XII - A Calamitous Sacrifice
Ganondorf shifted uncomfortably on his throne while his injured leg was being treated by Malena, a young Gerudo who was in training to become a doctor. Furosa, her mentor, sat beside her and showed her how to properly dress a wound, what herbs to use and how to concoct special health drinks. The Gerudos' defeat in the first battle of Windvane – how the battle was later referred to by scholars and historians alike – had left a sour taste in his mouth. He had underestimated the situation, acted too rashly and jeopardised his people's safety. Many of his warriors had lost their lives on the battlefield and many had been injured – some severely. It had cost them a great effort to get back to Gerudo Town, and Ganondorf feared that the city was no longer safe. He had doubled the guards at the outer walls and tasked Buliara with watching over his daughter Riju day and night.
Riju was too young to understand why she was forbidden to leave her room without an escort, and so she began to nurse a grudge against him. He knew that she was unhappy with his decision, but better unhappy than dead.
For days, the Gerudo king sat locked away in his chambers, not talking to anyone, not allowing anyone to enter. No one knew what he was brooding over, not even Urbosa, and his mood was so foul that no one dared disturb him. When he finally emerged out of his hiding, he announced that he would leave for the desert, giving neither an explanation nor a distinct location.
The golden crest of the royal family of Hyrule, sitting on top of each of the six pillars of the legendary Gerudo prison, glistened in the sun and seemed to scrape the few harmless clouds that had gathered over the building. Ganondorf stood before the massive structure, intimidated by its historical weight. To call it a Gerudo prison was not one hundred percent accurate; although situated in Gerudo desert, the Arbiter's Grounds were an emblem of Hylian civilisation's hegemony and the royal family's dominion over the free people. An edifice that once held Hyrule's worst criminals and a cursed magical mirror: a gateway to the underworld, a world condemned to exist in eternal dusk. The mirror had been disturbed in the Age of Twilight by none other than the princess of the Twilight realm and the gateway between the two worlds had been sealed for eternity. The Arbiter's Grounds were said to be cursed, evil spirits and the malice of the former inmates bound to its existence.
Ganondorf took a deep breath before heading up the stairs to the main entrance. The heavy door had been barred after the destruction of the magical mirror and ever since, no living soul had set foot in the cursed prison. He wasn't afraid, but the building made him feel uneasy nevertheless. He removed the talismans that had been put there by the Sheikah a long time ago in order to ward off evil, detached the wooden planks and cleared the entryway. When he descended into the prison, Ganondorf was dumbfounded: he had expected to walk into a black hole, but the building was lit by flaming torches attached to the walls. The first room contained quicksand, and the Gerudo king had to carefully manoeuvrer around the stone platforms in order to avoid getting stuck and swallowed.
The main hall was a spacious room with high walls, a balcony on each side and an impressive chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Doors opening to several chambers or perhaps prison cells were evenly distributed on each side of the room and a large staircase led to a dark passage, closed off by a portcullis bearing the crest of the royal family of Hyrule. According to ancient maps, the crypt of the prison was located just below the main hall, and in order to access the lower levels of the building, he had to somehow get behind the portcullis. As he walked past the statues lining the main pathway, goosebumps appeared on his skin, and he couldn't shake off the feeling that he was being watched. There was energy in the room, a lot of evil energy that made the hair on his arms stand on end. Even the armless statues with their expressionless faces seemed to follow his every move with their hollow eyes.
He shuddered, a nameless fear creeping up his spine. He shrugged the feeling off and began to analyse the portcullis and its immediate surrounding, looking for any hidden – or obvious – mechanism that would lift it up and grant him passage, but found none. Sighing, he looked at the metal bars. Apart from the Hylian crest that seemed to adorn every other decorative element in the edifice, he saw little symbols carved into the metal. Grabbing a torch from the wall, he brought it closer to the bars for better inspection. The symbols resembled ancient Hylian letters, but Ganondorf wasn't positive that they were. Either way, he wasn't able to read the language, but the longer he stared at the letters, the more convinced he was that there was a certain pattern to them. And there was something about the chandelier that bothered him, something that just seemed off.
