Moments following Murdoch's bold departure, Prince Sidon hurriedly separated himself from his nieces and began sprinting towards Link, who was standing in shocked paralysis on the edge of the dock. In the last hour or so, he had run all around the Domain in search of Link and his daughters, eventually finding them out at Veiled Falls. On top of that, he had run the long distance from the falls to the base of the dam on the other side of the entire valley, and he even carried Noelani up the stairs after her father had to reluctantly separate from her. Out of everyone in the family that day, the prince had attained the largest amount of exercise, but even so, he was not ready to be done yet.
As he stepped away from the frightened twins, he turned around to face them for a brief moment. "Mira, I need both of you to stay right here! I don't know how things may get!" He paused and turned to glance at her sister. "And…Lani?"
Mira felt Noelani tighten her grip on her hand as she was suddenly addressed by the prince. "Y…Yes, Uncle?"
He sighed. "…We might need you soon. Be ready."
A sinking feeling arose in Noelani's chest upon hearing her uncle's words. In a situation like this, there was only one thing she could possibly be needed for, and it honestly was not on her itinerary. She would do what she had to do, though, and if a dire scenario were to present itself to her…would she really have any other choice?
"…Okay." She whispered.
Following a quick nod of acknowledgement, Sidon turned back around and resumed his rush to meet Link at the dock. It was common knowledge that Zoras could swim much faster than they could run, so for every moment they spent on the dock, he and Link were rapidly losing ground on Murdoch. There was no time for discussion.
Link was stuck, motionless, on the edge of the dock as he stared out at the lake in horror. His first instinct after watching his son dive into the water had been to jump in after him, but, being the Hylian that he was, he would obviously stand no chance in catching him. Currently, all he could do was hope Murdoch would return with his heart still beating.
When Sidon came up behind him, however, he was presented with an alternative. The prince hopped into the lake the same way Murdoch had just seconds before, and when he did, he leaned forward a bit at the surface. Link watched him with heavy breaths.
"Hurry, Link, hop on! We can still catch him if we work together!" The prince hollered.
The hero did not hesitate. As soon as the prince provided him with this offer, he leapt hastily into the water. Sidon was positioned only a couple feet from the dock, so almost immediately after entering the lake, Link was aptly distanced to grab the prince's shoulders. Upon securing his grip on what was essentially his living jet-ski, he glanced behind him and took one final look at the twins. From what he could see, Noelani had her arm wrapped completely around that of her sister, and she was looking randomly off on the horizon. Mira, though, upon seeing him, waved her hand over her head.
He barely had time to wave back to her, however, before Sidon began prepping for departure. Something felt weird to him about separating from his daughters again, but obviously, this time would not be permanent. Of all the candidates likely to die this day, Link was…unfortunately…not at the top of the list. This thought remained stuck in his head as Sidon cleared his throat.
"Alright, Link, hang on. I don't know how much the girls have shown you in the last twenty-four hours, but I can assure you that speed-swimming is not exactly a smooth experience." He warned.
"I can handle it." Link jabbed. "Let's go get Murdoch."
Link hadn't changed a bit in the last century, Sidon thought to himself. None of the risks mattered to him when he had a goal in his mind. Of course, he clearly knew where his limits were, and he refused to accept challenges with no chance of success, but for this endeavor…the young Hylian obviously knew there was a chance. It was either that, or…he foresaw no success, and…Murdoch was merely an exception to his rule. Hopefully, given Link's incredible forecasting ability, the former would be the case.
Answering right away to his passenger's cue, Sidon promptly kicked his legs downward into the water and propelled the two of them forward in the lake. Over time, he turned his kicks into steady wavelike motions in his abdomen, mimicking the movements of a large fish. Eventually, after finding the momentum in his movements, the mighty prince expanded the mechanical energy to his entire body, and just like that, he and Link were rushing toward the Divine Beast with exceptional speed. Link took great interest in the phenomenal swimming power of the Zoras, and as it would seem, their prince was one of the best among their ranks.
Back on the platform, standing with a slight shiver in her frame, Mira watched Sidon carry her father out onto the horizon to hopefully rescue Murdoch before disaster could strike. Noelani seemed just as nervous as she was, if not more so, considering the role she would potentially be forced to play soon. They found a lot riding on what would occur in the next ten minutes, and whether or not they would see their brother alive again. Standing by and watching helplessly was about as torturous as it could be for the pair.
"Mira, what if…"
Mira hushed her sister. "Of course he'll come back, Lani. If anything, Mom wouldn't allow things to end like this for him. I promise."
She did not require words to understand her sister's thoughts.
Riding his brother-in-law's back was one of the most unique physical experiences of Link's life. As the prince followed through with the rhythmical, fishlike body movements needed to keep them hurdling forward, Link's face was bombarded with a continuous stream of wind that was rich in spray from the lake around them. This added to the pouring rain that was already blanketing the atmosphere, and the resulting combination was enough to also chalk the moment up as one of the wettest in Link's life.
