After passing through the Breach of Demise, Harun chose to remain silent for a while as he and his party continued their journey. He had a lot on his mind. As far as he could tell, he had finally freed himself from Ganondorf, which was something he had desired for quite some time. However, it left him with an obvious concern. The Curse of Demise was still present. Without Ganon's power helping him to keep the curse at bay, there was no telling when it might set him off next.
"We're stopping here," Mina Remoth's voice informed everyone.
The Hinox known as Raeger had been leading the party, but upon hearing Mina's words, he stopped, and everyone else followed suit.
Harun quietly groaned. "Why are we stopping?" Harun asked, somewhat irritably. He wanted to reach the supposed location of the Triforce as soon as possible, and any further delay was enough to bother him. However, he realized the curse might have been affecting him, so he quickly changed his tone and spoke more politely. "Is there a problem, my lady?"
"Nah." Coming to a fork in the road, Mina steered her horse down the other path. Raising an arm, she pointed towards a structure at the end of the road, near the edge of the water. "I wanna make a stop here."
Raeger nodded his head. "Very well, Mistress."
Harun shared an uncertain look with his retainers. "Are you sure that is wise, Miss Remoth? What if that structure houses enemies?"
"It doesn't," Mina insisted, sounding sure of herself. "Just come on. We haven't got all day."
Harun followed, along with the rest of the party. He noticed there were guards standing outside of the facility, and a few of them hurried inside when they spotted the approaching horde. Harun took this as a bad sign, but if Mina or Raeger had noticed, they did not seem concerned.
They better know what they're doing…
Soon after, a small group of Hylians came outside through the front entrance. Some of them were armed, but some of them were not. They did not take up a combat formation, either. A woman with spectacles and red hair like Mina's stood at the front.
"Mina!" the other red-haired woman greeted her happily.
Mina smiled, swung her leg over the side of her horse, and hopped down to the ground. "Hey, Mom," she said, approaching the other woman and meeting her in a hug.
Harun was surprised at first, but he could easily see the resemblance.
Does that mean this woman is a monster as well? How many are there who live amongst humans like this?
"Been a while. Didn't think you'd be here," Mina told her mother.
"Oh, it's not been that long," her mother replied. She then turned to the Hinox, tilting her head to look up at him. "And Raeger! You're just as big as I remember!"
The Hinox lowered himself into a squatting position, then extended his arm and held out a finger. Mina's mother took hold of it, shaking his finger like one would shake a hand.
"It is nice to see you again, Doctor," the Hinox said in his usual, oddly polite manner of speech.
"And who is this?" the red-haired woman went on, taking notice of Harun. "I wasn't expecting Gerudo."
"Ah, right. Harun, c'mere." Mina waved Harun over, stepping aside.
Harun climbed down from his horse and approached the woman, giving her a bow.
"Harun, this is my mom. And Mom, this is Harun. He's Prince of the Gerudo." Mina gestured between them with her hands as she gave a quick introduction.
"Doctor Fleur Felltom," Mina's mother continued, holding out her hand.
Harun shook it. "A pleasure to meet you, Doctor." Something about the woman seemed very familiar to the prince. He wondered if he'd heard her name before, or if he'd met someone who looked like her. He also found it odd that Fleur and her daughter did not share a surname, which seemed to be contrary to Hylian customs.
"A pleasure to meet you as well, Prince Harun," Doctor Felltom replied. "So, what are you all doing here?" she asked, addressing the three of them. "On your way back to the temple?"
Temple?
Harun found the comment odd. The closest Sage Temples were the Light Temple and the Wind Temple, but they were headed in the wrong direction if they intended to visit either of them.
"Yep!" Mina confirmed. Then she put a finger to her lips. "But shh! It's a big ol' secret, innit?" She shot a teasing grin at Raeger.
"Alright, alright." The doctor stepped to the side and gestured towards the building's entrance. "Mina, Prince Harun, why don't you two join me inside for tea? Raeger can take everyone else around back to pick up some supplies. My assistants can help you."
"Very well, Doctor," Raeger agreed, nodding his giant head.