The chandelier was hanging too high for him to reach, but too low to be functional. However it was set right between the two balconies, and if Ganondorf managed to reach the upper level, he would be able to casually walk over to it. As he approached the right side of the room, he noticed a chain hidden in a small niche, and as he pulled on it, it came loose and the chandelier crashed down, stopping a mere centimetres above the ground.
At least I don't have to find a way how to reach the upper floor, he thought to himself as he calmed his wildly beating heart. The chandelier was, much to his delight, still intact. He knelt beside it, held the torch over it and noticed that the same marks were carved into its stone structure. On each end of the arms, a crank was attached. Ganondorf grabbed one and turned it clockwise to test if it worked. The chandelier made a creaking sound as it began to slowly move. He heard a whirring and then a clicking sound and the chandelier stood still, but something else had been moving. Ganondorf tried again, looking over the chamber to find the source of the clicking sound, and noticed that the four brass braziers, adorned with the golden Hyrule crest, were rotating as well. When they stopped, the one at the far left suddenly caught fire, and an eerie blue flame appeared in the middle of the bowl.
For the next hour, Ganondorf walked back and forth, trying different symbol combinations, turned the cranks on the chandelier and cursed a whole lot in solid Gerudo, but when the four braziers were finally lit and the portcullis started moving, he cried out in both joy and desperation. The tunnel behind the portcullis was dark and cold.
The crypt was a lot smaller than Ganondorf had anticipated; it was basically a round room with arched walls, and each section contained a relief carved into the stone, depicting various scenes. In the middle of the room stood an altar, adorned with engravings and pasted up with more Sheikah talismans. Ganondorf held his torch up as he walked around the room clockwise, looking at the reliefs. Anger, fear, pain, agony. All of the figures displayed an array of emotions, and all of them were shown suffering from torment. Hyrule's most feared criminals, he thought as he looked at a Sheikah man being sentenced before a judge, whose tabard displayed a round medallion with four swirls. The sages. Saria, the sage of the forest. The next relief showed the legendary mirror of twilight and a strange, humanoid figure with almond-shaped, pupilless eyes and a flat nose with two vertical slits. The face of the Twili reminded him of a snake. Zant usurper of the Twili throne, the engraving under the relief read. He vaguely remembered the story of the Twili invasion during the Twilight era, but since the destruction of the Twilight mirror, the foreign race had slowly been forgotten. The last relief gave him goosebumps. It depicted an execution scene, in which a man was chained to a large rock, surrounded by six sages and impaled by a large sword. The sages' hands were clasped and the prisoner's face was contorted with pain. Underneath his feet, the engraving read Ganondorf, king of the Gerudo. Executed and exiled into the Twilight realm by the six sages.
Ganondorf then turned his attention to the altar standing in the middle of the crypt. Countless Talismans were strewn across the black stone, covering almost every inch of the surface. Only one engraving was not covered and when Ganondorf held his torch in front of it, it read Koume and Kotake. Witches of ice and fire. He placed his hand on the stone and his skin immediately started to tingle, the little hairs on his arms and legs standing up. The energy emanating from the altar felt old, evil and extremely powerful. He hesitated. Only a quick peel would set the witches free; ancient magical beings from even before the era of the Hero of Time. They would either cooperate or smite him, but chances were that he'd either be frozen to death or go up in flames before he could utter a word. But then again, he had made up his mind before coming here. Taking a deep breath, he carefully peeled off a talisman, and then a few more.
Nothing happened. Ganondorf released the breath he was holding. He didn't know what he had expected; a loud boom, a vibration, something collapsing, basically anything impressive, but not even a slight breeze went through the room. It would have been utterly still but for his beating heart.
