Chapter Text
“Please accept...Mipha's Grace."
Mipha sends a gentle blue light into Link's chest. Her power is warm and comforting, it's almost like stepping into a hot spring and feeling all his aches and pains fade away. The power flows through him and lifts him off the ground for a few seconds before gently placing him back down. He can feel Mipha's essence resting underneath his skin, protecting him from harm just as Mipha herself once had.
-
Upon Link's return to Zora's Domain, he is gifted Mipha's trident. He smiles and thanks King Dorephan even though he doesn't feel worthy of such a gift. The Lightscale Trident is stunning. The weapon's silver sparkles and the two green gems dangling from the base of the prongs jingle merrily as it is moved. He puts it into his inventory on the sheikah slate.
The Zora have a subdued celebration in honor of their beloved princess. They gather in the city square around Mipha’s fountain and trade stories of her kindness and bravery. King Dorephan, Prince Sidon, and the Zora who were supposedly his childhood friends all try to make Link feel included but he is obviously an outsider. He can feel so many eyes on him, most looking at him with awe and gratitude that he doesn’t feel deserving of, and the rest glaring at him with burning contempt.
What right does Link have to be here? He saved Mipha a century too late. He can't just sit there and reminisce over Mipha’s life and accomplishments when he's the reason her life has been cut short. As soon as he can, Link slips away from the gathering and walks down the east pathway, putting more distance between himself and the heart of the domain. At the end of the path, a Zora with light purple scales stands guard. She turns to face him at the sound of his footsteps and a flash of recognition and nostalgia passes through her eyes.
"Thank you, Master Link. You have saved us all, you have my eternal gratitude. Please come back soon, maybe we can catch up sometime?" The guard asks hopefully. Link can't remember her or any other of the Zora that knew him from Before. He can't even remember the guard’s name. He doesn't have the heart to tell her that so he simply nods and continues walking.
Link heads up the hill to the stairs that lead to the East Reservoir Lake. His footsteps echo as he ascends. From this high up he can see the entire Domain. It doesn't look nearly as unfamiliar as it had when he first arrived. He sits down at the edge of the lake's dock and equips the trident from the sheikah slate. He holds the trident with a white-knuckled grip and his brow furrows in concentration. He tries to uncover more memories of Mipha but he is unsuccessful. He finds that he can't recall any specific memories but he can remember how Mipha made him feel. He can picture the wistful smiles she'd give him, the warmth of her kindness, the happiness he'd feel when seeing her. His heart feels so heavy it could sink to the bottom of the reservoir.
Link sighs. He closes his eyes and massages his temples to soothe an oncoming headache. At the sound of footsteps approaching from behind, his alertness returns. He turns to see who decided to intrude on this moment.
"You seem troubled, my friend." Sidon sits down a few feet away from him. Link shrugs and averts his eyes from Sidon’s knowing gaze.
"You're thinking of her, aren't you?" Sidon asks. It wasn't really a question, it was more of a statement, but Link nods anyway.
"When I think of my sister I try not to remember her absence, instead I think of the time I had with her. I think about who I am today and how she shaped me, and through that, she is always with me." Sidon gazes into the distance with a sad smile.
Link takes a breath to reply but when he tries to speak no words come out. He clears his throat and croaks out, "Sidon, I appreciate what you're trying to do but my grief cannot compare to yours. She was your sister, but I can barely remember her."
Sidon nods as though he was expecting that argument. "I barely remember her either. I was quite young when she left this world and have very few concrete memories of her, but I remember the way she made me feel. She made me feel safe and loved."
Sidon puts his hand on Link's upper arm and looks him in the eyes. "I have no doubt that you shall eventually recover more memories of her and the other people that were important to you."
Link stares at the hand resting on his arm and realizes that Sidon’s scales are exactly the same shade of red that Mipha’s were. A sharp spike of grief tears through his chest.
Sidon rises to his feet. "I must be off now, but if you ever wish to speak of Mipha or anything at all, you know where to find me. If you ever need assistance in your quest, do not hesitate to ask, all of the Zora would be honored to come to your aid. I have complete faith that you will succeed. Goodbye, Link. I hope to see you again very soon."
Sidon begins to walk away but turns back when Link clears his throat and quietly says, "Thank you, Sidon."
"Of course, my friend." Sidon gives Link his signature smile and returns to the celebration.
-
Link travels north into Akkala. On his second day of exploring the region, he comes across the Torin Wetlands. The evening air is crisp and cool. It had rained the day before and puddles of water and mud cover the ground. The area has many dead guardians littered across it. A century of neglect is apparent in the moss and rust covering their bodies. Guardians, even dead ones, have a way of making him feel uneasy that he doesn’t quite understand. Not even the lynel of Ploymus Mountain sent this type of dread through his veins.
The guardian corpses have some salvageable parts. Most hold ancient screws and springs but if Link is lucky he'll find an ancient gear or two. As he works his way through the field he stops and collects a variety of plants and mushrooms. He finds hearty truffles, silent shrooms, armoranth, Hyrule herbs, razorshrooms, and more. A few boars wander around here and there but they're quite skittish and run at the first sign of trouble.
Suddenly, Link feels like he's being watched. Trusting his instincts, he pulls out his bow and readies an arrow. He hears paws splashing through the mud. A howl rings out and three wolves circle him. The desperate hunger in their eyes is plain to see. After a few passes, the leader of the pack stops and lets out a vicious bark. It charges him but comes to an abrupt stop when an arrow strikes it between the eyes. The other two wolves scatter as their leader let out a shriek of pain, flops to the ground, and dies.