It didn't take long before Vah Ruta was upon them on the horizon, and as the mighty Divine Beast began to fill up their field of view, Prince Sidon made a sharp left and initiated a steady clockwise orbit in the lake. Link was sincerely blown away by the indescribable size of the ancient machine, now that he was close enough to appreciate it fully. Its majesty was undeniable even from the dock, but now that he was this close to it for the first time in his memory, it became obvious just how underproportioned it was before. The thought of little Mipha, who was barely five feet tall, piloting this titanic monster…was almost hard to believe.
"Did you see where he went?" Link asked, loudly enough for the prince to hear. The rushing water and billowing rain made it difficult for the duo to hear each other, even with Link grappling right to the prince's back.
"I might have an idea!" Sidon called back. "Wait here for me!"
Without any warning, the prince suddenly dove beneath the surface and cut off Link's grip. Before he knew it, Link was treading water by himself in the middle of the lake, with Vah Ruta towering into the sky next to him. The mechanical creature was anything but tranquil, he found, and being this close to it felt surprisingly unsettling. He felt a certain irony in how hostile the thing seemed, considering how connected to it Mipha had felt back in her days.
He didn't have too much time to think about it, though. After only a few seconds of floating amongst the rocking waves, Link was picked up by the prince again, who emerged underneath him. Immediately after reappearing at the surface, with Link on his back once again, Sidon turned back around and began swimming the other direction. At this point, they were heading around to the Beast's front end. Link, though confused, decided to trust the prince's judgement.
"Sorry about that, it's just far easier to see underwater." He explained.
"Did you see him?" Link prompted, ignoring Sidon's apology.
"Yes…" Sidon answered as he continued his hurried strokes toward the Divine Beast's trunk. "…he's orbiting Vah Ruta underwater, heading the same direction we were earlier! I turned us around so we could catch him head on!"
"So…why hasn't he tried to attack the Beast yet? He had time, didn't he?" Link asked. Vah Ruta was the first Divine Beast the Hylian hero had pursued since awakening from his hibernation, so his knowledge of the massive machines was still rather lacking, to say the least.
Sidon, who was already paddling his body at full speed in the opposite direction, shook his head in response against the water's surface. He continued to answer Link with a raised voice so he could be heard through the numerous noises clouding their environment. Everything around them was loud in general, it seemed. Since awakening, this was Link's first real experience as far as intensity was concerned.
"Ol' Murdoch's just looking for an opening right now!" The prince exclaimed. "Vah Ruta is protected by an impenetrable barrier, and it only dissipates if the Beast detects a hostile presence in the lake! It does that so it can lay down ice attacks!"
Link raised an eyebrow as he quickly readjusted his grip on Sidon's slick, wet shoulders. He had a constant need to wipe bands of water from his eyes, but he was traveling too fast to risk letting go of the prince. "But…why hasn't he been detected yet? He's been out here for quite a while already!"
"That's a good question, my friend!" Sidon chuckled. "I took this thing on with Seggin a couple weeks ago, and it was all over us as soon as we entered the lake!"
It did seem like an intriguing question, the more Link thought of it. He had encountered a very large Guardian in the wetlands on his way to Zora's Domain a few days ago, and it was almost immediately locked onto his presence as soon as he entered a hundred-foot radius. He hadn't admitted it yet, but he had come out of that situation practically gasping for life. As he was already informed, Guardians were of ancient sheikah design, and of course, the Divine Beasts were as well. There was no doubt that the sheikah of ancient legend were basically limitless in their technological abilities, and the fact clearly showed in the living remnants of their timeless trinkets and doohickeys. So…how was Vah Ruta acting so blind to Murdoch's presence…especially considering the guard captain's intent to incapacitate it?
Whatever the cause, Link and the prince had to take what they could get. After all, the Divine Beast's tardiness was buying them a decent amount of time to catch their target.
Shortly after rounding the Beast's front side, Sidon addressed Link urgently. "Look alive! We're coming up on him right now!"
Link frantically searched the water in front of them, but he was unable to see anything through the frustrating abundance of waves and ripples tainting the surface of the lake. The situation was made worse by the fact that Sidon was carrying him through the water at exhilarating speeds, so focusing on objects was next to impossible. The escalated storm Vah Ruta was causing was not doing Link's vision any favors, especially since he was not trained in seeing things underwater.
"Where?!" He yelled. "I don't see him!"
Suddenly, just as Link made this exclamation, Murdoch ejected from the water, his body poised in a hydrodynamic form, right in front of him and the prince. Link ducked his head down with a shocked gasp as his son, with an elegant twirl, sailed directly over his head in the opposite direction. Murdoch's bow was still gripped firmly in his right hand, though its positioning there did not seem to affect his swimming ability. The splash from his mighty leap was great enough to envelop both Link and the prince, but neither their speed nor direction were thrown off as a result.
