Setting your feet against ground that does not exist, you face the oncoming wall of muscle, and wait.
The Boar thunders down the river of light like a one-beast stampede, each strike of its heavy hooves against whatever it perceives as giving it traction sending out shockwaves that ripple through your soul.
Still, you wait.
The Boar's golden eyes narrow at you, their internal glow seeming to backlight the darkness of the squinty little pupils and the veins around them, engorged by the fury that defines the spirit-animal. The light of your soul glints wickedly off the monster's heavy tusks and the flame-tinted forest of bristles covering its back. Each immense breath the Boar takes seems to surge over and past you like a windstorm.
You hold your ground.
Gained Mental Defense E (Plus)
And then, just as the Boar draws close enough to pull its head to its right in preparation for a swing that will surely gore you with both tusks, you dash to your left, trying to get around behind its head as it storms past. The Boar lets out a squealy snort of protest and tries to change course to catch you, or at least get close enough that it can strike you a glancing blow with a wild swing of its head, but one of the drawbacks of being so big is that you don't turn terribly well at speed. The Raging Boar goes roaring by, missing you cleanly - and as it does, you kick off against the soul-stuff surrounding you and fly forward to seize the shaggy coat of spiny hairs covering its right flank.
It transpires that the reason the Raging Boar looks like it's covered in spikes is because it's covered in spikes. You're not sure if each individual hair is made of steel and sharpened to a point, or if it's the way they've matted together that makes them feel so, but grabbing the brutal beast's fur is like trying to seize an untended rosebush without wearing gloves. Only this bundle of briarthorns is moving, with a great deal of momentum behind it, causing a dozen tiny spikes - and a couple not-so-tiny ones - to dig into the substance of your avatar's hands.
In short, it hurts.
What's worse, the Boar has sensed your presence on its flank and is skidding to a stop, squealing furiously as it prepares to shake you - or perhaps fall sideways and crush you against the ground that you can all-too-easily imagine waiting below.
Although it would be a lie to say that the idea of letting go of the Boar doesn't occur to you, it's chased from your mind almost as quickly as it arrived. Yeah, your hands hurt, and yes, the rest of your body isn't exactly having a comfortable time of things being banged against the Boar's spiny hide - but damn it, you got on this ride for a reason, and you're not about to let yourself get thrown off that easily!
Gained Totem of the Raging Boar D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gritting your teeth against the pain in your hands, you try to concentrate.
Gained Concentration C (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Pain Threshold E (Plus) (Plus)
You want to get up on the Boar's back, not stay hanging here on its flank, yet you have to admit that the task would be easier to achieve if you had something to protect your avatar's spirit-flesh from the Boar's built-in defenses. You briefly consider reaching out to the magic that is laced through your soul and invoking your Maximum Power, but you hesitate. You've never tried to call on that technique while you were in the middle of grappling an opponent before, let alone one whose skin hurts you just to touch it, and you're not entirely sure if you can muster the required focus. Then, too, your consciousness is kind of surrounded by the energy of your soul at the moment - energy that you know Maximum Power burns like gasoline. What would that do to you in this situation? Honestly, it's a question you'd prefer not to know the answer to.
But while you decide not resort to your trump card - at least, not just yet - you do try to focus your will as you would when calling on your ki to reinforce your body. With your consciousness sunk this deep into your soul, you're not sure if you can properly access your body's physical energy to form ki, but the spirit energy is so abundant that you might be able to kludge a purely spiritual equivalent of reinforcement, like you were hoping to do with your ki attacks.
Gained Spirit Resistance F
Gained Spiritual Enhancement F
Gained Spiritual Power E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Something... shifts, and your hands glow ever so faintly against the dark mass of the Boar's body. Encouraged by the sight and the accompanying reduction of the stabbing pain in your hands, you start climbing.
The Boar takes exception. You feel the muscles in its flank tense, and reflexively tighten your grip - and just in time, because in the next instant, you're struggling to hold on for dear life as the Boar shakes itself violently, whipping your comparatively-tiny form about with great violence while roaring in protest. In the midst of this, out of the corner of your left eye, you can see the Boar's hind leg bunching up, but your rattled mind has trouble making sense of what it's seeing.
Dizzied by the Boar's attempts to throw you, and sore where its coat of hair-spears has stabbed through the meager spiritual defense you managed to raise, you find yourself unable to think of anything except holding on as tight as you can. When the Boar abruptly stops thrashing a moment later, you find yourself saying aloud in a dazed, wondering tone, "Is it over?"
The Boar grunts unpleasantly, and the next thing you know, you are airborne, with a wall of sharp bristles, stone-hard flesh, and even stronger bone above you, and coming DOWN.
Even through the confusion of your attempt at wrangling and/or riding this pig, you know that you should not fear the situation you're in. This is your mind, your soul; nothing that happens in here can physically hurt you, or even harm you in more subtle ways unless you allow it. All you have to do is find the correct way to tell the Raging Boar to behave, and it will. For that matter, even if you can't figure out how to befriend, control, or at least contain your seemingly-berserk totem, the rest of your spirit is yours to command. If you say there is no floor for the Boar to crush you against, then there isn't, and its latest action presents no danger to you - merely a change of position.
That conscious knowledge is somewhat outweighed by the intense, visceral realization that you are about to be squashed under a couple tons of pork.
Raging Boar above you. Swirling soul-stuff, neither solid nor liquid nor gas, beneath you. No room to maneuver, and barely enough time for a last-second thought. If this were the waking world, you'd be street pizza for sure, but it's not; it's more like a waking dream, and you know how to control your dreams, somewhat.
Forcing yourself to concentrate, you mentally repeat a high-speed mantra: There is no ground. There is no ground. Thereisnoground. Thereisnoground. Thereisnogroundthereisnogroundthereisno-!
The imagined world around you wavers... and then snaps back into clarity. Painful, brutal clarity. The Raging Boar's hide stabs your body. Its bellowing wounds your ears. Its scent... urgh. And then the full, monstrous weight of the beast comes down on you, driving you against SOMETHING that you can't help but BELIEVE is solid. Horribly so.
Miraculously, you don't die. You don't even lose consciousness, or perhaps more accurately, regain it. You are, however, well and truly steamrollered into something you can't see, as the Boar first crash-lands on you, and then rolls over on its back, stabbing you from head to toe with its bristles in the process. Thank the Goddesses that you have a sturdy soul and worked out Spiritual Reinforcement when you did, because you might have lost an eye otherwise. As it is, you hurt immensely.
Gained Spirit Resistance F (Plus)
Gained Spiritual Enhancement F (Plus)
The Boar has rolled off of you and is trying to get back to its feet, acting exactly like a mundane pig in a wallow. That suggests... something... but you're honestly in too much pain to determine what.
You are down. Your opponent in this battle of wills has come closer to literally walking all over you than any other adversary ever has, and left you lying in the proverbial dirt. You hurt. You are tired. No one sane would blame you if you gave up, bowed to the power of the Raging Boar, and let yourself drift away, whether to waking or slumber.
But you do not.
Teeth clenched, muscles taut and trembling, you reach deep within yourself - and outward, into the glowing soulstuff that surrounds you - and find the strength to move. Tucking your battered legs up to your chest, you push off from the paradoxically-tangible nothingness with your shoulders, roll forward onto your feet, and stand up.
Gained Farore's Favor E
Gained Pain Threshold E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Turning around to face your opponent, you find that the Boar is still in the middle of getting back on its hooves. When the spirit-beast turns about a moment later, it flinches, eyes wide as it voices an unmistakeably surprised oink at finding you up at all after it rolled you under - much less at you having recovered faster than it. You're not sure what the Boar sees when it looks at you, but it must see SOMETHING, because rather than charge and run you down while you're worn and weary, it hestiates.
