The traditional Zora wedding consisted of a public ceremony, in which the couple received the blessing of the community and the gods. Following this, the couple would go off alone, swimming together up the waterfalls of Mikau Lake and traveling until they reached Lulu Lake.
These lakes, Zelda knew, were named after a famous pair of Zora lovers - in some legends, they had a tragic ending, but in others, they lived happily ever after.
At Lulu Lake the lovers would stay, for something between an hour and two. The Zora considered this private time very important. When Zelda asked her why, Mipha had looked shyly down and said, "We exchange our vows, then," and that had been the end of it.
The married couple would return to Zora's Domain, and the celebration would begin. Feasting, music, dancing, merriment all around.
And there would be alcohol. Plenty of alcohol. Sake, cold and hot, hard cider, a bottle of champagne from Hyrule Castle's stores - that would be for the happy couple.
Anyway, there would be enough for Zelda to forget how miserable she was, and maybe even put on a show of being happy.
'Just keep thinking of the reception,' she thought, as the public ceremony began. 'Think of the reception.'
No one would be looking at her. She wasn't officiating. She didn't have to smile. That was a little consolation.
Link and Mipha approached the dais from opposite ends. He wore the Zora armor that Mipha had made for him, his chest puffed out with pride. Zelda could barely look at him.
Mipha - well, she looked radiant. She wore her Champion's sash, and the diamond-and-luminous pendant that Link had made for her. A silk kerchief around her neck, passed down from her mother. Dark blue, like the deepest water.
'But not as deep as the love I'm in…' an old folk song wormed its way into Zelda's ears.
Did Mipha know about Zelda's love for Link? How could she not know? She was the empathetic one. She knew, but she had asked him anyway.
'Don't resent her. She took her own happiness in her hands,' Zelda thought. 'Goddess willing, you should do the same.'
Zelda looked towards the dais. She was caught by Revali's angular profile, which she saw from the right.
He had said - that morning, he'd said he understood.
Did he love someone, who didn't love him back?
If so, who? And why hadn't he told Zelda about it? He and Zelda talked over everything - sometimes with irreverent comments, yes, but he could tell her anything. Right?
It must be burning him up. He only pushed himself so far because he had the highest standards for himself, higher than the ones he set for anyone else. Failure of any kind was his bane… and unrequited love…
Why hadn't he told her?
And who could it be?
To think of Revali, suffering in silence - because that damnable pride would never let him breathe a word of it to anyone - agonizing the same way she had - Zelda pitied him, from the depths of her heart. And it was a strange sensation, pitying Revali. She realized that she took joy in him, in his cleverness and dry sense of humor, and perhaps most of all in watching him fly, like he laid claim to the entire sky.
'He inspires me,' Zelda thought, watching Revali. 'He always calls me out when he thinks I've gone too far… he's always been there.'
Revali maybe felt her eyes on him. He turned, caught her eye - why did her heart skip, then? - and nodded his head towards the dais.
Right. The ceremony. Zelda turned and watched the ceremony with all due attention.
Link and Mipha clasped hands, and looked into each other's eyes. When the officiant - a tall Zora priestess with pearly-grey coloring and a bottlenose - asked them if they were ready to enter into this commitment, for the community and their new family, Mipha said "I am," with joy, and Link's "I am" carried around the echoing chamber.
Zelda expected to hear her heart break again, but it didn't. She wondered why she didn't feel more desolate.
'Another way I fail,' she thought. 'Can't even be in love right.'
But when she closed her eyes, she didn't see Link's blue, concentrated gaze. She saw Revali's eyes, with his vertical pupils and a wry expression.
Zelda's eyes fluttered open. She shook her head. Live in the moment, she thought. Live in the moment.
She glanced up again. It dawned on her, that getting to witness such joy, such love as Link and Mipha shared… it was really something. Maybe not a blessing, but something remarkable.
The priestess laid a hand on Link's head and Mipha's. After she prayed over them, the crowd cheered, "ZO! ZO! RA! RA! RA!" and began to sing - a song of welcoming, Zelda realized, welcoming Link into their community.
The couple turned to the crowd and waved, then Mipha tugged Link towards the edge of the platform. They hurried towards the edge, turned back for a last wave, and then dove, hand in hand, into the water. The crowd gathered to the railing to watch as they swam across the channel and up the first waterfall. Another cheer went up as they leapt into the air - they crossed to the second waterfall - up into the air -
And they were out of sight.
That was it, Link was gone.
Zelda took in a shuddering breath.
"You know," Revali said by her side, "He's only going to be gone an hour or so."
"Maybe two." Zelda didn't look away from that little speck of sky.
