Snowhead Temple [BP/Darth]

"With caution," Laurel couldn't resist stating the obvious. "We don't know if there are more of these things deeper in the temple. And there's still the roaring from before to keep in mind- it didn't sound like it belonged to something as simple as a Wolfos." She relit the two torches, and looked at her companion. "I'll lead the way," she said. "Keep your eyes and ears open... there's monsters everywhere here. I had not anticipated this." Still, she felt the strong pull of magic in this place. Between the Freezzard, the Eeno, and the White Wolfos, they had yet to encounter anything that had not radiated an affinity with ice. She knew she was in the right place. Leaving it was not an option, not now that she had gotten this far already.

She walked into the hallway the Wolfos had disappeared into, looking around for any sources of ice magic. It was everywhere in the temple, and that meant it had to originate from somewhere. If she could just find the core, and then study it for a little while, if she could just understand and expose herself to it, she would have what she came for.

She turned a corner, and right as she did so, she heard enormous hooves down the path she had turned into. Common sense dictated that going to see what it was was the stupidest thing she could do, but her curiosity beat her rationality and she ran forwards, hurrying out of the hallway and into another chamber. However, it was nowhere near big enough to justify the sound of the hooves she had heard just now. Especially since there was nowhere the source could have hid- it was a pretty open room, the floor covered in a thick sheet of ice, the ceiling littered with stalactites and ice spikes, some thicker and more solid-looking than others. Around the perimeter of the room, there was a high ledge that they couldn't reach from here... but at least Laurel didn't see any monsters.

For someone who had just finished advocating for a cautious approach, Laurel was awfully cavalier in her movements, disobeying her own edict in favour of recklessly charging ahead. Up until now, Judith had been willing to give the noblewoman the benefit of the doubt. The fall had not been her fault... But Laurel did not appear to give a whit about their safety, and while Judith would gladly lay down her life for another, she was not appreciative of the added workload brought about by her companion's negligent behaviour. Looking out for herself in these ruins was stressful enough; being responsible for both of their lives was no small burden.

Her frustration was further compounded when, upon hearing the loud clatter of hooves against the icy floor, Laurel rushed forward without a word, forcing Judith to sprint after her. What was that strange galloping sound? Laurel's horse could not have followed them in here... Fearing the worst, the priestess doubled her pace. If it were the footfalls of some unseen beast, it would not be prudent to let her charge challenge it alone.

As she caught up with Laurel, Judith found herself in what seemed to be a dead end. Stopping to pant for a few moments, she furrowed her brow and shot a harsh look at her companion.

"What... What are you doing?! Don't run off like that...! Warn me first, at least!"

"Shht!" Laurel gestured for silence, slowly waving the torch in front of her and surveying the room. "I don't think there are any monsters here," she finally said, cautious. "Maybe it's a safe zone." She slowly walked into the room, taking careful and slow steps to avoid slipping on the ice. "What do you think that galloping noise was?" she said, although not looking at Judith. Instead, she kept an eye on the ceiling. Those stalactites looked like they could come down any second.

Of course, Laurel had a theory of her own. The symbol she had seen and touched in the first chamber in this temple had been of a goat's head. Goats were hooved animals. It was entirely possible that whatever beast she had accidentally unleashed had come through here. But why were there no traces of it? Was it a spectral being? Or maybe she had hallucinated the sound; Judith hadn't given any indication of having heard it, after all. "We have to get up there," she muttered, looking at the elevated perimeter of the room. "But how do we get there..."

Being brushed aside so casually did little to improve Judith's already-sour mood, and the priestess folded her arms across her chest, frowning. Laurel's flippant dismissal of her concerns had tried her patience, but patience was a virtue. Hers would endure. Taking a deep breath, Judith considered the facts: They were both on edge and would need to work together to get out of here alive. Quarreling would do them no good. Electing to forgive and forget, the acolyte set her mind on the task at hand.

"I heard it, though I am at a loss as to what it could have been. Perhaps the same being that emitted that ghastly roar at the entryway? If indeed such sounds could originate from any earthly creature..." Judith shivered, half at the cold and half at the prospect of a giant hoofed demon wandering these forgotten halls. Studying the barren chamber that lay before them, the priestess quickly came to the conclusion that attempting to scale the sheer wall of ice that led upwards would be pure folly even for an experienced climber with tools. They would have to find another means of ascending.