"I would be honored to join you, Miss Feltom," Harun agreed. He was again somewhat frustrated by the delay, but he tried to push that thought out of his mind.
This curse will not defeat me.
"Sure!" Mina agreed as well. "Only if you don't got anything stronger, though."
Inside, the building appeared very clean and sterile. Most of the floors, walls, and ceilings were made of white stone, and most of the doors they walked past looked to be heavy and made of metal.
"This is some sort of laboratory?" Harun speculated, judging by Miss Felltom's title of doctor and the appearance of her and her assistants.
"That's correct!" Fleur nodded, holding up a finger like a triumphant teacher. "This is the Hyrulean Royal Laboratory, actually. The other researchers and I work for the Grand Alchemist."
"Royal Laboratory?" Harun repeated, suddenly worried. "Then this place has connections to the Hyrulean Royal Family?"
"Hm? Well, yeah, I guess," Fleur confirmed, tilting her head back and forth as she thought of her answer. "The Grand Alchemist is a member of the Grand Council, which advises the Royal Family. So a good deal of our funding comes from the Crown, yes."
"I see." After having mentioned the Royal Family, Harun realized why Fleur seemed familiar. "Doctor, Miss Remoth, do the two of you have any relation to a 'Dame Jeanne'?" he asked. "She is the attendant of the youngest princess." The bodyguard had had the same red hair they did, along with similar facial features, especially compared to Fleur.
Fleur and Mina both smiled excitedly.
"Oi! You know my Aunt Jeanne?" Mina asked.
"Yes. We met when her charge visited Taafei alongside the Crown Princess," Harun confirmed.
"That's my big sister," Fleur told him. "Oh! By the way, she's quite alright, Mina," she went on, turning her attention to her daughter.
"You mean she made it through the Blood Moon?" the younger girl asked.
"Yes, that's right. I managed to convince your father to have her brought here instead of killing her," the doctor explained.
"Ah, that's good."
Mina and her mother both seemed rather casual about discussing what sounded like an attempted murder plot.
What kind of people have I gotten myself involved with?
After walking through a bit more of the facility, Fleur led them into a more comfortable-looking room that housed a tea table and sofa chairs. "Come and have a seat," Fleur offered.
As they sat down, the door to the room opened once more. A Bokoblin leaned in the doorway and made a noise.
Harun furrowed his brow. He did not recognize the Bokoblin from among Raeger's party.
"Hey, Skrags," Mina greeted the monster casually, waving her hand.
"Skrags, bring us some tea, please," the doctor ordered.
The Bokoblin known as Skrags made another noise, then left.
Harun had so many questions for the doctor, he was having trouble deciding what to ask first. "Doctor, if I may ask, what exactly is this place? How did there come to be a facility run by monsters so close to the Hyrulean capital?"
"Hm?" Fleur tilted her head curiously. "Well, it's not run by monsters. Grand Alchemist Naldor is a Sheikah. Most of the other scientists and I are Hylians."
Harun furrowed his brow, glancing between the mother and the daughter.
Mina seemed to understand why he was so confused. "Only my dad's an Acheman," she explained, smirking.
That wasn't any less surprising to Harun. "So, you are some manner of…"
"Half-breed? Yeah." Mina morphed her face into a monstrous, bat-like form and spread her wings, knocking something off of a nearby table in the process.
"Oi! Watch what you're doing with those!" Fleur scolded her, slapping one of Mina's wings.
Mina retracted her wings and returned to her human form, laughing good-naturedly. "My bad, Mom." She turned to Harun, still appearing amused by his bewilderment. "You know, you shouldn't be so surprised. Aren't all you Gerudo half-breeds anyway?"
Harun hadn't thought of it that way. He had a Gerudo mother, and he probably had a Hylian father, but he'd never viewed himself as anything but Gerudo.
"Ooh! That is something I'm rather curious about." Fleur adjusted her spectacles and leaned in closer to Harun, examining his face closely. "The Gerudo are a nearly-all-female human subspecies, yet when they breed with other kinds of humans, they produce an offspring that carries nearly 100% of the Gerudo phenotype. What is the mechanism behind this extreme gene dominance?"
