For those readers who've been loyally reading this for ages, you probably already know: I have a DISCORD. You can find tidbits, maps, images, and more related to FwB, P:TaL, and Z:PoW as well as all my Omake there. In addition there's a few other useful links you might enjoy. If you want to learn more about my writing, go check it out at discord . gg / EDHf6ZG . You might find fun stuff there. :)
That's enough out of me. Enjoy!

EDIT! You guys! I screwed up (weeks ago)! This chapter SHOULD have been posted on Jan 25th. That's bad enough (I haven't updated since Jan 11th). But I also uploaded the WRONG chapter- you missed Ch. 17; (Un)Pleasant Delays. So if you haven't read that, go back and do it now- it's important to the plot, I promise. Also small smut. ;)
This chapter is what should have already been posted, yes, and I AM still posting the next today (a day late). Just, you know, if you notice a chapter number skip, PM me or let me know in a review. 'Cause the "Chapter 0" prologue messes me up all the time, but it's an easy enough fix if it's spotted. :)

And, as always, you can go to the DISCORD above for links to find this story posted 10+ chapters ahead (I think it's 15 right now, actually). And others. Sub Scribe Star DOT Adult SLASH KajaWilder would be a more direct way to get said access, too. :)


Ch. 18

Fleshy Mounts and Mountain Peaks

Zelda spent another two hours after purely accidentally spying on Sagessa and Hino having sex avoiding both of them while she wandered the bazaar-like area on the south side of the Stables. While everything about the place was new to her, from the faces to the food, even the smells. But something about the market area called to Zelda, making her heart twinge at the missing memories of times long past. Perhaps, she wondered, she had enjoyed visiting the market when she was an actual Princess in more than just a forgotten name?

She worried at first, too, that the sheer number of people in the area would trigger some sort of anxiety attack, like the long-dead Guardians had (and somewhat still did) at the Temple. Yet, as she moved closer to the milling crowd and then merged with them, the young adventurer found herself strangely at-ease, even comfortable, surrounded by strangers. Nearly everyone was armed, and therefore a potential threat, but most only had simple swords or long knives to defend themselves with. There were a few better outfitted, but they were still talking and joking like everyone else, buying, selling, or trading the rewards they had earned or scrounged, or goods they had made or carried from far-off places.

There were a few that stood out among the stalls of hand-woven clothing, leatherworkers, and variety of small victual stands, however. Probably foremost among them was the man who had set up first, who had the line waiting to talk to him. When Zelda had finally made her way to the front of the queue, she was as impressed by the man's appearance as the sheer volume he seemed to have in his little, portable stall. Herbs on drying racks, apples and oranges and other more exotic fruits by the basket, quivers full of arrows, and more. But his impressive physique, toned and muscular like a true warrior's she imagined, though he carried no weapon she could see. Then again, the man had no pack animal either, with only the wheels holding up the back end of his stall to suggest he was its sole means of motivation. But even that paled next to the man's most distinctive feature: a nose as long as her hand, bright red fading to pink as it reached the rest of his face, then tan from too much time in the sun. For several seconds, Zelda stared before she caught herself.

It couldn't be human. The color, maybe, if that impressive proboscis got significantly more sun from poking past the shade atop the stall. But the sheer size of it! The princess wasn't even sure she could hold the whole thing in both hands!

"Ah, I don't believe I've made your acquaintance, young miss," the man chirped after giving her an eyeful, and put out his hand for her to shake.

The skin was rough and calloused, but Zelda thought dimly that they were not the wear-marks of a warrior, though this man seemed quite used to manual labor of other sorts. Zelda shook it vigorously in an attempt to hide her embarrassment at staring, and yanked her eyes away from the tall man's face to browse his wares up close. "I'm Zina," she murmured.

"Zina, a beautiful name for a beautiful lady. My name's Beedle, but you can call me... well, let's just stick with that. Even if you forget my face, you can remember me by my beetle-shaped stall and pack, yes?"

"I hope so," Zelda giggled, glancing up at the rhino-beetle top, then forcing herself to skim past his face again, "it is rather memorable. To herself, she added, If nothing else, I'll remember that nose. Sheesh.

"That's the idea! You'll see me all over, I travel Hyrule quite extensively these days, and I've new and different goods everywhere I go. That's why I'm so busy all the time! On to business, though, as I've quite a line to move through before lunch. The majority of my wares are useful for those with a bit more stationary a bent, like the Stables or small settlements, but I do carry several things for travelers and warriors too, and all at a fair price... or my name's not Beedle! I also buy, of course, if you're in need of Rupees. Gemstones in particular, being both easily portable and high value, are an excellent trade commodity."

"Ah, that's good to know," Zelda replied, risking a glance away from the large array of arrows with several differently-shaped heads. Along with those, the man also carried cookware, though nothing portable sadly, water skins, though not enchanted like hers was, a wide selection of potions and elixirs in small bottles, most of which Zelda could make herself thanks to her day-long lesson with Giro, and a few carving knives that Zelda picked up to make harvesting meat a little easier if she had to do it on the road.
Of more interest were a small section of bottles in the back. "Oh, you're an alchemist, too?" Beedle asked when Zelda pointed them out, "Yes, I do carry a few things as I can get them. I make most of my potions and elixirs myself when I make camp for the night, but for those on a budget I carry extra ingredients. It's more cost-effective for the consumer, since I don't have to put in my own labor, you see?"

Zelda nodded quickly. That was, after all, why she was interested. Even if she knew most girls would quail and baulk at the thought of cutting up insects or frogs for a few specific parts and adding them to a later concoction to then be consumed, she didn't care. As long as it worked, and wasn't too horrid-tasting, anyway. "I'll... buy all of it. All your extra ingredients. And thirty arrows, too, the regular spade tip."

Beedle's eyes widened. "R- Really? I'd be a fool to turn it down, but that's- a large purchase."

"Absolutely."

