Summary: Mipha and Link seek to recover the third gem while striving to keep it from Queen Sopha.

Purah's Sheikah Slate showed a message.

Doing fine, but our investigation continues. Give our love to Tila and Tidon. We miss them.

"That's interesting," thought Purah as she read the reply to her message, a message she had deliberately baited with false children's names. Her suspicions were correct. Link and Mipha were not sending her messages, but someone was pretending to be them. The sender had been overconfident and had not learned the names of their children. What did this mean? It meant someone had taken the Sheikah Slate from Link. But the person replying wanted to keep up the appearance that Link was still sending messages. So they had a reason to prevent Link from sending a message, yet were concerned about what might happen if it was learned he was not the one sending them. Perhaps they were concerned about help being sent? In any case, this left no doubt Mipha and Link had encountered civilization advanced enough to use a Sheikah Slate. And she feared it also meant they were in trouble. She needed to think about what to do next.

Meanwhile, Mipha and Link made their way slowly down the long stairwell into the depths of the ancient structure. The steps were old and broken, so they walked carefully, Link taking Mipha's hand. When they reached the bottom, it was as the guard described. The walls contained a ribbon of luminous stones that illuminated the passageways. The only direction led to the room straight ahead of them, and Link slowly stepped forward into it. It was empty, save for a large flat pedestal in the center. The dust on the floor revealed several sets of footprints, some ending at the doorway ahead and others returning to the entrance.

"Presumably, those footprints are from Queen Sopha's subjects who attempted to enter here," said Link. "We need to be careful. I will be the first to enter any rooms from now on. And let's keep out of a direct line of sight of any doors. I wouldn't expect there to be any living enemies here since this structure is so old, but there may be traps. Fi, I assume you will warn me of any danger?"

"Most certainly, Master. Your safety is my reason for being."

Link approached the pedestal and wiped off the dust on top. There was a stone tablet on top with a message inscribed on it, but the letters and language were foreign to him, and he could not read a single word. But Fi could.

"Master, I will translate this for you," said Fi. "It is in an ancient dialect and claims to be written by the person who hid the gem. The translation is as follows."

My name is Lantor, and I write this for you who seeks the sacred gem hidden within. In my lifetime, our land was plagued by monsters of many kinds, and like many, then I prayed for relief. And the Goddesses answered our prayers, but not by destroying the monsters. Instead, they gave us the means to do so ourselves if we had the will. By the blessings of Farore, Din, and Nayru, I was granted the honor of holding three sacred gems. These gems gave me great power, enough to destroy all monsters from our land, even the strongest. The story of my quest to free our land is told elsewhere. But when my task was finally done, it was my duty to leave the gems for another should monsters ever return. I will say to you, seeker, to beware: giving up these powerful gems is no easy task. They create a desire in your heart to keep them and use them, even if only for the good that you believe you could do. These gems could cause enormous harm in evil hands, and I fear holding them too long could corrupt even the noblest among us. In the end, it was only by the grace of Nayru's wisdom that I overcame my desire to keep the gems and willingly surrendered them. I pray my spirit will have peace for finally doing what was right. But I came to understand that only someone skilled in combat and strong of character is fit to hold these gems. Someone weak in combat will not use them to their potential. Someone weak in character will, sooner or later, use them for their own ends. So I chose to place the last sacred gem in this ancient structure built to challenge a hero of old. This will test the strength and character of any who would seek it. If monsters have returned to our land, then I wish you success. Farewell.

"That's an interesting message," said Link. "And it plainly states this structure is a trial of skill and character. We both need to be careful."

They moved slowly to the entrance to the next room ahead. Link stood next to the door keeping out of the line of sight, his back against the wall. Then he carefully poked his head around the wall and peered into the room. The doorway he stood at was well above a pool of water that covered the bottom of the room. The door was the same height as three columns with a flat surface on top that jutted above the water. The columns were spaced evenly across the room and led straight to a doorway on the opposite side that was open and had some kind of ornament above it. It appeared that the intent was to jump from column to column to reach the doorway. This didn't look too difficult.

"Mipha, I am going to try jumping from column to column. If I make it to the other side, follow me. The jumps don't look too hard," said Link.

"Master, be careful, I sense more to this room than is apparent," said Fi.

Link positioned himself in the doorway and looked around the room. He didn't see any danger. Then he moved forward slightly into the room and steadied himself to jump. But before he could spring forward, the ornament above the far door opened up, revealing an eyelike device. It fired an electric arrow at Link that hit him in the left shoulder. He cried out in pain, his reflexes pulling him back into the room with Mipha and away from the doorway.

"Link!" screamed Mipha as she rushed over to him. Link lay on the ground, groaning and clutching his shoulder. His arm had a wound and a nasty burn from the electricity. Mipha cradled his head in one arm as she began her healing process with the other.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" said Mipha. "You know my heart cries every time I see you hurt. Please, please, promise me you will be more careful. Don't be too quick to rush into a room."

"I promise," said Link. "And I'm sorry, sweetheart."

Mipha finished her healing, the wound, and burn on his shoulder gone. Link sat up, and they hugged.