"Hmm... W-We're in a bit of a pickle. Unless we overlooked a path back there..." She didn't rule out the possibility, given Laurel's haste to discover the source of the odd galloping. "... we seem to be stuck. There doesn't seem to be any easy way to get atop that ledge. Maybe we could use the ice in the room to our advantage? U-Unfortunately, I don't think there's enough to melt, so we can't flood the chamber..."

"Flooding the chamber would be a bad idea, anyway," Laurel said, shaking her head. "At these temperatures, I don't want to get wet. We'd freeze to death." No Fire Enchantment could stand up to that. Still, that didn't solve their problem. Hesitantly, Laurel started to turn around. "You may be right... there might be a path in the tunnel we used to get here." She turned fully. "I apologise, Sister. I have no idea what came over me. Let's go-"

She interrupted herself with a scream when she started to walk into the tunnels and was interrupted by a great bellowing and rumbling, which caused an avalanche. She dove back into the room, avoiding the rockslide, and waited until the rumbling had subsided. When she looked up, she saw that the tunnels had caved in, locking the two mages in this room. "Mother Nayru's fat-" she held her tongue just in time, and instead looked up. "I guess we have no choice..."

The stalactites were big, but they didn't look overly stable. Maybe something could happen if they... "Let me try something," she muttered, raising her hand and casting Magic Bolt at one of them.

Launching herself forward to avoid the falling debris, Judith took cover against the far wall, wagering that it would be safest to hug the perimeter of the room, away from the looming icicles above. This place was a deathtrap! Monsters were bad enough, but not the temple itself was making attempts on their lives! Fortunately, the tremor soon proved to be localized around the entrance, leaving the rest of the chamber unaffected.

Unfortunately, the resulting collapse had left the two women sealed inside.

Groaning, Judith pretended not to hear the beginnings of the blasphemous utterance that nearly escaped Laurel's lips, instead scanning the area for any avenue of escape. None seemed to be forthcoming. Her companion, however, had other ideas, and the priestess' attention was so absorbed by the process of searching for a way out that she failed to notice what the noblewoman had done until it was too late.

"What do you- Eek!"

Jumping back in surprise, Judith flinched as the stalactites were jarred loose by Laurel's spell and promptly crashed into the floor with a sickening crunch. Yet when she opened her eyes again and beheld the sight that lay before her, the acolyte's jaw dropped. By some miracle, the stalactites had not shattered upon impact, and in fact had formed a makeshift stairway toward the exist, each successive stalactite taller than the last. Their formation was eerily perfect, as if they had always been intended to be used in such a fashion...

Y-You're kidding... Is this what it means to master an element...? Judith's thoughts were a blur, and she could scarcely refrain from voicing her amazement.

"I... Well, I... That is to say... that was not what I expected at all! That was... well done."

"I wasn't certain it would work," Laurel admitted, lowering her hand. "But it appears we're in luck." Luck wasn't even the right word, she thought as she said it. The temple had clearly been designed this way, to leave a way out in the event of a rockslide. But for whom, she wondered? What was the history of this place? "Perhaps we would be helped if we could find any clues to what kind of temple this actually used to be," she said as she climbed onto the first stalactite. "It might give us some hints on how to proceed... or what that noise was."

As she reached the top of the stalactite stairs, she found herself in front of a small door. It wasn't locked in any way, and yet Laurel got an ominous feeling from the room behind it. Cautiously, she grabbed hold of the nob and pushed it open, peering in. The room beyond the door was fairly basic, rectangular, with a number of dimly glowing pads scattered throughout it. She didn't go in yet. There was something in there, she could sense the magic. But there was no snow on the ground, so it couldn't be the animated mounds of snow that had tossed snowballs at her before.

"Can you sense anything in here?" she asked the priestess, hoping she might have the ability to sense more than she did.

"That would be a start. Much of the temple seems to have been reclaimed by the wild, and yet... Few things are ever what they seem when it comes to ancient ruins. I am not convinced that the presence of these beasts is entirely natural." Judith replied, pursing her lips in thought. Laurel's suggestion was a sound one, and already the priestess' mind was putting together a theory.

At first, Judith had assumed that whoever had decided to build this temple in the mountains had done so for the benefit of any visitors. A harsh trek through the freezing snow might well force a wandering pilgrim to undergo a spiritual awakening. But what if that wasn't the case? What if the temple's remote location had been carefully selected, not to keep all but the most resolute of travelers out, but to keep something terrible IN? That would explain the strange seal at the entrance... The more she contemplated the troubling possibility, the more likely it seemed. She dared not voice her misgivings without further proof, however, and so remained silent as she followed Laurel.

