Chapter 8: With Those Who Know Secret Things
The problem with reading all day was just how terribly difficult it could be. Day after day, Zelda would lay on her bed until her back grew stiff, so she moved to her desk until she needed to stretch out her back. And back to the bed she went, each time wasting valuable time to find a comfortable position. Sprawling on her back with the book over her head, twisting to flip through pages on her side, propping herself up on pillows with a scroll on her lap.
Thankfully, she removed most other distractions. Starting with her tutors.
"This is not close to what we're supposed to cover today." Sister Fellitia chastised.
"Why are you wasting your time on these old legends? How will this help you manage a household, much less a kingdom?" Sir Espard asked.
"While I admire your dedication to history and the goddesses, perhaps we should focus your efforts on the more practical?" Master Norworth mused.
When she had quite enough of their disruption, Zelda challenged each of them to try and stump her with questions they thought she wouldn't know. She bested them all in less than an hour each. As her reward they left her alone, though Sister Fellitia still visited every few days. Zelda believed because her father ordered the nun to do so. But for now, she had time to read.
The last and greatest of the gifts Nayru, Farore, and Din gave to us they gave no name. For it formed when the Three Goddesses departed this world to spread life and blessings throughout the stars. Three triangles as gold as the goddesses themselves and touched by their power. Scholars have taken to calling it the Triforce.
"Yes, I know," Zelda muttered to the book. Everyone with any education at all knew of the Triforce. Bishops spoke of it in their sermons, bakers sold cakes shaped like it during the sky festival each year. The Crest of the Royal Family - her family - had the Triforce emblazoned above a stylized eagle.
She skimmed the next few paragraphs and found nothing new. Just the same dribble she heard all her life. To await an honorable bearer who must possess a courageous spirit, a wise mind, and the power to control it in equal measure. A warning that not having such would cause the ancient artifact to split apart.
How did that work? How could someone compare their courage to their wisdom? And power couldn't be counted and balanced like rupees against the others.
It sounded like nonsense.
And so the sages locked the Triforce away until it was next needed.
"Where?" Zelda yelled at the book. "Is it so hard to write down a straight answer?" She put her hand on the page to keep her place and then shut the book, searching for the author on the cover. "Siroc! Well? Is it?"i
But the book kept its arrogant silence even against her fiercest glares. Sighing, she reopened the book, and was only a little disappointed it had not changed its text to her satisfaction.
She flipped through a few more pages before she stopped at something new: an illustration of a door, thick and chiseled from stone. A sphere stood three-quarters of the way up the door, with wings and beams of sunlight radiating from it.
Above the sphere three colored stones were given a great deal of detail by the illustrator. One green, one blue, and one red. Each with gold inlay, the green stone had gold spun around like a branch of a tree, the blue with gold binding it together, and the red had it surrounding its back and base like a throne. Beneath the sphere lay an inscription in Old Hylian. Zelda squinted at the image.
She had learned the rudiments of Old Hylian years ago, but it wasn't something she used with any frequency. She had to work her way through each of the words, to get their meaning.
You stand here at the precipice of Time and the Sacred Realm.
She looked back at the last page, then the ahead to the next. "What is it?" she again asked the book. And just as before the pages refused to answer. It just skipped from the illustration to something completely different, a retelling of the descent of the kingdom in the sky and the fall of demons.
Zelda slammed the book shut. "On Hylia's crown! You're useless, Siroc!"
The door. No, she had read something about a door. Where? She rolled off her bed and went to the books from the day before, left in a pile by her door for Impa to return. Which one mentioned a door? Vespard? Or was it Minister Portho? Definitely Portho. She slid his book out from the pile and flipped to the middle.
The Door of Time became the foundation of the First Temple. Long have I sat staring at its design, enjoying the company of sages tasked with safeguarding its secrets.
The First Temple. An interesting name, was it meant to be literal? The first temple ever made? The first temple to Hylia? Or perhaps of the Golden Three?
But Minister Portho did not explain further. Only the scribbling of a simple tune filled the lower edges of the page. Written in a different hand to Portho. Perhaps some bored monk filling time.
A Song of Time and Revelation
For whatever reason, Zelda found herself staring at the spread of notes. As if it called to her. When she tried to turn the page, she stopped, and went back to focusing on the wordless song.
"It's not healthy," a deep voice from the hall broke her from her concentration. "A girl her age should be out playing, enjoying the sun, giving me ulcers when she asks questions about boys."