Shaking his head slightly, but smiling madly, Beedle quickly arranged the items on his small counter, spinning back and forth between his shelves and the flat surface with speed. When he was finished, he quickly tallied the lot up with an abacus he carried, then looked up, a bit sheepishly, at her. "That's a total of... three hundred and forty Rupees. Should I put something back...?"

The princess surprised him again by shaking her head and pulling open her coin pouch. "This is a lot of what I had, but..." she leaned in closer, "not half. I'll be okay, and those are going to be useful."

"Ah," Beedle said, leaning in conspiratorially and tapping the side of his humongous red nose with a long finger, "I understand. It can be quite lucrative, if you know what you're doing, yes." Then, in a louder voice to be sure others would hear it, "Well, I'm sorry I've broken your bank miss, but that's just the price of the items, I'm afraid..."

"Ah, well, if I have to pay it I will, I just hope I have enough to pay for the inn again before heading home to take Grandma her medicine."

With a grin, Zelda made her way out of the queue, her enchanted satchel still not an ounce heavier despite the sixteen bottles, knife set, and arrows she had added to it.

Beedle wasn't the only useful merchant she met, though. Mezer, a tall, dark-skinned man with a haircut that made his head look three times bigger from the back, had on sale a wide variety of meats from hunting he had done. Mutton, venison, beef, and chicken, even a few cuts from a heron. Zelda bought a lot of that too, stocking up on her protein supplies for at least a week, along with a healthy supply of salt and pepper from the seller next door to add to her slowly growing spices.

There were more than merchants, though. Zelda, in eating lunch before heading on her way out in an open-air diner a few of the food-sellers had set up between them, overheard two brothers, twins by the look of them, in nearly identical clothing and even armor, talking in hushed tones about a treasure supposedly hidden by a great bandit named Misko shortly before the rise of the Calamity.
Zelda couldn't get much out of listening in before they realized she was leaning in closer and closer. When they did, the two clammed up, and quickly finished their meals in silence before leaving abruptly. She got a little, though. Something about a Big Twin and Little Twin river (appropriate, given that the people she had overheard were twins, she chuckled to herself), and the waterfall beyond it hiding the secret.

What, exactly, that meant she did not know, but Zelda did very distinctly remembered hearing about the 'Twin Rivers' from Brigo. While she hadn't seen them up close that she could remember, Zelda knew full well that they were not so far to the south of her, just east of the Dueling Peaks' gorge. The twins, Prissen and Domidak, weren't too far off, then.

If Zelda was going to recover the treasures that Misko had apparently stolen from the kingdom of Hyrule, then she would have to hurry.

First, though, she had a Shrine to complete.

And that required a bit of exercise.

Leaving the Dueling Peaks Stable for the west, in full view of several confused patrons of the bazaar outside, Zelda kept a close eye on the mountain ahead. There were a few routes she might choose to go upward, high enough to use her paraglider to reach the Shrine. Most, unfortunately, would put her in a vulnerable position if someone- an assassin sent by the Calamity, for example, or just someone who had gotten greedy after seeing her too-public purchase from Beedle- decided to shoot her from the cliffside, and loot whatever was left of her broken body.
There was a secondary climb, closer to the waterfall that cascaded down to feed the pool the Shrine itself rested in, which drained through gravel, she supposed, back into the larger rivers to the south. That climb was more sheer, but lead to a ledge about eleven hundred feet up. There were, she thought, plentiful handholds. At least, from a distance the cliff was steep but rough. The downside was that, even though there was some cover from the Stable, the rocks might well be wet.

Or... she could take the long way. A half-mile to the north was a lower bench, accessed by a steep but not impassible climb. From there, she thought she could see a path, or at least open scree, she could scramble across. Surely, if someone at the stables looked in just the right direction they might spot her dyed leather parka and plain trousers, or more likely her golden hair as it moved across the mountain, but that was near two miles distant from the nearest outbuilding. Even if they did spot her, she would have plenty of chance to see them coming, and why would anyone go through that much work anyway?

Because you're crazy to do it yourself, that's why, the Princess thought to herself with a light laugh. Crazy, perhaps, but she had good reason to examine the interior of the Shrines. She didn't understand the power the Goddess Hylia had given her in the Great Temple by trading in four Spirit Orbs, but it had made her stronger. Stronger, faster, and more durable. While her stamina hadn't been largely increased, her use of what her body could do otherwise definitely had from that strange prayer in which she had, the princess still believed, actually heard the Goddess' voice.

And if it could grant that power once, surely it could do so again? What other purpose would the Spirit Orbs of the other Sages, kept for untold centuries and millennia, have? She could think of, imagine, none other than to increase the power of the Hero in a time of great need.
Barring that, she supposed a princess would have to do.

And you really do need the power, she reminded herself calmly, long, easy strides, despite being weighed down by her weapons and satchel, falling into place with a casualness that astounded her. She was still not quite up to what the adventurous young woman would consider 'proper shape', but every day she walked, every time she had to fight, it all got a little easier. As if her body was once quite used to traversing any kind of terrain, and she was merely reminding it how to do so. Stretching muscles that were disused, but not entirely.

Her gold hair swayed in the breeze about half-way up that first steep climb when Zelda spotted the ledge. It was just a ledge, though one definitely made artificially, but she also saw around it the edge of a pickaxe, and a single skeletal foot hanging from the edge. Below, a few feet away, an old, moldering piece of leather and rubber showed that perhaps once that foot had worn a boot.

With a sad, almost depressed sigh despite the fair weather and her otherwise pleasant mood, Zelda changed direction, moving up a steeper part of the incline until she actually had to climb a short distance to make it to the forgotten ledge. As she crested it, she saw immediately what the problem was. The skeleton was once human in proportion, though stocky, and a rock lay indented in the skull. The face of the cliff had been carved out by much toil, for it was scarred with the lines of pick and hammer and shovel, with worn, rusted implements laying around where they had been left.

Rotten food and supplies too, but Zelda could see nothing aside from the old clothes and tools. Until, at least, she looked at the cliff face in detail. The chunk wasn't large, but clearly when the man (she presumed as much, though it could have been female, based on the size and half-gone clothing) had fallen prey to the random chance of a falling rock while digging.