"What?" Harun leaned away from her, feeling as though his personal space were being violated.
"What prevents the Gerudo from birthing male offspring? And why did it not prevent your mother from producing a male? Are the male Gerudo genes just as dominant? Were I to breed with you, would our child appear fully Gerudo?" the doctor went on.
"What?"
Mina laughed, slapping her hand down on the table. "Easy, Mom. He's closer to my age, you know," she said, raising her eyebrows at the prince.
Harun was unsure how to respond to the insane battery of questions, but luckily, the door opened. Skrags the Bokoblin returned, entering the room carrying a tray with a tea set on it.
"Ah, good! Bring it here, Skrags," the doctor told him.
The Bokoblin made more of those screechy noises, clearly complaining in some way, but he came over to their table and placed the tray down in the middle of it. He then waved his hands and left the room again.
Mila took a tea cup and sipped from it. "Oi, Mom. Did Princess Sophitia pass through here at all?"
Her mother took a long drink for her tea before answering. "She didn't come by here, but she and her retinue passed by on the road at some point. She went back to the capital."
"Ah." Mila tried to act nonchalant, but Harun could tell she was thinking hard about something. "Well, let's just hope we get to the Triforce before Dad kills her."
"That would be for the best, yes," her mother agreed.
Harun was not pleased to hear about this. "Why does your husband plot to slay the Hyrulean princess?"
"We're not married," the doctor corrected. "But, well, he thinks the Royal Family keeps the kingdom held back with tradition. If we are to change the world in such a way as to allow the Children of Nayru to live in peace with the monsters, he thinks those who perpetuate the old conflicts must be discarded."
"But why would killing anyone be necessary to achieve such a goal once we have the Triforce?" Harun asked. "Could he not simply wish for peace between all peoples?"
"Exactly," Mina replied. "That's why we need to get our hands on the Triforce as soon as possible."
"Yes. I simply cannot wait to have all of Nayru's knowledge at my fingertips!" Doctor Felltom declared, adjusting her spectacles with a dreamy look in her eyes.
Harun drank from his teacup. These people and their monstrous allies may have seemed strange, but their end goal appeared to be nothing more than peace and knowledge.
All we need is the Triforce. Then no one else must die.
After departing from the Royal Lab, Harun and his party did not return to the road. In order to avoid passing too close to the Hyrulean trade city of Maritta, they instead circled around Salari Hill through Irch Plain. This route eventually took them back to the road to the southwest of Aldor Foothills. For a short while, Harun assumed they would continue along the road in order to reach Hebra. However, they instead simply passed over the road and traveled through Rowan Plain, taking them to the edge of Tanagar Canyon.
Spreading her wings, Mina flapped them a few times as she hopped up onto a boulder by the edge of the canyon. "Behold! Our glorious destination!" she declared, gesturing into the pit.
Curious, Harun climbed down from his horse and approached the cliff's edge to gaze in the direction Mina had indicated. There, at the northeast end of the canyon, he saw the face of a gigantic temple. A great doorway and several pillars lined the front of it. Most of the temple was not visible, however. The front of it stuck out of a massive pile of boulders that extended the rest of the way into the canyon. From the mining equipment scattered about outside the temple, Harun got the impression that the monsters had been digging the temple out of the rubble. Upon the small section of the temple's roof that had already been mined free of its rocky covering, a great red dragon slept, curled up on a bed of glittering gold and rupees.
Harun was impressed with the sight of the temple, and he had many comments and questions about it. However, before he could say anything, he was struck by another of his hallucinations. The whole environment turned blood red. The dragon turned black, and it lifted its head to reveal it had morphed into a hideous form resembling the Imprisoned. The demonic dragon roared, letting out a horrible sound that shook the world.
"Harun?"
In an instant, the hallucination disappeared. Mina had appeared at Harun's side, flicking him in the side of the head with a long-nailed finger. "What's the matter? Afraid of a little dragon?"
"Do not touch the prince!" Laine ordered, inserting herself between the two of them.