Link turned his head behind him just in time to see Murdoch slide back into the water without so much as a tiny additional splash. They were now hurdling away from each other. At this point, Sidon was carrying Link toward the tail end of the Divine Beast along its opposite side, and Murdoch was approaching the trunk. Essentially, Murdoch had just managed to dodge the two of them completely by leaping out of the water.
Through his ongoing body movements, Sidon seemed to shake his head again. "I had a feeling he would pull something like that." Link was barely getting a chance to recover from his flinch as the prince prepped to regain ground on their rogue target. "Hang on!"
He gasped as Sidon suddenly lurched his body straight downwards into the water. In a single swift, fluid motion, his escort looped inwards under the water, causing them to rapidly change their direction at the expense of their orientation. Link struggled to hang onto the prince's shoulders as he was quickly flipped upside down in the process, but Sidon corrected the issue by barrel-rolling his body before reaching the surface again.
Upon being reintroduced to the air, after only a brief second underwater, Link coughed and gagged until he hacked up the liquid that had gotten in his lungs. Sidon, who continued to swim full speed ahead, was obviously unaffected. He didn't seem to acknowledge the discomfort his maneuver had caused his passenger.
"Your son may be agile, but I'm much faster than he is!" Sidon announced. "We're in pursuit of him now…we'll catch up to him soon!"
In the distance directly ahead of them, by the base of the Divine Beast's trunk, Murdoch suddenly surprised the pair as he leapt directly upwards out of the water. His bow was still gripped in his hand, but this time, it looked like he was grabbing an arrow from his quiver. Link's heart sank as he saw his son dock an arrow in the bow in the split second he was in the air. Upon closer inspection, however, he noticed that the arrow going into Murdoch's bow was, in fact, a regular arrow, and not a glowing shock arrow. This observation gave him a rush of relief.
During the ever fast moment he was airborne, after having docked the arrow and set his aim at Vah Ruta's trunk, Murdoch used his free hand to draw the string back and send the projectile flying. Sparks were emitted from the arrow's point-of-release, and, like magic, three full-sized clones of the arrow were launched out from the bow. They each had a slight deviation in their flight path, but even so, they soared right at the Divine Beast as three parts to the same shot. They were set to hit the Beast's tusks, located just below the trunk, but before they could get there, they were suddenly vaporized by a mysterious, translucent force. Murdoch had already fallen back into the water shortly after the shot was made, so he did not get to observe this spectacle.
As Link watched the destruction of the arrows from a distance, Vah Ruta suddenly ascended its trunk and released another long, melancholic roar that blasted across the waves and ripped at his unexpecting eardrums. He cringed against his shoulder in a vain attempt to shield one of his ears from the sturdy cry, but with his hands firmly attached to Sidon's shoulders, he was forced to endure the paralyzing sensation of the Divine Beast's apparent suffering. The forcefield that had caught the arrows became visible for a moment as a pulsing, pink bubble, but after a short time, it seemed to flicker and die out. Another bolt of lightning tore across the sky above, followed by a thunder crash that sounded weak…compared to what had just occurred.
"What just happened?!" Link yelled, hoping Sidon would hear him. "What did he do?!"
Sidon gave his legs a quick thrash to accelerate them a little faster. "He just alerted the Beast! Its defenses are down now!"
"So what's going to happen now?" He asked as Sidon veered around the trunk in pursuit of Murdoch.
"Ice!" The prince responded. "The shield gets in the way of the Beast's ice attacks, so it retires its defenses when it senses a threat! It's going to fight back now!"
Link lowered his body down against the prince's back as he swung to the side to sneak under the Divine Beast's head. There was a considerable amount of space between the machine's trunk and forelegs, but nonetheless, he felt like ducking down would be a little less reckless. Plus, he figured doing so would help Sidon by decreasing the amount of air resistance he'd have to fight. Now that Murdoch had managed to shut down the Beast's shield, they were probably running out of time.
Back on the other side of the Beast, where they had been initially, Sidon caught a glimpse of Murdoch under the water, continuing just ahead of them in the same direction. All Link could see from above, through the bands of rain and lake water stinging at his eyes, was a distorted, reddish figure gliding through the water in front of them. To him, it was clearly Murdoch, and by the looks of it, Sidon was gaining on him fast. Apparently, he was right about being faster than the guard captain.
Before Link could ask the prince what their move would be to capture Murdoch, a minor shockwave emanated through the air from the Divine Beast, causing him to flinch. Just as this had happened, a bright, glowing shade of turquoise appeared in the hero's vision in the direction of the Beast, and when he turned to address the phenomenon, he was met with a rather strange and daunting sight.
"I, uh…suppose that would be the 'ice' you were mentioning?" He uttered.