But while only of modest size, the opal was clear and clean, glistening in the sunlight. A glance around just to be safe told Zelda that she was quite alone, the road, some quarter-mile away, was on the other side of a low rise. She was out of sight, which probably explained how the ledge had been unfound long enough for the body to decay so thoroughly.

The tools didn't do much before breaking, but with a careful, wary eye upward, Zelda was able to use the last bits of their hardiness, a leftover piton from the miner's supplies, and her own large hammer to crack open just enough rock to free the chunk of crystal. There was more, buried deep, she was sure, but it would be too hard to reach it for her alone, and she did have places to be.

The detour, brief though it was, had already cost her nearly an hour by the time she freed the crystal.

Higher Zelda climbed, using her hands only when necessary to save them from scrapes and bruises, forcing her thighs to take most of the weight of her climb lest she wear herself out, too. They ached before she reached the second ledge, which was as much a patch of grass on a narrow slope than a true resting stop, but it at least let the young woman pause for a moment, her feet sliding just enough to force her to grab hold with one hand to an outcrop of stone to keep her place.

It wouldn't do to fall, she was far too high up already for that to be safe. A hundred feet or more, she estimated, risking a dizzying glance downward.

She shuddered. She did not like heights, but at least the paraglider helped assauge her fear. Taking a deep breath after letting herself rest briefly, the Princess spun on the narrow face and pressed her modest chest against the stone. The ledge was small, but she was able to lean into the rock and keep just enough of a grip with her feet that, if she kept moving, she was able to keep her vertical position stable.

The next leg of her climb was more strenuous physically, but climbing laterally across a sheer, almost smooth granite face was not as hard as she had first thought it would be. Handholds in the weather-worn cracks were plentiful, and many were even large enough to stick at least the toes of her boots into. It was a bit scary trusting the leather and rubber of one light traveler's boot to hold her entire weight plus her equipment, but after the first few times she started to relax. Still, that climb had her sweating and panting, desperate for a meal and to relieve her bladder by the time she reached a larger, less sloped ledge about twenty feet higher than the last and several hundred feet further south.

Another glance around as she paused to snack on an apple showed the princess that she was well out of sight unless someone could fly, or somehow see across the eight or ten miles of the entire Blatchery Plain, which spread to the east, northeast, and southeast. With a happy sigh, once the apple was gone, she moved into a more secluded corner between two rocks, pulled down her drawers, and crouched to relieve herself. Fortunately, one of the things the Princess had thought to purchase was some cloth to wash herself with after this, because using leaves was not nearly as comfortable as one might expect.

Much relieved, Zelda stepped away and upwind to hide the smell as much as she could, stepping nearly to the edge of the wide ledge. It was fifty or sixty feet across at the wider parts, gently sloped downward. If she were alone, or had a tent, she might even dare sleep up here, though she was two or three hundred feet above the ground level. Above, she thought, even the waterfall, though she couldn't see or hear it from where she stood.

First, though, the princess wanted to look out over her kingdom. Not liking heights was one thing, but she had always, both before and after her lethal injury, been mesmerized by the beauty of her kingdom.

With the map on the Sheikah Slate as a reference, Zelda memorized as much as she could of the landscape she saw. The wide Blatchery Plain was marked by the Bubinga Forest on its south, the Big Twin River, also known as the Squabble that ran through the gorge, was joined by the Little Twin south-southeast of her, with the Hickaly Woods between them. That was the place, Giro had said, to avoid due to more frequent bears than he saw. Mount Rozudo was beyond the forest and woods, and was the larger mountain of the range that separated the so-called Dueling Peaks Region (which the Slate called Western Necluda) from, presumably, Necluda or Eastern Necluda.
The plains themselves were littered with dark spots she could see from here. Curious, Zelda used the scope function on the Slate to get a better, up-close view... and nearly dropped the device down the mountain in sudden fear.

Guardians. Hundreds of them. Most, she was sure, decayed and broken, useless.

But she well remembered the deadly beams even those two or three on the Great Plateau had been able to issue while otherwise immobile. And while those had been terrifying, for some reason, these brought an even larger spike of terror, as if they had more associated with them than their shape and make.

Something closer, more personal.

She didn't know what, but the Princess realized she was scratching at the scar below her eye when it started to bleed from the contact. "Damn," she hissed, wiping the blood on her finger and face away, while scowling at herself.

"Stupid, getting lost in memories you don't even have," Zelda muttered to herself. Shortly after, holding one of her cleaning wipes up to her face to help stem the bleeding (useful for monthlies, too, the woman who sold them had told her) she forced her eyes to the north.

The Ash Swamp was barely that, more a lower, puddle-rich area of the plains, but there was a rocky hill between that and another road that turned east, circling the far side of the plains, until it wended out of her sight. Another great waterfall was visible as a silver strip in the sunlight, coming down off the mountains the Slate labeled the Pillars of Levia, or perhaps Bonooru's Stand. It wasn't clear which was which, the the Stand's label was closer. That fed into a large body of water called Lake Siela, which was about five miles north of her position if Zelda was right. It was that road to the north that would, soon enough, be taking her toward Kakariko.

West of that, Mable Ridge is where Brigo had mentioned there being active Guardians. After her first abortive meeting with one while chasing phantasmal star-crystals, Zelda was in no mind to head that way any time soon.

"But there are Shrines up here," she reminded herself, looking further west. The map had shown her that she was almost directly east of the northern peak. From there, it would not be incredibly hard to reach the Shrine tucked into the ledge just below that rocky point. Or, if she used the paraglider to cross the gorge, the Shrine that sat near that mountain's top.

"Too many choices. First things first, though. I should... well, if I can reach the higher Shrine first, I'll go there. It'll be easier not having to climb the mountain five times. And faster, too."

After a delicious lunch of salted pork and herb-spiced eggs, Zelda washed it down with some lukewarm water from her skin, and moved on.