Mina laughed. "Whatever. Let's head inside. Meet you at the bottom!" With that, she turned around, crossed her arms over her chest, and leaped backwards over the edge of the cliff. She quickly spread her wings, however, and glided safely towards the temple's entrance.
The other Achemen who accompanied Mina followed her over the edge and flew downward. Raeger stepped up to the cliff's edge and pointed to the right. "There is a path you can take over that way," he instructed.
Harun turned his head and saw the Blins were already filing their way down a series of wooden walkways that led down the side of the cliff face. Raeger didn't join them, however. He chose to simply climb over the side of the cliff and make his way downward that way. So, Harun took his forces and followed the Blins.
When he reached the bottom, Harun saw the area was still being actively mined. Blins of all types, and even a few Hinoxes, were hard at work chipping away at the stone, both near the temple and far from it. Many of the workers had gathered around Raeger and Mina, and Raeger was apparently doling out orders.
"What is this place?" Harun asked when he approached them. "That temple over there - I've never seen a map with a temple in Tanagar Canyon."
"That may be by design," Raeger explained.
"Yeah. What better place to hide the Triforce than a place that's not on any map?" Mina joined in.
"But the Triforce is here, correct?" Harun asked for confirmation. "Somewhere in this temple?"
"Yep. It's juuust behind this one door we can't get open," Mina told him. "You wanna see it?"
Harun nodded. "I would very much like to."
"Alrighty. Let's go." Mina clapped her hands and sauntered forward towards the temple.
"I shall wait out here," Raeger said.
Mina laughed. "Most of the temple is big enough for him to fit, but he's afraid he'll accidentally knock a pillar over and collapse the whole thing," she explained to Harun.
The temple did indeed have massive doors on the front of it. One of them was currently closed, while the other was slightly ajar. As they approached, Harun wondered about the dragon on the roof. However, just as he had that thought, the dragon suddenly stirred. Exhaling a cloud of smoke from its nostrils, the reptilian beast crawled towards the roof's edge, then reached down with its claw to slam the door shut.
The monster's sudden action caused Harun to see another flash of the Imprisoned over a blood red world. He raised his trident, expecting a fight, and his guards followed suit. However, Mina remained unperturbed, strutting forward confidently with her hands in the pockets of her overcoat.
"Hey, Volder," she greeted the dragon.
The monster atop the roof growled, exhaling another puff of smoke. "Þú. Þú ert ekki sá sem ég vil sjá. Where is the Acheman Master?" The gigantic creature spoke somewhat similarly to Raeger. His voice was deep and guttural, but he was surprisingly articulate.
"My dad's busy. So I'm here instead," the impish girl replied. "Whaddya need my dad for?"
"I should not be here right now," Volder complained. "I fulfilled my end of the bargain. I retrieved the bow. Why am I on guard duty? I am Volder the Dragonlord, rightful heir to the Eldin Mountains. I am not some gate guard!"
Mina shrugged. "Yeah, well, right now, you're guarding the gate. So, I guess you are some gate guard."
Volder snarled, then spread his colossal wings. However, he did not lift into the air. He leaped down off of the roof, landing on the ground, then crawled towards Mina. Harun, the Gerudo, and the Blins in their party all backed away slowly, but Mina stood her ground, and Raeger moved to put himself between them.
"Stand aside, cyclops!" the dragon demanded. "No one asked you to interfere."
"This is hardly the time for us to fight amongst ourselves," Raeger reasoned. "We are close to having all of the keys. We've brought the fourth one with us now."
The dragon snarled, his underbelly red with heat. "I'm well aware of the situation," he replied. "Even now, the Hero's agents move against us. If anything, I should be out there leading the hunt with my sister, not standing in front of a gate."
"We don't even know if the Hero's been awakened yet," Mina argued. "If we need more disasters to help force 'em out into the open, we'll let you go burn some villages or something. But for now, my dad and our partners have it under control. Just relax. We've got the easy job now."
