Kadli stared blankly. Despite having grown to an age where romance wasn't a complete non-interest, she still found Link's pining his worst trait. "What are you asking me?" she asked, "How to propose? I thought you already did that."

"I did, but–"

His response was cut off by her press, both of the sword and questions. "So why me? I know less about romance than you do."

He parried her attacks, amazed at how much she had improved over such a short amount of time. Her sword style was a strange mix of Reba's and his own, unique and terrifying. Still, he regained his distance to explain himself.

"Yes, well–" he took a breath, relizing how dumb his reason sounded out loud. "I thought I should ask a girl her opinion and you're the only girl in the castle now that I'm friends with and that I know won't tell Zelda."

Her stare intensified. "I always forget the princess is the brains of your operation," she said with a sigh, "If anyone, you should ask Amphritus. Out of all of us, he's the only one who got close to getting married."

Amphritus, that was a great idea! Amphritus was super wise about these sorts of things! Link couldn't believe he hadn't thought of that. Kadli raised her sword, frustrated that Link didn't direct his full attention to the practice. She pressed him, forcing Link to refocus.

Part of him was scheming how to get in contact with Amphritus, but most of him was trying not to get stabbed.

...

It turned out that Link should've put more thought into that. He blipped next to Vah Ruta, causing Amphritus to react on instinct, readying his spear. When he recognized Link, he let out a breath of relief.

"How did you do that?" he asked.

Link held up the Sheikah Slate. "Impa upgraded the teleportation ability to be able to move organic matter."

"And you used it?"

"I've been using it, yeah," Link said, not seeing the big deal. Zelda also expressed some concern, but Impa said it was fine, so it was probably fine. So far, Link had only lost a shoe in the process once, and Impa had fixed that bug as soon as he told her about it.

"Is there… a reason you're here?" Amphritus asked, "There's no emergencies, are there?"

Link almost was about to express his concern over the fact he wasn't sure what to get Zelda, but that might be a mite dramatic. "No, it's uh, more of a personal matter I suppose."

Amphritus nodded. "To do with the princess, I'm assuming."

Link nodded, slightly embarrassed he could be read so clearly. Amphritus waited for him to continue.

"Well, she and I are engaged now, and recently she reminded me that it's tradition to exchange jewelry on our wedding day, and more specifically rings. She already has a ring for me, but I'm expected to find one for her. And I don't know what to do. Jewelry isn't something I've ever thought about."

The Zora warrior set his spear butt to the ground, thinking for a moment.

"Personally, I think you're overthinking this," Amphritus said, "As long as you put a fair amount of thought into it, she'll love it. Princess Zelda has never struck me as a particularly material person."

Amphritus was right, which was exactly why Link needed him.

"Is that the only 'important' business you had?"

Reluctantly, Link nodded. He knew that, but it did help for someone else to say it.

"I was trying to talking to Kadli, but she reminded me you were the one of us to have the most life experience."

At that Amphritus laughed. "Is that a nice way to call me old?" Before Link could say otherwise, the Zora waved him away. "You would be right. I'm more than happy to provide any wisdom I might have, though, Zora ceremonies are a bit different to Hylian ones. I'm not sure if this would help at all. In the Zora Kingdom, it's the woman that proposes. She does so by making a gift, traditionally out of sapphires. It's not dissimilar I suppose, but…"

"Blue is her favorite color," Link mentioned, "she might like a sapphire ring."

Amphritus smiled knowingly, but didn't voice his thoughts. Finally, he said, "Now that I think about it, Darlas mentioned something about a new sapphire mine, you could probably pop over and ask him about it."

"Really?" Link asked, "That sounds great. I'll head over there now. You're the best Amphritus!"

So excited to have found a direction, Link didn't wait for the large Zora to get another word in, and selected the next location, zipping up into the sky in a swirl of blue energy.

…

Unfortunately, Darlas wasn't near the Divine beast, and Link had to don his heat resistant cape to go look for him. He was still sweating a bit, but it wasn't the literally roasting temperatures he felt before.

