As Link makes his way forth from Kakariko the weather progresses from merely overcast to an unrelenting downpour. Soon he's soaked through despite his fine new riding cloak.
He's discovered that relying on his sketchy subconscious memory for navigation isn't necessarily the best idea. The raised path he thought he remembered through the wetlands is a boggy and unkempt mess in the present day, and the guard outpost where he intended to spend the night is abandoned except for a pair of bokoblins squatting there, its roof open to the elements. He ties his tarpaulin up to shield from the rain, but with the ground beneath already sodden it's not much help. He doesn't even attempt a fire; there's nowhere sheltered enough for it to have a hope of surviving.
After a chilly night he washes cold trail mix down with water for an unsatisfying breakfast before heading out. As his horse trudges its muddy way through the marsh, he tries coaxing out some memories as a distraction. All that's come so far is recollections of other times he's been cold and wet. Huddled against a wall on guard duty. Sloshing through an icy stream to lose a pack of wolf-mounted bokoblins in Hebra. Helping to fix a broken wheel on a supply wagon in lashing rain.
Pulling a stumbling Zelda along behind him, both of them chilled to the bone by a day spent in flight across the rainswept land. Her hand slips from his grasp, and she drops to her knees in the dirt, hands pressed over her tear-streaked face as she shivers. In fear or grief or cold, he couldn't say. They're both muddy - tired, dirty and defeated - and they're all that's left now.
Mipha is gone, Urbosa and Daruk, and Revali - all struck down with stunning ease. A few hours ago, Zelda had tentatively wondered about her father, and Link hadn't even been able to summon a reassuring white lie. Rhoam was in the Castle, and they both know what's happened to him.
Link swallows down worry about his own father; his own grief and rage and fear. There isn't time, he needs to plot a route to safety through a world that's erupted in fire and bloodshed. If he can just get the princess somewhere safe to think for a few hours, let her get a scrap of sleep -
As if summoned by his thoughts, he hears the eerie howls of moblins through the trees. He hoists Zelda back to her feet by her armpits, pushes her into a weary jog once more.
After that he tries to keep his imagination to safer, tamer subjects.
He's crossing back over Inogo Bridge after climbing the tower, daydreaming of a warm dry bed, when he hears a shout.
"I say! You there!" a voice hails in a cut-glass accent. Link looks around, pushing his wet hair out of his face to see more clearly. He eventually spots the speaker in the water: an enormous scarlet-and-cream Zora, wearing an ornate jewelled harness.
"A Hylian! You are exactly what I need!" he exclaims, grinning widely. It doesn't seem to have occurred to him that displaying his razor-sharp teeth so clearly might be off-putting to Hylians, rather than reassuring. He surges up the bank, and Link's arm is nearly yanked out of its socket by his enthusiastic handshake.
"I am so pleased to have found you," he says. "I am Prince Sidon of the Zora, and I was just on my way downriver to the stables near here to seek a brave soul like you! Our domain is in most desperate peril, and I humbly beg your assistance."
The two of them retreat to the camp Link's set up in the relative shelter of the cliff. He tethers his horse to graze half-heartedly on the damp ferns and stokes the campfire back to life. He brews a cup of barley tea while Sidon fills him in. The prince tells him about the divine beast, reawakened from its long slumber beneath the reservoir - Vah Ruta is apparently the source of the constant rainfall, which Sidon claims threatens to soon wipe out not only the Domain, but everything downriver of it too.
Link can only guess that the timing, so soon after his own awakening, is not merely a coincidence. Is Ganon already alert to his presence? Or is the princess becoming weaker, allowing the Calamity to reassert its control over the Beast? He grimaces. It will mean a significant detour from his original plan, but this is clearly a more pressing matter than getting to Robbie. He just hopes he'll be able to stop Vah Ruta without Robbie's input.
"I'll do what I can to help. You have a plan?" he asks.
Sidon is delighted, and Link is subjected to another shoulder-jarring handshake. "We do indeed. Mere words cannot begin to express my gratitude!" the prince proclaims.
The road to the Domain is treacherous, as Sidon had warned. The torrential rain has flooded or eroded many of the paths, and made other stretches perilously slick. He's glad the prince offered to send someone to take his horse to the stables beyond the domain; there's no way she'd have made the journey with the path in this state. At one point the edge of the path crumbles away entirely under his feet, and he falls down the rocky slope with a yelp, nearly ending up in the river.
The winding route is also plagued with lizalfos, despite Sidon's reassurances that their patrols cleared it recently. He deals with as many as he can, thinking of less capable travellers who might fall prey to them. Just as many retreat back to the water once they realize he won't be easy prey. They watch him warily as he goes, only their eyes and nostrils visible above the surface.
Towards lunchtime he rounds the bend in the river, from where he can just about make out the Domain through the driving rain. On a clear day the view from here must be magnificent. He tries to bring up a memory, but he can't really tell whether it's merely his imagination painting the graceful curve of the spire against a bright, cloudless sky in his mind's eye.
