The Legend of Zelda: Goddess of Secrecy

Dungeon Chapter 40 - Stonewall Prison

...of the Stonewall Prison. The moans petered out a bit around them, and suddenly, the room was unsettlingly quiet. Link pulled to a halt beside Parijan, looking down into the depths of the prison. It didn’t really need to be tall. The building sunk deep into the earth already. Despite the simple purpose, the prison was extremely complex, with layers and layers of passages and cells. Then again, perhaps the purpose of a prison was more complex that Link was thinking.

Link looked up above them. Two large slabs stood intact, acting as a roof of sorts against the winds. Sand trickled down through the slit between the two occasionally, before dropping down into the ravine below.

“What would those slabs...why would they build slabs into the roof instead of a solid roof?” Link asked, reworking his question to avoid Parijan’s wrath.

Parijan kept looking down. No doubt she was trying to sense Dabir in the dungeon. She answered without moving, “Probably to let light in.”

Link thought for a moment, before looking down into the pit once more with Parijan. Endeavor and Daniel trotted up behind them, their horses’ hooves echoing throughout the building. He squinted hard, focusing on the far distant floor. Sand didn’t appear to be stopping on it. It looks like...there was some great set of bars that allowed the sand to fall through.

“I wonder what’s beneath that grate…” Link muttered to himself.

The Gerudo’s eyes widened. “Dabir’s down there!”

“He is?” Daniel asked, joining them on the edge.

Link looked at the grate and then back up at the slabs. Endeavor seemed to be following Link’s train of thought. “We should attempt to bring light to this place once more. Perhaps it will bring a happier memory to this place.”

“That’s why that thing sent the storm!” Parijan roared. “It doesn’t want us to get light into the building. It must open the path to the temple.”

“Then something will be waiting for us there,” Endeavor noted.

“And the path up must be locked,” Daniel stated, almost obviously.

Link looked down. The answer was almost definitely beneath them. Epona snorted, her energy lost at the sight of the unnerving passage below.

“Who are you, Mister?”

The voice was piercing and hauntingly high. Link turned and saw a child sitting on the railing to the left of him. Link swallowed, noting a bright red-

“Mister?”

Link blinked back to attention. He pat Epona and dismounted. The horse whinnied nervously as Link walked over. Parijan tensed beside him, which sent a shiver down Link’s spine. She could sense it too.

“My name’s Link,” he said as he reached the child. He remembered Endeavor’s warning, but he wanted desperately to believe that this child wasn’t evil.

“Like the Hero?” the child asked. Link nodded. “Are you a hero then?”

“I’m trying my best to be,” Link answered.

“Why did this happen to me?” the child asked. Link swallowed hard, wishing for any other question but that. He had no more of an answer than they did.

Link managed, “I-I-I I don’t know, but I want to fix it.”

This surprised the child. It was hard to tell whether it was a little boy or a little girl. It looked human enough, but the features kept changing. “You...you want to fix it?”

“I’d like to. Do you know how?” Link asked.

The child gazed up at the ceiling. “I’m the only one...I never lost my mind...not like the others. My...he...he was the a Sage. He tried to cast the dark lady out, the one who did this. He stayed here, with me, he wouldn’t leave me. I wanted to protect him...but I was…”