... Only to stop on the south side of that same ledge, not three minutes later. Stop was relative in this case, though. A bomb, a single one, was enough to send a plethora of gemstones raining down around the rich, glinting rocks of the rarely-climbed mountain. A pair of amber pieces from some long-dead tree's sap, two more pieces of rainbow-shining opal, and a chunk of flint as large as her hand made the princess grin widely.

Sometimes, it seemed she worked very hard for very little. At other times, she had to do almost nothing to reap a great reward.
Then again, while life wasn't always fair, it did tend to even out in the end.

From there, the Princess had to make her choice. The ledge was easily twice as high as she needed it to be to glide down to the Shrine below, even with a slight headwind from a gathering storm on the other side of the Plains that might still be at her position by nightfall.
Or... she could risk the storm, and climb higher, hoping to either be above the clouds when the storm broke around the mountain, or inside the Shrine itself. She was already tired, having been hiking mostly uphill for about five hours at that point, with a long stretch of cliff-walking to add to the abuse her body had undergone, but she wasn't fagged out quite yet. "The problem is it only gets harder from here," she murmured quietly to herself as she looked west and up. There were many patches of grass and trees that she could see, though the peak definitely had a cut-off above the tree line. That made her think it would be safe enough from the storm if she got high, but it would be a cold, cold night in the wind either way. After having just recovered from a rather severe illness, she was not eager for that or getting drenched again.

"But... I also don't want to have to climb up the whole mountain again, and I know I'll need to reach that other Shrine. I might even be able to glide downafter the storm passes, take shelter in the Shrine itself. That ledge might look precarious, but if the Shrine has been there for as long as it has, it'll hold through one more stormy night."

That was enough for the princess to convince herself. So, with a last glance downward at the spring that fed the waterfall with snowmelt, Zelda turned away from the Stables and started climbing west once more.

With no individual climb higher than forty or fifty feet, Zelda was able to make it from ledge to grassy ledge faster than she would have expected, and even startled a mountain goat on her way by as it rested among a patch of tall grass. It bounded away with a loud bleat, and the princess took a moment to watch its oddly graceful movements as it went.

It still took about three more hours, and the sun was hanging on the horizon, when Zelda finally made it to the largest ledge she had yet seen, one with two large trees actually marked on her map even with the further zoom out she could do. Her arms ached and burned, and her hands were bleeding and raw once more, but it was the last stretch of cliff she could see. At least for a bit.

Still below the tree-line, the storm was about two hours away by her guess, and dropping heavy rain on the plains once more. She was near the top of the clouds as she looked over. "Getting close... a little higher. Five hundred feet, maybe," she said between long, oxygen-hungry breaths. "Air's... getting thinner, too. More tired."

Zelda was really feeling it, but the trees were still healthy, the grass alive and lush. The paired lines of bushes that lead the way up the slope were-

Wait.

What?

Zelda's eyes narrowed. That... was not something that happened in nature. No... those bushes were made to grow where they were. Looking around, suspicion grew. Not only where there pairs of berry-laden (not edible, unfortunately, she thought) bushes in two neat rows going up the mountain, they ended at the two large trees near the ledge.

"That's definitely suspicious," Zelda murmured. She didn't see any acorns, or stumps, or pinwheels, but still... something about this place...
Unable to put a finger on what it was, Zelda resigned herself to climbing. Maybe a shift in perspective would help.

Her advice to herself was almost too on-the-nose. Following the wildflower- and bush-lined path upward along the steep mountain meadow led the princess to a trio of large, suspiciously round stones placed precariously on the edge of a slope. A slope which, if given just enough of a push, would send them rolling down, down... hopefully, she suspected, between the trees.

Grunting with effort, Zelda made her first attempt. At first, the boulder veered far to the left, completely outside the lines that, from this higher vantage, were plainly obvious. But it rolled and bounced as it gathered speed off another ridge, back and, somehow, right between the two large trees.

Only when it was too late did Zelda realize the problem. That rock would fall perilously close to... well, anyone near the Shrine.

Hopefully, no one happened to be bathing or swimming in the shallow pool as night was starting to fall.

The careless disregard for safety made her glare at the Korok that appeared, but Zelda still snatched its seed away angrily and left without a word to it.

The air was getting chill and cold indeed, the sun now half-way down or maybe a bit more. Already, her exhalations created mist as she huffed and puffed, her tired limbs very much ready for a break. But even here there was too much grass. She would be in the clouds, and far too wet to survive getting cold again. "Higher," she moaned, grabbing another pair of apples from her still too-ample supply to munch on the way. Even if she was sick of them, her body desperately needed fuel.

On her left, the Shrine across the gorge was about four hundred feet higher she thought, on a wide plateau just below the peak. Ahead, the peak of the mountain she was on was still below that plateau, she estimated a hundred and fifty or so feet higher. There was a rocky saddle she would have to cross to reach it, though, and the peak was, from this angle, narrow and thin.

"Not a safe place to rest, in other words," she muttered to herself, casting another wary glance backward. The clouds were thick and dark, looming closer than ever, and she could see the occasional flash of lightning, hear distant rumbling thunder. It would be more than just rain, then.

"I make for the Shrine then," she determined, "the higher one if I must, even if I have to climb in the dark. It's not worth backtracking several days from the Plateau just because I misjudged the speed of the storm, or how hard the climb was."

Fortunately, while some parts were still steep, Zelda was close enough to reach the narrow, rocky peak within an hour of brisk movement, forcing her body onward despite increasing fatigue. A single rock stack, four high, was left perhaps as a marker from some forgotten traveler. Zelda cast about and added another, larger one. The wind wasn't, she thought, enough to knock it over, but perhaps if the storm grew much worse it wouldn't be stable. She didn't want to spend much time on it, though, because the clouds were already over the Stable, perhaps a mile off.

She had to hurry.

Of course, as she stood up another Korok made itself known, and as its mistletoe-laden stick waved, another seed found its way into her possession.