Ascending the glacial stairway was a nerve-wracking experience. Judith was able to maintain her footing well enough as she scrambled up each platform, but she could not shake the feeling that the icy slabs could shatter beneath her feet at any given moment. The crystalline stalactites were so clear as to be transparent, leaving lingering doubts regarding their durability in Judith's head. She was quite relieved when they reached the top without incident, and doubly so when she saw what lay in the chamber beyond. A series of shimmering panels dotted the floor ahead, which was otherwise characterized by a distinct lack of snow.

Clues and warmth. Both of which she craved right now. "Only the ambient magic emanating from those pads... I'm going in. Watch my back." Judith nodded to Laurel, then strode into the room, staff at the ready.

Of course, the young cleric suspected a trap, but it would be better for her to spring it than to let Laurel place herself in danger. And nothing was going to prevent her from getting out of the cold, even if it was only for a little while.

Laurel followed Judith into the room, rapier drawn and at the ready. Magic emanating from strange, glowing pads that looked out of place? She didn't have to be a genius to know that was suspicious at best and a huge red flag at worst. And sure enough, as soon as she was clear of the door it slammed shut on its own. Before she could try to re-open it -she didn't like leaving doors closed in places like this- a massive wave of magic energy emanated from one of the corners of the room. Even without Judith's heightened senses, Laurel could feel it as a spectral-looking, crochety old man materialised on one of the pads.

Laurel didn't have time to be surprised or to negotiate- the wizard used its cane to launch a bolt of ice at her. "Not more-" she dove to a side, dragging Judith with her. The wizard vanished, but within a second, his signature magic re-appeared in another corner of the room. "So that's how it's going to be?" she muttered, raising her rapier and enchanting it with fire. "Two can play that game!" The wizard tried to cast his spell again, but Laurel was faster- transferring the Fire Enchantment to an Arcane Bolt and launching it at the monster. It struck home, causing it to interrupt its own spell and yelp in pain before it vanished again.

"That worked!" Laurel called over her shoulder at Judith. "But I have a lot of cooldown on both spells, so I hope you can play keepaway, Sister!"

"Tch...!"

Of all the things Judith had expected to encounter in the snowless chamber, a mad old hermit with a penchant for teleportation magic was easily near the bottom of the list. Ordinarily, the presence of another humanoid creature in these caverns would have been reassuring; she would have welcomed the chance to learn the secret of Snowhead Temple, or failing that, even the way out of the tunnels. Regrettably, this particular fellow seemed to have little interest in communication, introducing himself via a potent blast of arcane ice, forcing Laurel to tackle Judith out of the spell's flight path.

Scrambling to adopt a proper combat stance, the young priestess studied their new foe while her charge prepared an enchantment. From what she could make out, the strange wizard was almost-ethereal in appearance... What was he? A monster in human guise? An ill-fated wanderer driven insane by the isolation and the cold? A lingering spirit from a long-forgotten age? All Judith knew for certain was that he too was barefoot, making her feel slightly better about her own lack of shoes. So she wasn't the only one!

Then again, maybe that was why he was crazy to begin with.

On a more tactically relevant note, Judith was quickly able to surmise the wizard's attack patterns, even as she ducked and weaved to make herself a more difficult target. Twice now he had vanished, only to rematerialize elsewhere. Each time, he would attempt to lash out with a spell. Yet he never strayed from the unusual pads scattered about the floor... Why? Her eyes widened suddenly. The magic flowing through the pads... Was it fueling his teleportation somehow?! Of course, that had to be it! So long as those pads remained intact, the wizard would have unparalleled mobility. The best way to combat him, then, would be to neutralize his advantage.

"Milady, I've an idea."

Taking a cue from the previous room, Judith glanced upward. She was in luck- a row of stalactites had formed across the ceiling, with one hanging precariously above one of the pads. Bringing her staff to bear, the priestess fired off an Arcane Bolt of her own as she ran, which collided with the looming stalactite and jarred it loose. A mighty crash echoed off the walls as the frozen spike fell and neatly skewered the pad below, destroying it and causing the pad's mystical glow to fade.

"There! He won't be using that one again! If we can eliminate enough of these pads, you should be able to close with him and dispatch him with your rapier! We'll have to keep him busy between spells, though!"