"I know you don't want to hear this," said Mipha, "But your skills so far hardly inspire confidence. I thought these kinds of structures were your specialty."

"I got off to a bad start. I don't have as much experience with these kinds of rooms as you might think," said Link. "The Shrines I had to work through were more like puzzles, finding clever ways to use Sheikah Slate runes and things like that. But I still think I can figure out what to do. I just need to be more careful and observant. I am certainly glad you're here, though. And I think we've found the room that would have stopped the Zora's. Electricity is usually fatal to them."

Mipha shuddered to think of how many Zora bodies might lay beneath the water, a testament to Queen Sopha's ambitions.

"So, what's your plan?" said Mipha.

"Well, from what I could see, when I started to enter the room, it triggered some kind of eye-like device above the far door which shot an arrow at me. This time I am going to jump from the door but use my time in the air to invoke my ability to slow time and take out that eye-like device with an arrow before it can shoot."

"Please jump aside if it looks like your plan won't work," said Mipha. "I am so nervous about this!"

Link slid next to the doorway and set an arrow ready in his bow. Then he jumped into the room and aimed for the eye. Time slowed for him. The eye device across the room blinked open, and Link promptly fired an arrow right toward the center of it. Then he shot the second one to be sure. The arrows hit the eye, and it shook, spun around twice, and fell from the wall with a splash into the water. Link landed safely on the first platform.

"It's safe to jump across now," he said. He waited for Mipha to jump onto the platform with him, grabbing her hand as she landed. Then he did the same for the remaining two platforms and space before the doorway. They stopped to rest a moment as Link peeked around the edge of the door to inspect the room ahead. It looked empty. And there was no evidence of any doorway out of the room either. It couldn't be a dead-end already.

"Fi, do you see any danger in the room ahead?"

"No, Master. The room is empty," said Fi

"Mipha, I'll still go first."

Link walked into the room. Nothing happened. He looked around, and everything seemed safe.

"Mipha, come on in. It's safe," said Link.

Mipha followed him into the room.

"But where do we go from here?" said Mipha as she turned to look at the three walls. "It looks like a dead-end."

"Yes, but I've learned about situations like this," said Link. "Look closely at the wall ahead. Notice that there are cracks in several places? That means we can break through it. Stand back with me over here."

Mipha joined him across the room while Link threaded a bomb arrow to his bow.

"Cover your earholes," said Link. He launched the bomb arrow at the wall, and the explosion ripped a gaping hole in it. They waited for the dust and debris to settle, then Link peered into the opening. There was a room on the other side, and they could also see a chest on the floor and beyond it a doorway.

"That can't be the chest with the gem?" said Mipha.

"No, it's the wrong kind of chest. But it may hold something useful. Please stand back."

The chest was covered in dust, but there was no lock, and Link kicked open the chest and removed its contents. There were two pieces of some stiff material rolled into cylinders. The material was more rigid and thicker than paper but not as thick as stone. What was interesting about the material is that once unrolled, it would lay flat, but then could be rolled up again to carry. Link unrolled both items and dusted them off. They contained a diagram of variously interconnected rectangles, and each sheet also had a circularly shaped cutout in the lower right corner. He was not sure what the cutout was for, but it was evident what the diagrams were. These were maps of this structure. He could see where they were relative to the entrance now.

"This is a valuable find," said Link. "It's a map of this structure and should be a great help to us. Let's plot out a possible route. It looks like this structure has two levels, and each sheet covers one of them. We are on the upper level in this room here."

Link pointed to the room on the map they were in as Mipha stood next to him and examined the map. They worked out a route from the current room to what looked like it could be a passageway that led to the lower level.

"Unless some of these rooms are impassable, this map will save us from wasting time following the wrong path. Let's take it one step at a time. When we get to the lower level, we can study the map of that floor," said Link.

"Let me carry the maps," said Mipha. "You concentrate on the rooms themselves and their dangers."

The next room was through the doorway to the right. Link peered into the room, and there was nothing dangerous evident.

"Fi, see anything dangerous in the room ahead?"

"Nothing, Master," said Fi.

Link entered the room, and indeed it was just an empty room. There were two doorways, one straight ahead and one to the left. According to the map, they should take the door to their left. The agreed-upon routine was for Link to approach a doorway carefully, peer into the room from behind the wall with just his head, and check with Fi ahead of time.

"Fi, anything wrong with the room on the left?"

"There is some mechanism active there, Master, but I am unsure how it works. Please be cautious."

Link poked his head through the door. The room seemed ordinary and had two doors, one straight ahead and another to the right. According to the map, the one straight ahead was the preferred one. One difference from previous rooms is that the floor was covered with black tiles. Link entered the room. Suddenly he heard a whooshing sound, and a floor tile spun across the room and crashed into his chest. He staggered back, the wind knocked out of him, groaning from the impact. But he had the presence of mind to raise his shield as another tile careened toward him and crashed into his shield, knocking him back. He backed his way into a corner as he heard Mipha screaming for him to be careful. One tile after another crashed into his shield. Finally, the last tile spun against his shield and shattered. The room was quiet; all the floor tiles were gone. Link got up and rubbed his chest. Mipha rushed into the room and examined him.