Then Zelda turned her eyes up. The wind might help her make it to the other side of the gorge quickly, but she would have a harsh, fierce climb even from one of the ledges there, and that possibly in the rain.

Or... or she could go down.

Carefully, the princess lowered herself to her stomach and tried to hook her toes against a spur in the rock as she crept closer, snake-like. She couldn't quite see, the sun too low now, but... a darker spot? Perhaps... was that orange glow coming from the sunset, or the Shrine she had spotted?
"Either way, I'm close," she snarled, thrusting herself to her feet and scrambling back from the scary drop. "I have to either do it, risk the climb on the other side, or go back to the Bridge, at least. That's the nearest place I can find shelter. Or maybe the Bokoblin camp west of the Tower, but that's not as good as the Shrine. No... down I go. I have to try.

"It's a risk, but... I have to try."

With a deep breath to try (and fail) to calm her fears, Zelda unfurled the Paraglider in the stiff wind, and took a running leap off the mountain, out over the hundreds of feet downward the gorge represented.

It was not as bad as she had feared. Hidden from view from the east, Zelda thought as she touched down that she might have just (had her hands not hurt quite so badly) have climbed around from the saddle to reach the Shrine. But the Shee Venath Shrine took less than two minutes to reach gliding downward, so from the peak it was definitely easier that way.

Inside, out of the biting wind, Zelda felt herself much relieved. Not only was she shielded from the elements, presumably deep within a huge mountain, the puzzle presented in this particular Shrine did not seem to have any combat in mind at all.

"Twin Memories... Split apart on the Dueling Peaks. Of course." Zelda had skimmed the obelisk that gave her a clue while listening to the Sage's ancient words. The shrines being connected was hardly a mystery. Their memory being the answer to the other's question was even less of a thing to solve after that, if you had all the information.

The problem was, Zelda did not.

What she saw and did, therefore have, was simple enough. The Sage rested beyond a locked portcullis door. The chamber was wide, with twenty-five large, bowl-shaped depressions in the floor, several of which housed metallic spheres, and all of which were glowing either orange or blue. On or off, just like the Shrines, and several other switches and things I've seen inside them.

Sure enough, lifting one strangely light sphere out of its resting spot turned that bowl orange, and dropping it again turned it blue once more as the sphere settled.

Opposite the door, a hovering platform moved up and down between an access ramp and a higher, grill-catwalk. That, in turn, would provide- at least with the paraglider and some fancy maneuvering- access to the chest on a ledge otherwise unreachable.

Simple for the brain, at least her brain... but she needed to know the solution to the other's puzzle before moving these ones. "Because if I'm right, this is the solution to that Shrine's puzzle."

Zelda frowned thoughtfully as she looked them over. Thankfully, it was the matter of just a minute or two before the princess felt confident she had committed the pattern to memory. Reaching the chest took a few minutes more (and one failed try as her aching arms hadn't quite turned the paraglider fast enough), and soon she had a weapon worth losing one of her precious soldier's swords for. Another spear, longer, sharper, and yet lighter than the hooked bill Hyrule's soldiers had once carried into battle, this one had a strange, curved head that loosely resembled a flame if one squinted. It was bladed on both sides, thin and flexible, suitable for thrust or cut, or even as a way to trap an enemy's weapon or limb in the curves. Zelda tossed her worn blade down just in case she changed her mind, and hopped after it with her glider out once more before hefting and twirling the longer weapon. Its balance was impeccable as far as she could tell, the make definitely of Sheikah design if she had to guess, but it was fragile and thin, too. It might not last long... but Zelda was sure she could do a great deal of damage with it in the meantime.

Back out on the ledge a few minutes later, Zelda had one other idea that had come to her while riding the lift back up the interminably long shaft to the surface. The mountains themselves should provide some shelter from the storm, she reasoned, so if she allowed the wind to carry her west while she angled south, she may well end up a the mouth of the gorge near where Gino's hut lay. At the least, in the same forest, though on the opposite end.
If she was right about the weather, while the night would be cold and perhaps still wet, it would at least shield her from the wind's worst effects.

She hoped, anyway. That's all she had, since the Princess really did not want to sit idle in the Shrine with it uncompleted for several uncomfortable hours until the storm passed.

"Better to work for now, and let the Sages heal me like they did before," she decided, and a moment later jumped from the lower ledge, too. Besides, she thought as the wind immediately caught her, making her frail body jerk and sway in its fierce currents as the rain suddenly began to pelt her too, at least that should cure an illness I might catch as well- and I can just warp back here for some warmth if I do come down with another cold.

Thankfully, the wind, while fierce, fast, and wild enough to buffet her body, yanking her by the arms several times as it threatened to tear the Paraglider from her wrists without the safety straps, didn't carry her too far to the west. In fact, it was strong enough to keep her airborne longer than she would have thought, and Zelda touched down, breathless, and shook her arms to restore their circulation about twenty minutes later on the far side of the gorge, exactly where she wanted to be on the map... and three hundred feet higher, on the tallest of the large ledges that framed the gorge.

From there, destroying a brace of Keese on her way, Zelda easily made time to the lee side of the mountain where the rain, while still cold, near snow in fact, was falling more or less vertically without the steady wind to drive it.

An hour later, bundled up against the cold and only then starting to really get drenched, Zelda figured she was about half-way up the mountain again. It was hard to tell really, there weren't a lot of lights she could see in the stormy night, but there was enough coming off the Slate she held in one hand to keep her feet sure as long as she didn't try to hurry. And that, on the rain-slicked rocks, would have been suicide.

Then, up into the clouds once more, the rain slowly began to lessen in intensity as she climbed higher and higher. Her legs now were numb, not from cold alone but sheer exhaustion and wear, but the Princess made herself carry on and up, determined to see her task at the next Shrine through before she allowed herself to rest.

