Tower of the Gods ~ the pilgrimage (Razgriz/Tsubori)

Phiorra waited nervously at the docks of Impa. For the last few days, she had been on her initiatory pilgrimage. It was supposed to have been earlier in her service, but for obvious reasons in her prior conditions, the priestesses weren't going to let a scared girl in heavy drug withdrawal attempt this lofty task. That which awaited her? The tower of the gods. The great tower was a formidable sight alone, much more inside. It was dangerous and a difficult task, used to determine the power of a priestess. Often, people return in shame, unable to complete the tower. Even more often, they don't come back at all. 

But alas, the entire brunt of the tower wasn't on her alone. She was allowed to find a champion to assist her through the tower, and this could be anyone of Phiorra's choosing outside the Order. The girl wasn't really that picky though, and perhaps not as worried as she should have been. All she really did to get a champion was put up a notice on the help wanted board in Impa. 

It read "Do you desire excitement and a friendly companion for a while? I, Phiorra De'Malluin, am requesting assistance in my priestessly pilgrimage. Any interested should come to the Impa docks. I'll be waiting for you there. Thanks a ton, reader!

                                 ~ Phiorra N. De'Maluin"

She was rather happy with the post, and so she would sit here and wait until someone took her up on her call for aid. She'd also rented a small sailboat for the trip there. And so she sat on the edge of the pier, looking at the rising sun. It really was beautiful...

Castus wandered through the streets of Impa, he'd come here hoping to find another teacher to learn from or monster to fight. Instead, he found some of the laziest soldiers and safest streets ever to grace his eyes, hell even on the journey here he'd failed to find anything more terrifying than a large rat.

Not only that, the trip had quickly run out of rupees and he lacked such mundane skills as construction or smithing. Now he might have to take on mercenary work just to keep going. The day was getting on, he had to find something; and so the wandering ceased and he began toward the help board. To his surprise, there was a posting by a priestess about a pilgrimage, and since he considered them far above greedy mercs, he took the notice and headed to the docks. At least it would feed him for a few days.

Phiorra eventually grew bored of looking out onto the water, and thus turned around, surveying the people that were walking around the docks. Many were carrying things like fish or crab, others had equipment. It was so delightful to see... This town was so peaceful. One who didn't know better would think this place had been under a century of peace and quiet, when the truth was, it had just recently been rebuilt after an attack.

As Phiorra watched the people pass by, one caught her gaze. He was very fit and looked rather powerful. She could see his blue eyes from the distance she was at, a full ten meters away. He also seemed to be taller than everyone else, meaning MUCH taller than the priestess herself. The last thing she noticed, and this being the most important thing, was that he was carrying her notice. She quickly climbed to her feet, then as he neared, did a small curtsy. "Hello, sir! As you may have guessed, I'm Phiorra. I take it you're here to assist me on the final step of my pilgrimage?" She may have been dealing with someone very intimidating, but she still wore a very friendly smile, never once losing it.

Castus sighed a little as the priestess introduced herself, before he'd thought at least she might be able to defend herself, but he began even to doubt this. Not only did she not carry weapons, she was almost two feet shorter than himself. Still, he supposed there had to have been a reason why she needed help, no free lunch this time.

"Castus Ceadis, at your service m'lady." he said in his most gentlemanly voice, even bowing slightly as he said it. "I take it we will be taking to the seas, do you have passage arranged?"

Phiorra was looking at all his movements and mannerisms that she saw, and she was glad this was the man who'd taken her offer. From the slight bow, she could tell he was fairly respectful, and in questioning her preparations, he was someone who would stay focused on the task at hand and maintain professionalism. She tilted her head slightly, smiling even brighter in happiness of who she'd have as a companion. 

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Castus!" She then looked to the general direction they had to go. "And I've rented this sailboat here. It's about a two hour sail, so I went and got us some snacks for along the way. I've heard fruit are good for people who are out on the sea, so I got a bunch of fresh fruits from the market." She held up a bag nearby her for emphasis. 