He was disappointed. If the legend was nothing but a hoax, why protect the crypt with so many talismans? Why secure the passage with riddles? He ripped off all the talismans he could find, and after having waited for another fifteen minutes, he decided to go back. Grabbing his torch, he walked back to the stairs.
"O these old bones! 380 years and stiff as a broom!"
"380? Stop lying about your age!"
"You old hag, what do you know?"
"Old hag?! That's how you treat your older sister?"
"Older sister? We're twins!"
Ganondorf froze, then slowly, inch by inch, turned around. A bead of sweat covered his forehead as he held his torch up to throw some light into the crypt.
"Koume. I don't think we are alone."
The tiny witch with the huge light blue crystal on her forehead narrowed her huge, bulging eyes as she tried to see past the light of the torch.
"You are right, Kotake," the tiny witch with the red crystal on her forehead said, scratching the wart on her huge, beak-like nose.
"Lower your torch and state your name," the witch called Kotake said, and waddled closer. Her hunched back made her look even smaller than she was, and her height barely reached Ganondorf's thighs.
The Gerudo king cleared his throat, straightened up and lowered the torch so that they could see his face. "My name is Ganondorf, king of the Gerudo", he stated, "I freed you."
"Ho ho ho, did you hear that, Koume? He said king of the Gerudo."
"I heard it, dear sister. He said his name is Ganondorf."
"Freed us, he said."
"Yeah, I heard. I am not deaf!"
"Then why do you keep repeating what he said?!"
"Why are you?"
"Because you are a senile, old hag, that's why!"
"Senile? Is that how you treat your older sister?!"
"For the last time, we are twins!"
Ganondorf just stared at the bickering siblings, unable to say or do anything.
"Kotake, why is he staring at us like this?"
"How would I know, Koume? Why don't you ask him?"
The witch with the red crystal slowly approached too and smiled, revealing a few yellow teeth that somehow had survived. Ganondorf had never, in his whole life, seen uglier human beings than those two.
"Why are you staring at us like this?" she repeated.
"I..." he stammered, not knowing what to answer, "I freed you. Shouldn't you thank me?"
The witch called Koume scratched her scalp under her white, greasy hair and said "Hmmm, should we, Kotake?"
"I don't think we must. Maybe we should. Maybe not."
Ganondorf sighed. He had expected powerful frightening mages, and ended up with two bickering senile old hags.
"I need your help," he said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
Koume's smile faded and also Kotake furrowed her brows. "What is it that you seek?"
Ganondorf sighed as he stepped out of the Arbiter's Grounds and could breathe fresh air again. The moon shone on him as he walked down the stairs and the sky resembled a backlit canopy with tiny holes punched in it. He liked desert nights, when the heat dissipates and makes room for cold, fresh air, when the sand is no longer a scorching hot mess but a soft, silver carpet that cushions your every step, when the venomous spiders and assassin bugs finally recede. He tightened his warm, black cloak around his shoulders and fastened it under his neck with a golden brooch in the shape of the Gerudo crest. His sand seal was dozing comfortably beside a heap of sand, its red and grey fur blending in with the sand. It lazily lifted its head when it heard its master approach, shook off the sand from its fur and yawned. Ganondorf grabbed the reins and stepped on the metal plate. A short whistle, and the sand seal dashed off, whirling up grains of sand as it swam through the desert.
That night, Ganondorf sat by the fire in his chamber and stared into the flames, recalling the witches' words.
In your current state, you are no match to the king of Hyrule. You need to awaken your real power, descendant of the Great Ganondorf. The ancient Gerudo magic has weakened over centuries, but it is not dead. Heed my advice, young king, if what you seek is the power of Din...
"...I will have to sacrifice everything," he grimaced, biting his lower lip. "Sacrifice Riju, Urbosa, my people, and my home."
The flames danced higher, emitting red and orange sparks.