When Judith crashed a stalactite into one of the teleportation pads under the wizard's feet, Laurel beamed. "Right!" she called, "So we alternate Flame Bolts with falling stalactites until we can corner him!" She dove out of the way of another ice spell, rolling over and needing a second to untangle her rapier from the resulting mess that was her skirt and mantle. She had to admit, the battle sent a rush of adrenaline and excitement through her; regular fights were unbecoming of someone of her birth and status, but a battle of wits and magical endurance was right up her alley and she found herself quite enjoying it. Was this the kind of thrill that made people seek out danger?

Her rapier started buzzing with fire again, almost as if of its own will, but Laurel knew it was the part of her focus that had remained on the blade that had re-enchanted it. Holding it up, she summoned her Arcane Bolt above it and transferred the fire once more. "One two three," she said, before flicking the blade down and launching the fireball at the hermit. This time, however, he seemed prepared for it, and instead of ice, he launched a fireball of his own to burn through her's energy. "What?!" For a few seconds, Laurel was stupefied. For him to switch between elements so effortlessly... was he an enchanter, too?

She was so caught up in her surprise that she was too late to realise he had rematerialised next to her and struck her in the back, between her shoulders, with his staff. It sent icy cold down her spine and knocked her to the ground, where she stayed for a while, shivering.

Cold, she thought. It bites... It's just like fire in that regard. They aren't so different... It hurt. She hoped Judith was able to take out one of the pads by now.

Confound it all! Just when it seemed as if the scales had tipped in their favour, the foul wizard appeared next to Laurel and felled her with a vindictive thwack from his staff. Cursing the fickle nature of battlefield fortunes, Judith backed away from her foe, keeping one eye trained upon him while the other scanned the ceiling for another conveniently placed stalactite. She was tempted to retaliate with a Magic Bolt, but that would be a waste of a spell- he'd simply teleport away again, leaving her defenseless for approximately half a minute. Nor could she obey her instinctual impulse to rush to Laurel's aid, lest she be a sitting duck for the wizard's magic. No, she had to stick to the plan if she and Laurel were to survive this.

Still, the fact that the wicked magician was apparently proficient in melee combat did not bode well for the two women. Even if they managed to disable his pads, could they best him? Youthful though she was, Judith was keenly aware that she would never prevail in a contest of physical might. Judging by the fact that Laurel had made no effort to stand despite the relative feebleness of her assailant's blow, the priestess surmised that the wizard's weapon was enchanted... This would be a deadly fight, indeed.

As a razor-sharp shard of ice began to form on the end of the wizard's staff, Judith spied a second stalactite that was poised to pierce a different pad and sprang into action, dodging to the side as she loosed her Bolt.

She was not quite quick enough. A searing pain lanced through the right half of her face as the merciless edge of the glacial shard sliced into her flesh, leaving a bloody gash on her cheek. Fortunately, her gamble paid off as the stalactite she'd struck gave a groan of protest before plunging into the pad beneath it, and Judith wasted no time taking cover behind the newly created obstacle, clapping her left hand to her wound to staunch the blood flow. It was a minor injury, all things considered... But it hurt, and she knew next time she wouldn't so lucky. Had the projectile been aimed a few more inches to the left, it would have embedded itself neatly into her head. Breathing a prayer of thanks to Mother Nayru, Judith observed the wizard through the transparent stalactite, waiting for him to make a move.

Sure enough, with no conceivable way of hitting Judith from his current position, the wizard let out a shriek of frustration and started to spin around in place, going faster and faster until he abruptly vanished from sight. The instant he disappeared, Judith broke from cover and made a mad dash toward the fallen Laurel, taking advantage of the brief period he remained immaterial to help her comrade. It was fortunate he had not finished the noblewoman off while Judith sought refuge behind the stalactite... Perhaps he had made the mistake of assuming he had effectively neutralized her...?

Reaching out with her bloodied hand, Judith grabbed Laurel by the arm and tried to haul her to her feet.

"Come on! Stand up! I cannot fight him alone, milady!"

Already she could hear him reappearing behind them... And now, she realized with an icy pang of terror, she and Laurel were right beside each other. It would be child's play to hit the both of them with a single arcane blast...

In her panic, Judith didn't see that Laurel's rapier, which she had not let go of as she had fallen, had started to glow once more- except this time the glow was not a fiery red but an icy blue, and instead of radiating warmth, the blade sucked warmth out of its surroundings. The wizard, perhaps realising that the noblewoman was drawing in magic once more, again shot out a fireball at them instead of ice. It was just as Laurel, who was not at all unconscious, had hoped.