Volder snarled again. "You disappoint me, half-breed," he said to Mina. "As do you, one-eye. But I suppose neither of you matter in the end. As long as I get my wish, Eldin will be mine, and you can all return to wallowing in your swamps and forests." The dragon turned around, then flapped his wings, lifting into the air just enough to return to the temple's roof. "Go on and enter, then, aumkunarverðir aumingjar." Reaching down with his claw, the dragon pried the gate open once more.
Mina turned to Harun with a smug look on her face. Upon seeing his obvious concern, she snickered. "No big deal, right?" she remarked. "Dragons are all talk. You're more likely to get eaten by them." She nodded her head towards the Blins who accompanied them.
That doesn't exactly make me feel better.
"Let's just get on with it," Harun said in annoyance. However, he quickly recognized his rudeness and corrected it. "Excuse me. I mean to say, may we proceed now?" he asked, wishing to see inside the temple where the Triforce was kept.
"Yep. Let's go."
When Harun began to climb down from his horse, Mina stopped him. "It's a long way to the other end of the temple," she pointed out. "Keep your horses. In fact…" Mina glanced around for a moment, then put her fingers to her mouth and whistled. "Oi! Bring me that Bullbo!" she shouted to some Bokoblins off in the distance.
The monsters looked confused for a moment, but soon complied. They'd been using one of the large, boar-like monsters to pull a cart, so they reluctantly unstrapped it from the cart and led it over to their apparent half-human mistress.
"Thanks." Mina hopped onto the Bullbo's back and kicked its sides. The tusked monster oinked in annoyance, then trotted towards the gate. Many of Mina's Acheman guards followed her on foot. Harun signaled for his Gerudo forces to follow as well, remaining upon the backs of their horses. As a group, they moved through the colossal gateway, under the watchful eyes of the dragon, and entered the temple.
Inside, Harun saw Mina had been correct. The temple was more than large enough for a Hinox as large as Raeger to stand inside of it. In fact, he was certain that if Volder were to enter the temple, the dragon would have been able to comfortably fly inside of it, at least in the main chamber they had entered.
The temple was like a large tunnel, extending deeper into the canyon, with a curved, high-ceiling. Harun could see several other potential pathways branching off from the main hall, although many of them were still covered in rubble. All throughout the tunnel, more monsters were chipping away at the piles of rocks scattered everywhere, just as they had been outside.
"What was this temple for?" Harun asked.
"There are statues of Hylia inside of it, so I guess it was for her at some point," Mina replied, tugging the reins of her Bullbo to keep it from straying off the path she wanted.
The Gerudo prince looked around for statues. He did not see any of Hylia, nor any other gods or goddesses. However, he did see one recurring feature that made him curious. Around the temple, there were several stone installations that appeared to be large, bell-shaped Beamos statues. The heads were crested and had designs around the crystal eye in the center. They sat atop bases that looked to be mounds of stone, and each statue was inscribed with patterns and designs Harun did not recognize. However, all of them appeared to be in a state of disrepair. None of them moved, and many of them were still half-buried in rubble.
"Are those Beamos statues?" Harun asked, indicating a nearby statue that a Moblin was trying to dig out with a pickaxe.
"I guess so. Probably a real old-fashioned design," Mina answered, not sounding very interested.
"Are we in any danger?" Harun knew such statues were often installed as a means to defend a site against unwanted intruders. They could even be found in the ancient ruins of lost civilizations, still functional and still deadly.
"Probably." Mina cast her gaze over her shoulder, smirking at Harun's concern.
The Gerudo prince was beginning to find the Remoth girl's antics extremely irritating, but he chose not to comment further.
As they delved deeper into the temple, Harun began seeing more monsters. In addition to the types of Blins he was familiar with already, there were several other breeds he had never seen before. Likewise, there were many different kinds of Lizalfos present, as well as one or two odd creatures he did not recognize. Some of the monsters were hacking away at the stone, attempting to clear out more of the temple. Others were armed with weapons, and seemed to be keeping watch for intruders. There were also several bestial monsters being used as mounts and beasts of burden, including Dodongos, Kodongos, Helmasaurs, and more Bullbos.