"What?" Sidon replied awkwardly, having not heard his passenger.
"Ice! Incoming!" Link howled.
Three large, illuminated cubes of ice had materialized in the air by the Divine Beast's hip, bearing mysterious sheikah carvings on each of its faces. As far as Link was concerned, the blocks had basically appeared completely out of nowhere, and after only a couple seconds by the Divine Beast, they started flying outwards at their targets. The first one to go seemed to be flying straight at them, although somewhat slowly.
Sidon glanced briefly to his right at the body of the Beast and took notice of the ice block flying in their direction. He and Link were currently traveling perpendicular to the block at a higher speed than the thing was hurdling, so, halfway through its arc, it began to curve towards them with some kind of supernatural force. Clearly, sheikah technology appeared to transcend the physical dimension, as its Divine Beasts could demonstrate.
"Hang in there, Link!" Sidon ordered. "I'm going to try and lose this thing!"
Just as he had done before, the prince jerked his body downwards into the water as the ice block approached them from the right. At the speed they were moving, they were just starting to pass the strange, frozen entity horizontally, but that was doing nothing to stop it from homing in on them. While still under the water's surface, Sidon sensed the ice block curving inwards at them in a final stretch, so he reacted quickly by yanking his body to the right in the direction of the Divine Beast in order to cause a kink in the block's path. Bubbles streamed out of Link's mouth and floated to the surface as the hero was thrown around by the prince's agile movements under the water.
True to Sidon's hasty plan, due to its momentum, the ice block was unable to curve its path fast enough to make contact with him and Link, and it shattered upon reaching the water's surface to their left. Once the block's destruction became apparent, Sidon quickly returned to the surface in consideration of Link's lack of gills. The Hylian took a deep, rejuvenating breath before lowering his body down against the prince once again. In the same moment the first block broke, the second one ejected from Vah Ruta's hip and began careening in front of them towards Murdoch.
Link paid close attention to how his son was planning to evade the oncoming ice block. He still couldn't see Murdoch well from his spot above the surface, but with the ice block zoning in on him, he could get a general idea of where the guard captain was located. He was still swimming closely in front of them in the same direction, judging by the curve of the ice block's path. It wasn't long, however, before the looming projectile changed its direction suddenly and began flying straight outwards toward the edge of the lake. By the looks of it, Murdoch must've darted away from the Beast to the left in an attempt to divert the block's path.
The only thing Link could do with his limited vision was watch the ice block as it supposedly sped toward his son. He couldn't tell whether the thing was getting close or not, since Murdoch couldn't be seen by him on the opposite side of the water's surface. He had no doubt that Murdoch would dodge the threat, since…well…his son hadn't yet let him down in physical endeavors. Even Zoras had their limits in the water, though, so Link stayed on edge in case something were to suddenly go wrong.
He continued watching as the ice block shattered against the surface in the distance. Through the many elements clouding his vision, Link was pretty sure he couldn't see Murdoch anywhere near the projectile's landing point, so he found it pretty safe to assume that his son had successfully avoided the impact. Despite being faster, Sidon had admitted to being less agile than Murdoch, and even with Link on his back, he had managed to dodge an ice block. Therefore, it made sense that Murdoch would've been able to maneuver efficiently when presented with the crisis himself.
Link noticed something else about Murdoch's move, however. By turning away from the Divine Beast toward the outer reaches of the lake like he did, he had also evaded Sidon's line of sight and caused the two of them to pass him in their orbit. They would have to turn around again to meet him.
"Hey, I think Murdoch's behind us now." Link announced while patting Sidon's neck.
The prince sighed. "Alright, hang on."
Once more, Sidon dove underneath the water with Link still grabbing his shoulders. Following what he had done before, he looped down and then backwards in order to quickly flip himself and his passenger in the other direction. Lastly, he barrel-rolled his body to face Link upwards again, and then he ascended to the surface. With Murdoch supposedly closing back in toward the Divine Beast from the outside, they would supposedly meet somewhere by one of the towering monster's pouring waterfalls. The plan was for Sidon to reach out and grab either Murdoch or his bow.
However, the moment Sidon's head and shoulders emerged from underneath the water, he and Link received a pounding face-full of ice. The third ice block, which they had neglected to track, had been following them for the last several moments, and when Sidon turned himself around to pursue Murdoch one last time, he had unknowingly directed himself and his passenger right into the spinning cube. Before Sidon could even have a chance to react, he was forced to take the hit head-on.
The two of them gave a cry as they were flung backward by the impact, their momentum completely destroyed. Link's grip on the prince was torn, and as his hands broke free from Sidon's shoulders, he skidded along the water a few feet before reorienting himself. Sidon, on the other hand, was completely dazed from the impact, and when Link was tossed from his back, he pressed both his hands to his head and tried to banish his dizziness.