Gained King of Beasts F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Totemic Knowledge F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
If you were to be perfectly honest with yourself, you don't fancy your chances of picking a fight with the Raging Boar. The odds of victory were slim to start with, given your lack of experience in soul struggles, and now that you've been squashed and stabbed, they've only gotten smaller. So that's out.
Trying to walk past the Boar doesn't feel like such a great idea either. There's a non-zero chance that the spirit attacked because it has some kind of territorial issue with you, and if so, trying to get deeper into what it considers its domain is just asking to get gored and trampled. Even if that wasn't the case, the Boar might mistake your advancing on it as a prelude to an attack, and decide to strike first anyway.
As for leaving... your fatigue and soreness make the idea of ducking out and taking a break rather tempting, but by the same token, you've suffered too much to simply leave with nothing to show for it. Then too, the argument you made to Briar about the Boar getting misplaced ideas of dominance still apply. If you back down now, after being injured and failing to accomplish much of anything against the Boar, the spirit will almost certainly decide that it won the encounter and can treat you the same way the next time you try reaching into your soul. And the time after that, and the time after that... you don't need that kind of aggravation.
So you hold your ground, catch the Boar's burning gaze with your own, less-luminous one, and try to project the certainty that you are not leaving, and will not be moved.
The Boar rumbles and shakes its shoulders, setting its bristles to waving with a sound almost like metal clashing on metal. Its head thrusts up slightly in a manner that makes it impossible to avoid noticing its tusks, or how their fiercely curved points glint in the omnipresent light of the soulscape.
Though its attitude is hardly friendly, the Boar does not move to attack. Still, taking in its aggressive posture and the squinty look in its eyes, you get the feeling that it will lash out if you try to advance. And when the spirit rolled over you, it did so at an angle that put it squarely between you and the deeper well of your soul.
Gained Animal Handling E (Plus)
Gained King of Beasts E
Gained Totemic Knowledge E
Even if it doesn't seem friendly, the Boar does appear to respect you a bit more than it did when it first appeared. That's good. Progress. You're tempted to let it go at that, and come back later when you're better-prepared for this kind of confrontation... but you're curious about something.
Being careful to keep your voice level, you ask the spirit, "Why are you trying to stop me?"
The Boar blinks once, slowly, grunts, and turns its head slightly to the right, as if pointing over its massive shoulder. You look up, past the beast and into the shimmering light-through-liquid glow of your deeper soul.
...
A point of impenetrable shadow passes in front of the luminescence. It's distant, and rendered tiny by that distance, but it's still there.
Still dark.
Still moving.
Chilled, you let out a slow breath and turn back to the Boar. "Thanks for that. Seriously."
The Boar grunts again.
"But, uh, next time? Maybe you could just say 'danger ahead,' or something?"
That gets you something that, on a smaller creature, you'd call a funny look.
Having a pretty good idea of what a dark place in your soul represents, you're very wary of hanging around within sight of it. Even so, your reluctance to leave this impromptu vision-quest empty-handed is considerable.
Turning to the Boar, you ask, "Would it be okay if I stayed here, like right here" - you point down at your feet - "and tried to harness my spiritual energy?"
The spirit doesn't respond right away, seeming to consider your proposal. Its huge body half-turns to one side as it cranes its head around to glance back at the depths of your soul, and the slowly-moving shadow. Whatever it sees or otherwise senses in the distance, the Boar quickly wheels about to face you once again, hunkers down, and scrapes at the soulstuff beneath it with one black, iron-hard hoof.
Seeing a repeat of the warning that preceded the Boar's previous charge, you decide its answer is a firm, "No." And not wanting to get sat on again, or trampled, or gored, you raise your hands in a concilatory gesture.
"It was only a suggestion." Bringing your hands together, you bow. "I'll be on my way, then."
This seems to calm the beast. It stops preparing to charge, and simply grunts, sounding satisfied.
"See you later," you add, before willing yourself back, away, and up towards consciousness.
When you open your eyes, you can still feel the spiritual aches of your clash with the Boar. The fact that your body doesn't hurt is a relief, and makes the non-physical injuries a bit easier to bear, although you still want them looked at. On that note, you glance around for Briar, only to find that she's nowhere in sight. Probably got bored and wandered off to explore the dome, not that there's very much here to see... at least, you hope so.
"Briar?" you say aloud. "Where are you?"
There's no reply, but then, you didn't speak that loudly. Or so you tell yourself, trying not to worry. Raising your voice, you make a second attempt.
"Briar!"
From the far side of the arena, there is a faint noise that sounds like, "Yipe!" Then a dim, familiar light appears between some of the bars that line the balcony, zipping counter-clockwise along the elevated section of the dome and getting steadily brighter as it comes closer.
And then, there was Briar.
"What is it? What happened? Are you okay? What did you do?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" you respond, trying to get her to slow down. "In order, I was wondering where you were, it turns out the Boar was trying to keep me from poking into something dangerous, I... kind of got squashed and stabbed," you add quickly, mumbling.
"WHAT?!"
Okay, not quiet enough. "I kind of tried to wrestle with the big pig before I figured out why he was trying to drive me away," you admit, as Briar whips out her wand and starts sweeping you with the familiar energy of medical-style Divination spells.
Then she smacks you in the head. "Alex, you dummy! I told you not to get into a fight with that thing!"
"You told me to try not to get gored or tramp- OW!" That hit actually hurt! What's she doing, channeling magic to power up her blows?!
"Don't split hairs with me, buster! I told you not to get hurt, and you went ahead and got hurt anyway! A-and I c-can't fix it!"
...oh, geeze. Is she- she's crying. Not much, and she's making an effort to hide it, but she's still- damn it.
Well done, Harris. Really. You just made a girl, who happens to be your best friend, cry.
Although it would have been better not to have upset Briar in the first place, there wasn't much you could have done to avoid it after tussling with the Boar. Briar's your go-to healer; the odds of her NOT noticing a new batch of injuries, particularly the nature of them, were far too low to make lying to her anything like a good idea. And you're not overly fond of the idea of deceiving your friends, anyway.
Fortunately, you have a tried-and-tested plan of action for when one of your girls is upset because of something you've said or done: hug, and apologize. In Briar's case, there's one necessary addition, which you now call on your magic to make.
Gained Transformation E (Plus) (Plus)
As your spell takes hold and shrinks you down to approximate fairy-size, you notice that you've managed to get the proportions of your diminutive form closer to matching Briar's than last time; you're still taller than she is, but it's only by a head or so, rather than the "adult to child" ratio you had going before. Bleary blue-green eyes stare at you for a moment, Briar rubbing at her tears and sniffling, trying not to make a complete mess of herself.
"Alex, what-?"
You open your arms, and simply say, "I'm sorry."
Briar sniffles once more, regarding you silently.
The next thing you know, there is a fairy fist in your face. And then you're lying on the ground.
"...ow," you manage after a moment of complete shock.
"This doesn't make it better, dummy!" Briar half-shouts from above you. You notice that she's holding the hand she punched you with gingerly - it's the right one, if that means anything. "Y-you don't get to screw up and h-hurt yourself like that, and then just fix everything with a hug!"
"It's worked before," you mutter, carefully testing the sore flesh of your face. You've been hit quite a lot harder, but you really weren't expecting Briar to just haul off and punch you like that, so your usual defenses weren't raised. "And should you really be hitting me, if you're that worried about me being hurt?"
"I was only aiming for your head," Briar snaps. "You'll be fine, since it's clearly not a vital area."
"Okay, that's a bit harsh."
"If anything, it's not harsh enough!" the fairy retorts. "Alex, your SOUL is injured! You know, that thing that makes up one-third of the energy you call your ki? The one you also use to amplify your magic? That which helps you hold back certain horrible memories you really don't want to have? Maybe the damage isn't that serious, but it's still damage, it still needs to heal! That's going to take time and energy - energy your soul can't put towards the other tasks you use it for, not without straining and weakening itself even more!"