"Won't be long now," Mina commented as they passed through a doorway guarded by two massive Dogblins.
In the next chamber, Harun was surprised to see several Sheikah. They all had snow white hair and blood red eyes. Many of them wore armor with helmets that concealed the lower half of their faces. Some kept watch on the monster workers, but the rest observed Harun and Mina as they passed by.
"Are they more monsters in disguise?" Harun asked Mina, remembering that she and her Achemen subordinates had the ability to take human form.
Mina shook her head. "Nah. They're just Sheikah."
The Gerudo prince furrowed his brow. "So they are like your mother and the others at the lab? They do not serve the Kingdom of Hyrule?"
Mina shrugged. "I guess."
Harun had always known the Sheikah to be servants of Hyrule, but he supposed any individual had the ability to choose their own allegiance.
"Ah, here we are," Mina declared a bit further into the temple.
The pathway to this section of the temple looked as though it had been cleared of rubble more cleanly than others. The paved walkway led to a pair of large, stone doors. Four knights stood in front of the doorway, all of which looked to be as heavily armored as an Iron Knuckle, but too large to be human. Even Commander Bularis would have been dwarfed standing beside one of them. Each of the creatures also wielded a massive greatsword. Harun dreaded the idea of having to fight them.
"Darknuts?" the Gerudo prince said in surprise.
Mina giggled. "Gods, it's cute how everything just blows your mind." The impish girl hopped down off of her Bullbo and strode forward confidently. "Oi. You can move. They're all with me," she told the Darknuts.
The heavily armored creatures gave her a bow, then moved to the sides, clanking noisily as they did. They then placed their hands on the doors and pulled them open, allowing Mina to enter.
The red-haired girl waved for Harun to follow her. "C'mon. You can bring your guards," she told him. Then she turned to her own troops. "You lot can wait here, though."
Harun was glad to hear he'd be allowed to keep his guard with him. Otherwise, he might have been nervous about going inside. So, he climbed down off of his horse, and the rest of the Gerudo did the same. With the prince leading the way, they walked past the Darknuts to follow Mina.
After passing through a hallway, they came to a relatively small chamber, at least compared to the rest of the temple. The room was more narrow and the ceiling was lower, but there was still a lot of empty space. If there had been any rubble in the room before, it had been cleared out at that point, and only a large stone table sat in the center of the room. Several Sheikah and Blin guards stood around the perimeter of the room, all of whom took notice when the Gerudo entered.
Three individuals sat around the table. One was a middle-aged Sheikah woman wearing an elegant purple and black kimono emblazoned with the Sheikah eye crest. She wore her hair tied back in a bun, and her lips were painted blood red.
Next to her was another Sheikah woman, but she was extremely elderly, though perhaps not quite as old as Kobami had been. This woman was short and squat. She had a dark violet robe draped over her body. Atop her head, she wore an oversized straw hat that had four pieces of metal jewelry hanging from it that each resembled a swinging axe. The hat also had a red Sheikah eye painted on it, and the woman had a purple tattoo of the same symbol on her forehead.
The last individual sitting at the table was a large Pigblin. The creature had a jowled face and a nose ring. His whole body bulged with muscle, even more so than the other Moblins Harun had observed throughout the temple. He wore a kind of bronze armor that Harun had not seen on any other monsters. Notably, one of the Moblin's boar-like tusks appeared to have been broken in half.
"Miss Remoth," the younger Sheikah woman said. "Welcome back."
"Hey." Surrounding the table were slabs of stone with backrests carved into them and with seats cushioned by padding of some sort to serve as crude chairs. Mina took a seat at an empty one, immediately putting her feet up on the table and leaning back to relax. "Harun, get over here." She beckoned him, gesturing to an empty seat.
As Harun cautiously approached the table, his eyes were drawn to the elderly Sheikah. He could feel intense, dark magic radiating from her, more so than he'd ever felt from Kobami. It reminded him of the aura given off by the Sage of Spirit and the Sage of Time.
"Everyone, this is Harun. He's the Gerudo prince." Mina introduced him as he took a seat.