"But... We're going to a very dangerous place. You certainly look like the type of person who can defend himself and others, but do not underestimate this tower. There are forced inside that are very powerful. Even I do not know the full force within." She then stepped down into the boat. "If you've no other business to complete, shall we be off?"

Castus was confused, why had she bought fruit for a two hour voyage? He'd heard something about sailors who didn't eat fruit getting sick, but that took weeks, not hours. Well, food was food in the end, at least he was getting fed.

He nodded at the girl, even more unsure of her now, especially how she described the tower. Well, now he got to fight too. As he boarded the boat, a major flaw in her plan suddenly crossed his mind and out his lips, "Do you even know how to sail?"

Phiorra chuckled to herself. "Well, I don't have any formal experience if that's what you mean. The person I rented from gave me a quick run-through through. Once both of them were in the boat, Phiorra stood up, preparing to get the sail itself ready. 

The wind was actually going pretty hard that day, though they were lucky it was right in the direction. The priestess was standing, fiddling with the sail. She got the first part hooked with no problems, and then came the next part. "Well, I also don't see what would be all that hard for it! The thing down there makes us turn..." She said, looking at the rudder. 

"And the sail here makes us go forwa- Ahh!" Phiorra fell backwards as she secured the last part of the sail, making them speed off into the water. Standing back up, she giggled to herself. "Wow! That's got some kick to it!" She adjusted the sail for the best angle and then sat back down with a heavy breath. "Whew! That was a surprise." She then looked at Castus. "So! What brings you to Impa looking for work, sir Castus? Oh, would you like an apple?" She offered, holding one out to him.

Castus took the apple and sighed to himself, worrying about her ability in sailing, decision making, and his inability to swim, among others. She barely knew how to work the sail and had set off with only one other person, one with no experience whatsoever in sailing. Not only that, but had accepted the first person to come forward offering to be her champion, without even a demonstration of their abilities.

He sat on the edge of the boat, eating the apple and looking out at the sea, as it was the first time he'd seen it. It's light blue waves calmly splashed against the side of the boat as it seemed to glide on the water. In this marvel he finally had peace, he never knew such a massive amount of water could even exist. The desert seemed like a far cry from this, even though it was less than a day away. In a moment, he came to a rare moment, one of true peace, merely watching the water overtake the city in the distance and listen to the waves dance across the boat.

Phiorra smiled at Castus, taking a bite of her own apple. "It's beautiful, eh?" She asked, chuckling. "It's my first time seeing the sea too. It's very pretty though..." She stared at the water unmovingly for a minute or so until she felt a strange nudge against the boat. Standing up, Phiorra looked into the water, seeing a pair of fins coming towards them. 

"Sir Castus! There are sharks! We should be able take them out!" She then cast her bow into her hands in a burst of strange light, an arrow already notched. She then took aim at the beasts.

Without a hint of panic Castus said "Just a shot or two should scare them off, no more. Don't waste your energy now, we'll need it for our destination." While he meant what he said, he also knew that the only one that could harm the things was the girl, as he lacked the means to fight at a range.

Suddenly, his expression changed, he could see the tip over the horizon, growing taller with each passing moment until it's true size and splendor were revealed. Easily 20 stories tall, and about as wide as a regular castle, the tower was beyond imposing; and he had to get the girl to the top and back down again. Not bad for his first real fight.

Phiorra took a few potshots at the sharks, but the bumpiness of the boat made it difficult to get any good hits. Still, it served the purpose of deterrence, and the sharks soon left them alone to marvel the great structure ahead. The priestess dispelled her bow, the wooden weapon fading from existence. The tower was huge... Phiorra noticed that it almost looked like a lighthouse, though when she navigated the boat into the entrance area, she took down the sail and noticed she could ride the boat right inside. 

Using their previous momentum to drive them, Phiorra got inside, where the great fountains and statues all shone with a marble and gold decoration. She looked around for a place to dock the boat and get out, but while she looked, she spoke to her champion. 

"Tread with a light foot, Sir Castus... The spirits of many of my sisters walk the floors of this tower."She spotted a small area to dismount the boat and steered there, using a rope in the boat to secure it to the dock. Phiorra stepped out, turning an giving Castus a smile. She was nervous... Afraid of death, but she still kept her smile. "Well, here goes nothing. Are you ready?"