Briar stares down at you. You stare up at her as it slowly sinks in, with the weight of the Boar itself, just why she was crying.
Your soul is indeed one-third of the gestalt that generates your ki, and damaging it WOULD naturally impair that terribly important energy. And likewise, the lingering traces of the Triforce of Power that enable you to do so much more with your magic than a kid your age has any right to be able to are located in your soul; damaging it WOULD hinder your magical talents. Either of those would be bad news lone, but taken together, while you're in the middle of a trial-by-combat... yeah. More urgent still is the fact that, almost from the beginning, you've been relying on your ability to leverage the sheer weight of your soul to fend off the lurking, darker influences of your past life. And now, you've just shaved a bit of that weight away.
Briar isn't just upset that you got hurt and she couldn't do anything to fix it. She's scared.
You carry the soul of Ganondorf. You stand in a structure dedicated to the Goddess that was, is, and always has been his patron, in a realm that reflects some part of distant Hyrule, which he was always trying to conquer and destroy. You picked a fight with the spirit-beast that is his totem. And you weakened, however slightly, the main resource that you have been using to hold him back. Even if it wasn't intentional (and it wasn't), even if the damage to your spirit is the equivalent of bumps and bruises (and it is), that doesn't change the fact that...
"...this was pretty stupid, wasn't it?" you admit aloud.
"You think?!"
As Briar's shout echoes through the darkness of the dome, you resolve that you really need to start learning more about the soul.
Gained Spiritual Damage
Gained Spiritual Knowledge F–
Sitting up on the stone, you take a deep breath, exhale slowly, and look up at Briar.
"A Spell of Lesser Restoration isn't going to help, then? Even if I cast it?"
The fairy shakes her head and rubs at one eye. "No. It wasn't really a power issue. It's... you know how we talked about some of the nastier kinds of undead being able to drain life with a touch? Soul damage is like that. Not as severe for you at this level of damage, and not as long-lasting, but otherwise just as much of a pain to get rid of."
In other words, energy drain. Yikes. No wonder Briar can't fix it. That takes a fourth-rank divine spell.
"What about using Necromancy?" you ask. "I know it's really not your thing, but I'm reasonably good at it, and it does work with souls."
Briar frowns thoughtfully.
You wait.
And wait some more.
"...Briar?"
She pokes you in the forehead, murmuring, "Shhh, I'm thinking."
You rub your forehead, and once again, wait.
Finally, Briar sighs. "I'm not sure, Alex. Necromancy... might work. Especially here. We're in a spiritual realm, and one that's a lot cleaner than Sunnydale. Taking some of the local essence into yourself to serve as a patch or a brace to cover your soul's injuries and keep them clean until they've healed could do the job."
"I notice you said 'might work' and 'could do the job.'"
"It depends on how long it takes you to heal. And that's unpredictable. Wounds to the soul can heal as fast or even faster than wounds to the body, sometimes. Other times they take a lot longer. It depends on where you are, what you're doing... and these would be spiritual bandages. They'd need to be changed regularly. Packing spirit energy from the Hellmouth into a wound..."
"Bad idea," you sum up.
"Really bad," Briar agrees.
You consider it. "Couldn't I just gather and store away more spiritual material to use later? Keep it in a dimensional pocket, where the Hellmouth can't touch it?"
"...that would work," Briar admits. "We'd need to skip town for a bit each day so you could purify yourself and change the dressings, but that's hardly an issue." She worries her lower lip between her teeth. "The main issue is going to be how much spiritual essence you take with you, and how much mana it costs to keep it uncontaminated."
"How much do I need?"
"I don't know," Briar says. "Enough for at least one month, for certain, maybe as much as six months' worth."
The two of you do some quick magical math. You've already taken a five percent hit to your maximum mana reserve for all the items you're hauling around in stuff-space. Considering how sensitive the spiritual essence you've proposed to harvest from the Silent Realm for medical use is, it would be best to keep the stuff in a separate pocket of its own, where it won't risk cross-contamination with your arcane reagents. And given the amount of the stuff you might need...
You decide that you can wait on gathering long-term medical supplies. Right now, you're more concerned about getting proper short-term treatment for your injury. Your brief chat with Briar has helped you to better-visualize what you need to do with your Necromancy, and you set about casting the spell at once, focusing first on identifying and removing foreign spiritual energies from the weak spots in your soul, then establishing a temporary ward against further contamination. Once that is done, you begin gathering motes of the spiritual energy that underlie every facet of Navi's Silent Realm to you, until you have enough to form one of the "bandages" that Briar described. As spiritually-clean as the essence is to start with, purifying it is a simple matter; shaping it into a new form that will persist for a full day is a bit trickier, but still within your talents.
At last, after about thirty seconds of actual spellcasting and maybe ten minutes of spiritual shaping, you feel a pleasantly cool tingle as the half-visible substance of your spiritual bandages settle into place - mostly along your chest and arms, reflecting where the Raging Boar's sharp, stabbing coat of bristles poked you. The mystical essence glows brightly for a moment and then fades from view, leaving only a faint sense of weight against your more esoteric senses.
Gained Spiritual Sense D (Plus)
Studying the brace and giving your spiritual energy the equivalent of a small muscle flex, you conclude that the bandage should be tough enough to withstand any use of spiritual powers you're capable of, with the possible exception of unleashing your full aura. It also won't hinder your use of spiritual energies, though it won't help them, either; it's there as an aid to the healing process, not as armor or a weapon. The only real drawback you can detect is that the bandage is a bit difficult to hide. Having your Blessed Sword on hand is enough to counter the extra spiritual energy you're now giving off, but that still leaves you a bit more exposed than you were. Something to keep in mind.
Gained Spiritual Bandage
Briar gives your first attempt at dressing a wound a few pokes and prods of her own, before pronouncing it satisfactory.
"What now?" she asks, looking up at you once more, as your Spell of Shrinking has since worn off.
"Now," you reply, "I think it's time to rest and recover. The third dome can wait a few hours."
With that, you cast the Spell of Keeping Watch, find a semi-comfortable spot on the floor, and settle down to wait. After a moment's thought, you fish around in your dimensional pocket and pull out your copy of Tobin's Spirit Guide, hoping that it will help pass the time. Briar settles onto your shoulder, and the two of you begin reading.
You decide to spend the next seven hours resting, and of that, you spend about three hours re-reading Tobin's Spirit Guide and discussing various entries with Briar. On the face of it, delving into a tome detailing the appearances, habits, strengths, and weaknesses of supernatural beings is a fairly smart thing to do when you're in a pocket realm full of such critters; unfortunately, even in the unlikely event that Tobin or one of his collaborators made it to Hyrule and back, their notes and observations wouldn't be in this particular edition of the Guide, dedicated as it is to creatures of the Orient. So aside from refreshing your memory of past perusals of the book, the only real benefit you get from this read-through is a chance to unwind and take your mind off your current situation. Which isn't a bad thing, mind you.
Some time after your Blessed Sword has faded away into the ether with a golden gleam and a shimmering sigh, you close the book, stow it away, and get to your feet, deciding to take a walk around the upper level of the dome so that your legs don't completely cramp up from sitting on the stone floor for so long. As you stroll along, you express to Briar a concern that has recently come to you, about how your admittedly-wonky teleportation magic might interact with the Silent Realm's own altered temporal flow. You're wondering if you can even cast the spell in this place at all, and if so, whether or not doing so will cause you to lose valuable time for the remainder of the quest.
Briar stops in mid-air, stares at you, and finally says, "You couldn't have thought of this BEFORE you locked us in here?"
"...it didn't occur to me?" you venture.
Briar facepalms and mutters something that almost sounds like, "Farore, why me?"