Closer to the city, the guards are doing a better job of keeping the lizalfos at bay. He remains cautious, but no more ambushes come as he switchbacks across the river on increasingly-ornate bridges. Around dusk he finally reaches the bridge into the domain itself. Even in weather so miserable, Link can't help but be impressed. The Domain towers overhead, encircling him and reaching skyward from the lake. The entire structure is carved from smooth pale stone which stands in stark contrast to the darkening sky and slate-gray cliffs. It makes him feel like he's being swallowed by a gigantic skeletal sea-monster.
The guards on the bridge have clearly been forewarned of his arrival and step smoothly aside to let him pass. One goes to fetch Sidon, who practically bounces with anticipation.
"Link! You made it, excellent. Let us go see my father."
King Dorephan has presence, looming huge above Link with his shark-tooth smile on his enormous throne. He'd be imposing to meet on the best of days, but Link is wrong-footed almost immediately and things only get worse from there. Dorephan looks like Link's very face causes him pain. His advisor, Muzu, is openly hostile. It turns out this is because he believes Link committed some grave misdeed against the Zora. Link can't really rebut this accusation without any idea what Muzu's talking about. Sidon does his best to mediate, but the audience with the King soon draws to an unsatisfying close.
Sidon promises to try talk his father round, and directs Link to the inn with another promise to come find him in the morning. Link pays for a water bed, which wobbles ominously when he drops his gear on it. There's a little time before dinner still so he decides to go for a walk around, though he soon wishes he hadn't bothered. Everywhere, the Zora watch him. Some of the younger adults are friendly and the children are just excited to see a Hylian, but the older Zora are clearly in a united front with Muzu. After a brief tour of the walls, where he gazes out over the rain-lashed waters below, he heads back to dry off.
The innkeepers, Kodah and Kayden, are apparently old friends of his and sit down with him for a meal of deep fried octopus balls. As they eat, they fill him in on a selection of his past antics with the younger Zora. Link dips his food in the tangy sauce provided and tries to soak in as much information as he can, grateful for their efforts. Though since he can't reciprocate with any anecdotes of his own, it's a pretty one-sided conversation, and he turns in fairly soon after dinner.
The gentle undulations of the waterbed lull him to a sleep filled with scattered assortments of scenes from the Domain. He struggles on waking to tell what he genuinely remembers and what he invented from the tales he'd been told. Maybe Impa was right after all to not to tell him much of her own memories.
Sidon turns up the next morning with a bundle of fabric and a triumphant facial expression.
"I have a plan for how to get approval to involve you," he announces. "Muzu has father's ear and is the voice of the elders. If we can convince him, father will surely agree. Here, put this on."
He thrusts the bundle at Link, who unrolls it to reveal a set of finely-crafted shark-skin armor in the Zora style. Link rubs his hand along it; in one direction it's wonderfully smooth and in the other, fascinatingly rough. He waits for Sidon to turn round so he can change, but the prince shows no sign of doing so. After a moment Link shrugs and disrobes; apparently modesty isn't really a thing for a race who don't really wear clothes. The leggings are snug, and he hops around like a fool as he pulls them on.
"What's this for?" he asks as he struggles.
"The armor is yours, actually," Sidon replies. "When I realized who you were I went to retrieve it from my sister's belongings."
"Hang on," Link says. "You didn't know who I was when you asked me to help? You were just going to ask any random old Hylian?"
"I'm sorry I didn't recognize you," Sidon apologises, sidestepping Link's actual point completely. "I assumed Link must just be a common name for Hylians. Or that perhaps you were named after the Champion. In my defense, I was very young when we last saw one another!"
"We met before?" Link starts on the fastenings on the doublet. Sidon's claim about the armor is plausible; the fit definitely leaves very little to the imagination. "Why do you have armor that belonged to me? Didn't I have it with me, when I -" he snaps his teeth shut on the end of that sentence.
Sidon looks slightly uncomfortable. "Ah, well. I probably shouldn't be the one to tell you this, but you will need to know before we confront Muzu, and if you've lost your memory... I suppose there's nothing else for it. You and my sister - Mipha - were romantically involved. She made this for you as a wedding gift," he explains.
"A wedding gift? We were married?" No wonder Dorephan was so brusque. What the hell, Impa. She could certainly have mentioned that rather than letting him come here so wholly unprepared.
Sidon's shaking his hands in the universal gesture for no no no. "You weren't actually married. Ganon attacked before she could even propose, which is why the armor was still here. She never gave it to you."
Link exhales in relief.
"It upsets father that you don't remember her, I think. I don't think he truly blames you for that, and nor do I. The Sheikah technology used to revive you is not well understood; it's unsurprising that it has had side effects. But I think he's having a hard time seeing past it."
Sidon clasps a hand on Link's shoulder, then goes to get Muzu. Link pulls on the hood-like helm then runs his hands down the armor once more. Emotionally-loaded handcrafted clothes are becoming a theme. He'll have a full wardrobe again in no time at this rate.