Making his way to Goron City, he was stopped a few times just to say hi, but unlike a lot of Hyrule, the Gorons were pretty chill about the whole Hero thing. Eventually, he arrived at Darlas' home and knocked.

"Coming!" he heard from inside. Darlas opened the door, breaking into a smile. "Link! Good timing, I was just going to message you!"

"Oh!" Link said, "I was needing to talk to you too. So, what's the deal?"

"Come in, I was just laying it all out."

Link entered and Darlas shut the door. On the table inside were an assortment of jewels. "So recently, we found a new sapphire vein, and I was gifted a few due to saving Hyrule. I didn't do it alone, so I was thinking I could give each of you one of them."

Link's eyes went wide. He'd never had an eye for fine metals or jewels. He worried too much about losing or breaking fine things. As it was, he'd never been given something that he hadn't stained or broken in some capacity. Even his sailcloth required some repair after the fight with Ganon. Zelda had fixed it, somehow making it even more beautiful.

Still, there was one sapphire, one that he thought was beautiful. Like the clear of the sky compressed into the form of a stone. It sparkled even in it's unrefined state. If Zelda were a rock, she would be a rock like that.

"Found one you like already?" Darlas noted, "personally I'm not a fan of precious gems. They can be beautiful, but theirs is a permanent beauty. I find such beauty can grow dull. Unlike the transient state of flowers. It's their briefness that brings their beauty, I believe. If a rose bloomed eternally, would it not lose its novelty? It would certainly lose it's vitality."

Darlas waxed on poetically for a few more minutes, but Link was already thanking the goddesses for his great fortune.

"But curiously enough," Darlas continued, "I have heard legends of an eternally blooming deku tree in the Lost Woods."

"You've mentioned that before I believe," Link said, "That, or I've heard something about it from someone else. I've always wanted to go to the Lost Woods." Shaking his head, he said, "but is everyone on the same wavelength? Because I literally was coming here to ask you about the sapphires."

"Really?" Darlas asked, "that's a stroke of luck. You've never struck me as someone who loves precious gems though."

Link then went on to explain the situation.

"Hmm, well, now that you have the stone, I suppose you'd need someone to set it, right?"

Link honestly hadn't thought that far ahead. "Impa could probably do that, right?" he asked, "She's always soldering stuff, and knows about metals."

"Impa lacks an artistic eye. I know for a fact the only reason the guardians look how they do is at least the other scientists working on it had an idea about it. It's actually a design based on this flower pot that I find very–"

A brief detail of how much Darlas liked a certain type of flower pot, and which flowers he believed fit best in it and he looped back around to the topic of jeweler.

"Yeah, there's this amazing Gerudo Jeweler in Gerudo Town. I highly recommend her."

Link was about to jump for joy when he remembered a key fact about that. "Darlas, I can't go to Gerudo town."

"Well, if you could teleport here, you can teleport there, right?" Darlas asked.

Of course Darlas wouldn't realize this, seeing as how Goron didn't have sexes.

"I'm a man, men aren't allowed there. I could never go into the upper city, but now they've overturned the rule for the lower city as well."

"Oh, you're right. I spend so much time around the rest of you and yet I still can't tell you apart. Save clothes. You could try to disguise yourself perhaps."

That might've worked when he was 15 or 16 but at this point, even the most sheltered of the Gerudo would be able to tell. Even if he hid the stubble on his chin, his body was decidedly male.

"Or you could get someone to go to the jeweler in your stead."

But who did he trust enough with such an important task? He could ask Kadli again, though he doubted she would indulge him. Paya needed to be with Zelda, which just left–

Link was an idiot. Reba! Of course! Why hadn't he started with her in the first place?

"That's a great idea Darlas! You're a lifesaver! Thank you so much! I'm going to figure out the Lost Forest thing for you!"

Slipping the stone into a pouch and then into his enchanted bag, Link selected the next location, Vah Naboris, and teleported.