Castus nodded to her request, knowing that spirits weren't to be taken likely; he could probably handle them, but it was best not to risk injury and waste energy. Even before he set foot on the cold stone floor, it was obviously the largest and most impressive build he'd ever seen or been in. It made the Thieves' fortress look like a stick hut. Still, he prepared for the tests of mind and body that he had heard could drive men insane and break their bodies beyond hope of recovery.

His first sight after stepping off the boat was of a barred door, with a statue on one side and an empty pedestal on the other, although a glance to the side revealed the missing stone. 'Surely it must weigh as much as 5 people if this is a...' he thought to himself as he lifted the statue with ease. "Ok, this to be a fake answer, like a..." he spoke, trailing off as he place the ornament on the pedestal and the bars fell. "HOW DO PEOPLE FAIL THIS?!" he yelled, walking through the unlocked door.

Phiorra winced at his yell, mainly due to his lack of patience with the temple’s puzzles. “It’s the first room, sir… It’s to warn us exactly what we’ll see later and give us hints. That is the nature of the tower. Not to stump everyone in their tracks, but give a just and reasonable challenge. I assure you, it will get harder.” She said, walking through the door.

In this next room was a large chasm. There were wooden boxes scattered on the bottom, with another light panel there too. Every now and then, the water would rise and fall. Surveying the scene, Phiorra thought for a moment before sliding down the ladder and placing the box on the light panel. At his point up where Castus was, a thunder chuchu fell, attacking the man with lightning crackling from its body. A beam of light tore through the air above the light priestess, but it quickly vanished as the girl was quickly overcome by water. She waded for a moment, climbing back onto the platform with a dripping wet dress clinging to her skin.

Castus stared at the blob in front of him, electricity arcing over it's body while it's face had some stupid blank expression. The yellow chu-chu pulled itself toward the readied Hylian, but seemed to only approach, never actually reaching forward some extension of itself or it's energy to attack. Then, the fighter lunged.

A quick, low strike that intended to kill it quickly or knock it into the water to hopefully dissolve it, or drown it or have get eaten by sharks or something. He also half-expected the thing to simply absorb around the hand and attack it then. Then two things, neither of which he expected: first the electricity arced into his arm, causing it lose control and twitch uncontrollably; second that the chu-chu was struck back and suddenly burst into black smoke, disappearing.

He had still won the fight in any case, even if his arm was spazzing like a grumpy twelve year-old and his knuckles burnt. And with his good hand help the soaked priestess up. Turning away in embarrassment, he said "Please tell me you brought a change of clothes" to the girl, and as he said that the water level dropped again and the light bridge appeared.

Phiorra shook her head, looking at Castus confusedly. "I don't have one, no... My clothes will dry, so I don't think I'll catch a cold. Oh! The bridge is back!" She darted across the light, strangely feeling just like normal floor. 

When she reached the door, she found a room containing a large statue glowing with green energy. "I must do this myself, Sir Castus..." She said, grabbing it and hoisting the thing over her head. It was heavier than the other one, but still not too heavy to be carried. 

She walked back out to the light bridge, strain apparent on her face. The priestess waited a full cycle before trying to cross, going as fast as she could to avoid falling. Just when she was at the edge, she knew the water was about to rise so Phiorra threw the statue forward, allowing her to catch the edge when the light gave way. 

Pulling herself up,  Phiorra gave a heavy sigh. "Whew! That was really... Close." She said, picking the statue back up and walking through the next door. She looked down to the place she had to put the statue and put it down, making a flash of light appear.

As a gate nearby lowered, Phiorra let out a cry as three green Chuchus fell to the ground around her. She lashed out, kicking one away and summoning her bow to her hand.

Castus rushed to his charge's aid, sliding into one of the Chu-chus before swinging it up and over himself whilst striking a death blow on the monster. He rolled back and regained his footing, just as an arrow flew just past him and into another behind, undoubtedly lethal to it. Lunging toward the sole survivor and throwing a vicious punch an it, but an unexpected twitch made it go wide, leaving him wide open. In a last ditch effort, Castus wrapped his arm tightly around the blub and jumped into the water nearby. The Chu-chu then simply dissolved in the water, a strange disadvantage to a being living on a tower enclosed on all sides by the sea.