"If you remember, sire," Impa said in an even tone. "You're the one who decided to lock her in her room."
"But I didn't expect her to enjoy it," he father sighed. "How is she? Sister Fellitia near pounded my door down when Zelda dismissed her. I couldn't tell if she was more angry or proud of her student. And Norworth tried to take credit for Zelda's quick study as his doing, to gain favor and more rupees for himself."
"She's well, but perhaps it would be best if you went in and spoke to her, instead of looming out in the hall to ambush me at her door."
"Hmmph," her father mumbled. Zelda found herself waiting at the door for his response. She had not seen her father for the last several days, outside of making appearances during meals. And even then they acted cold toward each other. "No," he said. "If I order her out of her room, she'd just hate me more. I can't - just follow your best judgment, Lady Impa."
Impa gave that long drawn out sigh she always made when she disapproved. "As always, my king."
Zelda opened the door. "I can hear you."
Her father looked down at her, his jaw set. "Princess."
"Your grace," she met his glare with her own. They'd played this game many times, and she knew she could win.
They did not match scowls for long. All too quick he nodded to her and Impa, and turned back down the hall, heading down the stairs. Likely returning to his personal study.
"May the Three save me from stubborn royalty," Impa muttered just loud enough for Zelda to hear as she entered the princess' room with four new books.
"I heard that too."
The Sheikah sighed. "My apologies, but every day you become more like your father."
"No I don't! I'm nothing like him. Everyone says I favor my mother."
"Then everyone is a fool. You have her hair and perhaps her wit. But your heart? I knew Queen Zelda for three days and I could tell you she was a conciliator to her bones. You and your father would rather be right and miserable than than accept that sometimes you must apologize for your mistakes."
"But I am right."
Impa gave her a withering look. One Zelda had seen her guardian use to cow full grown knights. Unlike her father's glares, Zelda knew that she wouldn't win this game. She averted her gaze.
"Where do you want these?" Impa broke her silent chastisement.
"Over by my bed, please. Did they find it?"
"No," Impa said as she put her books down. "Sir Mesihoff, his squire, and all the library attendants helped me scour the entire library, including the back rooms no one uses. The Songs and Prophecies of Nayru weren't there. Only Mesihoff had even heard of such a book, and he thought it was a legend. One of the Golden Three leaving behind a book of sayings? Seems unlikely."
"It's real. It's been referenced by other texts half a dozen times. King Gustaf wrote an entire chapter dedicated to his finding of it, and placing it in the most well-guarded library in all of Hyrule."
"Then perhaps that does not mean the Royal Library?"
"What other library is protected by the greatest warriors in the kingdom? What other library is safe behind the walls of a castle?"
"I don't know. Perhaps it was here, but the words of the divine come and go as they wish."
"That's…" Zelda hadn't considered that. Could the Goddesses do that? If they created everything the eye could see and populated the world with their people, why couldn't they move a book? That would make tracking it down near impossible. Why couldn't anything be simple? "I have to find it. It's the most important book in the world."
"I will instruct Sir Mesihoff to keep looking. Though we were quite thorough, I doubt he'll find anything."
Zelda picked up the first of the new books Impa brought her. Heaving the ponderously large tome to her bed, on the brown leather cover it had a gilded script that read The Musings and Wisdoms of the Most Illustrious Vaati the Wind Sorcerer, by the Most Illustrious Vaati, Himself.
She flipped through the first few pages and frowned. "I read this already. No. He just copied Master Ezlo's treatise word for word here." She skipped a few more pages. "And this is from Minister Potho!"
"Do you have an answer for your father?" Impa interrupted her reading.
"Answer for what?"
"Finally, something she doesn't know. I must go inform your tutors at once."
"Impa."
Zelda's governess chuckled to herself. "Sorry, princess, I thought you heard our entire conversation. A messenger of the Gerudo arrived this morning. Tomorrow their king will return from the hunting trip. Your father wishes to know if you are ready to make a formal apology to King Dragmire."
"Why can't that man just stay away?"
"I believe it's to hash out the details of their aqueduct project. You should take part."
"Did the king ask for me, directly?"
Impa sighed. "Not in so many words. But you must know he does."