"I think not!" she shouted, getting up and conjuring a magic bolt above the tip of her sword, "Eat this!" With that, she transferred her experiment into the magic bolt and launched it at her adversary. It crashed through the fireball approaching them, only to collide with the very surprised wizard. She didn't wait to see him react to the ice she'd cast at him, instead diving to a side to create distance between her and Judith. "That worked!" she called to the priestess. "I'll explain later- for now, I can counter both of his spells!" The sound of the wizard reappearing beside her woke her from her plotting, but this time she was alert.

"That never works on me twice," she snarled, turning around as she swung out her rapier. It collided with the staff, setting it alight as the Fire Enchantment did its work. Now with two enchantments at her disposal, Laurel realised she was not only more versatile but also more powerful- while the Ice Enchantment cooled down, she could still use the Fire Enchantment and vice versa. "We should be able to wrap this up quickly!" she added towards Judith, "Limit his movement, Sister!"

"R-Right!" Feigning serious injury was an unusual tactic on Laurel's part, but Judith wasn't complaining, now that the malevolent wizard was on the defensive. Locked in battle as she was with their opponent, Laurel had given the priestess free reign to put his pads out of commission, at least until he teleported again. The question was, how could she go about it?

A cursory examination of the ceiling revealed that there were no more providential stalactites that would puncture one of the tiles upon being jarred loose. That didn't surprise her- two had been straining her luck to begin with, and she wasn't given to relying on miracles. However, she was at a loss as to how the remaining ones could be destroyed. She doubted her Magic Bolt would suffice... Without any additional stalactites, restricting the wizard's mobility seemed a hopeless endeavour. Unless...

Putting her left hand to her injured cheek once more, Judith pulled it away and studied her palm. The blood that had pooled within it wasn't even warm, chilled by the unnatural cold of the temple. To attain mastery over an element, an aspiring mage had to immerse themselves in it. Eyes widening, she recalled the gestures her foe had used to summon the ice that had wounded her, and more recently, the icy blue glow of Laurel's newly enchanted sword. She then focused inward, meditating on the thickness of her frosted breath, the chattering of her teeth, her bone-rattling shivers, the numbness in her digits, the agonizing pain in her soles... In an instant, all became clear, and the discomfort was replaced by a sense of peace. With her wound exposed to the elements, blood had fused with ice... Her blood. Now, it was a part of her, and she understood it so intimately that channeling it outwards seemed a trifling task.

If there were no longer any stalactites that could be of use, she would simply create her own.

Drawing on the frigid sensations that assailed her body, the priestess redirected them with her mind, sending them through her hand and along her staff, sculpting them into a recognizable shape. To her delight, a sphere of pure ice began to form around the tip of the wooden implement, as though it were a stylized gem. In the span of a few short seconds it was complete, and Judith swiftly took aim at one of the still-functional pads, propelling the orb outward. The icy ball heeded her command, launching itself forward and shattering against the surface of the pad, covering it with a thin film of ice that rendered it inoperable. Even if it hadn't ruined the pad's magic, the improvised caltrops left behind by the shattered orb would have been a nasty surprise for the barefoot wizard.

"That's another one down! He's running out of options!" Judith called out to her partner, pleased by her handiwork. She had found what she had sought in this place, and suddenly surviving the temple did not seem such an insurmountable trial after all.

"I hear you," Laurel called, "Loud and clear!" With his pads becoming increasingly more disabled and useless, the wizard seemed to become more and more frustrated. He appeared on the pad right next to Laurel, only to yelp in poorly contained pain when she lashed out, burying her rapier in his shoulder and jerking it back in one smooth motion. Between the three of them, she was by far the most proficient in close combat, and the wizard was obviously aware of this as he ported away once more. "This can't possibly take much longer," Laurel muttered, looking around and trying to pinpoint where he was going to appear again.

When she saw him materialise on the pad across the room, she conjured up a Magic Bolt and launched it at him before he could materialise fully and counter her. It struck home, leaving him staggering off the pad for a few seconds. Running was not easy in her long skirt, but the precious few seconds her spell had bought her made up for that, and she plunged the rapier into the wizard's chest. He screeched, protesting against the weapon, but finally started to fade into small blue flames until he was completely gone.