Long before the clouds broke below her, Zelda started encountering snow, and was forced to change her better grip on the rocks, slick or not, with the gloves her father's ghost had made to go along with the parka, lest she freeze. She startled another trio of Keese from their scant rest amid the upper clouds about an hour later, starlight just starting to peek through when the moisture was thinnest, and a little while later Zelda finally stepped out onto a mostly dry, rocky slope almost all the way up the mountain.

Flurries of snow still surrounded her despite being above the wind-driven clouds, carried aloft by that same unseen force. Nearly everywhere Zelda looked now, were silvery-gray pillars or oceans of airborne vapor, stirred and churned by the storm below, while the snow, lifted out of it, soon returned back downward only to be caught by yet another eddy. In the far distance, visible by star and moonlight without the clouds obscuring them, dozens of peaks shown above the clouds, far to the east, northeast, north, and west.
A short way to the northwest, though, a single, larger peak loomed: the one that held the Shrine itself. "I sure as Hylia hope you're the right one, the other Twin," Zelda muttered through clattering teeth, "because enchanted coat or not, it's freezing up here, and I don't want to do this anymore."

She might have been in good shape, of course, had her parka been dry, but she had already established it was not waterproof.

But it wasn't like she could take it back and get a better one.

Finally, with numb fingers despite her gloves, Zelda held the Slate over the pedestal, eagerly waiting the warmth inside.

In a full mirror to the Shee Venath Shrine, the Shee Vaneer had the same setup and same pedestal obelisk, only on the opposite sides from its brother. Of course, the pattern was different too, and Zelda this time, mostly just to have longer in the warm, temperate, climate-controlled air of the ancient Shrine, actually dug through her satchel for a scrap of parchment and wrote down the pattern in the spheres before adjusting their positions to match that of the first one she had seen.

With the gate open, almost as an afterthought Zelda remembered that this Shrine, too, would likely contain a treasure.

Riding the lift up and claiming it was well worth it.

Another weapon of ancient Sheikah make, this one was a single bladed sword with a six foot total length, as long as any of claymore she had wielded. The edge was curved, sharper than any razor she had seen, while the guard was an intricately-inlaid filigree of bronze and steel. The handle was wrapped in braided cloth of a soft violet color, and even the pommel, like the guard, was decorated in fine work.

Testing it as she had with the serpentine spear in the last Shrine on the larger floor below, Zelda found that, while it was long and a bit too forward-weighted for her, it was far easier to use than a standard blade of its length. Suited more for slicing than slashing motions, similar to a giant scimitar in ways, Zelda tested it further by letting one of her long, golden silk hairs rest on the blade.

Only under its own weight, she was still astonished to see the hair fall neatly into two sections. The edge on this weapon was incredible!

While the stopping power of her swords was probably still greater than her spears, Zelda had no problems losing another of the weapons to pick up this one. That meant her hook-billed soldier's spear would be her next weapon of choice, though, with this superior weapon and the spear that was its brother coming in as her weapons of last resort. They were, frankly, both too deadly and too fragile to use on a standard fight with measly Bokoblins, after all.

It was the work of about ten minutes with her tired arms and far worse legs to reposition the spheres as she still remembered from the previous Shrine, and Zelda's memory was rewarded with the gate opening smoothly. After all the work she had done thus far for these two, unscheduled Shrines, Zelda felt being forced to climb a ladder (and no doubt a second in the other Shrine) was a bit much, but thankfully that was the last trial she had to deal with.

She had not often been happier to see a corpse, but the relief the Princess felt as the Spirit Orb entered her chest was immense. Not only did it heal all her scratches, scrapes, bumps, and bruises, but it also washed away her fatigue, and even the shivering, lingering cold.

She was even breathing better.

At once, though it had been well after midnight according to the clock on her Slate, Zelda felt ready to tackle the world, much as she had when leaving the Shrine some twenty or more hours ago.

In fact, the traveling princess even had enough energy and gusto to climb to the very top of the higher peak, just to say that she had.

And while there, of course, offer an apple to match those some other kind (and far more energetic than she, Zelda decided) soul had given at a pair of Shrines there.

In retrospect, given how out of the way the small statues were, she should have expected it to be the home of a Korok.

Still, with careful aim to use the wind rather than fight it through the slowly dying storm, Zelda leaped again into the void of open space, glider high and angled to carry her as much east as north.

Somehow, perhaps through practice but as likely sheer luck, she landed on the exact ledge she wanted some fifteen minutes later.

Her arms weren't even all that tired now.

Rearranging the spheres in the Shee Venath Shrine was no harder than the last had been. In fact, given her renewed vigor and energy levels, it was far easier and quicker. And, as she was teleported once more outside the Shrine by the Sage of ages past, she performed a simple calculation. I've now got three of those Spirit Orbs. The one by the Stable should be easy enough to reach once the storm blows by, I can simply fly down from the upper Shrine. It will no doubt tire my arms, but it's quite doable I'm sure. And that'll be four- enough to visit the cathedral temple again if needed. But I really should hurry to Kakariko. It would take at least an hour to reach the Temple from any of the Shrines on the Plateau. So I suppose that can wait for now.

Zelda should have known it wouldn't be as easier as taking a nap to wait out the storm, of course.

She was simply too tired to sleep, having just had the effect of several hours of sleep twice in a row, and then some.

With little else to do, the Princess finally settled her nervous energy on pulling out a few pieces of parchment that she'd been able to scavenge, and start organizing her mental notes into a more tangible form.

Creatures, ingredients, alchemy formulas, those she laboriously entered into the data logs of the Sheikah Slate, which at least was partially designed for that purpose though its functionality seemed limited in that regard. But her memories of the people she met, the fights she had been through, her thoughts and feelings, were more carefully noted down.

If, she thought to herself with a curious mix of amusement and worry, I live long enough to write it down, this could all be an excellent tale.

Finally done, her parchment filled to bursting and her nerves slightly calmed by a cramping hand, Zelda leaned back against the walls of the Shrine and tried to sleep again.

Nope.

Four hours later, she gave up tossing and turning and, with a last glance toward the now-empty Sage's chamber, began to remove her clothes.