"Greetings, young prince." The middle-aged Sheikah woman bowed her head respectfully. She spoke Hylian, but with a noticeable accent. "I am Impa Sadashi, Shogun of the Sheikah Clan. It is an honor to finally meet you."
Harun was surprised. To have Sheikah defectors in their ranks was one thing, but if he understood her rank correctly, she was the highest-ranking Sheikah in the entire kingdom. That kind of disloyalty did not sit well with him, but he knew he had to work with her anyway. "I am honored to meet you as well," he said simply, hoping to be respectful enough in return.
Sadashi raised her hand and indicated the elderly woman sitting beside her. "This is my mother, Ichika, the Sage of Shadow."
Ichika bowed her head. "Hello, my child," she said in a friendly manner.
The Sage of Shadow?
That explained why she reminded Harun of the other sages he had met. "I am grateful to have an audience with you, wise sage."
The Moblin at the table grunted with impatience. He did not speak, but he clearly wanted to move on.
Mina chuckled and gestured to the large monster beside her. "And this here's the Halftusk. He's the Moblin warchief I told you about."
"Stop wasting time," the Pigblin growled, causing his jowls to wobble. "Why are you here, half-breed?"
Mina held her hand out, pointing toward Harun. "We've got the fourth key," she proclaimed. "And my dad wanted me to keep an eye on this place. Y'know, since he doesn't trust you, and all."
The Halftusk growled lightly, but did not address the insult. "Then where is it?" he demanded.
"Harun, if you would?" Mina asked.
The prince was hesitant, but he did not expect them to kill him now that he'd come this far. Reaching behind his back, he took out the mirror shield and laid it flat on the table in front of him.
"Ah, of course," Sage Ichika said. "The gift the Hero gave to Queen Nabooru, was it? It is very fitting."
"What are the other three keys you have collected?" Harun asked curiously.
Sadashi gestured to one of her guards. A woman clad in heavy samurai armor stepped forward and handed her a simple wooden bow.
"This bow was used by the Hero of Twilight to defeat many great threats to the kingdom," Sadashi proclaimed, placing the bow on the table.
From her robes, Sadashi's mother produced what appeared to be a violet magnifying glass. However, the lens was decorated to look like the Sheikah eye crest. There were even three spikes resembling eye lashes sticking out from the top of it.
"The Lens of Truth," the sage explained. "An heirloom of the Impa family."
The Halftusk did not look pleased, but he reached back and produced a small blue object that resembled an oddly-shaped flute. "The Ocarina of Time," the Moblin said simply.
"It is an heirloom of the Hyrulean Royal Family," Impa Sadashi explained further.
Harun furrowed his brow. "I met with the Sage of Time, and she assured me she was still in possession of that instrument."
The Shogun's blood red lips curled into a faint smile. "She is not. That, in the Halftusk's hands, is the genuine article."
Harun nodded his acceptance, realizing they must have tricked the Sage of Time in some way. "So, these keys open the way to the Triforce?" he asked.
"Indeed," Sadashi confirmed. "Would you like to see the door they open?"
"Yes, I would, please."
Sadashi, Harun, and Mina stood up from the table. Ichika and the Halftusk remained seated.
"I'll wait for you here, my children," the Sage of Shadow told them. "I'm afraid I'm not much for walking these days."
"Whatever you say, old lady," Mina said, skipping away from the table and over to a doorway. "It's just through here. C'mon, I'll show ya."
Harun was brought to what appeared to be the deepest chamber in the entire temple. It was a long, high-ceilinged room with not much in it, other than a great stone door at the end with an altar in front of it.
While the walls and the pillars looked positively ancient, the altar and the great door behind it stood out as looking rather new by comparison. They were carved from a darker-colored stone, they did not match the architecture of the rest of the temple, and they were not nearly as weathered and worn down as everything else. They still looked old, probably made decades or centuries before Harun was born, but they were not ancient.
"So the Triforce is just beyond that door," Harun mused, staring up at the colossal boundary between them and their prize. The designs on the door were hard to make out, but there appeared to be a depiction of the goddess Hylia with the Triforce floating in front of her chest.