Link shook his head for a moment to clear up his own minor dizziness, and after doing so, he quickly swam over to the prince. "Are you okay?"
"Er…I…uh…I think so…" Sidon mumbled awkwardly. His eyes were darting around quickly as he worked to refocus himself after the tough impact he had taken.
While he was waiting for the prince to regain his composure, some distant movement caught Link's eye. He worriedly shifted his head to the side so he could see past the prince, and when he did, his long-range vision became more clear. Once he could make out what he was seeing, he brought his hand to his forehead. It was Murdoch, traveling along the surface of the water, and he was headed straight for one of Vah Ruta's waterfalls. With Sidon too dazed to move, and Link being the Hylian that he was, there was nothing he could do but watch helplessly.
With his bow in hand, Murdoch arched his body upwards as soon as he reached the foam at the base of the waterfall. Then, using the same, slithery movements that had propelled him through the lake, he ascended the length of the plummeting water with stunning ease. Link had never seen a Zora ascend a waterfall in his memory, and despite the tension of the situation, the sight of it was simply breathtaking. The fact that Murdoch was his son…made it all the more so. It filled him with grief to realize that he had missed the sight of his children doing it for the first time.
Murdoch, practiced as he was with climbing falling water, was at the apex of Vah Ruta's spouting waterfall in a matter of seconds. With one last thrust of his legs and torso, he launched his entire body directly upwards and broke free of the water's current, sending him an additional twenty feet in the air. From his new vantage point high in the sky, he could clearly see all four of the Divine Beast's glowing, pink weak-points, each of which responsible for the spewing of its water. He was also visible to everyone at that height, and as he raised his bow and drew a shock arrow from his quiver, Link's eyes were directly on him, as well as Mira's from the dock.
The glowing, enchanted arrow stung a little bit at Murdoch's fingertips as he wielded it in his hand, but he soldiered his way through the nagging sensation. He was just beginning to reach the top of his arc, so he realized he needed to act quickly before gravity could suck him back down to the lake. It was time to take his stand. His time to finally, perhaps, prove his resolve. Prove his dedication.
He set the arrow in the massive bow. Immediately, the mythical, metal tool began to glow an eerie yellow, acting almost as an extension to the glowing aura of the arrow he was about to use. The painful stinging he was experiencing in his arrow hand was now in both of his hands, as if the bow itself was inheriting the electric properties of the arrow. He grimaced against the sensation. It didn't feel comfortable, but it felt…powerful. His resolve ever steadfast, he pulled the bowstring back just as his ascent into the air was turning into a descent.
"Here I am, Mother…" He whispered with closed eyes.
He extended his fingers…and released the bowstring.
Back on the dock, Noelani was startled by a sudden shrill, petrified scream from Mira. She was still hugging her sister's arm, and in doing so, she noticed an unexpected onset of fearful quaking in her body. It was then, after jumping a mile in her skin from her sibling's shocked cry, that she knew what had happened…and what she would have to do. She thought to herself as she stared blankly off into the distance, that…perhaps there had been a bit of fate in her inheritance.
Just then, from their spot on the Reservoir platform, Mira had been nervously watching her brother out on the lake as he climbed the waterfall alongside Vah Ruta. She had also seen Link and Sidon take the direct hit from the last ice block, which had made it seem likely that they were going to fail their objective in the first place. All she could do as she watched Murdoch leap from the top of the waterfall and draw back his bow was hold her breath and pray.
Her scream had come, however, upon observing Murdoch's firing of the shock arrow. As soon as the tension in the bowstring had been released, the electric buildup that had accumulated in the bow suddenly discharged, resulting in a blindingly bright burst of light that blinked through the hazy rain like a camera flash. The quick blink had been accompanied by a loud popping noise, similar to the snap of a giant's fingers. In the same instant the discharge had occurred, like a fly hitting a bug zapper, Murdoch was seen falling lifelessly out of the sky.
Link saw this happen from the lake at the same time as Mira. Sidon had just managed to shake off the stars in his vision, and when he did, he also caught a glimpse of the catastrophe. Both their eyes widened at the spectacle, but while Sidon gasped in horror, Link just stared in silence. His mouth hadn't even opened at the sight…even as his eyes slowly followed Murdoch's unconscious descent back to the lake. The stricken Zora's bow had left his grasp after the blast, and at the moment, it fell separately from its former wielder. The sounds of the wind and rain seemed to disappear during the terrible moments of his fall.
Eventually, after the longest few seconds of his life, Link blinked as Murdoch's body, alive or dead as it might've been, smacked the surface of the lake back-first, a powerful splash erupting on all sides. He seemed to float for a moment, but his ragdoll-like limbs eventually began to sag and pull the rest of his body under. His bow landed in the water a second later, and it immediately began sinking to the bottom of the lake. No one had any plans to recover it.