"Hmm," Zelda turned back to her new book. Skimming over the plagiarized words of self proclaimed 'Most Illustrious' Vaati. If she said yes, she'd need to make a formal apology and in so doing she'd show support for the treaty and the Gerudo. If she said no, she'd look the worst sort of spoiled child. Just as stubborn as Impa thought. Could she use the apology to get close to the Gerudo King? Perhaps close enough to figure out what he planned? Spying on him hadn't worked.
Was the barbarian foolish enough to reveal his plans in conversation? He'd outmaneuvered her once already.
As she worked through the problem, she kept reading. But her eyes caught on a phrase.
Upn the clearing of the lands of Greater Hyrule of the scourge of the Demon Tribe. The people of the skies descended. And where my daughter reunited with him and together they set foot upon the opened land.
And where she stepped they built a Door in dedication of the Goddesses. Which became the foundation of their temple.
My daughter. Vaati wrote about events that occurred thousands of years before he could possibly have been born. He couldn't have a daughter. Zelda's eyes went wide. His daughter. The legends spoke of Gaepora the First Scholar. But his works had been lost during a raid on Castle Town a hundred years ago. Had Vaati read them? Copied the accounts of Gaepora and passed their information as his own? Was this comment about his daughter a mistake, left over from the original?
How much more of the original text could she uncover from him?
"Princess, as much as I enjoy watching nothing happen. Do you have an answer for your father?"
"I…" She couldn't stop now. "Tell the king I shall never apologize to that thug."
"Very well, your highness."
"Impa," Zelda looked up from her book to her governess already half out the door. "When you return, could you bring me maps of Hyrule? And Castle Town and the surrounding areas. All that we have, especially the oldest."
"Princess, I am going to tell your father your decision like a common courier. If you want more books today, do as your father says: leave your room and get them yourself." And with that Impa shut the door.
It had taken a day and a half to go through all the maps and descriptions of Castle Town she could find in the oldest sections of the library. After that she just had to wait. Supper was called, some servants brought her a meal, Impa kissed her on the forehead and went to go eat with everyone else.
They weren't locking her in her room anymore, apparently they trusted that she wouldn't be an issue since she was staying inside on her own accord. More fool them. She devoured the meal as quick as she could and headed out into the halls with a great grey cloak over her. From there it was an easy enough path out of the castle.
An open window wide enough for her to squeeze through led straight out onto the road that passed by the east entrance to the castle. Weston and Borra stood watch at the gate, and they were easy enough to distract. One gold rupee passed to a kitchen hand with the direction to deliver the two food. Zelda made certain a servant named Selli brought them the food. Borra fancied her, and that would get the two talking for awhile.
All she needed to do was wait until the distraction arrived. Then she could walk straight passed the guards with no one the wiser while they took a quick break to eat and talk.
From there she walked down to Castle Town. The largest city in Hyrule and yet it kept the name Town from its earliest days. And that was not all it kept. It was said that Castle Town held the history of Hyrule in its bricks and stones, and after Zelda pored over the maps for the last day she believe them.
So many buildings she passed her entire life and never once had she stopped to consider the history of them. The bank she passed had once been a slave holding pen. A disgusting practice her kingdom was well rid of. The main marketplace moved near a mile from its origins over the centuries, shifting as the city grew. The most expensive and elegant inn that overlooked the eastern part of the city had once been a soldier's barracks.
But in all those changes, and all those buildings that developed over the centuries there was one that didn't change at all.
The temple was not particularly large, as temples go. The Temple of Hylia that she and her father patroned was by far the grandest in the city. Its facade dripped with color and decorations, with towers and spires that brought awe to all who beheld it.
This temple of the Three Golden Goddesses had the large doors, and solid stonework and even a steeple of a normal temple. But it was smaller, older, less elaborate in its design. With two stained glass windows, one on each side, obviously a new edition to the building.
Zelda walked up to the doors and knocked. After waiting some time, she knocked again. She did not bother to knock a third time. She was, after all, still a princess. And a single unlocked door would not get in the way of what she wanted.
She heaved at the massive wooden door. Shoving and grunting for every foot. "Hello?" she called once she got the blasted thing open. All doors should have guards to open them for her. Especially the heavy ones. She wiped some sweat from her brow as she entered the temple. "Is someone here?"
Nothing moved inside, except the flickering candles beneath the statues of the Golden Three. Din had the most, as usual. It seemed everyone wished to become more powerful. Farore had a decent amount, there were always people asking for the courage to face some difficult task. But of the three, Zelda always favored Nayru, Goddess of Wisdom, and her statue only held one candle beneath it.
