Yet another sleepless night. Link lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling a great weight on his heart. Hyrule no longer had to fear from Calamity Ganon but Link still felt a nagging sense of dissatisfaction. Getting out of bed, he walked downstairs to the weapons he had displayed on the wall. There was Urbosa's Scimitar of the Seven, Daruk's Boulder Breaker and Mipha's Lightscale Trident. Link gently touched it. Mipha-his childhood friend and lover, killed long ago by Ganon.
That's what it was-Link had regained his memories of important events that happened before the Great Calamity but there were still plenty of holes. For example, he knew there'd been a relationship with Mipha but how deep had it run? Had they plans for the future? But the most frustrating thing was that no matter what he remembered, it was all for naught. Mipha was dead and there was nothing he could do about that. Link took down the trident and looked at it for a long time, gently running his hands over it.
Still holding the trident, he went to his closet and sifted through it until he found the Zora armor Mipha had made for him, her chosen one. He put it on, took out the Sheikah Slate and selected the shrine in the middle of Zora's Domain. Instantaneously, he was swept up in the blue light out of his home in Hateno Village and into Zora's Domain. The halls were empty and quiet as Link made his way to Mipha's statue. He stood and stared up at its face, the trident clutched in his hands.
"Back again, Link?"
Link whipped around and saw King Dorephan standing behind him.
"My apologies, your majesty."
"Don't. I can't tell you how many times I've been here myself."
Link turned back to the statue.
"I can't stop thinking about her." He said.
Dorephan nodded. "I remember you said the same thing when I asked you how you felt about her.""
"I don't." Link said bitterly. "All I have are bits and pieces. All the time we spent together, all the moments we shared, the things we told each other-all gone. And there's nothing I can do to get them back. But the worst part is that those lost memories wouldn't matter if Mipha was still here. But she's not. She's gone. Hylia damn me, she's gone."
Link sank to his knees and pounded the ground with his fist, his eyes burning. Dorephan came up and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"It does no good to dwell on the past." He said.
"Do you think I don't know that?" Link said icily.
"The pain may never truly go away, my boy. The best you can do is make peace with it."
With that, Dorephan left. Link stayed where he was for several moments until he rose and began to walk down into the lower recesses of Zora's Domain until he reached the catacombs. He passed the tombs of Zora royalty- King Do Bon XVI, Queen Rutela, King Ralis, King Mikau, Queen Lulu, King Toto, Queen Oren-until he reached Princess Mipha. The coffin was empty, as there'd been nothing to bury. An inscription read 'Princess Mipha, Zora Champion and pilot of Divine Beast Vah Ruta. May her sacrifice not have been in vain.'
No, her sacrifice hadn't been in vain. Link had seen to that. But he still felt empty inside. He placed a hand on the coffin, a Hinox fist squeezing his heart and a Lynel blade buried deep in his back.
"What good am I?" He said, his tears threatening to burst. "What good am I?"
A twinkling caught his eye. He turned to see a coffin by itself on a raised platform. Approaching it, Link read the inscription 'Queen Ruto, Sage of Water, ally of the Hero of Time and the keeper of his heart. May her deeds go unforgotten.'
Ah, yes. The most well-known of Zora royalty, one of the Seven Sages and the lover of the Hero of Time, the most famous of his incarnations. What had caught his attention was a Zora Sapphire, a long standing symbol of the Hero and the queen's love. It lay glittering on the coffin, giving off an allure that enchanted Link. Slowly, his hand reached out and clasped the gem. When he did, a surge of energy rushed through him. A regal voice rang in his ears: "Do you love her?"
Link's answer came up from the depths of his soul: "I would do anything for her."
"Good answer."
As sudden as it came, the feeling left. Link stood in a daze, the sapphire still in his hand. He gazed down at it. Something like the voice of a shrine monk spoke to him: 'Take me to her.'
Link slowly turned and made his way back up the stairs until he was once again in front of her Mipha's statue.
'Give me to her.' The voice said.
Link stepped closer to the statue, reached up and pressed the sapphire against its heart. The gem glowed bright and melted into the statue's stone skin. To Link's astonishment, the statue began to tremble and turned into red and white scaled flesh. With a gasp, it collapsed into Link's arms, a flesh and blood Mipha.
'This can't be. This was a statue! This can't be Mipha…can it?' Link thought, dumbfounded.
Her eyes fluttered open.
"Link…? Where am I…? The last I remember was Waterblight Ganon…and Vah Ruta…" Mipha said weakly, her body still fitting perfectly in Link's arms.