"Or who knows, maybe they'll just traipse away into their honeymoon and leave us hanging." Revali held out a wing. "Care to join me and drown our sorrows?"
"Please." Zelda took Revali's wing. Urbosa came up on her other side, and Daruk gave her a clap on the back that may have cracked a rib. So Zelda was smiling when her Champions escorted her to the lower levels, and the dining halls.
The Champions settled by the railing, a good spot to hear the songs and performances that would entertain them while they waited for the bridegroom to return. Revali bowed low to Zelda and asked if he could fetch her any refreshment.
"Some cider, please," she said. She watched him walk away, and wondered, was it a gift or a curse, that he could hold his head up high when he was thwarted in love?
'You don't know that he's thwarted in love,' protested the voice of logic. 'Heartache can have a hundred different roots. A thousand, even.'
'I wish he were here to talk it over,' she thought.
The song finished, Zelda applauded with the rest of the company, and then she caught sight of Revali again. He was in the foyer, with another Rito. They were conferring anxiously.
Zelda started to get up, but Urbosa laid a hand on her shoulder. "I'll look into it," she said, and slipped away,
When Urbosa reached Revali, he turned to her, handed off two cups of cider, and said something quickly, shaking his head. He turned towards the railing, and took off, following the second Rito.
In midair, he turned back, once, looking at Zelda. And then he was gone from sight.
Zelda left her seat and was at Urbosa's side before she was even aware her feet were moving. "What happened?" she asked the Gerudo.
"Bokoblins attacking Goponga Village," Urbosa told her. "His friend Gannet came to raise the alarm. Don't panic. Here, drink this."
Zelda took the cider. Her hands were shaking.
"Deep breaths, little bird."
Zelda took a few deep breaths. She hadn't realized - she was counting on Revali being there today, in case she needed him again.
She was almost mad at him - then she remembered how he had looked back. Straight at her.
Urbosa was still talking. "I know this day is hard for you," she said. "But…"
"You knew?" Zelda looked up at her.
"You…" Urbosa picked her words carefully, "I could tell something of how you felt. Feel?"
Felt. The use of past tense felt important somehow.
Zelda took a drink of cider. The sweet taste of apples grounded her.
"We'll wait for them all to come back. Come on. A new song's starting." Urbosa and Zelda returned to their seats. Zelda kept glancing at the bit of sky where Revali had gone. And then, at the waterfall where Link and Mipha had vanished from sight. They would all come back. They would all be whole again.
Zelda barely heard the music. She barely paid attention to the stories. The time just seemed to stretch on, and on. And she thought - she examined - she looked at her heart, as though it had been preserved in crystal.
Revali didn't return, but Link and Mipha did.
The people crowded around the bridegroom, who looked, somehow, even more full of joy. Mipha kept leaning into Link, on his shoulder, and he kissed her head with a tenderness that, two hours ago, would have made Zelda flinch.
But she was indifferent to it now. Or if not indifferent, then dimly happy for Mipha. Link had been… yes, he'd been her hero. He had come to her rescue, he had faced down Calamity Ganon with a courage that made Zelda's heart flutter. He had disproven her doubts, he had… he was Link, through and through.
But that equation somehow didn't add up, now, to 'love.' Not anymore. Not romantic love, anyway. She admired Link, and always would.
She stood up a little straighter. When she moved towards the bridegroom, the crowd parted for her, the princess.
To Link she said, "I wish you every happiness. You deserve it," she added to Mipha. Then she kissed Link on the cheek, and squeezed Mipha's hand.
"Where is Revali?" Mipha asked abruptly, looking around.
"He was called to Goponga Village. An emergency…"
Link automatically straightened up. Mipha put a hand on his chest. "I'm sure he can handle it by himself."
"It's your wedding day," Zelda told him. "Celebrate."
For an instant, Zelda could see Link shaking off his wife's hand, hurrying to Goponga to fight evil, his sword at his back - that was the Hero, never resting, forever on the chase - then Link relaxed and nodded. His arm wrapped around Mipha a little tighter. "Thank you," he said to Zelda.
She smiled and left them. She almost tripped over little Prince Sidon, who was begging to be picked up.
Zelda returned to the railing, where Revali had taken off. She took another cup of cider from Impa, but she let the party move past her, into the dining hall.
Revali.
His infernal pride and stubbornness. His desire to show off and receive praise - constantly, if at all possible. His evaluative, sharp-as-a-talon mind. His unflinching honesty, and loyalty unto death. His heart.
Somehow, that equation had added up to… something, Zelda didn't dare put a name to it, but something more real than she'd had with Link.
She was so good at quashing her emotions, after all. This one took her by surprise, but once she saw it for what it was - well. Everything was different.
She waited a long time.