Laurel sheathed her weapon, sighing. "I think that was it," she said. "That was... much more time-consuming and exhausting than it needed to be." She turned to Judith. "Are you well, Sister?"

As Laurel ran the villainous mage through with a sudden finality, Judith watched in amazement as the wizard exploded into blue flames, and for a moment she worried that he had somehow shrugged off the noblewoman's attack and teleported away yet again. However, in the seconds following his spectacular demise, the truth became clear. The priestess felt the lingering arcane energies that powered the remaining pads ebb and retreat, the magic apparently tied to the wicked mage's life force. Without him around to fuel them, they had simply deactivated. Furthermore, the door that had swung shut behind them abruptly opened of its own volition, as if it respected their show of strength.

Wiping her brow in relief, Judith made her way over to Laurel, subconsciously putting a hand to her cheek again. "Well, I won't be winning a beauty pageant anytime soon, but otherwise I'm fine. Just scratches and bruises, nothing more. What about you, milady? That fiend dealt you quite a blow with his staff... If need be, I can try to prepare my Rejuvenation spell again." Normally, her superiors in the Cult would have advised only using the healing cantrip once per hour except in the direst of emergencies, but Judith felt confident that she could handle the additional strain of more frequent castings. A bit of fatigue was nothing compared to leaving wounds untreated, especially in a hostile environment like this.

In an effort to make small talk while they regained their bearings, Judith then gestured to the pads around the room. "What do you suppose that man was? An apparition? A guardian of some sort? He didn't leave a corpse behind..." Scholarly as she was, the priestess still had no inkling of who or what the elderly hermit truly was, and she would gladly welcome anything that could shed some light on the matter. Perhaps Laurel, as a fellow intellectual, could brainstorm a plausible hypothesis.

"Something to lessen the bruise would be nice." Laurel put a hand over her shoulder and tried to massage the spot where she'd been hit. "If anyone sees it I'm never going to live it down. As for what that thing was... I honestly have no idea." She looked at the nearby pad. "It might have been a Hylian at some point in the past, perhaps corrupted and changed on a fundamental level by whatever it is that was sealed in here. Perhaps it was what had sealed it, and we brought this upon it when we undid the seal." She shrugged. "Or maybe it was a complex spell in and of itself, a cluster of magical energy given sentience and the ability to attack intruders, like some sort of security system. We have no means of knowing." She would love to further speculate on it, but as she turned to Judith to offer a third theory, she was distracted by a bellowing not far from them.

"It's that same noise," she said, although this time it wasn't followed up by the sound of hooves. "It's coming from over there-" she pointed at the wall, "We're so close to it. It's just on the other side of that wall, isn't it?" She shivered, partially with fear and partially with... excitement. Part of her wanted to see what this monster was. Part of her wanted to do everything in her power to re-seal it, taking responsibility for her careless releasing it earlier. She flushed a little as she remembered this was the second time she'd pulled that stunt. Lord Johansson would never let her hear the end of this if he learned.

Of course, part of her was still terrified and only wanted to leave as soon as possible now that she had what she had come for. She looked at Judith, hoping for guidance. That was what the Cult of Nayru did, right?

Nodding in response to Laurel's request for healing, Judith dumped most of the remainder of her canteen into her palm and shut her eyes, concentrating on imbuing the water with Nayru's holy power while simultaneously casting her Circle spell. At once her limbs were assailed by a stifling sense of weight, as if they had been draped in chains of iron, and she grunted with effort as a cool sweat formed on her brow. This was harder than she thought... Casting Rejuvenation a second time after so short an interval between the first was like squeezing water from a stone. Nonetheless, she inhaled deeply and focused on transferring the magic into every last drop, and was soon rewarded with a familiar warmth in her hand.

As the Circle formed around the duo, Judith held out the handful of enchanted water for Laurel to drink, considering the noblewoman's theories regarding the identity of the mage that had attacked them. All of them were possible, and none of them provided the priestess with any solace, only more troubling questions. If he had once been a Hylian... what could corrupt a man in such a horrific fashion? If he had been a guardian bound by the seal... what manner of being would require such a ferocious jailor? And if he had been a living incarnation of magic... what could weave a spell of that magnitude, to create an artificial intelligence?

No answers were forthcoming, and the ghastly bellowing that seemed only a pebble's throw away did little to improve the mood. Seeing the fear in Laurel's eyes, Judith reached out to clasp her charge's free hand with her own.