That just wouldn't do. Zelda picked up one of the unlit candles from the wooden tray that stood between the statues. She lit the wick with the other candle then placed hers beside the first. She stepped back and knelt before the statue.
"Great Goddess Nayru, who's wisdom surrounds the world like the mighty oceans. I kneel before you, begging your guidance. An evil man wishes to subvert your will. I think I have him figured out, but I need to find your words. The Songs and Prophecies you left before you departed. Please let it be here, let this be the Temple of Time, and the most protected library in the world."
She bowed her head to finish the prayer before she stood back up. Now to see if my suspicion is correct. She went to the back of the chancel, past the statues to where the priests usually gave their sermons. A door stood in the corner, closed but not locked.
"Hello?" she tried again as she opened it and stepped into the hall behind. Four doors, two on each side stood before her, and past them a great stone wall.
She opened the closest of the doors. "Hello?" Nothing but a pitch black room, but it seemed to be a rather large passage, where the light from the hall entered she saw the edge of a table with a bowl placed atop it. This must be where the priests ate or prepared food for themselves.
The next door on that side of the hall proved not to be very big at all. A closet with a broom, bucket, and some bowls with grimy looking cleaning cloth atop them. She was about to go back up the passage to open the doors on the other side when she stopped. The temple wasn't particularly big, she knew. But it was bigger than this.
She moved to the wall at the back of the room. She pushed against the stones. It felt solid enough. But as she looked over the stones it didn't seem right. There. As close to the edge of the wall as they could get it, for a natural disguise. A simple straight line where the edges of the stones aligned. On a real wall that would be a pointless weakness, but what if it was a door?
Pressing on each of the stones, she tried to see if she could loosen any of them or push anything in. None felt any different, even those near the top she needed to jump to reach. No sign of any hidden trigger.
It had to be something else. A password, maybe? "May the Three grant me entrance?" She asked the door. It didn't move. "I seek the Door of Time."
This was pointless, she couldn't just guess at what combination of words would open a door. She'd be here until the Goddesses returned. It had to be something. She thought back on all the books and scrolls she read that made mention of the Temple or the Door. "You stand here at the precipice of Time and the Sacred Realm?"
Still nothing. "Hylia's crown." She paced in front of the door. "Just open up, door!" What else could she try? There had to be something more, something she missed. Any other hint hidden within Vaati's work?
Of all the things, the scribbled little tune written at the bottom of the page came to her mind. "That can't be it," she muttered. But, she didn't have any other ideas. Why not give it a try? It couldn't hurt.
"Ahhh-" she sang a note, it sounded terrible. "No that's not it. Ah-hah-ha. No." She took a breath, and tried once more. Visualizing everything about the page and the song. Her voice was shaky and uneven, but she hit the notes.
Nothing. Thank the Goddesses no one had been here to witness that.
A note sounded. The same one she tried to sing. But clear and beautiful. Other notes matched it, three female voices sang in perfect harmony. A simple tune that reached through Zelda and lodged itself in her soul. Then they stopped singing and three instruments took up the song. First an organ forming a strong foundation, then the soft twang of a harp, and last the winds of some kind of flute or pipe.
The music came from nowhere, and everywhere. It filled her ears and made her think of the long march of eons. Of the sorrows of death as time ground down, but of birth and growth as well. Of the continued circle of the world and its people. Of growth and change and stagnation. Of everything.
Then one of the voices returned to her, not quite singing but warm and well-spoken. Like a scholar or grammarian getting each syllable perfectly timed and keyed. "Enter, my precious gift."
The stone door creaked open and revealed a stairway down and a light well below her. Her eyes went wide and a small giggle escaped her lips before she could stop it. She got it right! She figured it all out!
Of course, she got it right. As if she could get this wrong. She almost skipped down the stairs before she remembered her station. A princess should not skip, not when she was about to make the greatest discovery of her life.
The stairway spiraled down, well below a floor or even two. But eventually she came to its end in another passage. This basement was old, the floor had a groove in it down the middle where millions of steps over thousands of years ground away the stones. Several braziers stood along the ground but the light in them did not come from flame. Unnatural light of green and red and blue lit up the room.
And all the lights led toward a door. A massive stone door that looked exactly like the illustration from Siroc. Only where in the illustration sat three colored stones along the top, there now had only three empty circular slots.