'Do not fear, Hero of the Wild.' The voice from the catacombs said. 'The power of your love transferred Mipha's spirit into the statue. She is yours once more.'
'Could it be?' Link wondered. 'I must make sure.'
"Mipha, do you remember when we saw Farosh, Dinraal and Naydra?"
"The dragons? Yes…" Mipha said. "We traveled across Hyrule for several months to find them all. You were so worried about the temperatures would affect me. I remember I said 'They're so beautiful' and you said 'not half as beautiful as you'."
"It is you." Link said breathlessly.
The two embraced and kissed with such passion like the other would vanish in an instant.
"Forgive me, Mipha, for failing to save you all those years ago." Link said, his tears finally flowing. "I swear to all the goddesses I'll never leave you again. I'll be your dog if it comes to that."
"Don't talk like that, Link. I have you again, that's all that matters to me." Mipha said, her tears also pouring.
"We lost so much, we suffered so much…"
"Please, Link, don't say anything. Just let me hold you."
Unbeknownst to both of them, a single guard had happened to witness the whole thing. His jaw went slack and his spear fell from his hand. Like a shot, he ran for Prince Sidon's room and pounded on the door, quickly rousing him.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Sidon groaned, rubbing his eyes.
"Your highness…" The guard gasped. "It's Princess Mipha…she's alive!"
"If this is a joke, it's in very poor taste." Sidon frowned.
"I swear on all the goddesses, sir! You must see!"
Sidon followed the guard to the balcony overlooking Mipha's statue and saw her and Link still embracing and kissing passionately. His jaw dropped open and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. As his legs gave out and he clutched the railing, he gasped out "Alert my father."
Down below, Link and Mipha remained oblivious.
"I missed you so much."
"I missed you too." She replied.
"It's over, Mipha, the nightmare is over. We can finally be together, even though I had to pull you back from paradise."
"It wasn't paradise, Link, not without you. I want to know everything you saw and did."
"And I'll tell you, for we now have all the time in the world."
Link took her by the arm and the two slowly began to walk towards the exit of Zora's Domain and towards the rising sun. Zora began to materialize, witnessing the reuniting of the hero and the revived princess but Link and Mipha didn't notice. They may as well have been the only two people in Hyrule. As they left the Domain, a gust of wind blew loose a lace curtain which drifted onto Mipha's head. Sidon pushed through the crowd of astonished Zora, reaching out for Link and Mipha but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"Let them go, my son." King Dorephan said.
"But, Father, Mipha-"
"She'll come back to us, son, don't worry." Dorephan assured him. "But for now, let them have each other."
Link and Mipha walked along the paths of Lanayru in bliss, unaware of the apparition floting above them of a Zora woman clad in a purple dress bearing the symbol of the Sage of Water and a silver crown inset with rubies on her head watching them.
"Enjoy yourselves, my dears." Ruto's spirit said to them.
A pair of arms wrapped around her waist.
"You always were the romantic, my love." A hero that looked identical to Link said.
"Is that a bad thing?" She asked coyly.
"Not at all, my love, not at all."
With that, the two of them slowly vanished.
Epilogue
"And that's how your mother and I married." Link concluded as he led his Gerudo stallion along the path past Rito village.
"Yeah right, Dad." The boy atop the horse said skeptically.
"What? You don't believe me?"
"Come on, Dad, you know that whole bringing Mom back to life via a statue is completely ridiculous, right?"
"Ask anyone back at home and they'll tell you."
"Yeah, you, Mom, Uncle Sidon, Grandpa…admit it, you're all just messing with me."
"I know it sounds unbelievable but may I remind you that you had no trouble believing I had to stand naked on a pedestal under the blood moon to reveal a shrine."
Before his son could answer, a brown and white Rito chick plummeted out of the sky and crashed into him, knocking him off the horse.
"Oh, I'm sorry! Please forgive me!" The chick said, getting up and bowing. "I was having my flying lessons and the wind blew me down here."
"No harm done, little one." Link said as he helped his son up. "We were on our way to the village and we'll be glad to take you back."
Link picked up both of the kids, put them on the horse and continued towards the village. He couldn't help but notice how captivated his son was by the Rito girl.
"I'm Medli, by the way."
"I'm Link, like my dad. You were flying?"
"Yes, but to be honest, I'd rather be practicing my harp with my teacher, Kass. He's teaching me the different parts of the Second Ballad of the Hero of Time, where he visited a foreign land to save it from a cursed mask and a descending moon. I'd never heard of that one."
"I know that song."
"Really? Promise you won't tell me how it ends?"
"I promise." His son said with more sincerity than Link had ever heard from him before.