Well, now he was in the water; might as well swim. In truth, he barely seen anyone do it, but there always seemed to be a surplus of mischievous dogs back in the fortress to swim in the reservoir, so he knew how. Still, it was painfully slow.

Phiorra shot and defeated the chuchu she'd targeted, and then turned to see Castus leap into the water with a chuchu. Well, as long as he could swim, no panic. Phiorra chose against swimming there and got into the boat. 

She paddled the thing next to her champion, giggling. "Would you like a ride to the next platform, sir Castus? It's quite a ways to the next one and you may catch a cold."

Castus nodded at her suggestion, at least the boat didn't need his energy, he'd need had problems with too hard exertion in the past. So he pulled himself up and laid with back against the side of the boat and his arm along it, looking for the next platform.

Soon it appeared and on it was a barred door and two empty pedestals... with two small statues right beside them. He turned to Phiorra and said "They know two of the same puzzle is just as hard as one right?" placing the statues in their places as soon as they landed and headed through the door and into the massive room in front of them full of and empty pool and boxes, boxes that needed to float for them to cross. "*sigh*, I'll get the bucket" he moaned, moving back to the boat.

Phiorra chuckled as Castus went to get the bucket from their boat. "We don't ned to fill it ourselves, goofball!" She watched as about three seconds passed and the pool filled back up, the priestess diving back into the water to arrange the boxes where they neded to go. When they dropped back down onto the buttons, the light bridge had shown up. As the yet again dripping wet Phiorra climbed back onto the platform, she saw some torches on their side and the opposite, with a few sticks laying around. The flames on their side were lit, while the others were not.

Picking up a stick, Phiorra waited, timing it properly to run across and light the torches on the other side. Too bad the bridge wasn't up long enough for her to make it across. The bridge gave out beneath her feet, dropping her and the torch into the water below. She tried a few more times, letting Castus try as well, but every attempt went the same way until all the sticks were too soaked to use.

"Curses..." She muttered, looking around. "It's like they want us to fai-" She cut herself off as she saw the torch. "Duh! That's it!" The wet priestess walked behind the torch, lighting the one on the other side of the room by summoning her bow and putting an arrow into it. Just as she reached the other side, she felt a glob onto her back as a lone yellow chuchu landed onto her. At first it merely constricted around her, making her feel awkward, but it then let out a terrifying shock, making Phiorra fall to her knees with a scream. "Ah! G-Get it off! It hurts!" The shock was amplified by the water onher, and her arms wer fastened to her side by the goo.

Castus quickly became frustrated at their lack of success, everything up to this point had been simple, yet this test of strength and speed seemed to best them. Maybe the others were meant to simply build up their confidence and this was meant as a trial of perseverance, or perhaps was just the next puzzle in an ever more difficult set. Whatever the case they had to pass it.

...or rather they had to wait for the sticks to dry, considering their ill-advised attempts that cost a one each time. In truth he was about to suggest that they take a few planks from the boat (ones that wouldn't make it sink) when Phiorra had a different plan, shooting through the flame to the torch on the other side.

Well it was an odd answer, as not every party venturing in would have a skilled archer, but at least it did the trick; a path to the other side appeared above the rows of boxes. Alas, their troubles in this room were not at an end, as another chu-chu ambushed the energetic priestess when she went ahead of her escort.

And in truth, Castus had a hard time fighting the beast; not only was it an odd shape, or that he had little time to act, but he couldn't risk harming the priestess. Every punch was aborted or missed as he aimed too far away or risked hurting the girl. When she fell to her knees however, he knew he had to take action. With a scream of "Get your head down!" the champion spun and round-housed the jelly off the priestess' back.

Sure she was carried by it's force into the water, but she wasn't hurt any further. After helping Phiorra back onto the dry platform, he opened the chest and found a key and 25 rupees. "Here" he said, handing her the money, "It's your quest, the experiences are enough for me."