Briar expresses two points. First of all, temporal manipulations and interactions on the level you're concerned about are Not Her Thing. You've more than surpassed your first magical tutor in the field of Summoning and Space-Time Magic, so if you don't know or can't intuit the answer, she can't really help you. Secondly, Briar knows her mother. If there are wards against teleportation on the domes - and there are - then teleport spells will work in this place, and standard teleport spells shouldn't cause you to lose time on the trial. It'd be a seriously cheap way of making you fail the test, and that would offend the Goddesses, who prefer that people pass or fail these things on their own merits, not because the game is rigged.
"As to how your screwed-up approach to teleportation will work in here..." Briar trails off with a shrug. "Hell if I know."
With that issue not really resolved and your stroll around the dome completed - having turned up nothing of interest along the way; evidently Briar was just really bored when she wandered off earlier - you decide to pop out the Scroll of Enchantment for another review. It proves a rather less enjoyable means of passing the time, as the scroll holds considerably less information than Tobin's Guide, and you've already pretty thoroughly assimilated its contents. Not to mention that you're not used to sitting on stone, and your legs are starting to get fed up with the whole thing. You stick it out for an hour before finally giving up and taking another, slower walk around the dome. This time, you ask Briar about what you might find waiting in the testing ground dedicated to Farore.
While Briar is happy to give you a number of examples, such as a band of ReDeads, a bottomless pit that can only be crossed by walking across invisible platforms, a mind-reading master of illusions that can use your fears against you, or some kind of magic-immune or even magic-absorbing monster, they all basically boil down to, "something scary and difficult to deal with." In other words, proper tests of Courage.
As the final hour of your chosen rest period approaches, you grow impatient with the long, boring wait and decide to engage in some mild training, with the goal of improving your ability to filter spiritual energy from your ki without having to muck about in your soul. You have more than enough experience to know that exercising your ki doesn't interfere with your ability to regain mana, or vice-versa, so you're confident that you can squeeze in some practice on working around your little issue with accessing pure spiritual energy.
However, you've barely begun shaping your ki when you sense the Spell of Keeping Watch falter. The disturbance is slight, and the spell stabilizes the instant you let your energies go back to flowing freely, but the fact that it happened at all is problematic. Keep Watch carries a warning that engaging in any kind of "vigorous effort" while the spell is in effect will cause it to fail prematurely, and though you don't personally consider practicing with your ki to be particularly effort-intensive, it would seem that this manifestation of your magic feels otherwise. Kind of a downer, and a touch inconvenient to find out now, but it wasn't the sort of thing you could have known without casting Keep Watch first and testing it out.
It appears, then, that if you want to get in an hour of training, you're going to have to give up an hour of sleep-equivalent mana recovery.
A loss of two percent of your mana and about ten percent of your ki is no great hardship, at least not when the payoff is potentially working out how to wield spiritual energy without having to wrestle the Boar or risk a confrontation with the shadow of who and what you used to be. Letting the Spell of Keeping Watch go, you get on with your attempt at filtering pure spiritual power from the threefold alloy that is your ki. You begin by shaping a sphere of ki about the size of a golfball and then identifying those parts of it that feel most like the river of soul-stuff that carried you to your meeting with the Raging Boar. They're hard to find, considering how well-mixed they are with the other two essences that make up your ki, but eventually you get enough to move to step two, which is concentrating those bits of spiritual energy in the center of the sphere. Step three is to let go of everything else that makes up your ki, and try to retain only that wavering little ball of spirit.
It doesn't work the first time. Or the second. Or the fifth, or the tenth...
An hour passes, and progress is made. It's not much progress, but it's enough to let you perform a spiritual equivalent to a ki technique - in this case, one "Spirit Shot" - as long as you have the time to gather the needed energy beforehand. The basic Ki Shot is close enough in function to Ki Blast that you can immediately see how to apply this discovery to create "Spirit Blasts," but your other ki techniques are different enough to require some additional practice.
Gained Ki Filtration F
Gained Spirit Blast F
Gained Spirit Shot F
Gained Spiritual Power D
That can wait, though. You have a quest to finish.
For the second time today, you go through the process of armoring yourself with layers of magical defense and support. Reinforced clothes, a full-body personal barrier, the power of flight, buffered vitality, augmented eyesight - you renew each in turn, ritual-style to conserve energy, and top it off by re-summoning your Blessed Sword. In the middle of that particular ritual, you note that you can sense the blade's existence when you focus your mana in preparation for casting a summoning spell; the link implies that you could, in fact, call upon the weapon by means of a normal spell, rather than a drawn-out ritual. It's good to know that if a situation arises where you need that weapon on very short notice, you'll be able to fetch it in a matter of seconds, rather than the six minutes of chanting and invoking divine favor the full ritual requires.
You do wonder if there would be any functional differences in the Blessed Sword if you just cast a spell to summon it, though - but again, that's a problem best left for another time.
Rearmed and re-equipped, you cast two final preparatory spells - one that gives your flesh a consistency akin to armored scales or thick tree bark, the other imbuing you with a sense of confidence, assurance, and what you hope is not false courage - and then make ready to leave.
How do you intend to leave Din's arena and proceed to Farore's testing ground?
Since neither you nor Briar were entirely sure what to expect from your teleportation magic in the Silent Realm, you decide to do a little science and test it out on something other than yourself. Taking up one of the plates from your conjured lunch, you ritually cast three spells: one of Divination, anchored to the item and reporting its condition; a second Divination spell, targeting the third and final dome (and incidentally, confirming that like the other two, there are no spirits nearby, at least not on that side of the structure); and finally, a Spell of Teleportation, to send the plate to the front door of the dome.
It takes less than ten minutes, all told, and the result is very straightforward.
Space-time around the clay plate warps.
The clay plate disappears.
Navi's wards upon the dome you're currently in don't do a thing.
The clay plate reappears outside Farore's challenge, just three feet from the door, with one side a couple of inches off the uneven ground.
Aside from that slightly unbalanced landing, it's a perfectly normal teleport. Assuming that "normal" can ever be applied to the act of running a sleight of hand con on the fabric of space-time, anyway.
"I take it we're going, then?" Briar asks.
"Unless you have any objections or a burning preference to get there by knocking down the door and flying," you reply.
"Not really," the fairy admits, sitting on your shoulder. "Let's move."
A few more minutes see you completing the ritual for your own dimensional relocation. Keeping your fingers crossed, you blink out...
...and reappear in front of the third dome.
"Huh," you say aloud. "No green that time."
"I noticed," Briar agrees.
"What do you suppose the odds are that I finally figured out how to do it correctly?"
"Not as good as the odds are that our smooth flight was because of something my mom did."
"I kind of figured that's what you'd say."
"What, you disagree?"
"I wish I could say I did, but no, I don't." Sighing, you turn your attention to the dome.
The architecture is the same as the last two domes, with a Triforce-emblazoned door at the front, flanked by a couple of stone statues carrying heavy bowls on their shoulders, and a ring of similar figures surrounding the structure at a distance. There's a lot more plant life here, though: the grass that was present at Nayru's dome wasn't as tall or thick; the ring of statues is enhanced by a rather solid-looking hedge, the bushes slightly shorter than their stone neighbors; ivy is crawling over every available surface; and there is a profusion of flowers, some merely at the budding stage, others in full bloom.
Despite the abundance of ivy on the statues - some of them are so overgrown, they could almost be taken for natural parts of the hedge - the stone bowls are empty.
...oh, and that creeping sense of despair in the face of Hyrulean puzzles is back.
Shrugging off that nagging sense of impending doom and despair, you focus on the situation at hand. The first thing you do is reign in your aura, hoping that by suppressing your personal energies, you can make up for the increased spiritual presence generated by the ethereal bandage on your soul. Granted, the lack of creatures in the area makes the need for this precaution somewhat questionable, but it's a habit that's served you well in the past, and worth employing now if only for the added practice.
Gained Spiritual Concealment E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Once you're sure that you're as hidden as you're going to get, you turn your attention to the statues flanking the door, seeking clues as to how to open this latest puzzle-locked door.