…

To his luck, Reba was in Vah Naboris when he transported. She reacted similarly to Amphritus, with aggression before she realized who it was who snuck up on her.

"How–" she stopped herself. "I'm not even going to ask. Why are you here?"

Her mood was sour and Link wasn't sure of the cause. She'd seemed happy enough the last time he saw her.

"I heard the best jeweler in Hyrule is in Gerudo town," Link said.

"She is."

"And I have a sapphire that I want made into a ring."

"Okay."

"And since I'm a man, I can't go into Gerudo town."

"Correct."

She was being difficult. Link narrowed his eyes. "So I came to ask if you could either get the jeweler to meet me, or give her this sapphire."

Reba largely ignored him and sat on a rock, staring out into the desert. "And what will you get me in exchange?" she asked.

Link hadn't been expecting that. Sure, he was willing to pay her to ferry the materials and ideas, but he'd thought with her being Zelda's friend she would be more willing to help. Somehow he knew money wasn't what she meant.

"What do you want?" Link asked.

Reba thought for a moment. "I don't know what I want," she finally said.

"Would you want… a new sword?"

"Mmm… no."

He thought harder. "A pelt?"

"In this heat?" she asked. She had a point.

It was then that Link thought of something. "I could um, set you up with someone." he said, not awkwardly.

"Set me up?"

"Y'know, like, I could be your wingman. I'm sure Zelda already does that, but. I don't know…"

Reba stared at him for a full minute, processing what he said, before laughing loudly. She doubled over she laughed so hard. "You want to be my wingman?" she asked finally. "That's rich. And sort of cute. I think I see what Zelda sees in you."

He smiled, mostly out of confusion, but it was enough to sober Reba slightly. "My bitterness must be showing, I'm sorry. I want to be happy for you and Zelda, but… I see how happy you two are together, and I think about how old I am and how I've only ever been in love with someone who never loved me back the same way… and…" she let out a huff. "You're stupid lucky, you know that right?"

Surprised at the outburst, Link sat down next to Reba. "In that sense. Yes. Reba, you're not old though."

"You're just saying that."

"Impa didn't marry Koshia until she was in her 30s. Would you say she was too old for romance?" Link asked.

"Impa didn't meet Koshia until she was in her 30s."

Link met her eyes with a 'see?'

She groaned. "I know it's irrational. I can't help it."

Link understood that.

"Fine, I'll help you with your stupid ring," she said, "I know what Zelda would want too, so don't worry about it. Also, give me the pelt, Solipa will want that."

Link got out the pouch with the sapphire and the wolf pelt. Reba appraised the pelt. "This is nice," she said, petting the fur. "I'm changing my mind, if you ever drag me to Central Hyrule in the winter you're making me a cloak with something like this."

Link nodded. A smile worked its way to his face. "Of course."

Reba stood, brushing off her clothes. "Well, enough moping, I'll go get on that."

Before he could get too far to leaving, she stopped him. "Well… who exactly did you have in mind?" she asked. "To set me up with, I mean," she clarified.

Link was taken aback. "He's uh, a sheikah guard."

She nodded.

"His name's Strawn, you might've seen him around the castle."

"Strawn?" she repeated aloud, tapping her chin in thought. Then with a snap she said, "oh, I think I know who that is. He's the sheikah with the… blond-ish… hair…" her enthusiasm waned when she realized how vague that statement was. "He blushes a lot."

"He does blush a lot," Link said, though he'd only seen the blush from alcohol.

Reba furrowed her brow, "Why him?"

"He sort of..." Link wasn't sure what to say. Would he have wanted someone to tell Zelda he had a crush on her? He decided to tall part of it. "He saw your Dance of the Seven Scimitars and was intrigued, though he hasn't really had a chance to approach you."

Reba had started staring off into the distance at some point of his explanation. Finally when he looked at her for an answer she said, "I think I'd like that."

"Awesome," Link said, "I think he's gonna be super excited. We'll hash out the details later."