He waits by the statue in the heart of the (visible parts of the) Domain. This is Mipha, then. She's breathtakingly beautiful; poised and elegant as she brings her spear down to the plaza floor. He can't wrap his brain around the idea that she'd nearly been his wife. He feels truly awful that he doesn't remember any of it. He reaches to rest one hand gently on a finned foot.
As if summoned by his touch, a rush of overlapping sensations hits him like an onslaught, dropping him to his knees.
Mipha's laugh, light and sparkling -
- her smile and her tender touch on his skin as she heals his wounds -
- feeling awe at her sinuous grace and power as she surges up the waterfalls of the domain -
- her steady confidence with her spear as they spar against each other, light-footed and fluid -
- her protective joy for Sidon, still just a baby with head-fins comically too large -
How could he have forgotten all this?
Muzu and Sidon arrive at some point but Link can barely pay attention when he's so awash with affection and sorrow. Poor Mipha, snatched away from her people and family so young. Poor Link, for that matter. Both Links - one dead, and the other left behind as everyone he knew and loved was taken from him, even down to the memory. Reduced to a shadow of the man he must have been for someone like Mipha to have loved him.
Link finally realizes the other two are speaking to him, and manages to tear his gaze from the statue long enough to respond to Muzu's questions. He can't even remember what was said, afterwards. But finally, a crack appears in the Zora stonewalling.
King Dorephan gives his blessing for Link to approach the Divine Beast, but that still leaves the difficult parts of the plan: how to get inside, and how to shut it down. Sidon has some ideas on the first part. It seems the Zora managed to quiet Ruta temporarily with a limited supply of shock arrows.
"None of the shops or merchants here are permitted to carry them though," he says, "given how dangerous they are to us. We'll need to source some more from elsewhere."
Link takes care of that part easily; a relay-trip to Hateno and back via the tower network, and he has a quiver full. Purah surprisingly doesn't charge him, nor seem the least bit interested in what he wants them for. She just demands that he snaps some images of the Divine Beast interior for her to study afterwards.
He does manage to glean some tips from her at least; she's convinced that re-linking the slate with the main terminal inside will be his best chance of removing control from Vah Ruta's malicious intruder.
"Ganon wormed his way into the Sheikah network a long time ago," she explains. "I suspect he lay dormant until we powered up enough of it for him to use against us. But I'd be surprised if he can keep control through a full reset."
"We couldn't have tried this before?" Link asks.
Purah levels a look at him. "Not while the Beasts were still being actively controlled by the Malice. Afterwards - perhaps. But, well. That would have required the slate, and the slate was sealed away with you, powering our last-ditch effort to save your life."
"Oh."
"Zelda made a call," Purah says, unusually serious. Her steady gaze looks wrong on her six-year-old features. "A lot of people died, but it was hers to make. It's up to you to show she made the right call."
Link can't find an answer to that, and feels the familiar wash of guilt sloshing around in his stomach. He nods, and Purah claps, her serious mood dissipated.
"Anyway, we still won't be able to reset the Guardians, because the master terminal for them is under the main Sanctum in the palace, and His Pigness is sat right on top of it. But the Divine Beasts have onboard terminals. That's how we got them to accept the Champions as pilots in the first place."
"It's worth a shot. Thanks, Purah," he says.
"Yes, yes. Off you go then. Remember the images!" she shouts as he fades out.
Finally all preparations have been made, and Link stands on the East Reservoir pier with Sidon, looking out at the Divine Beast. Its eyes glow the same menacing magenta as the Guardians. Periodically it makes a deafening trumpeting sound or splashes its trunk through the water, creating waves that crash against the cliffs. Ripples from them lap gently at the pier edge.
Link checks one last time that his armor and weapons are secure. Sidon told him the armor will magically enhance his speed and endurance when swimming, and prevent him from drowning for a limited time. The Zora also lent him a waterproof bow and elegant spear that belonged to Mipha for the occasion. He hopes he'll do her justice in wielding them.
"Are you ready?" Sidon asks.
"I'm ready. Let's go."
The experience of riding Sidon bareback to get close to the beast is second only to flying, in Link's opinion (and that's a thought he immediately resolves to never tell either Sidon or Dorephan. He sends a silent apology to Mipha's memory for good measure). Between Sidon's skilled manoeuvring in the water and Link's precise archery, they manage to bring the beast to a brief, shuddering halt.
Triumphant, they head to the entrance, but as they approach Ruta reactivates with an enraged bellow. It lurches onto its legs, rising sluggishly out of the lake with water streaming from its sides. Sidon puts on an incredible burst of speed, but Link can already see they aren't going to make it in time.
"Hold onto your weapons!" Sidon yells up at him.
He rolls to grab Link by the waist and surges out of the water. At the apex of his leap, he flings Link upwards before falling back down into the water with a splash. Link grabs desperately onto the edge of the platform as it rises, legs dangling until he manages to swing up onto the ledge with a heave. He spins round to look at Sidon below.
"I'll wait for you on the shore! Good luck!" the Zora calls. Link flicks a quick salute, and gets to his feet.