"No," he groaned into the floor. "This really, really, huhts. How can Luggahd stand it?"
"Practice makes perfect," Link grumbled to himself. He pocketed the piece of technoworks and held out his empty hand to Valley. "Let me have the gem."
"Okay," Valley replied as she handed it over.
"Does anyone wanna tell me what's going on?" Irleen asked.
"Sorry, Irleen," Link said. "When you started explaining things, you were talking in Geltoan."
"I was?" Irleen looked around at the Hylians. "Who had my gem?"
"Valley," Madame Seilon replied.
Irleen stared at Valley, who only offered a large, nervous grin. "You're… a Gelto?"
"Yyyyyy-nope," Valley answered. "I's Hylian. But I was raised by da Gelto. My native language is Geltoan."
"Okay, well… yep, that's pretty weird," Irleen said.
"What were you saying?" Link asked Irleen. "Back before, when you examined the blues harp."
"Oh. I was saying that I think I know how to use the technoworks to find my people. But we'll need more technoworks; this little bit doesn't have much life left in it. If we used it now, we'd send it into necrosis, and it won't do us any good."
Link patted the pocket he had placed the fragment in. "Should I try putting it to sleep?" he asked.
"Don't worry about it," Irleen said. "It'll go into hibernation soon. But we should make sure not to activate it again; the longer it stays active, the harder it'll be to pull it out of hibernation."
"Got it," Link said as he shoved both hands into his trouser pockets. "Valley, where'd you find this earring?"
"I bought it from a friend in da market," Valley replied. "Da Gelto sometimes finds dings like dis in da desert. Dey brings dem here to sell."
"Have they ever found something large?" Link asked. He held out his hands to approximate the size of a technoworks floor cube. "About this big and kinda coppery-looking?"
Valley put a hand on her chin as she looked at Link's hands. Then she moved the hand so she could snap her fingers. "I does," she said, pointing at Link. "King Dolit of da Gelto. He has someding like dat. He holds it? It makes him speak a weird language."
"A king o' the Gelto?" Madame Seilon asked.
"A former king," Valley corrected. "He's too old to rule. So he comes on da train and hangs around da western platforms. No one knows what he says, but I dink he just rants at da Hylians."
"You ever talk to him before?" Link asked.
"Da kings of da Gelto noes talks to Hylians," Valley said.
"I think I remember seeing him before," Irleen spoke up. "Is he here now?"
"Uh… I dinks so," Valley said.
"Layna," Link said in a louder voice. Then he spoke as he dug out Irleen's translator gem, "Irleen, fill Layna in on what we need her to do. If we move fast, we might be able to find this guy and get that block from him."
"Sounds good," Irleen replied.
"Who's 'Layna'?" Madame Seilon asked. Link glanced in her direction.
Then he lofted the translator gem at her so that Layna, standing over her shoulder, would catch it. The sudden revelation of Layna's presence caused Valley and Madame Seilon to cry out in surprise.