She nodded. "Well, I really should get going. Say hi to Zelda for me, she's been so busy lately." Reba put her hands on her hips. "We may be best friends, but I can count on one hand how many times she's messaged me in the past weeks."

Link couldn't help but laugh. "You think that's bad, we live in the same castle and I've only had dinner with her once. I keep thinking we'll get more time once the reconstruction is done, but..." He shook his head. "Either way, thank you for helping me, and I will definitely talk to Strawn some."

Reba waved goodbye, sapphire in hand, as Link teleported away back to the castle.

…

A few days and some covert messages with Reba later, Link was on a walk with Zelda in the first free time together since their dinner about a week ago.

"It's going to take forever to plan a wedding and a coronation," Zelda was complaining, hiking up her skirt as they trudged through the recently rained-on fields. As rebuilding the castle and housing was the priority, many of the guardian corpses still littered the space. "I wish there was a way to skip one."

"We could combine them." Link suggested.

"No, that'd be insane." Zelda said immediately. Then she thought about it for a moment. "Unless…"

She stopped walking and pulled out her notebook. She scrutinized a few pages before shutting it and placing it back in her pocket. She shook her head. "Nevermind."

Wanting to distract her, Link remembered something from his recent blipping around Hyrule. "Darlas mentioned something about there being an eternally blooming Deku tree in the Lost Woods."

"Oh, that," she said with much less enthusiasm than Link would've expected.

"What do you mean 'oh that?'"

She blinked and looked up at him. "Well, I thought it was one of those legends people knew was true."

"So it's real?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Have you been there?" he asked.

She nodded once more. "When I was young. It was a sort of… pilgrimage? I suppose you could call it. The Deku tree had just been reborn so I was meant to give it my blessing. Unlike the previous one, it seems to be a flowering tree of some sort. People mentioned it was auspicious."

"We should go there," he said.

"I thought you wanted to tour Hyrule for our honeymoon?"

"We get a honeymoon?" he asked, then shook his head. "Zelda, from what I gather, a royal tour and a honeymoon are not the same thing."

"Now that I think about it…" she said, "We don't really need the Master Sword anymore."

Unconsciously, Link's hand went to the sword hilt.

"There was a spot to store it until it was needed again in the Lost Woods."

"Oh… right." That got Link thinking. "What if… what if we had a private ceremony there."

"Where?"

"In the lost woods, in front of the Deku tree."

"Why?"

"You said people said it was auspicious. We could play it off like we were wanting to honor that, have the private ceremony there, and then just have to plan a coronation."

She was about to object until she thought about it. "Only a handful of people would be able to accompany us, that's true… and we also need to put the Master Sword away. We could come back and have the coronation which could double as a reception?"

"Would that work?"

Zelda smiled, and kissed him on the cheek. "You'll be a good king."

That was not what he was expecting to hear. Since he met her, Link had known he wanted to marry Zelda. At the start he hadn't really thought about what that meant in terms of how he would live, and now. Right, he wouldn't even just be a prince, or duke, or whatever title he would have had. He would be king.

Would he be a good king? He hardly could stay awake during the endless meetings, and he had trouble delegating.

"You are okay with that, right?" she asked, "In the past, titles that were lesser than king were given to the consorts of Hyrule's queens." Zelda looked down, her face slightly red. "I… I'd like for us to be equals. In all things."

But when she put it that way… "I'd like that too."

She looked up and met his eyes. "This will be great. I'll create the short list for the Master Sword sealing and wedding ceremony, and then we can deal with the coronation and reception later." She kissed his cheek again. When she tried a third time, he turned his head to capture her lips with his.

This turn of events surprised her, but they also seemed to excite her. They sure excited him. Before their kiss could become anymore impassioned, their sense of duty returned. Zelda pulled away first. She smiled and looked down. He loved her.

…

As it turned out, their solution of combining their wedding ceremony and returning of the Master Sword, and reception and coronation went over smoothly. Most of the powers at be were relieved to only have to travel to the castle once, as each of the peoples of Hyrule were still quite busy with rebuilding efforts. As it turned out, royalty having a private ceremony was also not unheard of, as there were a few cases of such in the past.

