Sorry for the absence! Things are getting busy around here, so I may not post regularly again until the end of June. You can still expect some chapters, but I can no longer promise them weekly - sorry. I hope you all still enjoy the updates as and when they come out!
Chapter 36: Departure
Link stared at the light as it faded, and stared for a long moment after it was gone. Tears pricked his eyes, desolate, furious with himself. Zelda was alive – but he had failed her. She'd looked at him, and looked so sad, and he'd seen her hold back whatever she might have said, steel herself to turn away. He'd failed her, and…
He bowed his head, gritting his teeth, fighting back the desire to just sit down and cry. He couldn't let himself do that, not now; couldn't let himself stop. He had to do better, somehow. She needed him: Fi had said so; the Sheikah had said so; even Headmaster Gaepora had said so. She was his dearest friend, and if the destiny Fi had spoken of had caught her up in it to the point that she couldn't even turn back to speak to him… then he would catch up to it, or die trying.
Slowly, Link lifted his head, looking around the cavern again. Light filtered down from cracks in the roof, but it was otherwise, as far as he could tell, a natural cave, water running down its walls in whispering trickles, filling the air with a soft, cool murmuring. As he slowly started forwards, the echo of his steps melded with the sound of the water until he couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.
Just like Skyview Spring, stepping stones had been placed leading towards the statue, ending in a slightly larger stone-built island with one last divide between it and the statue too wide to jump. Like the one at Skyview Spring, the symbol of the goddess was engraved at her statue's base, and Link twisted to look back at the hilt of his sword.
"Fi… is this statue like the one at the other spring?"
Yes, Master.
Link took a deep breath and drew the sword, holding it high. The light filtering down from above caught in the blade, shining brighter than any reflection, and he-
-felt inevitability, and desperation, and he could only hope it would be enough-
-swung the sword down, releasing its power in a burst of pure light that shot forth and sank harmlessly into the statue's base, seeming to spill into the carved symbol until it glowed with a brief, ethereal light. As the light faded, Fi leapt from the blade, alighting upon the water just as she had before, and it rippled gently golden beneath her feet.
"Master, I am now able to read the message engraved in this spring's aura. Allow me to translate it to you."
Link watched as she bent gracefully, one leg extended, then leapt into a twirling, elegant dance upon the surface of the water, her every motion perfect as a bird in flight. He turned to follow her as she danced about the spring, a golden wake rippling behind her, almost singing the words that she spoke.
"From across time I guide you, destined to carry out the goddess' mission. The spirit maiden, having cleansed herself in the waters here, shall travel to a place entwined with fate. In the parched desert of Lanayru, the chosen must seek a sacred gate… the Gate of Time."
Fi had danced around Link, around the statue, and as she spoke the final words, she came to a stop halfway between both, spinning on the very tip of one pointed foot, her arms upraised. The statue behind her began to shine with a soft light, falling from its folded hands to illuminate a spot at its feet, and a broken stone tablet seemed to emerge from nowhere, the centuries-old magic that sealed it away released at last. Fi bowed low, slowing her spin, and with one last deft move, glided gracefully around to watch Link from just behind and to the side of the island he stood upon.
Though her skill was breathtaking, Link was more focused on the statue, on the gift it appeared to have given him. Would the stone tablet show him the way to the place called Lanayru, as the last one had to Eldin? Glancing back at Fi in case she prevented him, he jumped off the edge into the waist-deep water, sending ripples across its surface in all directions. The cool water was a welcome shock through his sweat-soaked clothes as he waded towards the plinth on which the statue stood, stinging grazes he'd forgotten he had. Reaching up to grab the edge, he hauled himself onto it, tired arms protesting.
The broken stone slab lay before him, a match for the other two piece he'd found, inset with a golden jewel. The lines carved into it were different again: some wavery, some jagged, like cracks and cliff edges. Link touched it cautiously, well-carved and rough under his fingertips, and braced himself to lift it, delivering it safely to the confines of his thankfully weightless pouch. Turning around, he pushed himself wearily off the edge of the plinth, landing with a splash and wading back to the island where Fi still watched him expressionlessly.
Another piece of stone map. Another gem. Another hole in the clouds, another long and frustrating struggle to find whatever it was he was supposed to be seeking, part of a path he hadn't asked for and hadn't wanted to walk. Link turned, dripping, to look back at the statue, almost a smaller twin of the one high upon Skyloft. Why had she chosen him? What did she want him and Zelda to do, as they ran across this alien, beautiful, deadly land? She was a goddess; why did she not simply do whatever she wanted herself instead of toying with their lives? Why had the Sheikah woman not even let them speak? What had Zelda known, what burden had she borne, that had forced her to obey her?