The prince did not waste a second. As soon as Murdoch hit the water, he began swimming over to him at full speed in order to check for vitals. Link followed him as quickly as he could, but it obviously took him much longer to reach the site of his son's impact. By the time he got there, Sidon had already gripped Murdoch's wrist and pulled him back to the water's surface.
The mighty guard captain looked dreadful. Zoras were typically unable to withstand the electric force of one shock arrow, and he had taken on the brunt of three in a single instant. Because of this, his entire body was covered in blackened streaks that, from the looks of it, seemed to follow his nerve endings. They congregated right at his chest, forming a large, black mass right where his heart was supposedly located. The thinner parts of his body, including the fins dangling from his arms and the sides of his head, were charred halfway off. Overall, the blackened areas of his body seemed larger in areas where his nerves were to converge.
The parts of his ravaged son that truly disturbed Link, however, were the blast wounds. In many places, typically where the blackened channels met, Murdoch's skin was either worn down several layers or missing entirely. The areas that were lucky enough to be spared looked heavily burned, as if they had been briefly torched. Most notable to the distraught hero was Murdoch's left hand, which had been used to pull back and release the bowstring. It now only had three fingers…a thumb, half a ring finger, and a pinky.
Sidon leaned over and pressed the side of his head to Murdoch's singed chest. He waited patiently for a moment, but over time, his face grew increasingly grim.
"…He has no pulse." He whispered.
"Well we can't just sit here!" Link spat loudly. "Bring him to Noelani!"
Sidon responded immediately and obediently to Link's demand. While continuing to tread water, he did his best to wrap his arms under Murdoch's body and hoist him out of the lake and onto his back. The two of them had the same relative height and weight, so carrying Murdoch proved to be a far greater challenge for the prince than carrying Link. Time was of the essence, however, so he did not let the difficulty get to him. He felt Link swim up to his side and grab onto his wrist, which, for the sake of keeping up with his naturally fast swimming, he allowed.
Once everything seemed in order, the prince took off for the dock. He and Link could faintly see the twins standing on the platform through the billowing rain, and, despite their distance, they could clearly see a lack of calm in Mira's body language.
With Murdoch slung over his shoulders, Prince Sidon jogged quickly up the length of the dock toward the sisters, who were standing in the exact same spot they had been in before his initial departure. Link was following closely behind him at the same speed, with the same sense of urgency on his face. Mira looked close to having a complete mental breakdown, but Noelani seemed to be eerily calm and solemn as her relatives arrived with her technically-deceased brother. She turned her head in their direction.
"Lani, I hope you're ready to bring your A-game!" Sidon exclaimed anxiously. He knelt down in front of the sisters, reached over his shoulder, and deposited their charred, mangled sibling on the ground with gentle care.
"Oh, dear Hylia…" Mira choked, getting a long, brutal look at what was left of Murdoch. She clamped her hand over her mouth and turned her head away.
Sidon and Link stood over Murdoch's body expectantly as Noelani quietly got on her knees. Her nonfunctional eyes fell on the ground beneath her, and at the same time, she leaned forward and reached out with her left hand. She couldn't tell where she was reaching, but from the sounds of her surroundings, she assumed she was in the ballpark as far as finding Murdoch on the ground. Her expression remained entirely unrevealing.
True to her estimation, after leaning far enough forward, her hand came to rest on Murdoch's upper hip, right over his gills. Her expression changed a bit, and she reached out with her other hand to feel more of Murdoch's motionless body. She moved her hands around and softly caressed the tissue surrounding her brother's gills, chest, and abdomen. In doing so, she felt the burns, the gashes, and the mound of char over his heart. At this point, she could finally see, in her own way, how dire Murdoch's condition was.
"Ohhh…" She moaned. "…ohh my…"
"His heart's not beating, Lani." Link urged. "You need to do something fast!"
Noelani nodded her head once, her focus remaining rock-steady. "I think I can save him. I just…need some time to think…some time to feel…"
Link's son was laying dead on the ground in front of him, and his only chance of seeing said son alive again was being too patient about it. Naturally, this was making him quite the opposite. "Time to think? Noelani, it's now or never on Murdoch's life!"
Noelani loudly shushed her father, who was acting rather desperate, understandably. She shifted her hands to a new position on Murdoch's chest. "Mom should've told you how this healing magic works! It's not easy! Just let me focus, before it's too late!"
Link had an immense urge to bark something else at his blind daughter, but at the same time, he had never heard her use such direct language at him before. He had already figured out many of Noelani's hidden, fierce character aspects from their time together recently, but never before had she felt the need to use them on him. Before he could even realize it, he found himself swallowing his pride and keeping his mouth shut. He was probably the most capable living being in all of Hyrule in this age, so feeling hopeless in a time like this was torture beyond all measure for him. Regardless, Noelani was Murdoch's only hope, and Link had to acknowledge that.