Link salvages some meat from the wolf. He's putting the meat into the slate's inventory when he hears a laser charging and too many legs skittering through the grass. He jumps, turns around, and comes face to face with a guardian. Its menacing red eye projects a beam of death onto his chest. He quickly returns his bow to his back, hooks the sheikah slate onto his hip, and raises his shield. He stands and waits for the whine and flash of light to tell him when to parry. Waiting is always the hardest part. The dreadful anticipation sends his heartbeat into overdrive.
The laser fires and Link parries at exactly the right moment. The guardian is hit by its own attack. It takes a second to recover but soon enough it's ready to strike again. The second parry goes off without a hitch. The guardian is weakened but not yet defeated. He holds his shield up and waits for the guardian's third shot. Then he hears a second laser charging. He turns to see another guardian crawling toward him. The guardian's unnatural glow reflects off the water and its unsettling legs create splashes with each step. This moment of distraction is all the first guardian needs. Link hears the whine of the first guardian's weapon firing. He turns around to raise his shield but he isn't fast enough.
Link stumbles as burning white pain tears through him. His skin turns pale and a cold sweat breaks out across his brow. The second guardian fires its laser and hits its target with precision. He crumples to the ground.
Why does this feel familiar? The burning agony in his chest, the smell of burning flesh, blood crawling up his throat, and the terrifying knowledge that it's all over.
In this moment, he knows that this has happened to him before. This is not his first time dying from the laser of a guardian. But that hardly matters as he slips away into oblivion. Everything fades away into nothingness but suddenly she is there. Mipha.
She holds him tenderly and a cool and comforting wave of healing washes over him. His pain is gone. His skin, muscles, and organs are stitched back together lovingly.
"It was my pleasure." Mipha gives him that familiar wistful smile before fading away.
Link is back. He can feel the water and mud soaking into his clothes. He can feel the wind ruffling his hair. He can feel the frantic rhythm of his heart. He is alive.
Link jumps to his feet and takes cover behind a tree. He can hear the guardians crawling towards him in pursuit. He clumsily unhooks the Sheikah Slate from his hip, opens up the map, selects the Lakna Rokee Shrine, and dissolves into wisps of blue light.
-
When Link rematerializes he is surrounded by trees of green. The trees in Akkala came in browns and reds and yellows, but these trees are green. He falls to his knees. He wheezes and trembles. He is struck by the fact that he just died. Mipha pulled him back into the world of the living but for a moment he had been dead. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and opens them. Sunset fireflies float lazily through the air, casting a green glow across the trees. Crickets chirp in the distance. A gentle breeze rustles the leaves. He is safe.
Link stumbles towards the small body of water near the shrine and sits in the middle of the bridge that crosses it. He reaches into the water and tries to cup it into his hands to wash the mud from his face but he can't. His hands are shaking too hard.
Link peels his mud-soaked clothes off and lays them down on the bridge. He slips into the water and the sweat, the mud, the dirt, all of it, is washed away. He submerges himself completely for a few moments to clean his face and his hair. He lugs himself up onto the bridge and wrings the water out of his hair. He selects the Hylian tunic and trousers from the sheikah slate. He pulls the trousers on first but stops as he goes to put the tunic on. Brutal scarring covers most of his stomach and chest. He knows there are similar scars across his back too. He swallows back bile at the realization that the wounds were inflicted by a guardian. He hastily tugs on the tunic and takes several deep breaths.
Link sits on the bridge for quite some time and thinks about a lot of things. He thinks about Mipha. He thinks about Ganon, Zelda, destiny, and dying. The weight of it all is enough to make him dizzy. He doesn't know how long he stays there, just that when he finally broke out of his trance the fireflies are gone and the birds are just beginning to chirp.
He feels hungry so he reaches down into the water and grabs a Hyrule Bass. It wriggles in his hands for a bit before eventually stilling. He takes a bundle of wood out from his inventory and lights it with a flameblade.
Link feels cold down to his very bones and he had hoped the fire would warm him but it didn't. He puts the fish on a skewer and holds it above the flames. He watches as the fish's scales turn golden brown and pulls it out of the fire when it reaches just the right shade. He stares into the flames and chews his food mechanically.
He misses Mipha so badly. He doesn't know how he can miss someone he barely remembers but he does with every fiber of his being. Mipha was young, for a Zora anyway. She was only barely entering young adulthood when her life was taken from her. A wave of overwhelming fury flows through Link. It isn't fair. None of it is. Mipha deserves to have lived. She deserved to marry someone and have kids. That someone could have been him. The armor she made for him was effectively a marriage proposal. He doesn't know if he would have accepted. He thinks he could have fallen in love with her if he had the chance. He definitely knows that he loved Mipha but he doesn't know if it was in the same way that she loved him.
Hot tears of frustration and sorrow trickle down Link's face. His appetite is gone and he sets aside his meal. So much weight is on his shoulders and this burden seems impossible to carry. He doesn't know if he can do this without her. Mipha's power suddenly sends a pulse of warmth and comfort through his chest as if to say, 'I am here.'
A grim determination fills him.
He can do this.
He will do this.
He will tear Ganon apart limb by limb for taking Mipha's life.
He will do it for Sidon, who believes in him.
He will do it for King Dorephan, who mourns his only daughter each and every day.
He will do it for the young Zora who sing songs by Mipha's fountain.
He will do it for the elderly Zora, even the ones who still resent him.
But most of all he will do it for Mipha.