Here we are at last! Thank you all for putting up with the long wait!

Chapter 46: Monument

Link lifted his head as he felt his weight shift forwards slightly. The levitrain had quickly left Ghirahim far behind, out of range of Fi's senses, and for the first hour or so he had stared out of the low, narrow window, watching the seemingly endless sands drift by ahead, turning to flower-speckled green briefly as they passed, the levitrain's motion smoother than a loftwing's glide in calm air. There had been breaks in the rail, and at first he'd worried that the levitrain would need him to do something, but Fi had informed him with her usual imperturbable calm that the Timeshift Stone would render the issue moot – as indeed it had, segments of rail seeming to appear from nowhere just ahead and, presumably, disappear behind.

Eventually, he'd sat down. The strip of window was narrow enough and low enough that he had to stoop to see anything through it, and Fi had informed him that at the speed she'd had him set the ancient levitrain to, the journey would take several hours. When he'd grown too stiff from bending to peer out of the window, he'd taken what he felt was her unspoken advice and sat against the wall, letting himself half-doze.

"Fi? Are we slowing down?"

Fi sprang from the sword on his back with a soft chime, her self-contained glow barely discernible in the levitrain's bright light.

"Yes, Master Link," she said, and he scrambled to his feet as she continued, turning as he moved so that they were both looking out of the low window. "I detect that we are nearing the Lanayru Mines station. The Temple of Time, and the Gate of Time it contains, were built in this location due to the high concentration of Timeshift Stone in the local rock: this was deduced to be the location in which the influence of the Goddess of Time was the greatest."

"That makes sense," Link said quietly. Ahead, he could see that their rail now ran alongside multiple others, all of them parallel and perhaps a wingspan or so apart. The levitrain slowed further still as they reached a series of raised platforms set between the rails, and finally stopped, soundless and swaying only slightly.

"I recommend deactivating the levitrain to avoid draining the power core unnecessarily, Master."

Link nodded. "All right. What do I press?"

The instructions Fi gave were far simpler than those he'd followed to set the levitrain in motion, and it was less than a minute before it had settled down onto the rail with a muted clunk. Opening the door, Link stepped out onto the platform, shading his eyes against the sun only slightly veiled by thin cloud.

"Fi…!"

He pointed, speechless. The station stood atop a low bluff, and below it he could see out across a rocky vista that looked to have been hewn from the same stone, sand half-burying boulders, walls, and widely-spaced buildings alike – but to his left, half-concealed by the curve of the bluff, an incredible, almost impossible construction had captured his attention. Even with only the upper half visible, any sky-dweller would have recognised it in an instant: the radiant-bird symbol of the Goddess, implausibly huge, implausibly free-standing though any unsupported stone would have sheared off under its own weight at a fraction of the size. Balanced atop it, supported in just three places by wing-joints and beak, was the triple-triangle shape of the mythical Triforce.

Fi reappeared beside him almost without his noticing, unaffected by the light or heat and floating as she always did just above the ground. "The structure you have indicated does not appear in my database, Master Link, despite its significance. I conclude that it was built after the raising of the islands. Although I cannot analyse its composition at this range, I am able to deduce that it is created from complex advanced materials which combine extreme strength with low density. If this were not the case, it would have suffered catastrophic structural failure. The Temple of Time is located in approximately the same region as the base of the structure. I advise that you proceed towards it with caution."

Link nodded, staring at the immense symbol for a few moments longer before tearing his gaze away, studying the ground below for a likely path. The buildings, or what remained of them, were far lower and more scattered than in the dead city of Cronellon, but the sand looked far higher, forming great windswept dunes and mounds in some places; almost perfectly flat in others. Oddly-placed walls which might have made sense if he had been able to see their full pattern emerged in the lower regions, vanishing into the sand where the wind had piled it high.

"The terrain in this area has changed dramatically since the construction of the buildings you are observing, which were created before the changing climate had turned this region into a desert. Although the buildings will have been designed to adapt to this scenario, I cannot determine at this range whether such adaptations will have been sufficient. Exercise care when entering any structure."