"Yep. And before you ask, no, we can't just knock it down or dig around it. Trust me. We tried," Mina told him.
That came as no surprise to Harun. For a sacred barrier such as this, durability-enhancing enchantments could render it nigh-indestructible. And if it had been further modified by someone wielding the Triforce itself, then they could have wished it to be genuinely indestructible.
Is such a thing even possible?
Harun approached the altar. There were six circular runic symbols carved on top of it in a line. "These are where the keys are placed," Harun reasoned. He took out the mirror shield and held it in front of him. "May I?"
"Please do. It should confirm if that is truly a key or not. Like this." Impa Sadashi took her bow and placed it on the altar, atop one of one of the runes. The rune lit up, glowing red in color.
Harun did the same, placing the mirror shield on one of the other runes. His rune also lit up, glowing orange.
"The door accepts it," Sadashi told him. "Good. That means there are only two left, and we have already located them, I believe. It is only a matter of time now." The Impa shogun removed the bow from the altar, and the light from the rune died down.
Harun retrieved the mirror shield as well. "Is the door safe to approach?" he asked, considering how it might have additional defensive enchantments that may have caused harm to those who came near it.
"Sure. You won't be able to open it, though," Mina told him.
"I do not expect to be able to." Harun walked around the side of the altar and climbed the short staircase that led up to the door. While Mina had claimed it to be safe, Harun sensed a strong, dark presence the closer he got to the door - even stronger than what he'd felt from the Sage of Shadow.
Whatever magic protects our prize, it must be exceptionally powerful.
Experimentally, the prince reached out and placed a hand against the door. However, as soon as he did, he was met with an intense vision. All he saw was the face of Demise, obscured in shadow, wreathed in flame from all sides. Harun kept his hand there, locking eyes with the demon in his vision. Just seeing the one who haunted him drove him mad, and after a few seconds, he yelled and punched the door. In doing so, he removed his hand, dispelling the vision.
"Whoa! What the fuck was that?" Mina asked, flinching away from him.
"Is something wrong, young prince?" Sadashi asked.
The prince panted, gripping his wrist as he held out his injured hand. "My apologies. It is nothing to be concerned about," Harun replied, stepping away from the door and climbing back down the steps. He cleared his throat, hoping to move on from his outburst. "May I ask you two a few questions, please?" he asked Sadashi and Mina.
Mina shrugged. "Okay. Go for it."
"Please, speak freely," the Sheikah woman replied.
"Firstly, how is it that you know what is behind that door?" the Gerudo prince asked, gesturing past the altar. "The Triforce could have been hidden anywhere. Did you happen upon it while excavating these ruins?"
Mina shook her head. "My dad's mining business hadn't gone this deep into the canyon yet." She gestured to Sadashi. "She's the one who knew where it was."
The Sheikah woman nodded in confirmation.
"But I thought the location of the Triforce was known only to the Royal Family of Hyrule," Harun pointed out.
"Knowing the secrets of the Royal Family is one of the duties of the Impa Family," Sadashi explained.
That brought Harun to his next question, and he knew he had to phrase it delicately. "If that is the case, then why have you chosen to aid the monsters in obtaining the Triforce? Mina, Raeger, and the Halftusk, presumably, wish to use it to aid their own people, as do I. But the Sheikah have always been on friendly terms with the Hylians. What do you gain by betraying them?"
For a moment, Harun was worried he'd spoken too boldly, wishing he hadn't referred to Sadashi's actions as betrayal. However, after a moment of hesitation, the Sheikah woman responded.
"I understand that what I, my family, and my people are doing is far from moral," she said, speaking plainly. "However, it has always been the duty of my people to handle the kingdom's unsavory business from the shadows, and to keep Hyrule's bloody history out of the public consciousness. Dealing in necessary evils is simply the mission put forth to us by the goddess."
"You believe this to be a necessary evil?" Harun repeated.
"I do." Sadashi nodded. "The monsters, and you, share our goal. Everything we do, including stealing the Triforce, is wholly necessary to change the world."