The war was over. Vah Riasa's chambers echoed with the sounds of rustling leaves and quiet weeping. Mipha's weeping.
She knelt on the vine-covered floor with the fallen Hylian Champion in her arms. The enormous mechanical forest surrounding them had grown eerie and quiet. The remains of Velvetblight Ganon were crumpled in a pile of leaves behind them.
A shadow moved through the columns over Mipha's head, using darkness as her cover. She was like a nimble spider weaving her web between the ancient stone oaks supporting Vah Riasa's ceiling.
The young Yiga elegantly hopped to the floor of the shrine with her long silver hair trailing behind her. She landed next to the slain Velvetblight with a knife in hand, keeping her face shrouded behind her tribe's white mask. She paid almost no attention to Mipha while she worked to pry out the phantom's stone eye. Zora princesses were never much to worry about, especially the frail heartbroken ones. A handful of dry salt in her eyes or a couple pieces of coral stuck under her claws could be an easy death sentence if she got in the way. The Yiga was a little surprised this one had somehow survived the Waterblight.
The eye came out of the Blight's socket with a soft "pop." The Blight's body dissolved into a harmless mound of earth and shrank under the blankets of leaves.
The Yiga rolled the dark blue orb in her hands to inspect its condition, then looked back to toward Vah Riasa's ceiling to make her quick exit. Just before she jumped, she turned her masked face toward Mipha.
The Yiga waded through the ankle-high stacks of vines and fallen leaves with the evil artifact still in her palm. She stopped when her shadow loomed over Mipha's and Link's huddled forms.
"Poor little thing. Something as pretty as you shouldn't look so green around the gills," she said in a gentle voice through her mask. "At least horse boy here won't have to worry about working in the stables anymore, right?"
Mipha pulled the Hylian Champion's limp form closer in her arms, gritting her teeth in repressed rage.
"How dare you insult Link like this…"
The Yiga smirked behind her mask.
"Of course, I could always help you sprout him back up to life."
She held the petrified pearl in front of Mipha's golden eyes, catching their attention. Mipha looked up at the masked woman's face and blinked.
"Think about it," the Yiga enticed. "The last of Calamity Ganon's power from this era can bring him back like he was never gone. You'll get to live happily ever after with your dashing hero. All we need is a decent bag of bones where Ganon can lie dormant for the next few centuries while he regains his strength. And when he finally reawakens, he'll inherit all of this boy's strength."
All Mipha could think about was the chance to be with Link again. To finish telling him what she had been too shy to say, what she would have told him if they had both survived the Calamity. While the Yiga's voice droned on about the next coming apocalypse in the far distant future, Mipha only thought of the time she could be spending with Link now.
"No one will be able to stop him," the Yiga rambled in glee. "His Malice will swarm over every mountain in the kingdom like they're anthills. He'll lay waste to everything in his path without even needing to control these Divine Beast things. Maybe he'll even be able to wield the Master Sword himself! He'll be strong enough to reshape this whole realm however he sees fi-"
"Use me." Mipha interrupted in a whisper. Her voice was barely audible over the cold breeze blowing through the leaves.
"Huh?" the silver-haired Yiga tilted her head.
"You can use me as your conduit," Mipha said with more resolve. "If the Yiga's powers and mine are anything alike, we both know whatever's left in that sphere will increase my healing powers for one time. That's all I'll need to revive Link."
Her head sank. Her eyes gazed down to the fallen knight in her arms.
"This will be my sin. I won't let him be the one who has to carry it."
"Well…" the Yiga said with curious hesitance. "That's… not what I was betting on. But I guess you could work, too. Grandma is always talking about the importance of self-preservation. Just make sure no one else finds out. Not even on your deathbed."
"You have my word," Mipha said sadly. "Link, father, Sidon, whoever's left… I wouldn't want them to know what I've done."
The Yiga glanced at the artifact in her palm again, then toward Mipha. She nodded.
Mipha closed her eyes and braced herself. The Yiga knelt in front of her and carefully pressed the sphere to her gills.
Mipha winced as Ganon's fading aura was absorbed into her heart. She grabbed the Yiga by her wrist to draw the orb in the rest of the way. She gasped for breath once it was over and the ache in her chest dissolved.
The Yiga leaned closer to Mipha to check for any suspicious blemishes in her gills, anything that would give away her secret. Satisfied, she stood up and bid her farewell.
"See ya around in another 10,000 years, Fishguts."
The Yiga threw a handful of exploding marbles into the leaves at her feet and disappeared in a puff of pink smoke.
Mipha could feel the revitalizing power creeping through her arms. She could see the specks of darkness flickering around her fingers, weaving itself into her natural healing energy.
She had come too far. She couldn't stop herself from using it.
Concentrating, she used her dark gift to revive her beloved. Link's worst wounds healed up in seconds, leaving only small scars under his Champion's Tunic. His body began to grow warm again in her arms.
He started to breathe. Slowly, clumsily, his eyelids lifted.
"Mm.. Mipha? What are you doing here?" he stared up at her half-blind, his senses struggling to return.
"Do you feel all right, Link?" she softly replied. She started to show a smile for the first time in days.
"A little tired from fighting that thing. I was sure it was about to do me in," he rolled his head into the crook of her fin as if it were a clear, silky pillow. "It must have just been a bad dream."
Mipha helped him up as he tried to hobble to his feet. She draped his arm behind her neck so he could lean on her as they walked. She spoke softly as they were leaving the Divine Beast together.
"Link, now that this is all over, I was hoping you could visit Zora's Domain. I have something I've been wanting to show you."
"It's not Sidon's snail collection again, is it?" Link chuckled weakly, grasping her arms to keep his balance.
"No, it's something more special than that. I made it for you myself." She lowered her head to hide her growing blush. Her eyes disappeared underneath her fins. Her mouth formed a small, fangy grin.
"It will unite us forever."