Gained Looking C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Beneath the clinging ivy and scattering of blossoms, the statues are no different from the previous ones, being weathered, vaguely humanoid figures sitting cross-legged and with both arms raised to help support the stone bowl that rests atop the head. These bowls, incidentally, do not appear to be separate pieces; the entire statue is a solid whole.
Now that you're looking closer, you notice that the leaves and flower-petals which rise above the rim of the stone bowls are moving slightly, as if caught in a light breeze. But you feel no such breath of wind from where you stand.
Turning about, you take a few steps towards one of the statues in the "hedge" that rings the dome. The nearby plants, whether they are clinging to carven stone or growing out from the bushes, are quite still.
Based on the example set by the last two domes, the solution is obvious. Unless that's just what they want you to think, the scheming wretches...
Okay, no need to overthink this. Break it down, look at the precedents.
The first puzzle-lock was opened by use of water, and the dome beyond it required you to use your brain to overcome several obstacles - not terribly difficult ones, but even the Poes were more in the nature of "environmental hazards to be bypassed" than "dangerous enemies to be slain." Overall, it was a Trial of Wisdom, implying its dedication to Nayru, who is also the Goddess of Water.
The second puzzle-lock was opened by use of fire, and that dome was a straightforward trial by combat against a dangerous opponent, a Trial of Power. It was Din's, without question, and Din is also the Goddess of Fire. As if that weren't enough, when seen from above, the positions of the three domes recall the crest of the Triforce: Din's dome to the north, at the "top," where the Triforce of Power traditionally goes; and Nayru's dome to the southwest, or "bottom left," where the Triforce of Wisdom is placed.
If these patterns hold true - and you've already speculated that they will - the dome before you will be a Trial of Courage, dedicated to Farore, who is also the Goddess of Wind. Therefore, Wind is what you need to use to open the puzzle-lock.
Wind, the movement of invisible air that can only be "seen" by its effect on objects it encounters, such as those drifting leaves.
Calling on your magic, you begin weaving one of the most basic spells of Wind Elementalism, a simple casting that causes the air around you to move. Normally, this spell has a limited area of effect, but within that area, it's capable of producing some pretty powerful winds, and it also lasts for quite a while. By manipulating the structure of the spell and sacrificing power and duration for increased range, you should be able to use this magic to stir up little self-sustaining breezes in all of the stone bowls.
As you cast the spell, you feel something resisting you, and recall how your earlier experiments revealed that the Silent Realm impedes most forms of elemental magic. However, you have no sooner noticed this difficulty than it melts away, like a fog before a breath of wind.
Gained Wind Elementalism E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
As the leaves clinging to the rim of the nearest stone bowl begin to dance, you hear the familiar click and grind of a triggered mechanism. The statues shift and settle, and the final door opens, vanishing in a burst of emerald light. You let out a breath of relief, then frown at yourself. It wasn't that difficult a puzzle...
Gained Puzzling F (Plus) (Plus)
The door to the Trial of Courage stands open before you. It doesn't look significantly different from the first two, but you haven't forgotten the suggestions Briar made about what you could expect to find in here. Greater undead, seemingly invulnerable beasts, your nightmares made real...
You are tempted to march forward into the dim passageway, but instead, you take a minute to awaken your senses and probe the shadows. As with both of the previous domes, you don't know what's inside this one, and given the choice between walking in blindly or walking in at least slightly-informed, you'll take the later almost every time. It might be different if there was, for instance, an army of Guardians closing in on you from all directions, and the passageway was the only potential safe haven - but a quick glance over your shoulder shows that nothing like that is happening, and so there's no need to rush.
Gained Ki Sense D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Ki Sight C (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Mage Sense C (Plus)
Gained Nayru's Favor F (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Spiritual Sight D (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Trap Sense F (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Watchful C (Plus) (Plus)
Most of what you pick up from this dome maps neatly to the first two: the space within has been expanded; the overall structure is layered in wards against teleporting in, but none against teleporting out; and there's a complex little array linking the door to the statues. The big difference comes when you try to look for ki signatures and spiritual presences.
You find none.
That's both unexpected and suspicious. It implies that there is nothing that could be considered a "creature" - whether living or undead - within the dome, or that whatever is in there is so small that its presence doesn't register across the distance and through the barrier of the walls. Alternately, you could be looking at creatures that have been shielded against your standard detection methods, or which possess the ability to suppress their presence.
Those possibilities... they remind you of something you've seen in your dreams. Something about figures in shadow, eyes in the dark... and a sense of great annoyance. You can't quite call the source of your irritation to mind; it's right there, on the edge of your thoughts, like a hangnail that needs trimming...
"There's something familiar about this place," you mutter nervously.
"Beyond the resemblance to the last two domes, you mean?"
"Yeah." You quickly describe the lack of life- and unlife forces within the dome, as well as your deep-seated certainty that you've encountered something similar in another life. Briar is visibly dismayed by that last part.
"Annoyance in the shadows, huh?" she murmurs, glancing at the open portal and fluttering her wings nervously. "Well, I can think of a few possibilities, but I'm not sure how any of them would have gotten here. They're all tied up with Shadow Magic, which is one kind Mom doesn't practice. Not at the level it'd take to call those guys."
"And 'those guys' would be?"
"In reverse order, I'm thinking Wallmasters, Twili, and Shiekah," Briar says.
That's it! part of your awareness snarls, as images flash past your mind's eye. Those damn meddling shadow-walking- wait, what?
"Wallmasters?" you repeat in confusion. "Aren't they those giant disembodied hand-thingies that ambush people in the temples and other ruins?" You make a motion with your right hand, bringing it down with fingers splayed to close around empty air, and then rise, grasping nothing, back up. "Like that?"
Briar nods.
You glance at the dome. "I'm... pretty sure that's not what I'm sensing. Or not sensing." They could be hiding in the walls or ceiling, you suppose; it's kind of what Wallmasters DO, when they're waiting for a target to come along.
"I kind of doubt that Mom would have gone looking for any of the things even if she WAS better at Shadow Magic," Briar admits. "She thinks they're seriously creepy." She pauses for a moment. "It's probably not Twili, either. As far as I know, Mom's never been to the Twilight Realm or had any serious dealings with the natives, even at two or three removes. That leaves Shiekah. I suppose it isn't technically impossible for Mom to have summoned a few Shiekah ghosts to spice up this challenge, but I was always under the impression that Shiekah spirits are... kind of obsessive. And dangerous."
"How so?"
"It goes back to their ties to Shadow," Briar explains. "Shadow and Spirit are the elements that most directly empower the undead, with the others getting thrown in occasionally for flavor. When somebody dies and has a strong enough Spirit to linger as one of the restless dead, as well as a reason to actually do it, they develop a link to the Shadow. If that connection was present to start with, the resulting spook is bigger, stronger... meaner. And nobody in Hyrule is linked to the element of Shadow like the Shiekah. They're more or less the resident ninja, with similar fixations on duty."
Briar's remark gets you thinking about the ninja you met and fought in Japan, and trying to envision what one of them might be like as a ghost.
...
Brrr. Scary image.
Still, you don't want to back down from this challenge.
Faced with the prospect of meeting undead Shiekah and/or giant disembodied grasping hands, you decide to take a few additional precautions. Briar has told you that Trials of Courage as seen in the Hyrulean tradition tend to target the applicant's fears and will, so why not go ahead and stack the deck in your favor by "armoring" your will against such influences? Checking your currently-active defenses, you figure you have plenty of time to whip up some more specialized protections, ritual-style, to save a little energy and get the best possible effect.
Gained Din's Favor D
Gained Nayru's Favor F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Tactics D (Plus)
First, you invoke Farore's name and weave a spell of the School of Enchantment over yourself, one known in its basic form as the Unbreakable Heart, which specifically wards the subject against the influence of unnaturally-created or enhanced negative emotions. It's a spell Briar knows and can cast quite easily, but which you have to dump a considerable amount of additional energy into to use at all - and as the basic form lasts for only a very short time, you decide to modify the magic for greater duration. What you finally cast is a spell that will last for over an hour, while providing even more protection than the base form of the magic.