"We don't have a choice. We have yet to find a path that leads back to where we first fell. We will have to brave whatever peril lies ahead." As a priestess of Nayru, Judith took some small comfort in the cold, hard facts, knowing that there was no other course of action they could take. "But we've come this far. We've attained the arcane knowledge we came for. We'll be fine." Judith insisted, as much to reassure herself as anyone, praying that Laurel would find her inspiring.

"Besides... I believe you mentioned a fireplace, a fuzzy rug, and large cups of cocoa earlier... I-I wouldn't miss that for the w-world!"

Laurel smiled, squeezing Judith's hand. "For fireplaces, fuzzy rugs, and large cups of cocoa, then." With that, she let go, turning to the wall before them and a low tunnel that had previously escaped their attention, so focused had they been on their opponent. A little more confident now, Laurel crouched and entered it ahead of Judith. It was too low to walk upright in, but it wasn't very long, either, and soon, they stood...

Outside?!

Laurel hurried to pull her mantle around her again, shielding herself from the cold winds. Then, she looked around, realising they were above the entrance of the dungeon. Somehow, the cave's winding paths had turned them around, putting them back where they had begun, only a floor higher. It was impressive, but Laurel had no time to marvel at the ingenuity or the scenery. "What is that!?" she asked, pointing down below them.

There, in the snow, was a large, black... something. it looked like an oversized goat, but its angles were unnatural, jagged and straight instead of muscular and rounded. When it turned around and looked up, Laurel bit her tongue to hold off a scream, as its face was human. Fortunately, it ignored them, giving a bellow that defied doubt -it was the creature they had heard several times throughout the caves- and started to gallop, thankfully away from where Laurel remembered Marich to be.

In light of Laurel's performance with her rapier, Judith let her take point as they traversed the catacombs, her earlier reluctance to place her companion at the fore of their formation fading. In these narrow confines, it would be most practical for the trained fencer to be in the lead, while she supported her from behind with her magic. And, having seen Laurel in action, Judith had begun to have faith in her abilities. The noblewoman was surprisingly resilient, and her acquisition of an ice-enchantment would make her a formidable front-line combatant. Together, they had faced the temple's resident wizard, and prevailed. If they put the minds Mother Nayru had blessed them with to it, Judith was certain there were few foes they could not defeat.

As they walked, the priestess marveled at the sheer length of the passage. These tunnel networks were extensive, and surely not of natural origins. It must have taken ages to dig it all out... Truly, whatever civilization had built this sanctuary could not be faulted for a lack of dedication. She prayed that her devotion to her Goddess could be equally unswerving.

Her amazement quickly subsided in favour of exasperation, however, when they emerged from the caves to find themselves situated on the mountainside. Oh, no.... Much as Judith had extolled the virtues of fuzzy rugs and cocoa, she had not been particularly keen on making the actual journey back so soon. But before she could announce her displeasure, Laurel suddenly cried out and pointed downwards. The priestess' eyes followed the noblewoman's finger, and in an instant her dread at being exposed to the freezing winds was replaced by a dread of an entirely different flavour.

Below them lurked the source of the roaring they had heard within the temple: A massive metal behemoth, crudely fashioned to resemble a bull or goat, was thrashing about in the snow on the floor beneath, emitting an almost-deafening shout. Judith regarded the clockwork quadruped with a mixture of awe and horror, gasping as it reared its head to reveal a distressingly human face. Not even Hyrule's most skilled machinists had ever crafted something like this... Just how advanced had Snowhead's ancient inhabitants been?! What a discovery! Still, as fascinating as the idea of an automaton from a bygone era was, Judith couldn't help but feel that there was something indescribably wrong about the creature, that it should never have been created. This place had been a temple, not a lab. Was it a guardian...? No... she recalled the goat imagery they had seen at the entrance.

The ancients had worshipped this thing, she realized with a start. Perhaps they had built it to serve their whims... But it had grown too powerful to control, no doubt. And with enough power... anyone could be cowed into revering something as a deity. Judith knew that well, the Rito were living proof. But this being was far more blasphemous than Valoo could ever hope to be. The very concept of a man-made god disgusted her- it was offensive to the truly divine, the Golden Goddesses. That settled it. Intriguing though the secrets of its invention may have been, Judith's mind was made up.

Left momentarily speechless by the unnerving sight, Judith gathered her wits as the mechanical goat fled, then turned to Laurel.

"I... I don't know. But I don't think we should allow it to have free range of the countryside."