A few weeks later, Reba got the ring to him, as she needed to come to the castle anyway for the wedding. The ring was something of beauty, and Link decided that he would give that jeweler as many pelts as she wanted for the rest of her life. The metal setting held a regality, yet still was distinctly feminine. The stone sparkled brilliantly.

"So," Reba started, "where's Strawn? you said he had a surprise?"

"He got emergency guard duty for a guest," Link said, "I forgot to tell you. He should be done soon."

"Oh." She looked more disappointed than Link had expected. Reba was always such a boisterous figure, he sometimes forgot she could even be vulnerable.

Before Reba could say more, there was a bang from the other room. The other room being the laboratory. After the crash, the two ran in. Impa was lying on the floor crying while Dago panicked. A table had been flipped.

"What is going on?" Link asked.

"Koshia, he's–" Impa started, spurred by Link's voice. Immediately Link's mind went to the worst scenario. It was to everyone's surprise when she smiled widely. "He's awake."

"Do you need me to–" Link started, but was cut off by Impa's scrambling to her feet. The heavy circles under her eyes belied the lack of sleep. She'd been overworking herself, but nobody could get her to stop.

"This is all handled, they insisted I send a message," Impa interrupted. She looked horribly confused for a moment before she realized, "they meant via the slate messaging system, I'm so… so…"

With that last fit of hysterics, Impa passed out, her fall stopped by Dago. he looked from the passed out scientist to Link and Reba. Link looked around and realized that Zelda wasn't there despite him being sure he'd seen her.

"Princess Zelda took the egg guardian and transported to see Koshia," Dago explained. Link nearly took off after her before Reba grabbed his arm. He glanced up at her.

"Let's wait for Impa to wake up," Reba said, "her health is also important. The Temple of Time is nearly as secure as the castle."

Despite his heart fighting him, Link understood her logic. He was the closest thing to a member of the royal family in the castle at the moment. Zelda would be safe there. It was an isolated place, and she could return with the egg guardian. Logically, Link knew this.

Dago set Impa on a cot, Reba helped by situating her by removing her shoes and letting her hair out from it's bun.

"So Koshia's awake," Dago murmered.

"She brought him back from the dead," Reba said, more concerned, "This could change everything."

Link shook his head. "It won't."

"And what makes you so confident?" she asked. "Someone tell you something they didn't tell us?"

"Nothing like that. It drew on power from the goddesses. It drew on the power of time."

"Yes," Dago agreed, "that is how it works."

Trying to formulate a response was difficult. Eventually he just said, "I think it was a miracle."

Dago stroked his chin.

"Impa has made machines that draw on the goddesses' power or mimics it, but..." Link continued, "the reversal of death is… I don't think it's something that they would allow for no reason."

Dago restated his thoughts, "You think Impa simply made an avenue for a miracle to happen?"

"Essentially."

"It did require a massive amount of power. I can't imagine it would ever be used freely." The Sheikah scientist shrugged then, and returned to his work.

"I'm glad Koshia's back," Reba said, "but I think… I think to leave it up to the goddesses is smarter than to try and meddle more."

…

Zelda returned the next morning. Link, having hardly slept, met her in the lab.

"Koshia will officiate our wedding," she told him in lew of a greeting.

"Is he well enough for that?"

"He is a sage now," she answered, "and set on becoming a monk."

"Does Impa know?"

"I think she knew there would be a cost. But knowing and experiencing are two different things."

They were quiet for a bit. Link was trying to decide how to react. He didn't know. He wasn't sure how becoming a monk would affect Impa and Koshia's relationship. Because monks generally didn't have wives. Link didn't know how he would react if Zelda decided to take up an ascetic lifestyle. He supposed due to her bloodline being so important it wasn't really an issue that could exist.

"He wants to officiate our wedding," Zelda said again.

"I would like that, I think."

"I would too."