Gained Enchantment D
Next, you cast a ritually-empowered variation on the simple Spell of Resistance, drawing in large amounts of mana in order to amplify the basic cantrip's brief duration to something more worthwhile, and also boosting its impact on your defenses. You can almost feel yourself growing tougher, faster, and more assured as you weave the spell into existence, and when it actually takes effect, well...
Thirdly, you cast the Spell to Find Traps, devoting additional mana to increase its duration and boost the specific threat-awareness it bestows upon you. And finally, you cast a spell that invokes the animal totem of the Owl, seeking to share in its enhanced senses and purported wisdom.
Gained Transformation E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
All in all, it takes you twenty minutes to complete the various rituals, but when they're finished, you've massively boosted your mental defenses - and gotten a few extra physical protections besides - at no real cost to your internal mana. There's nothing more you can think to do at this point except harden your mind and spirit against attack and step forward, entering the final dome with your back straight and your head held high.
The interior of this structure proves little different from the first two. There is an elevated walkway running the circumference of the dome and a broad, pit-like area beneath, its floor a neatly-laid series of stone squares, each one five feet to a side, and all of them mercifully devoid of that explosively anti-magical black sand from Din's little arena. The shadows are deeper than you were expecting, but you didn't bother to re-cast the Spell of Low-Light Vision you were using earlier, so that only makes sense - and while eerie, it's not so dark that you can't see where you're going. The open door certainly helps in that regard.
Rather worryingly, the chamber appears to be almost completely empty. You see no monsters, whether standing in the open or lurking in the shadowed dome of the ceiling, and there are no statues standing around waiting to come to life. Your magically-augmented trap sense isn't picking up any threats either, but the spell does have a fairly short effective range - ten feet or so. Maybe you should have tried to extend it, rather than ramping up the sensitivity? Well, you can always walk slowly to give it time to do its job.
Apart from yourself, Briar, and the broad staircase leading down into the pit, there is only one object of note in the entire spatially-expanded chamber, and that is a tall, rectangular mirror standing at the far end of the lower level, facing you and the entry portal. It's by far the largest mirror you've ever seen, close to four feet across and better than twice that in height, set in a heavy-looking black frame. The glass is almost as dark as its mounting, but at this distance, you can't be sure if that's a property of the material or a consequence of the limited light.
You stare at the dark glass for a moment. "Is it just me, Briar, or should that mirror have the word 'trap' written all over it?"
"It might as well," the fairy admits with a sigh.
You nod. "So, what do you think? I go down, look in it, and then... Neverending Story style 'face your true self and try not to run away screaming?' Or Conan the Destroyer style 'horrible mirror-monster comes out to play?'"
"My money's on both."
"...you have money?"
Briar thwips your ear. "Figure. Of. Speech."
Really, what's the point of having a Spell of Flight active if you don't use it? And why in the world would you walk across a potentially booby-trapped floor when you had another option?
Nodding to yourself, you take to the air.
Gained Flight (Magical) E (Plus)
Although you could simply zip across the lower part of the chamber to face the mirror, you decide to approach it more slowly, hanging about ten feet in the air as you descend the stone stair and then cross the flagstone floor. At that range and the modest speed you've chosen, you'll have a much greater chance of spotting any traps in the area.
Gained Trap Sense F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Like, for example, the concealed portcullis at the top of the stairs, or its neighbors that line the stone balcony in both directions. You take a moment to examine the area and can't find any obvious trigger mechanism, or even a subtle one, which leads you to think there's a pressure plate or something further in - which in turn implies that this "trap" isn't meant to harm, but rather to contain. A variation on the cage from the previous dome.
And about halfway down the stairs, you find a pressure plate that doesn't seem to have any gas jets, dart shooters, or concealed implements of spring-loaded pain located nearby. Between that lack of related devices and the way your trap sense is tingling, it seems a fair bet that this is the trigger for the cage, and you avoid it as such.
As you approach the bottom of the stair, your trap sense goes from "tingle" to "skin-crawling," drawing your attention to the first two flagstones at the base of the stairs. They're DEFINITELY trapped, and as you drift a little bit closer, the way your skin starts to itch reveals that all of the adjacent blocks are as well. Heck, even the nearest sections of the WALL feel threatening. What did Navi do, rig the place with landmines?
For a moment, you entertain the notion of dealing with the traps you can sense lying in wait by blowing up the whole chamber. Then you shake your head and dismiss the idea. Yes, it'd be both practical and entertaining, but it would also eat a fair-sized chunk of mana and run the risk of damaging that suspicious-looking, most-likely-magical mirror - and who knows what would happen after that.
Instead, you decide to make a sweep of the chamber, to find out where the traps are and get at least some sense of what they'll do if triggered. As you mentally chart a flight path that will allow you to scan the largest part of the room in the least amount of time, you make a mental note to stay at the edge of the detection range for your Spell to Find Traps, and a second note to avoid casting a reflection in that mirror. The first is easily done, while the latter is... more problematic. Given the size and position of the dark glass, most of the lowered section of the dome is technically visible in its surface - and so, for that matter, are you. It's just that you're far enough away at the moment that you can't see yourself in the mirror, and also far enough away not to have triggered the thing.
"That's kind of a standard feature of magic mirrors," Briar explains when you query her. "If it's not one that requires you to stand directly in front of it, you have to be close enough to cast a reflection that either is or is close to life-sized."
"And how close would that be?"
"For a mirror that size?" Briar scowls as she glances across the room. "I honestly wouldn't risk getting within thirty feet of the thing."
"Thirty feet," you deadpan. "Briar, that's like a quarter of the entire room!"
She nods in agreement. "Yeah, it's kind of a problem, isn't it? I suppose you could try turning invisible. If you don't cast a reflection, you won't trigger the mirror."
There's an idea.
"The problem with that," Briar continues, "is that some of these magic mirrors can sort of 'see' through invisibility and other illusions."
Or maybe not.
As you consider the problem, a possible solution occurs to you: if the mirror is sufficiently-reliant on visual stimulus that making yourself invisible could potentially thwart it, wouldn't creating a visual barrier between yourself and the glass also work?
You question Briar on this, and she nods. "It should work. What were you thinking? Conjure a cloth and drape it over the thing? Raise a wall, maybe?"
"I don't really want to touch the mirror," you reply, shaking your head. "You know, just in case that might set it off. And I don't really see the need to rearrange the architecture, when all I really need to do is put a thick bank of fog around the mirror."
"...or, yeah, you could do that."
"Right. So I'll save that for when I need to investigate the area closer to the mirror. In the meantime..."
You begin sweeping the part of the chamber that Briar has estimated to be outside the mirror's effective range, Mage Sight pinging away. You stop almost as soon as you start, because you're not getting any magical signatures off of the floor this way, and something about that doesn't feel right. It's like there's a little glow hanging over the flagstones - pale white against the dull, dangerous red of your Spell to Find Traps - but you can only see it out of the corner of your eye. When you turn to study it directly, the white light vanishes.
You recognize this phenomenon from your early magical training with Briar. She'd cast a simple spell to attach a temporary magic aura to an item, usually a small pebble, then cast a second spell to conceal the aura. Then she'd hide the rock in your backyard, and you'd have to find it using your nascent Mage Sight and detection spells. The faint glow at the edge of your visual field was something that you noticed after a while, and which, when called on, Briar admitted was something of a racial flaw in fairy magic - little tells that the fae simply can't avoid leaving in their illusions, so that even a mundane human has a "sporting chance" of seeing through the deception, as long as he's alert and well-informed.