As she drew closer to the door the three voices returned. Quiet this time, but just as beautiful. Growing louder with each step. Until all that she could see was the door and all she could hear was singing. And the feeling that came from it.
Of all things it reminded her of the dark energy that surrounded Ganondorf. But where his made Zelda feel an uneasy foreboding, this was delight. This was when Impa hugged her tight, or when her father used to watch her play when she was a child. This was if everything she ever wished to learn was right at her fingertips. All she had to do was open the door.
Her hand reached out for it. She closed her eyes, and let the singing surround her.
Something grabbed her hand and yanked her. She opened her eyes to see a balding sweaty man with a hug mustache that hung around the side of his face until it met his sideburns. "Are you deaf, child?" The chubby man said. "How did you get down here?"
Zelda pulled her hand free of him. "Do not touch me."
"Then don't enter places you don't belong. How did you get down here?"
"I-" The singing was gone. She looked back at the door and there was nothing. Not the feeling of warmth, not the music. Just a regular -if admittedly rather large and ornate– door. "I came to find a book. One that I am certain is under your protection."
"A book," the old man said. "My child, go back upstairs. Forget you saw this place and go home. Return in the morning and I will help you look for a book."
"No. I need to find the Songs and Prophecies of Nayru, Now!"
The old man stopped. "I… I've never heard of such a book."
"Don't lie to me." Zelda said. "It has to be here. I consulted every book in the library. The most protected place in the world. I read every map of Castle Town. I've looked up the records of fires and floods and every other sort of disaster. Even what was destroyed when Castle Town was raised a hundred years ago. This temple always stands here. This must be it. It has the Door!" She gestured toward it.
"Do you know what that door is?"
"The Door of Time," she waved away his question.
The slightest smile twisted the old man's wrinkled face. "And how did one so young get an interest in such things?"
"I don't have time to answer your questions. I need to find the book."
The man frowned, as if deep in thought. He took far too long to respond. "First point, the Songs aren't a book. They're a set of scrolls. Second point, we do not house the scrolls."
"Then where are they!"
"They were here, centuries ago. Until the Interloper War, one of our order joined those who rose in rebellion against the throne and stole the scrolls away. My predecessors hunted him down, of course. But when they found him, he no longer held them." He shrugged. "Wherever they went, they did the Interlopers no good. It is believed that they were lost somewhere along the way."
"No!" Zelda shouted. It had all been for nothing. All her research, everything she had worked for that brought her here and she still had nothing to show for it. What good was a door that could not be opened?
"What is wrong, my child?"
"I'm not the only one after them! The Gerudo King, he knows everything I know. And he's circling around. If he hasn't figured out the Door is here, he will soon enough."
"The Gerudo King already visited us. Days before he went on his hunt. He found nothing, and if he had reached down here as you, he would be just as disappointed. The Scrolls of Nayru are not here. There was a rumor that they had been uncovered by Queen Zelda before she… I am sorry, princess. That was tasteless of me."
Zelda frowned. "How do you know I'm Princess Zelda?"
The man gave her a quizzical look then burst into a laugh that caused his gut to shake "Your highness, who else could you possibly be? What other eleven year old girl would dare barge into a temple, uncover secrets centuries in the keeping, and then make demands as if she was in charge? That cloak can hide your hair, but not who you are."
Zelda felt her neck grow hot. That was it. Being discovered by a barbarian king infamous for his own deceit and cunning was one thing. But when some old man who she had never met before could discover her just as easily, she clearly needed to get Impa to teach her how to actually hide herself. "Finish your thoughts. I have had many years to deal with the grief of my mother's loss."
"It was nothing, there was a rumor that she and her personal guard found Nayru's scrolls just before she defeated the Gerudo King. But after the battle all her belongings were brought to the capital and it was not among them. It was only a rumor, there have been hundreds over the years. Of great men and women who find some lost artifact of the goddesses only to lose it again before anyone can verify them. They are to be investigated, and once the investigation is over, they are to be ignored."
Zelda's mouth fell open with realization. "He must have them." It was the only thing that made sense. That was why that brute could stay one step ahead of everyone. That must have been what her mother was defending at Kakariko. That must have been what Ganondorf had wanted so badly that he nearly doomed his army. The only reckless action he took in the entire war. He got them and he retreated. He didn't care if he lost a battle. The monster wouldn't care about any of it. He just wanted the scrolls and he got them. Zelda paced in front of the door and the priest. "Ganondorf has them! The Scrolls of Nayru, he has them! He has them!"
