The path continues to go down and down and down until they reach the edge of a frozen lake, suspended amidst the ice paths...

...and go right into it. Except it's not an actual lake but rather merely the frozen surface of the lake. And below that surface, Macalania Temple.

"Nice architecture."

"It's a common theme."

"If only summoning worked." Sigh.

"Hmm?"

"Could pay people with a chance to see this architecture."

"Oh, yeah."

They walk up to the door and the priest there says, "Halt! This is a holy place, not meant for the likes of her," looking at Rikku.

"But I'm a guardian!"

"An Al Bhed? A guardian? Preposterous!"

Theo sighs and steps forwards. "I am also a guardian."

I also have wings, he does not say, showing his wings off quite obviously. Look at how weird I am.

"But—"

"That's all I am," she insists. "I really want to be a guardian."

"And that's all one needs," says Auron.

"—very well," the priest says, admitting them in.

Yaaaaay got past the racist guy yaaay. (Okay maybe he was being racist based on statistics there but still.)

What's the temple like?

Exactly similar to every other temple they've visited.

"We ready?"

"Do we need to prepare specific questions…?"

"I mean for the Cloister of Trials."

"… I don't think the details of this have been explained to me."

"They're challenges, meant to test the suitability of the guardians and summoner to the task. But mostly they're puzzles."

"I am… probably not going to get much more ready over a short time period, and assume I'm probably okay levels of suitable or you would've said something?"

"Indeed. Let's go."

Indeed.

What's it like?

It's like... a very narrow corridor made of ice, actually.

"… So I'm expecting something terrible to happen as we walk through here. How about I go first?"

"The Cloister of Trials is not usually dangerous, but feel free."

He goes ahead in front anyway!

They reach the end of the corridor without problems! There are stairs leading down.