But power comes with a price. Are you ready to sacrifice your body to Din? Give up your humanity in order to secure your position in this world that is so dominated by Hylians?
He swallowed. He had summoned the ancient Gerudo witches, because he knew that he was too weak to oppose the Hyrulean crown and had too few allies, but now he faltered. Making deals always comes with a price, and Ganondorf was scared to leave his daughter behind. She was his everything and he wanted to protect her at all cost. And just how much could he trust the witches? If the Hylians and Sheikah had gone to such great lengths to seal them and keep them away from this world, they must harness way more power than they displayed.
In return, you will grant us a place in your city to live out our lives. Come see us when you have made up your mind.
A soft knock on the arched doorway tore him from his thoughts.
"My lord. May I come in?"
He turned around in his chair. Urbosa was leaning against the wall, the turquoise curtains softly swaying in the light night breeze. He sighed, and realised that he craved her company more than ever.
"Come in."
Urbosa sat down on the sofa beside the fireplace. She was wearing a long, loose-fitting robe in a dark aubergine colour, and her luscious red hair, usually tied up in a ponytail, was cascading down her shoulders. Her green eyes sparkled in the light of the flames.
"Something is weighing on your mind," she said, carefully choosing her words so as to not upset him.
"Yes. You are right."
"If you'd like to confide in someone, I am here to listen."
"Urbosa...," he began, "I brought this defeat upon my people. I was acting too rash, and it has cost us many lives."
"You were trying to protect your people's rights."
"Yes, but it was too impetuous. I have underestimated the Hyrulean forces, and thus have provided the king of Hyrule with too much of a target. I want Riju to have a prosperous future, not become the ruler of a city lying in ruins."
She saw the remorse in his eyes and placed her palm on the back of his hand, forcing him to look straight at her.
"Perhaps it was inevitable. The king has violated our trading pact and is cutting us off. We can already feel the economic impact. People have become weary of us ever since the borders have become guarded. We haven't had any visitors in the city. And what do we have to offer that is vital to them? Jewellery? Hydromelons or Palmfruits? We cannot accept defeat."
"No. We can not. I will not admit defeat, Urbosa. I will protect our people. Riju. And you."
He gently placed his hand on her cheek, bent forward and kissed her. Urbosa gave in to the kiss. She had never seen him so calm, so gentle. Almost loving. But Urbosa knew that the king didn't love her. At least not in the way he had loved his wife, for she knew that no other woman could ever occupy that place in his heart.
Later, when she lay on his bed, his head resting on her naked chest, she couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. She knew Ganondorf to be hot-headed, impatient and boisterous, and the sudden serenity alarmed her. Something that he wasn't telling her; something, that was weighing so heavy on his heart that he desperately needed her company.
Ganondorf had made up his mind on the day following the third moon. He had spent three nights brooding over the deal, the consequences and the outcome, and the days with his daughter, barely leaving her side. They rode sand seals, played childish games or took naps together, and he tuck her in at night, reading her a story. And every night when he watched her close her eyes and fall asleep, her small lips slightly parted, his heart ached at the sight, for he knew that he might not be able to ever see her again. Later, he would bade Urbosa to spend the night with him.
On the night of the fifth moon, as they were lying next to each other on the huge bed, his fingers tracing over her smooth skin, he looked into her emerald eyes.
"Urbosa. I need you to do something for me."
She responded with a questioning look.
"I need you to look after Riju. Be a mother to her, teach her everything that you know. Teach her how to fight, how to defend herself. Show her how to be strong, and how to rule my kingdom. Can you do this for me?"
"Ganondorf..."
"I will be gone for some time. I'll leave tomorrow. Don't come look for me. Promise me this."
"I...I promise. But..."
"I will right my wrongs. These lands will belong to all of us. You will be safe, and the future of our people shall be prosperous."