Running her hands over her body was pleasant, but not enough, Pinching her nipples was fun, but she wanted more.

Touching her groin as she had in the Korok's shaded grotto... ah. Yes, that would do the trick.

Again, Zelda found herself imagining Mils, Mina, and her faceless, nameless, whatever he had been to her. But this time there was more. Sagessa joined them, her body supple and graceful, sultry and blatantly sexual in a way that Zelda thought she would never be able to pull off. Only it was not Hino behind the whore, it was her nameless companion, pounding away roughly, rudely, while in her imaginings, Zelda suckled on the woman's teats like a child, caressing, and being caressed, on her back and facing the other way.

Then she was the one being pounded from behind, while Mina kissed her, and then Sagessa too, before the blue-eyed prostitute turned her lips and tongue on the princess. All the while, the man behind her, large and powerful, stroked into the princess' depths with a need and hunger that matched her own, and...

She came undone, dripping what she imagined was a bucket full of pleasure-juices onto the once sacred, locked away ancient Shrine.

While she caught her breath, breasts still swaying in post-orgasmic bliss, Zelda moaned aloud, "Why? Why am I imagining these people like... that? I suppose most people do, the need to procreate is strong, but... who is that man? Was it him behind me? Why do I dream of Mina and now Sagessa, too? I know, both are pretty, even beautiful, but... why do I dream of them like that?"

She didn't have an answer, and of course the ancient Sage was gone, if it could have answered that question anyway.

Frankly, Zelda wasn't sure anyone could.

Slowly, she cleaned her nethers of leftover stickiness, dressed herself again, and closed her eyes once more. This time, lust temporarily sated, she was able to drift off into a light, but pleasant and restful slumber.

Lured by the prospect of ore and gems, when Zelda stepped out into a crip, dry, cool morning at around nine-thirty, she opted instead to leap-frog her way down the myriad ledges than lined the gorge. Her mining hammer, while heavy, proved most useful in dislodging gems with a smash or ten, where the bombs she would otherwise have used might send her treasures flying out into the canyon. It took her nearly nine hours, even while gliding back and forth to save some time, but also hammering away and running as well, to gather everything she could. A dozen or more pieces of amber, a half-doze opal, a topaz, and even a more precious ruby added to her collection and wealth, Zelda remembered one other reason.
Somehow, amid everything else, she had missed a Shrine in the storm. A little over a third of the way up the north face of the gorge, almost directly below the Shee Venath Shrine, another one sat on a ledge she had somehow missed. Perhaps the Sheikah Slate's Shrine sensor had registered them too close together, but she must have walked straight beneath it in the rain half a week ago.

From above, it was quite easy to reach, though her arms burned again.

"No matter though," Zelda told herself, "you'll feel fine as soon as you complete it."
That, at least, had proven true with every Shrine thus far, and she had no reason to think the pattern would change.

The Ree Dahee Shrine, when she reached it, was similar to others she had seen before in a key way: It was a challenge. "Timing is Critical, huh? I suppose I will have to figure out what it means by attempting it, won't I?"

No answer came, of course, but Zelda bravely stepped forward. The Shrine's interior seemed to be a vast hall even by a true Giant's standards. The floor was invisible far, far below, if there even was one, while the ceiling was several hundred feet in the air, so far that the girders and beams across it were as thin as her fingers though Zelda knew them to be five or more feet across. The walls were the usual dark paneling, either inlaid with occasional orange constellations, or the golden scrollwork.

The features aside from that were a bit new, though. Ahead of her, on the floor at the end of a long ledge from which there was no egress, was a floor switch set up like other pressure plates she had seen. Beyond that a long, narrow ledge floated in the air, suspended by some unseen force. On its left, a single orange-ringed sphere lay half-concealed by dint of the ledge being higher, while a chute presumably fed more if she somehow did the Shrine's first challenge wrong. On that ledge's right side, a fence on the right would, she guessed, stop the ball from rolling too far. Two crystal lights on stands provided additional soft glow, and a ramp beyond moved higher to another challenge. On that lower platform at the center, between the fence and light pillars, was a wide depression much like the many in her last two Shrines had held. "So... I need to roll the ball into the bowl. Easy enough. I presume this switch will..."

Zelda rested her foot on it and pressed down. Sure enough, at once the floating ledge tilted clockwise, sending the ball into motion, pulled by gravity downward.

She could have let go as it rolled, flinging the ball upward over the lip and fence, but the thirty degree (she estimated) angle would send it right where it needed to be, so Zelda simply stood still until, ball in its slot, the platform and bowl lit up with a blue light.

At once, a part of the farther ledge, near the ramp, began to move. It was soon revealed as another floating lift, this one moving between her current position and the farther one. "Easy enough then... just don't mis-step. It doesn't wait that long, but it isn't too fast, either."

Even while riding across, she could see that the next challenge, while similar in nature, was more or less only an increase in difficulty. There were two ledges, the higher currently level, and the lower sloped downward to the left, leading to another bowl. Quickly analyzing the problem, Zelda wasted little time before setting a single foot on the ledge and pushing again.

As the two ledges moved, she waited and watched until a few moments before the ball would fall off the edge, and let go.

At once, they rotated back to their starting position, and the ball swiftly lost momentum rolling uphill. A few feet before the edge and eternal darkness below, the ball switched direction and moved, again, smoothly into the bowl waiting for it.

This time, when it did so, Zelda was already on the floating platform before it activated, taking her to the upper ledge.

There was a third challenge of course, and this one Zelda wasn't sure of the solution to right away. The puzzle itself was simple: she would simply have to 'flick' the ball with the correct timing, as she had been tempted to do the first time. But the chest... it tempted her. It floated above the elevated platform on a ledge of its own. Two barrels of something, metallic if she was guessing correctly, would provide weight to keep the ramp tilted... if she could get one here. That might be possible...
"Hm, yes, I think I can do that. I'll simply have to solve it the normal way, first."