"You promised me you would be more careful!" said Mipha, almost in tears as she healed the bruising on his chest. "Weren't you familiar with this kind of trap?"

"No, I wasn't. But the difference in the flooring should have alerted me to something. I promise I'll be more observant and suspicious," said Link.

"According to the map there are five more rooms between here and the entrance to the lower level," said Link. "Our next destination is straight ahead."

As usual, Link peered into the room, and Fi indicated she sensed no danger. Link entered, and Mipha followed. There was a doorway straight ahead, but it was locked, a giant keyhole evident.

"So, this means we have to backtrack and find the key," said Link. "We need to go back to the empty room that had two doorways."

They worked their way back to the empty room, and this time took the other doorway. The room seemed empty, the floor covered in dust and dirt. A couple of old jars stood along the far wall, but they were empty.

"According to the map, there is no other entrance or exit from this room, so something must be here," said Link.

He looked around. The walls all seemed solid. Then he considered the floor. Brushing away the dust on the floor, he eventually uncovered a switch in one of the corners. He repeated dusting the other corners. There were three switches.

"Mipha, I would feel better if you waited outside," said Link. "I am familiar with this kind of thing. I need to use the jars to hold down two of the switches while I step on the third."

Mipha stepped out of the room but watched from the doorway. If Link needed help, she wanted to be close by. And so far, he had required a good deal of support. Link positioned one of the jars on each of the two switches. Then he took a deep breath and stepped on the third. A compartment in the ceiling opened, and a key fell to the floor, the sound of metal hitting stone reverberating in the room. He stepped off the switch, and the ceiling door snapped shut. Then he retrieved the key.

"Now back to the locked door," said Link.

"That was good thinking," said Mipha. "Just please don't get overconfident."

When they reached the locked door, Link inserted the key and turned it. The door opened at once. Link kept to the side along the wall and peered into the room. It was completely dark, not illuminated like the other rooms.

"I knew we would need torches," said Link. "I just hope I brought enough."

Link pulled out a torch and lay it next to a piece of flint, then he struck the flint with his sword, and the spark ignited the torch. He put away the flint, picked up the torch, and headed for the entrance to the dark room.

"Fi, anything to worry about?"

"I do not sense any danger, Master."

Link entered the room, and he could see four unlit lamps laid out in a square pattern around the center of the room. He started to go around lighting them, but after three were lit, as he approached the fourth, the first lamp went out. He tried again, moving faster this time, but with the same result. Then he got an idea. He lit two of the lamps, then positioned the torch in front of and in line with the two unlit lamps. He bent down and aimed an arrow through the torch and across the two lamps, then fired. Both lamps were lit at the same time, and a door on the right of the entranceway snapped open.

"Nicely done," said Mipha. "But I think we could have worked together on that one."

There were only two more rooms before the entrance to the lower level.

Link peered through the doorway of the next room. The room was illuminated, and he could see a winding brick pathway that threaded across the room, and to either side of the path a deep drop. Falling off the path meant severe injury or even death.

"Fi, see anything in the next room?"

"Master, there are two devices in the corners across from the entrance. I do not know their purpose but be mindful of them."

Link took a step into the room and stopped. Nothing happened at first, and then he noticed the device on his right started to glow, and a moment later, it fired a ball of energy at him. He jumped back into the room in time to see the ball disappear against the far wall in a splash of light.

"Alright, this will be tricky," said Link. "You have to stand behind me and hold onto me as we navigate the path. I will use my shield to deflect the balls of energy when we are fired upon and will have to turn slightly depending on the direction the balls come at us. If you need to stop, just tell me. The most important thing is not to fall off the path and stay behind me. Are you ready?"

Link worked his way into the room with Mipha clinging behind him. As a ball of energy from one of the devices approached them, Link deflected it with his shield. Then they made their way forward. Whenever one of the devices started to glow, Link would stop, take a firm stand on the path, and have his shield ready. It was slow work since the route did not cross the room directly but zig-zagged in a frustrating pattern. As they finally reached the end of the path and the platform before the exit, Link turned to face back toward the entrance pulling Mipha behind him. He was in time to reflect one last ball of energy the device on the left spat at them. Then they moved out of harm's way, out of range of the two devices.

The next room had a door to the right, but Link noticed the wall ahead of them was cracked.

"I'm going to bomb the wall over there first," said Link.

He readied another bomb arrow, and the wall ahead crumbled, revealing a room with another chest. Link entered the room and opened the chest. There was a small round object whose purpose wasn't apparent at first. But Mipha guessed it.

"Remember the circular cut out in the map? Let's try inserting this item there," said Mipha as she opened the map of the lower level.

Mipha inserted the object into the cutout, and it fit perfectly. Suddenly glowing spots appeared in various rooms on the map. And in one room toward the far end of the lower floor, the symbol of a gold chest appeared.

"This device enhances the map," said Link. "These glowing spots must be items of interest, and the gold chest must indicate the room where the gem is found."

They backtracked into the room they had come from. According to the map, the room to the right contained a passage to the lower level.

"Master, be careful of the sharp-pointed objects in the corners."