Again, Link nodded. Guessing at a route he hoped would lead him along the foot of the bluff without too many detours, he turned and set off onto the steeply-sloping path down the rock face, wider once, but badly eroded and with chunks missing from its outer edge. Fi returned to the sword as he began to walk, picking his way across the tumbled remains of some kind of archway and keeping a circumspect distance from the edge.

. . .

It quickly proved to have been a lot easier to plot a course from above than it was to follow it on foot. The sand dune Link had planned to climb was a lot steeper than he'd realised, and as he'd attempted to scramble up it, enough sand had come loose around him that he'd given up, afraid he might bring the entire face of the dune down on himself. That had forced him out away from the bluff and into the maze of walls, and if it hadn't been for the symbol of the goddess standing impossibly tall to the west, he wasn't sure he would have been able to keep track of his orientation – not with the half-concealed sun almost directly overhead as it steadily approached noon.

Shading his eyes with one hand, Link backed away from the wall he'd been walking beside in an attempt to take advantage of its dubious shade. Based on what Fi had told him before, it would be safer if he found somewhere to rest soon, with the desert already punishingly hot and dry, leaving him thankful once again for the protective talisman around his right arm. He'd hoped he could reach the Temple of Time before then, but the monument barely seemed any closer.

A motion caught his eye, and Link frowned, squinting into the sky. "Fi, is that a bird?" Here? In this desert?

Fi's voice sounded in his mind, musically calm. Yes, Master Link. Analysis of the flight pattern and conformation confirms that it is a hrok. These are the largest birds to dwell in the deep desert. They are primarily scavengers, but are also known for opportunistic predation. Hroks do not directly attack potential prey: rather, they wait for an animal to pass beneath a high perch, then attempt to drop one of the stones they collect on these perches onto the animal, killing it or rendering it unconscious so that they may consume it at their leisure. Hroks have been known to collect and drop rocks of sufficient mass to cause severe injury to an unprotected human. However, provided that you do not pass directly beneath a perch or become immobilised in the open, you are unlikely to face significant danger from them.

Link blew out a breath. "Thanks. I'll be careful."

You should consider seeking shelter, Master. The temperature continues to increase, and while it will not be sufficient to overcome your current protection, it will cause you to drain your water reserves more rapidly.

"Yeah… I know." He hesitated, scanning his surroundings once again. "I just… We need to reach the Temple of Time as fast as we can. We have to catch up to Zelda this time. I can't… I have to be fast enough." 'I fear the goddess may have been mistaken in her choice of agents.' 'I have to go. I'm sorry, Link.' 'She cannot wait.' "I won't be too late again." Again, he found himself hesitating, the words he hadn't said weighing on his heart like a stone. "Fi… Do you know why… why she couldn't even speak to me?"

I do not, Master. As always, her melodic voice, even unheard, was calm, and yet he wondered if she wondered, too. My database provides no indication of the reason for her haste, beyond the destiny that lies before you both. If you wish to determine the motivations for her actions, I recommend reuniting with her quickly. I will continue to monitor your water consumption and provide warning should my predictions indicate you will experience a notable shortfall.

"Thanks, Fi," Link said, the words heartfelt. Even though her tone hadn't changed, he was sure that she'd understood.

Wow, but that took a long time. I'm so sorry to have left you all hanging like that! Long story short, one of the various things I do requires a team, and one member of the team abruptly dropped out and vanished on us with no warning or explanation, so we were all running around like we were on fire for the next couple of months… But, things are now quieter, we have a new person on the team, and maybe-hopefully-perhaps I can get on with finishing this monumentally massive fic! I hope at least some of you are still with me after this huge hiatus…

Patch Notes
- Birds no longer form concrete in their digestive systems; boulder size reduced to carryable – but still eminently fatal – proportions.
- Characters now comment on gigantic implausible monument.
- Fi no longer detects quicksand over hundred-metre-plus distances.