She moved to soon on the first ball, but the second, as the previous two challenges had done, rolled in smoothly. That lift activated, Zelda stepped away from it, curious to see if the ball alone would be enough weight. Fortunately, the ramps she had passed allowed her to easily access the one from the second challenge.
No, as it turned out, that wasn't enough.
But, by leaving her precious (and now much used) mining hammer along with the previous ball, there was plenty of weight to keep it depressed. The lift now would take her straight to the the tilted ledge, and her boots had plenty of grip for the artificially-rough floor.

She wasn't even leaving it behind, because the girl could easily return, after she had the chest, and gather her hammer up again. With Magnesis, she wouldn't even have to leave the lift!

"A... Climber's Bandanna?"

Zelda looked at the piece of cloth, which was as pristine as her red, thin cotton shirt had been when she first picked it up, with astonishment. The pattern was simple, diamond-like shapes in pink and brown on a red background. The jewelry affixed to it gave off a soft glow, though, and that told Zelda easily enough that it was quite enchanted.

She was still looking at the plain-looking but very useful cloth when her Slate beeped. Picking it up to read the message, she boggled again.

Affirmative. This Bandanna was created using ancient Sheikah technomagic. The woven threads are sturdy, but also engraved with microscopic runes that, together, enhance the wearer's core strength to improve climbing ability. Furthermore, the gem attached to the side provides a thin but noticeable layer of protection against blows to the head. While it will not stop a solid strike, it will protect completely from glancing blows, and slightly slow even more powerful ones. This provides an effect similar to a leather helmet or sturdier skullcap, without adding rigidity or weight.

"Wow," Zelda exhaled, "It could use an updated color, and whoever it was built for is a size larger than my own head, but I do have more hair..."
She tied it on, then held up the Slate. "How do I look?"

She did not expect an answer from the device, and didn't get one. What she did get from the powered-down screen was a slightly muted look at her reflection.

While the scar over her face was still the most noticeable feature, the light brown brand of the triangles on her forehead caught Zelda's eye too. It was partially hidden by the bandanna now, but she was forced to wonder why no one had yet commented on it. Several had observed, or at least shot a second look at, the star-shaped scar over her left eye. But no one, not a one person, had commented on the one on her forehead except for her father and the Sheikah Slate itself.

"Odd."

Unfortunately, the princess could not devote too much time to thinking about that. So, with a sigh that was half-remorse at her damaged appearance and half pleasure at a very useful new accessory for her wardrobe, Zelda made her way back down to gather her hammer and then reach the Sage for his Spirit Orb.

A short while later, wondering idly if the repeated activation of whatever magic the Sages used to restore her to full health (and then some) might have some long-term side effects if used too often, Zelda stepped off the southern peak once more, this time heading on a direct path downward and to the northeast. Her arms were a bit tired, but nothing like she had felt after the day of hard climbing and then few hours of flying and mining both.

It was just after one in the afternoon when she finally touched down on the steps of the Ha Dahamar Shrine. Inside amid the usual architecture, Zelda found another Trial she felt suited her: "The Water Guides," she murmured.
Ahead, a long, narrow hall with a stair at the end to an unknown location. On the left half, another endless drop into nothing. On the right, a ledge filled with elevated parts, gaps, and pools. The right wall held, where there were pools or gaps, fast-flowing water like artificial waterfalls. Between the two, higher than either, a single chest sat on a tall, out of the way ledge.

Beyond all of those on the right, a wider, open area lay next to the steps. But for now, Zelda knew exactly what to do. After all, she reasoned, if Cryonis can make a block of ice appear from a lake or puddle far too small for it, it can do the same with a flow downward. Right?

The first jump and climb was child's play, as in a ten year old could have done it. Zelda, while thin and neither overly tall or muscular, did so easily. The second was a bit terrifying, having to jump onto ice (even ice with a surface that seemed uncommonly easy to grip onto) over even a narrow gap was terrifying, and the longer jump to the far ledge even worse.

After that, she was forced to turn back to reach the chest. But, by more carefully aiming, Zelda made the third and fourth, then fifth, blocks appear at a steeper grade, so that she didn't have to go over the gap unsupported at all, only climb from narrower ledges.

While the purple Rupee was not a small prize by any standard, Zelda felt it was a bit underwhelming considering even the small amount of fear she had to put up with. The endless chasms seemed almost designed to feed directly into her fear of heights, which was annoying enough out in the rest of the world.

As Zelda entered the next, wider section, she was confronted with an even larger, longer drop. This time, though, she had only to stand near the edge. On the far wall a huge cascade of water was broken only by a pair of ledges, both ramped, and a single platform with a hinge at the middle. Currently it hung to the right and down, so that the large ball that rolled eternally down into the chasm only to reappear from a chute above would, if she could get the ball there, roll into the massive bowl and open the gate to the Sage beyond.

"But it's not that easy is it," the intelligent woman murmured softly. "Because if I just use Cryonis to stop the ball over that gap and it falls, it will hit the ramp... and its weight will flip it to the other side. I'll have to stop that. That's two pillars... and I think I'll need a third, below it, to make sure the ball goes far enough to the right. Judging that might be harder, but I think I can manage. It might take a few tries, but it should work."

Not even that. Almost expertly, with one ball falling away as she aimed, Zelda dropped it between the gap with the first, held the see-saw ramp in place with a second use of the rune, and the third, where she didn't quite make the timing, rolled her second sphere since starting around the bowl, drawn inexorably toward the center.

Her path clear, Zelda soon had a fifth Spirit Orb inside her chest, warm and glowing, and filling her with renewed energy once more.

Finally, outside, Zelda saw that the stone spikes that had protected the Shrine for who knew how long had disappeared completely. The warm sun of earlier had been replaced by clouds scudding across the sky, but there was no sign of a storm yet. With that information in mind, her body brimming with the need to move, Zelda opted to simply skip the Stable completely. She had delayed long enough, it was time to go to Kakariko.

With a spring in her step not entirely related to the orbs, though she couldn't have said precisely why, the princess' steps turned north.