Urbosa fell silent. She had so many questions burning on the tip of her tongue, but he didn't allow them. He kissed her, and Urbosa knew in her heart that this was the last time she'd feel his lips against hers.
Ganondorf stood at the mouth of the Perido Gateway, also called the Champion's Gate, waiting for the old hags to catch up. Their constant bickering echoed through the gorge and was giving him a headache, but the further they walked, the quieter they became, exhausted by the long walk.
"I wish they hadn't burned our brooms," Koume muttered as her tiny feet kicked up hot sand.
"I can't stand this sand. It gets into every crack of my body," Kotake answered, shaking her huge head to remove a few grains of sand from her ear.
"Hey! You!" Koume called out for Ganondorf who was at least fifty paces ahead, "wait up!"
The Gerudo king groaned, but stopped walking. Out of all his goddess-given talents and virtues, patience clearly wasn't one of them, and the witches were really testing his boundaries. When finally, after what felt like half an eternity, they left the gorge behind, Ganondorf gasped at the sight of the strange edifice towering before them, partly shrouded in mist.
"What in Din's name is this?" he asked.
"You should really know your kingdom better," Kotake croaked, shaking her huge head disapprovingly. She approached the outer walls and put a hand on the dragon's head carved out of stone. "It's a labyrinth. The Lomei labyrinth, built by an ancient civilisation, the Zonai."
Ganondorf cocked an eyebrow. "The Zonai? I have never heard of such a race."
"You clearly lack general knowledge. You should be ashamed to call yourself king," Koume said in a non-mocking way.
"Anyhow," Kotake interjected, "we should get going." Her tiny golden pupils flashed dangerously.
They led him into the labyrinth, and once he stepped inside, the mist thickened and clouded the blue sky overhead. Ganondorf's skin tingled, similar to when he was in the crypt of the Arbiter's Grounds, but more powerful.
"Aaa, can you feel this, sister?" Koume exhaled enthusiastically.
"A nice recharge on magic, my dear Koume."
"I feel refreshed! I no longer have to drag my feet!"
"Indeed. Do you remember the way though?" Kotake asked as she looked around, scratching her chin.
They both became very quiet and Ganondorf moaned. For the next thirty minutes – although those minutes felt more like a few agonising hours – they just stood in the middle of the labyrinth, waiting for anything to jog their memory. When, at last, one of the witches remembered, she screamed out so loud that the Gerudo king nearly had a heart attack.
"Follow me," Kotake said and hurried down the aisle. Ganondorf had a hard time following them. The mist enshrouding them became thicker the further they ventured inside, and almost swallowed the tiny hags. Merely the thick tuft of unruly white hair stuck out, and Ganondorf oriented himself on the moving swatch.
"Stairs ahead!" croaked Koume, and had it not been for her warning, he would have ungracefully tumbled down the staircase. He carefully put one foot in front of the other as he tried to feel the stairs, and once they reached the bottom, the mist cleared, and the temperatures dropped.
"Watch your head," Kotake said as she walked through a narrow but short tunnel.
When they emerged at the other end, the room opened up into a massive, man-made cave. Ganondorf marvelled at the high walls hollowed straight out of Moldava mountain with detailed cave-drawings, depicting some sort of battle scene. Kotake thrust a torch she took from the wall into his hand, and motioned him to follow them.
"Come, we don't have all day. And the cave is quite big."
The witches led him through the cave, and Ganondorf was thankful for the warm coat he had brought along. The air down there was stale and humid, and the damp cold threatened to crawl under his skin. They passed an underground stream and strange pillars with more dragon and other geometrical carvings, followed narrow paths down- and uphill, and crossed a tall stone bridge. The faint light of luminous stones accompanied them all the way, bathing the cave in a soft, mysterious glow.
When they entered a sort of chamber through a low, arched opening, the witches stopped.
"This is it. The heart of the mountain," they said in unison.
Ganondorf looked around. Apart from a stone altar in the middle, an inverted pyramid hanging from the ceiling and a few luminous stones growing on the walls, the room was empty.
