LoZ: Seal of the Spirit

Standing at the precipice of the ancient structure, Jeff was damp with sweat from the hot desert sun, and intrigued by the vast size of the seemingly untouched structure before them, which stood in stark contrast with the almost non-existent remains of small wooden structures they had just seen on their way in.

He thought at first that it had been some kind of coliseum, as the size and layout of the central building would suggest, but found that the more they explored the ruined insides of the building leading up to the central area, the more confused he got.

There were many barred cell doors, most of them completely rusted over and broken down, with one or two intact bars here and there, he turned to his father, who was enthusiastically examining every detail of the barred doors, and said "Dad… was this some kind of prison?" he nodded, saying "Yes, son, that's exactly what it was. Though I've yet to find markings over the cells matching the usual ancient pattern of identifying what the criminal was there for…"

Examining them himself, he said "Maybe they were all here for the same thing… like all the traitors or something… seems like a good place to keep them… the middle of a barren, seemingly endless desert…" His father nodded a little to himself, saying "That may explain it… but usually there's a small marking showing what became of each prisoner…" continuing to look, he said, analyzing the small pores in the rock "Maybe they used to be where one of these holes is…" this time, his father shook his head "No… the markings would not have been that small…" as he continued looking around, he knew better than to ask questions. Archeology was his father's life, and he specialized in this particular patch of desert, so he knew pretty much everything there was to know about the ancient desert people, which he said were called Gerudo.

Coming from the city built over what had once been a small village in those times, he had been brought up to know whatever he could about history, and the same words always came up no matter what document of Hylian history he read, 'Hero of…' which seemingly always referred to the same person but with multiple titles, since every one of them seemed so similar. He had wished to meet this person for the longest time, until he had grown up a little and realized it would be quite impossible.

After their examination of the small cell block, they continued to make their way through the ruined structure, though his father didn't seem to want to stop for anything else along the way, as if he was being drawn to the central area of the structure. He was personally quite surprised that the structure was still so intact despite hundreds of years of corrosion and wear, though it was the inside they were examining, and so there was no wind to damage it, no sand blown into it, and completely untouched by a hand, be it hylian or human, at least until now, as it was considered a taboo structure by every book he had ever read on the desert.

Now exiting the stone corridors of the structure, the two of them found themselves standing on the stone steps leading up to the central structure. "Dad… why are we here? Every book I read…" at which his father interrupted, a serious look on his face "…says 'do not approach or enter' I know. We're here because we're going to study it, as there are some things that no one would write, and the secrets lying at the heart of this place are some of those things… which is why I'm going to look around…"

As they both went into the central area, he looked around at the corroded bars and stone in the structure, saying "Umm... why is there a giant stone in the middle of the coliseum dad?" he looked back at him with the same enthusiastic smile as he had worn in the cells, "That's one of the reasons we're here, to find why things are as they are… for example" pointing over at a sword stabbed into a stone platform a couple feet above the ground "why is that sword there? It could be anywhere, but someone chose to place it there. We're here to learn why they chose that."

Going with him up the few corroded or just plain missing steps, Jeff examined the sword closely. It seemed remarkably intact after hundreds of years of being stuck in that rock, the small bulges in the handle still well outlined, as were the curved sides of the handle which kept the hand from sliding onto the blade. "Whoa… that's a fancy sword… must have been used for some ceremonial purpose…"

His father turned to him again, saying "Son, that sword's as old as this building, and yet barely a speck of rust. You know why?" he shook his head "Because that sword was forged using ancient techniques that a smith these days could only dream about… such knowledge we could gain if we only knew how to see the story this blade could tell us… it was used, most likely, for executions if this place was indeed a prison…"

While he continued examining it, his father took off to go look at something else in the building, being like a kid in a candy store on these kinds of journeys. He decided to see if it could still handle combat, as he had learned that the best way to learn from a weapon was to handle it, use it in combat, or practice if there was no opponent.

Dislodging the ancient blade from the stone was difficult, as it still fit perfectly, he felt as if the blade itself was resisting his efforts to remove it, but eventually, he managed to get it out, the blade now shining brilliantly in the sun, as if waiting to be removed.

He also got a strange, warm feeling out of the amulet that his father had brought him back from one of his expeditions, with the seal of two curved teardrop shapes forming a circular pattern. "Odd…" looking now at the massive rock ahead of him, he walked over to it, seeing a single engraved symbol now, that he had seen in practically every history book he'd ever read. It was the symbol of the triforce, central to the ancient hylian religions, though no one really followed them now, instead believing in a monotheistic system.

Looking at the ancient symbol engraved in the stone, he noticed a mark in the middle triangle, the one which did not represent anything, and he thought it had been scored by sand or one of the smaller rocks scattered around the base.

Unable to reach it with his hands, he touched the scoring with the tip of the blade, which caused the triforce seal to begin to glow an orange color, and he said "Umm… dad…" as he began to feel all tingly, as he turned upon seeing the glow coming from both the amulet and the stone, which now had a large orange circular tunnel entrance "What did you do?!" he shouted, but before Jeff could even shout "I don't know!!" he had disappeared into the orange vortex…