The priest stepped back. "Princess? What are you-"
"Shush, I'm thinking." If he had them already, why didn't he already implement his plan? It must not have everything in them then. Just enough for him to get his plan started. He needed to find the Door first. And of course he did, right under the nose of the priest. He found this temple and the Door then he went on his hunting trip.
Why?
What did the hunting trip do? It got him away from Hyrule, and it was an excuse to have none of the Hylian Knights and attendants with him. Just his loyal servants, who would follow him even into perdition. And what did he return with? The stones to open the Door of Time? That's the obvious answer. But if he did get them, why didn't he just march straight here and open the Door?
"You, priest."
"Rauru, if it pleases, your highness."
"Rauru then. What protection does this Door have on it?"
"In truth, no one else had ever gotten this far, your highness. I know that there are powerful magics in place to keep the Door safe. There is a reason why this Temple has survived so long untouched as you discovered yourself. But beyond that it is difficult to say. To most the wall upstairs will not open, even if they did know the order of levers."
"Order of levers? You mean the song."
"I beg your pardon, your highness, but I do not. To open the door requires one to move several items in the nearby rooms in a specific order. If you don't, then even if the wall was smashed down there would not be a stairwell. Only a small gap between the stones of the room and the outer wall." He rubbed his chin. "What do you mean, song?"
"I didn't fiddle with any levers. I didn't even go in any of the rooms. I just sang a song. And then I heard three voices continue the song and, well, the door opened for me."
"Three voices," Rauru sounded as though he was going to choke. "Can you describe them?"
"Not well. They sounded female, and it was beautiful. I had never heard such music before. The way their voices blended together then drifted apart again. I can't believe you didn't hear it, they were so loud."
Zelda did not like the way the old priest looked at her. He trembled, his shoulders visibly shaking. "What else?" his voice was a whisper.
"One of them said, something like, 'Enter my precious gift.' I thought this was it. This was the gift. As if they were giving me entrance, or something." In truth she hadn't thought too much about it. She had been more focused on her discovery.
"No, your highness," Rauru said. He reached out to her, his hand shaking even more than the rest of him. But he stopped just short of touching her. "You are the gift." His hand dropped to his side. He turned away from her, and he wrapped his arms around him.
"What does that mean?" She wasn't a gift. Her own father refused to speak with her. She'd angered her only real friend with how stubborn she had been. Spoiled brat was a description she had heard more than one servant whisper when they thought she couldn't hear. "Rauru, I am speaking to you!"
The man released himself from his self embrace, and stood up tall. He turned back around and wiped at his eyes with a finger. "I never thought it would be my lifetime. I had hoped - but, no not even hoped. I had the foolish dreams of a child who wished to live in interesting times. O Goddesses, I don't know if I'm worthy."
"Worthy for what?"
He took her hands and stared directly into her eyes. It was uncomfortable, but she did not feel endangered by the man's familiarity. "Princess Zelda, you are one of the Chosen. Follow me." He released her and bound away.
"The Chosen? What am I chosen for?"
But the old priest had already walked to the stairs. But instead of going up them he moved around into a back room that she had not even noticed when she entered. "Hurry Princess. There is so much I need to show you."
"You can start by just telling me what's going on." She raced after him.
He moved quick for a chubby old man, he seemed to bounce with every step with a nervous excitement. In the back room was another small hall, this time with only one additional door. Rauru stopped at it, pulled out a key he had hanging from a string around his neck and with a click of the lock, opened the door.
What lay inside took Zelda's breath away. That transcendent sense of magic fell over her again, not quite like the door or Ganondorf, each weaker. Far weaker. But they all came together with different feelings and senses. A heart-shaped purple mask that crackled with madness. A golden harp that seemed to sing in her head with its own wondrous voice. A silver bow and arrows that shone with the light of the sun. And so many scrolls and books, her eyes searched each of them. They had titles she had never heard before, and each was placed on an individual desk, all cleaned spotless. Untouched by ravages of time. Magic all of it pure magic. All calling to her.
"What is all this?"
"Did you think one set of scrolls and a door were the only things worth protecting here?" Rauru said. "Chosen of the Goddesses, I believe it is past time we begin your education."