Of course, your Mage Sight has grown an order of magnitude more powerful and precise since those early lessons, to the point where you doubt that Briar could still conceal an object's magical aura from you. That said... a much more powerful fairy could probably pull the same trick.
Still, while it seems obvious that Navi has warded the floor in this place, the fact that your Spell to Find Traps is working at all is a bit puzzling. Either Navi didn't try to cloak the traps against Divination magic in general, only spells that would try to detect and interpret magical auras, or else the floor IS warded against Divination, and you just lucked out and managed to power through the protection when casting your amped-up trapfinding spell. If it's the former case, you're probably out of luck as far as trying to read the magical side of these traps goes; if it's the latter, then you do have a chance. Just not a great one. You consider trying to dispel Navi's magic, but the size of the area you're dealing with makes that seem far too mana-intensive and time-consuming a prospect to seriously bother with.
Almost idly, you cast a simple telekinetic cantrip, reach out with the resulting manifestation of force, and give a flagstone about forty feet to your right a poke. When there's no reaction to the admittedly-slight application of pressure, you exert a little more force, roughly equivalent to a light footstep.
SHING-SNAP!
Your jaw drops at the sight of the twisted, five-foot-long blades that erupt from the edges of the flagstone, and which shoot back into the floor with equal speed the instant that you release your minor spell out of pure shock.
"Holy shit, Mom," Briar breathes, staring at the lethal section of floor. "Deathtrap, much?"
You nod wordlessly. Defensive enhancements or not, the sheer force with which those things deployed could have taken your leg off if you'd been standing there!
You have a sudden, intense urge to be Anywhere But Here.
Gruesome images of what a floor full of oversized bear traps could do to you well up in your mind's eye, accompanied by a gut-wrenching chill of deepest fear.
And yet, despite that... there's something about the way those Spikes of Death shot up from the ground that catches your attention, keeping you from panicking and flying away. Cautiously, you recast the telekinetic cantrip and reach out with your invisible hand to press down on that same flagstone.
SHING!
On cue, the blades erupt. Even expecting it, you still jump, but this time you manage not to lose your focus on the spell. You maintain the pressure on the trigger mechanism, and the spikes obligingly stay up.
And there it is. You weren't completely sure the first time, the trap having gone off too quickly and too unexpectedly for much more than an impression of DANGER to truly register, but with the mechanism held in its "active" mode, you can clearly see how the spikes only cover three sides of the square. Moreover, they're oriented at what appears to be a perfect ninety-degree-angle to the floor. If you were standing in the middle of that square and managed not to flinch when the trap went off, you'd be perfectly safe.
On a hunch, you move your magical hand from that flagstone to the one directly adjacent to its spike-free side.
SNAP-SHING!
Bingo. Not only does this square have no spikes deploying along the side it shares with the first flagstone, it's only got one row of spikes at all. You could walk between the two spaces safely, if you simply kept your nerve, and from the look of this square, it's possible to move to two other adjacent flagstones as well.
Based on these findings, it would appear that this "Floor of Death" is actually a maze.
Gained Puzzling F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Trap Sense E
"I don't get it," Briar says.
"What do you mean?"
"Mom knows you can fly, Alex, and the challenges in the other two domes took that into account. Why doesn't this one?"
Good question.
Regardless, you now have a pretty good idea of what you can expect from the traps. On a hunch, you telekinetically reach out to the nearest wall-
SNAP! go the retracting spikes in the floor.
-and give it a push.
Nothing happens. After a moment's thought, you press down on the flagstone nearest the wall-
SHING!
Ah, there we go. Spikes from the wall, and quite a lot more of them. Enough for you to mentally mark the outer "circle" of flagstones as Off Limits.
Well, what now?
"Well," you say in response to Briar's stated concern, "if I had to guess, I'd say that there's probably a flight-specific trap that we haven't triggered yet. Something that creates a low-altitude forcefield or jets of flame - you know, hazards that would encourage people to stay on the ground, even with the spike-traps."
Briar considers that. "It wouldn't involve fire," she says after a moment. "Not in a trial dedicated to Farore."
"Wind, then?"
The fairy nods. "That'd fit. A big, nasty, self-contained windstorm right above our heads to make flying miserable at best, and impossible at worst. Yeah, I could definitely see Mom setting that up."
"On the other hand," you add, "it could be that walking the trail through the spikes is somehow necessary for overcoming this challenge. It'd be, I don't know, symbolic, or something. Overcoming fear, difficulty, and danger to face the truth about yourself?"
Briar gives you an odd look.
"I'm reaching, I know. Maybe it's just that taking what looks like the easy path and flying over to the mirror will actually make whatever happens next harder to deal with, whereas if we show some guts by going through the Maze of Doom, the next part of the trial will have the difficulty dialed down."
"What are you saying, Alex? You want to take the low road?"
You consider it, and then nod. "Yeah, Briar, I think I do."
"...fine. But if you get shishkabobed, I'm not going to be happy."
"Duly noted," you say, as you float back to the foot of the stairs. Before landing, you prod the floor telekinetically.
SHING!
Okay, both flagstones here have spikes only along one face - the right edge for the right-hand stone, the left side for the left-hand stone. Satisfied that you're not going to get impaled, you set yourself down at the "start" of the maze. You give a moment's thought to employing a couple of spells, but decide not to. The idea of creating working eyes all over your body honestly creeps you out, even if they would let you see in all directions, and as for using an Illusion spell as a "trail of breadcrumbs," well, it's not a bad idea per se, but it has two problems. Firstly, you don't know a spell that would create such an effect on its own, which means you'd have to work out something in its place - and the simplest method that comes to mind is casting minor illusions again and again as you go, which would take more time and mana than you want to spend. Secondly, most of the Illusions you know that involve a visible component can be perceived by any creature that looks at them. That wouldn't be a good thing if the mirror does, in fact, create some terrible monster when you look into it.
So rather than cast more spells, you simply start walking. Slowly.
SNAP-SHING!
SNAP-SHING!
SNAP-SHING!
...
...
Man, that is getting annoying.
Navigating the network of pressure-plates and shooting spikes proves a simple enough task, as long as you keep your nerve. You just keep making right-hand turns, and slowly but surely, you proceed deeper into the maze. After a couple of minutes, however, you halt. The path you're currently on will take you into the "quarter" of the floor that is within the area Briar guessed the mirror might activate.
After a long pause, you shrug and start advancing through the maze again.
Briar speaks up. "Uh, Alex?"
SNAP-SHING!
"Yeah, Briar?"
"I can't help but notice that you're getting-"
SNAP-SHING!
"-rather close to the mirror we agreed it might be dangerous to get close to."
SNAP-SHING!
"Wondering why I changed my mind?"
"Yes."
SNAP-SHING!
You stop on the latest flagstone, about twenty feet from the mirror - which, incidentally, you're unable to see due to a "wall" of raised spikes.
"Well, for starters, there's this." You wave at the spikes. "Given the way they're set up and the speed at which they deploy, I haven't had an unbroken line-of-sight to the mirror for more than a split-second since I touched down at the start of the maze. Watch."
You take a couple of steps forward.
SNAP-
-for a brief instant, the mirror is visible-
SHING!
-and then it's hidden again.
"Huh," Briar says. "I honestly did not notice that."
"Yeah, took me a bit to spot it, too. Now, I admit, I don't know how long I'll have to cast a reflection in the mirror to set it off, but I figured it had to be longer than just the quick glimpses the spikes are allowing. It's more dramatic that way."
Briar considers that. "Okay, but what's the real reason?"
"Honestly? I'm just getting impatient for this to be over and done with."
The fairy snickers as you start walking again.
SNAP-SHING!
SNAP-SHING!
SNAP!
You pause and look down at the stone beneath your feet. While the spikes linked to this one deployed normally when you stepped on it, the plate also settled in way none of the others had.
CLUNK!
CLUNK!
Click-ick-ick-ick...