Mira was still facing away from Murdoch and the others, and in the corner of Link's eye, he could see her put both hands up to her face. The continuous rain made it impossible to hear subtle noises, but from this gesture, he could tell she was beginning to cry. The gentle, rhythmical convulsions of her body added to that evidence. Mira was a very emotional and dedicated individual, and this was anything but a casual moment in which to be standing. Not even twenty-four hours prior, she had broken down in that exact same spot with thoughts about her mother. Losing her sibling as well…was a frightening possibility for such a young mind to comprehend.
Sidon seemed to pick up on his niece's emotional instability shortly after Link did. He walked around Murdoch's sprawled body and reached out to take her softly by the shoulders.
"Come, Mira. I think it would be healthy for you to remove yourself from this mess for a while and go see Muzu. There's nothing left to do to help Murdoch, so we need to just leave your sister alone while she…does her thing." He instructed. He tried to lead her towards the platform stairs, but she resisted.
"I don't want to go back to Muzu." She pouted.
Sidon sighed. "Okay, we'll go visit your grandfather in his chamber. Would that be any better?"
Mira stood in silence for a moment as she pondered over her uncle's proposal. In all honesty, she didn't want to leave Link and Murdoch's side, but at the same time, she had to admit that the recent events had been heavily weighing on her. Muzu, having been in support of Murdoch's reckless actions, was most certainly not the face she wanted to return to, however. Her relaxed and unconditionally loving grandfather, though? Perhaps he deserved to know what had happened.
She reached up with her arm to wipe the tears from her face, even though it made no difference in the pouring rain. "…Alright."
With that answer, she held her head down as she turned to exit down the stairs of the dam. Sidon, hoping to comfort her in her time of distress, walked alongside her in close proximity and kept his hands on her shoulders. Link watched them both as they took their leave, and before long, they were down the first few steps and out of sight. At this point, he was once again alone with Noelani as she continued her prep work to supposedly heal Murdoch.
He fixated his gaze on her just as she was beginning to focus her attention on Murdoch's heart. Prior to this point, most of her work seemed to consist of moving her hands around and feeling different areas. Usually, someone would be able to guide her hand to the spot of a specific wound, and she'd be able to start healing it right away. She was dealing with an entire broken body this time, however, so she found it necessary to personally analyze the severity of the damage in different places. Link thought it would've been better to hold off this part until Murdoch's blood was at least pumping again, but after her outburst, he found it best to leave it to her judgement.
She placed both her hands just above the large, charred mass on Murdoch's chest, and she closed her eyes. Just as Link had seen with Mira's burned thigh the day before, a mystic blue aura formulated around Noelani's palms, and it began to brighten gradually over time. The sight was still fascinating to him, even though he had been a witness to it several times before. From the blurry bits that he could remember, Mipha had even used the healing ability on him plenty of times in their past.
"This…might take a while." Noelani murmured. "I…haven't exactly had to heal on this kind of scale before."
"How have you managed to be so calm?" Link replied with a look of intrigue. "How does witnessing your brother this injured not send you into a panic?"
She sighed. "Because I can't heal when I'm panicking. I had to accept the possibility of this happening as soon as we reached the lake…so I could be ready in case Murdoch needed me. If I can't control my thoughts, I can't control the ability."
"Are…Are you sure you're even able to save him still? He's been out for…quite a long time…" He stammered.
"No, I'm not sure. He could've been long gone before you even brought him to me earlier." She answered with a saddened shrug. "But I'm not going to cloud myself with those worries, because again…my healing wouldn't work."
Link hadn't remembered too much about the details surrounding Noelani's mysterious healing ability. He knew she had gotten it from Mipha, obviously, but as far as the functionality behind it…he was nearly clueless. On top of that, he was curious to learn how Noelani's early history with the healing power would've played out. He couldn't remember any moments with her in the past where she had used the ability around him, and because of that, he wasn't sure whether or not she had discovered it before the Great Calamity. He wondered if talking about it a little bit with her would distract her too much from working on Murdoch, even though…it felt like an odd time for it.
He sat down on the wet surface of the platform and crossed his legs. Noelani's head shifted a bit as she faintly heard the noise of his clothes shuffling. It took her a moment to put two and two together, but when she realized he had sat down, her mouth curled into a weak smile, which then disappeared again quickly. It was difficult for him to tell, but from her subtle behavior, it seemed like she was trying to conceal an ungodly amount of stress.
"Are we about to talk again?" She let out a long, drawn sigh. Despite all his efforts, Link could not tell if it was one of relief, or exasperation. "A comforting conversation sounds…heavenly right now."
Link shrugged. If she was being serious, then he'd at least be glad to give one of them some solace. She more than deserved it for her efforts. "It's just that I realized I never asked you about your healing ability. I know Mipha has demonstrated it to me before, but that's not in my memory right now."