"This is it?" he asked suspiciously.
"Don't give me that look, young Gerudo king," Koume said, "appearances are not always what they seem."
"I'll ask you one last time," Kotake began, "are you sure about this? There is no going back once you agree to the deal."
Ganondorf sucked in the air. No, he still wasn't sure, but he had no choice, and he didn't come here for nothing.
"Yes. I am sure."
"Very well. Undress and lay down on the altar then," the witch said, and cackled.
Ganondorf gingerly stepped up to the piled up flat stones, unfastened his warm cloak and let it fall to the ground.
"Erm...do I have to be fully naked?" he asked self-consciously, turning around to look at the old hags.
"Naturally!" cackled Koume.
"Most certainly!" added Kotake, and both chuckled.
Ganondorf didn't like the hungry look in their eyes, but started to unbutton the front of his dark emerald green robe, letting it glide down his broad shoulders. Wearing only his undergarments and gold jewellery, he proceeded to lie down on the cold stone surface, and was soon surrounded by the witches, whose bulgy eyes had become even bulgier.
"One last thing," Koume said, "did you ensure our stay in your lovely city?"
"I always keep my word," the Gerudo king answered.
"Very well then. Let us begin."
Kotake waddled over to a luminous stone, murmured something inaudible, broke off a piece, and came back with the glowing stone in her hand, inserting it in the mouth at the tip of the inverted pyramid. The witches, one standing on each side of the altar, clasped their hands together, and began to chant in a language long forgotten.
"Ciduipar kalieiac ahrun eccoeaesis. Yaouanea infictum. Auxernus nomernus, livitum renoyiest noreeaal."
Their voices swelled and echoed through the cave, drawing out words and sounds that started to sound more like a howling animal than a human being. Ganondorf shifted uncomfortably on the stone altar, beads of sweat collecting on his forehead. His heartbeat surged along with the rhythmic chant, throbbing erratically until he felt like it was about to burst in his chest.
"Asceneydynia ventoyyrun eperum Ascentum!"
An intense pain shot through his body, spreading from his sternum to his limbs and head. Ganondorf screamed as lightning struck his nervous system, and his scream was a sustained blood-curling howl. Fear manifested in his brain, and he thrashed around, trying to get away from the altar, away from the pain, but the glowing green light emanating from the pyramid kept him glued to the stone.
"Mortuna Dinaliosis Malicius!"
"Noooooooooooooooooooo! Stoooooooooooooooop!" he hurled as blood shot from his eyes. The back of his right hand burned as if a fire was raging inside of him.
Koume and Kotake's eyes lit up as they saw the golden triangle pulsate on his hand, and the skin and flesh on the sternum burst and reveal the execution wound. The Gerudo's screams filled the room, echoing from the high walls, but it was too late to be saved. Blood gushed from countless wounds on his body, and dark puddles formed on the ground beneath the altar. His pupils burned a bright orange before their light finally died down, and his eyeballs shrivelled and disappeared into the dark sockets. Before long, the Gerudo king's glorious body was reduced to bones and mummified skin.
"Reliamos Malicius," Koume recited, now calmly. Before their eyes, a vague shape began to materialise; first long fingers, then a hand and finally an arm adorned with golden bracelets, glowing in the same, soft green light. The sharp nails dug into the leathery, dried out skin and a purplish-red substance began to slowly flow out of the body.
The malice oozed out of the mummified corpse and seeped into the ground, penetrating rock, soil and water, infesting everything that stood in its way.
"It's done," Kotake whispered, a smile tugging at her thin, wrinkled lips.
Let's just forget what we saw and assume Ganondorf is the sexy hydrated version from our imagination.
I actually enjoyed writing Koume and Kotake. I remember their bickering from OOT and it just kinda flowed naturally.
About the spells: there are actually spell generators on the internet. Who would've known...