Why hadn't he been faster…?
He could almost see Zelda behind his closed eyes. Not strange and sad and dressed in white, but her usual self, in Academy clothes or in her formal deep pink dress with the old harp in her hands, just as she'd stood before him atop the statue of the goddess high above in Skyloft, four days that felt like a lifetime ago. He could see the way she would turn to him when he'd caught her unawares, the smile that would cross her face like sunlight; hear the little laugh she'd give as much in happiness as amusement when he told her some terrible joke, or poked her shoulder with the end of his pen in class.
No matter what the goddess wanted from him, he still had to find his friend. For her, he would go to the ends of the sky; to the heart of the volcano; to wherever it took. Somehow… somehow, he would find it in himself to be faster, braver, better than he ever had been. Zelda was alive, and unhurt, and as long as she was out there, walking away was not a choice he would ever make.
Opening his eyes slowly, Link raised his head, turning away from the statue of the goddess to face Fi, regarding him in silence.
"Let's get out of here," he said quietly, and she nodded once before springing into a blur of light as she retreated into the sword. Hopping wearily between the stepping stones, he made his way back to the stairs, down them, to the golden door. As he raised the sword high once again, he felt-
-resignation and regret-
-more than anything else, but the light still caught in the strange and perfect blade, and as he touched it to the door it dissolved as readily as it had when he entered. The dull and dirty light outside seemed darker still after the clean purity of the spring, the light in the statue and in the sword, and Link sighed through the purifying mask he still wore as he reluctantly sheathed it. He couldn't ask his loftwing to fly down here, in the ash and the murk of the stutteringly rumbling volcano. It seemed even louder than it had before.
The bridge shook beneath him, and Link yelped, staggering a pace to the side and dropping to a half-crouch to keep his balance. It was louder than it had been before, the shaking stronger, and-
Master Link, I detect an ongoing volcanic eruption. It is imperative that we leave this area as rapidly as possible.
The long path before them stretched out through Link's mind. Back through the temple; down the treacherous mountainside; into and out of the caves – long enough even without all the lizards and bokoblins to contend with.
Although the eruption is relatively minor, it is possible that it may intensify rapidly, Fi continued. In this situation, I advise an emergency evacuation. The updraught rising from the lava below you is of significant strength. Analysis confirms that it will provide your sailcloth with sufficient lift for you to exit the far end of the ravine safely.
Are you saying what I think you're saying? Link thought, crossing cautiously to the edge and looking down. Hot air washed across his face, rising past him; below, the formerly red-orange ooze had become an orange-yellow flow, shimmering and inconstant with heat haze. His own instinctive understanding of the winds agreed with Fi's: if that updraught was sustained throughout the ravine, he'd barely lose any altitude at all as he glided along, as long as he could avoid unexpected eddies dragging him into a wall.
"All right, Fi," he said aloud. "Let's do it."
He knelt to unpack the sailcloth, grubby but still undamaged; threaded his arms through the straps and gripped them and its carefully folded bulk. The lava below seemed more ominous than ever, but he knew rationally that he would never be anywhere near it. Taking a deep breath, he stepped back a couple of paces – then ran forwards, leaping from the edge before he could change his mind.
The sailcloth snapped open with an even more bone-jarring force than usual, and Link was grateful that the straps looped around his arms as well as passing through his gloved hands. As he swung back and forth below the sailcloth, he was already instinctively shifting his weight this way and that, riding the powerful wind and – as he'd hoped – barely sinking at all, the rock walls drifting by at running speed, then walking speed, as he kept his weight angled forwards, slowing but still moving, until all of a sudden he was out of the cleft in the mountain and another wind snatched at him, dragging him sideways around its flank. He had the altitude, the mountain dropping away beneath him faster than he was falling, and he aimed for its edges. He'd spotted a couple of the little bird statues down there before, and could only hope that they would be far enough away for his loftwing to be safe.
When he found one, he thought, he would ask Fi. After all they'd been through, he knew he could trust her judgement at least as well as his own.
Patch Notes:
- Fi no longer repeats the content of the message immediately after having heard said message. (In-game this may make more sense, as you could have skipped that cutscene. Although really, if you did that, what are you even playing the game for?)
- Ability to avoid walking back through the temple given actual mechanic.
- Ability to return to the sky moved to a region of less instantly bird-killing air.
- Message nature varied due to reasons to be visited later in the story...
If you are following the ORO, you will have arrived here from the final chapter of A Hunger to Swallow the World, and will keep reading here until Ch. 38.