"It may seem like it'd be a burdening responsibility…" She began solemnly. "…but I think it's more of a blessing. It's almost like the gift of life, and I feel honored to have inherited it from Mom. I think it more than makes up for being blind."
She always had some interesting perspectives. She was quite secret to others about many of her innermost feelings, but to him, she was happy to be a complete open book. And this, her healing powers, seemed to be one of her most personal topics. She must've felt, from what he could figure, that the ability to heal others was the most direct, living piece of her mother out there today. He'd most likely return to that theory, but there were other pressing matters that held his interest.
"So…I have to know…" He continued, changing the subject. "…how do you do it? What do you have to do to unlock this power?"
She sat silently as she pondered the question, her hands still locked firmly above her brother's chest. "I felt like you were going to ask that question at some point. The answer, as of now, is quite simple, but it wasn't always so obvious to me."
"Did Mipha teach you?" He cut in.
She nodded slowly. "She'd teach me every day while you were gone on your missions. I remember how happy and loving she sounded when she first learned I could do it. Ever since then, she would dedicate lots of time to showing me how it worked, and what powerful things it could do. Our connection grew so much stronger."
"I see." He whispered. "So she was really glad to see her power passed on in the family."
"That's right, and with good reason, too. I don't think she expected herself to live through the Great Calamity, and she probably liked the comfort of knowing that that specific part of her legacy would live on." Noelani explained distantly.
"That's…wow. I never thought of that." He muttered, putting a hand to his chin.
"To answer your question, though?" She glanced in his general direction. "It's powered by emotion. More specifically…emotion toward someone else. That's the main principle that Mom passed on to me, and I've been following it ever since."
"You don't say…" Link trailed off thoughtfully.
"Yep. Uncle had even called upon me a couple weeks ago after he and Seggin attacked Vah Ruta. Seggin had suffered a few injuries from the shock arrow he used, which I was easily able to heal. His condition was obviously not as…serious as…Murdoch's, though." She sighed.
Link took another look down at Murdoch, whose face hadn't changed since his downfall. His eyes were still closed, and his mouth was still partway open, revealing his dense row of pointy teeth. Not even his head had been spared of the blackened streaks that covered his body. It looked as if his entire nervous system had been charged like a battery at the time of releasing the bowstring, but there had been nowhere for the electricity to go. He probably hadn't even felt any pain when the discharge occurred, which was oddly the most chilling part of it.
"I really hope you can fix him…" Link stated. He wasn't usually the kind to show helplessness like this, but at the same time…he wasn't usually the kind to be helpless. He was powerless to save his son. All he could do was wait.
"I can finally feel the condition of his heart." Noelani answered with a hint of triumph in her voice. "It took me a while to work down to it, but I can feel it now."
His eyes lit up. "You…can feel his heart? Without having to physically touch him?"
She nodded and closed her eyes. "It's sort of like being able to extend my hands beyond where they physically reach. Damaged tissue acts like a barrier to what I can see. In order to get down to his heart, I had to first heal the burnt flesh and muscle that was layered in front if it."
"That's amazing…" He gasped. He leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands. "So…what's going on in there?"
Noelani took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She opened her eyes again and turned to her father. "He's not dead."
He gasped again, much louder this time. He struggled to contain his joy and relief from hearing those three words. "Really? Are you sure?"
She nodded a third time. "His heartbeat is very, very weak, which is probably why it seems like he has no pulse. On top of that, it seems like it had been shocked out of rhythm by the electricity. It's very chaotic and…sporadic. I'm sure we would've lost him if you hadn't brought him to me."
"Well…what can you do about it?" He asked hopefully.
Noelani kept her right hand positioned directly over her brother's heart, being very careful not to move it. She began moving her left hand, though, raising it further above his chest to allow more space. Then, she began making slow, circular movements with her left hand around her right, similar to an orbit. Occasionally, she would raise her still hand up a little bit before lowering back down, almost as if she were feeling for a sufficient orientation. It was quite an odd, but nonetheless pensive, looking ritual.
"With a bit of time, I'm sure I can get his heartbeat back on track. Sort of like healing it back into rhythm, if you will." She explained. "Then, I'll start working on the rest of his body. I'm…not sure how long it'll take."
"Man, Lani…it's amazing how much I've missed. It's almost hard to believe how good you are at this!" Link exclaimed.
Noelani smiled shyly with a minor added blush. She looked just as relieved about the turn of events as he was. "Mom was a very good teacher, you know. I owe everything to her."
Link reached over to his daughter and rested his hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump a little bit again. The aura around her hands flickered slightly, but they kept their strength. Once she felt her father gently caress the top portion of her back, the auras appeared to get exponentially brighter. Link sighed as he stared at the hypnotizing light that was actively resuscitating his one and only son.
"I think we all owe something to Mipha."