Looking around, you can see all the traps in the maze activating, the spikes rising far more slowly until they reach their full deployment, at which point they stop.
CLUNK!
"Alright," you say aloud. "What the heck was that?"
"I think you just found the reward for daring to run the maze," Briar replies. "Try backing up."
You do that, cautiously.
Nothing happens.
You step back onto the "off button."
Again, nothing happens.
It would seem that you've beaten the maze of spikes.
You feel... strangely astounded by that, for some reason.
Gained Puzzling E
Glancing past the spikes, you can glimpse the mirror about ten feet away. All you have to is step forward and turn right, and you'll be facing it.
You are protected by multiple layers of magic, both in the form of defensive barriers and ability-enhancing spells. What physical injuries you'd previously sustained during your trip through the Silent Realm were healed by Briar, your spiritual damage has been treated about as well as it can be under the circumstances, and your internal reserves are at a reasonable level - not perfect, but enough to handle one more fight, if events proceed as you're expecting them to.
There's really no reason to delay.
And so, you don't.
Taking a deep breath and letting it out, you step forward, make one final turn to your right, and face the mirror. The dark glass stands tall, flanked by two rows of raised spikes that form a "corridor" of sorts between it and you.
And there, within the mirror, is your reflection.
...
You feel a brief impulse to stick your tongue out, or maybe strike a muscle-flexing pose. Sure, you're in the middle of a miniature dungeon, about to engage in some kind of battle to prove your worthiness in the eyes of several powerful supernatural beings, but come on. You're eight years old, and it's a giant pane of reflective glass; there's tradition to be upheld.
Before you can decide on what face to make, however, you feel the mirror's magic reaching out for you. It's cold in a way that has nothing to do with temperature, and your skin crawls as sorcerous tendrils creep over and around you, ignoring your various protections like they aren't even there. It all happens quickly enough that you haven't even begun to gather the energy necessary to raise some countermeasure when the mirror's magic withdraws.
And then, as you've anticipated almost since you laid eyes on the mirror, your reflection in the dark glass grins and takes a step forward - while you remain still and stone-faced.
If you act quickly, you could get a spell off before your evil twin emerges from the mirror, or take some other action.
Although launching a first strike is a valid tactical option, somehow, it just doesn't feel right. Maybe it's Lu-sensei's efforts to drill martial etiquette into your head. Maybe it's the influence of having watched The Empire Strikes Back, and knowing that when Luke attacked the image of Vader under the evil tree on Dagobah, it was the wrong call. Maybe you're simply hesitant about attacking something that looks like you.
Gained Manners D (Plus) (Plus)
Whatever the reason, you decide not to attack, allowing Mirror-You to emerge from the dark glass, which ripples around him as he transitions from being a two-dimensional reflection into full three-dimensional existence.
You blink, and almost drop the guard you were keeping up in anticipation of your mirror-clone's next move.
The act of emergence has caused a drastic transformation in your reflection. He's shrunk by several inches, now standing head and shoulders shorter than you, and he's far less visibly athletic. Not that he's weedy or anything, he just looks like a heck of a lot more like a regular eight year old than you do. He's got a California tan but is still considerably lighter than your semi-Gerudo skin tone, his hair is dark brown with not a hint of a red, and his eyes - going wide as he gapes at you - lack the burnished gold tone that has grown in yours. He's also wearing the loudest shirt you've seen since meeting Ambrose, which looks a couple of sizes too big to boot. His footing is poor, his posture a slouch, and he shifts nervously under your gaze.
And yet despite all of that... you can see a resemblance. Take away the Gerudo traits that have impressed themselves on your face and form, and you'd look quite a bit like the boy standing in front of you. Exactly like, in fact.
SELF-REFLECTION: XANDER HARRIS
Getting a distinct lack of threat from the figure before you, you raise one hand and wave. "Hey."
He mirrors your action. "Hey, yourself."
"So. Strange day we're having here, right, me?"
He frowns. "'Me?' Who's me?"
"You."
"I thought you were me."
"No, I'm me."
"But then who am I?"
"You're also me."
He shakes his head. "That's just crazy talk. I'm me. You're you."
"Yes, but you're also me."
He gestures at himself. "Me? I'm" - he points forward - "you?"
"Yes!"
"And I suppose you're me, right?"
"Well, no. You're not me, and I'm not you."
"But I am you, and you're me."
"Yeah, kind of."
"..." He stares at you in silence.
"..." You respond in kind.
"Am I the only one getting a headache here?" your reflection ventures, sounding rather lost.
"No," you admit, "you're not."
"Oh, Goddesses," Briar groans from your shoulder. "Two of them. For real. Why?"
You have met the... enemy... and he is you. Sort of.
"Could I interest you in a pizza?" you offer from out of nowhere.
"What kind?"
"I was thinking Hawaiian."
Mirror-You considers it. "I suppose I could down a slice or three." Then he glances around at the maze. "I have to ask, though; where are you going to get a pizza in a place like this?"
"Like so." The spike-walled "corridor" in which you are located is about ten feet across, so there's enough room for the four-foot wide wooden table and matching chairs that you summon.
Mirror-You blinks in clear surprise, then nods. "That makes sense." He takes the chair on his side of the table, poking and rocking it a couple of times before gingerly sitting down.
"The pizza will take a few minutes," you apologize.
The other guy just nods and waves it off, like a wait is only to be expected. And to be fair, with pizza, it is.
"Briar," you add then, "do you want a milkshake or something?"
"No, I'm fine with what you're having."
You raise your hands and begin chanting the Spell to Create Food and Drink, once again sacrificing the quantity provided by the basic magic for greater quality.
Gained Conjuration E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
What finally appears on the table does indeed look like a twelve-inch pizza, though it isn't the Hawaiian you were aiming for. You got the ham, but the pineapple is missing, and while the dough, cheese, and tomato sauce are all there, the scent is a bit bland, like it's missing some of the usual herbs and spices. You also didn't get the Coca-Cola you were aiming for; instead, a bottle of clear carbonated water stands next to the pizza and the three cups (two tall, one tiny).
"Changed your mind about the Hawaiian?" Mirror-You inquires.
"No, I just need more practice with conjuring food," you reply, taking your seat and reaching for the bottle. Pouring yourself a bit of the liquid, you take a sip and make a slight face. Carbonated water, indeed. Oh, there's some kind of sweetener in there, but it's positively tasteless compared to what you're used to. Ah well. Since you've got the bottle in hand, you go ahead and top off all three glasses, sliding the big one over to your counterpart and the tiny one to Briar, who's settled into a small, elevated niche that you deliberately added to the table. It looks like a tiny schooldesk, to be honest.
You and your counterpart both take a slice of pizza, and you break off a bit for Briar. Mirror-You gives this action the same response-that-isn't which he showed when you asked Briar what she wanted to eat, when you conjured the fairy-sized cup, and when you filled it.
That unreaction has caught your interest, and for the next couple of minutes, your attention is split between eating what is proving to be a less-than-memorable pizza and studying your counterpart. Viewed through your passive senses, this mirror-incarnation of Alexander Harris reads as almost completely ordinary. He has no magical aura that you can detect, no spiritual presence beyond that of a regular human, and not even a hint of a ki aura, only the diffuse energies of an average, untrained kid. The only thing that marks him out as anything unusual is the air of demonic energy that hangs about him, and even that is pretty "ordinary" for an eight-year resident of the Hellmouth, based on what you've sensed from the kids at school.
It's still the first hint of corruption that you've picked up in the entire Silent Realm. You're not entirely sure what that means, save that it can't possibly be a good thing.
Gained Corruption Sense E (Plus) (Plus)
You consider going to active scans, but decide against it, if only because the associated glow in your eyes might startle your flawed clone and break the pleasant, peaceful interaction you have going.
About halfway through his second slice of pizza, Mirror-You stops. "I have to say, this is the worst dream-pizza I've ever had."