For someone always hovering barely a step behind her, her knight certainly excelled at making himself scarce.
Zelda paused at the mouth of one of the bridges leading away from the Domain and forced herself to take a deep breath. Her temporary guards' armor clicked as they shuffled behind her.
The cover of armor had done little to hide their nervousness from her. Not that she could blame them–– embarrassing or not, Zelda wasn't oblivious to how even soldiers gossiped. Rumor spread quickly no matter where it ran.
She refused to let it fluster her. "Remain here," She ordered firmly. Another benefit of normal guards–– they did what she told them to. Very unlike her personal knight, trailing obstinately after her like a fully armed duckling...
The guards looked between her and the Domain, eyes unsure, and Zelda tried to smile for them. "I will be back quickly, do not worry. Link will certainly hear me coming long before I see him and will protect me if I find I have need of it–– but I will only be heading to the Lake Reservoir. Perhaps you may all take this opportunity to take a break among the Domain while I run my errands?"
Another look shared between them. Noisy shuffling. Maybe there was some benefit to Link's stoic behavior if it meant everything he felt weren't translated into clanking bits of metal and chainmail.
Zelda continued to smile. Anything that helped, she had learned, was worth it. No matter what anyone else said.
One finally broke. His shuffling silenced. "...If you are certain, Princess Zelda," He murmured, bowing. "Then we will wait here for your return."
Success. It felt so good. Zelda smiled a little wider, clasping her hands behind her back. "Good. I hope this visit will be as enlightening for yourself as it will be me."
Without waiting for a reply, happily humming, she headed for the high wall of the dam. All that stood in her way now was a short, wet expanse of grass and corals, and the long staircase of the reservoir itself. Which was nothing, technically. The number of stairs in Hyrule Castle itself would far outstretch the little staircase leading up to the reservoir, and she walked those daily.
Practically nothing in her way. The smallest hardship she would ever face. It wouldn't be more than a few minutes before she... before...
Zelda slowed to a stop. Her hand clenched around the carved railing of the reservoir stairs felt slick and freezing cold.
Link is up there.
The full realization of what was happening, what she was doing, hit her hard. Her breath left her. Her boots refused to move another step.
Link is up there.
"Am I really about to do this?" Zelda whispered. She couldn't budge an inch. The discomfort from before, the nausea, the frustration, the mortification–– it all washed over her at once, leaving her hot and cold in feverish flashes. What had she even expected? What did she think was even going to happen? Urbosa was an amazing person, a brilliant warrior, and a steadfast chief who had no doubt successfully fused many times. She had no doubts about that. But this was... different.
Zelda doubted someone like Urbosa could ever screw up so badly as to scare away her fusion partner, much less have the gall to ask them to come back and do it all over again.
You must keep trying.
Tears bit at her eyes. She was ashamed of them. Her nails chipped painfully where she raked them against the luminous stone railing.
The weight and health of Hyrule rests on this.
"I know that," She forced out. Her bottom lip quivered. Zelda bit down on it hard. It didn't help.
When will you learn that, Zelda?
"I don't know anything else," Zelda whispered. "I don't–– I don't know what to do."
No help from her father. No help from the King. No help from her mother. Urbosa knew what to do. Urbosa had told her to––
Go to Link, Zelda reminded herself. Forcing her hand off the railing was as painful as dragging her palm from ice. She felt as if she had ripped something apart, moving herself another step forward. Go to Link. Suck it up, and apologize. There are no second chances for the weak. We must succeed, or watch Hyrule fall trying.
At the very least, they had solidarity. They were both failures, for once, standing on equal ground. Zelda had not been the only one left shaking and silent in the wake of the Spring of Power. Zelda had not been the only one unsteady and unstable, the only one struggling, the only one––
"Link," Zelda called out desperately, her hand finally hitting the end of the rail.
Blue. Champion blue. Blue and gold and silvers. A peach colored head whipped around, ragged fins framing a delicate face.
Zelda stared into unforgettably sea green eyes, recognizable even with pupils slitted and distinctly amphibian, and felt all her hopes crumble at her feet.
"Princess," Mipha–– Link–– they whispered, voice high-pitched and faint. The fusion wavered and fell apart at the seams. Mipha stumbled weakly to her feet. Link fell immediately into a kneel. His head was kept ducked low to the ground, face carefully out of sight.
Zelda couldn't say a word. Couldn't move at all, not even to comment on how clumsy Link's usually seamless movement was. She couldn't offer a hand to the Zora princess even as a tremor ran visibly through her legs. She couldn't do a thing at all. She stared and saw nothing; stood without breathing.
They make a perfect fusion.
A seamless one. A practiced one. A fusion whose features bled and melted into one another, becoming something new. It wasn't just two people. It was a whole new person. A true union. A perfect fusion.
She stared without seeing. Something like betrayal welled up in her, rising hot and thick in her throat.
I thought you couldn't dance.
(Were you just making fun of me?)
A delicate touch to her arm startled her, making her gasp. Zelda turned to see Mipha staring up at her, eyes wide. The petite Zora almost looked scared. Anxious beyond what Zelda had been witness to before. Her pupils slit and lips pressed tight, fins held close to the body and shoulders stiff.
It wasn't an expression that suited her.
"Princess Zelda?" Mipha asked, quietly. Her delicate hands floundered around Zelda, palms carrying a faint, flickering glow even as she never fully touched her. Behind her, Link remained statuesque, curled in on himself in his kneel. "A-Are you alright? I'm quite sorry to have startled you like this, I know you must find it highly indecent and insensitive for us to have..."
Zelda managed to smile. "It's fine."
Mipha's expression remained distressed. His gold eyes flickered between her and Link, fins flicking nervously. Zelda watched without seeing as her hands curled into each other, rubbing at her knuckles. "Are... you certain? You..." She trailed off.
Zelda was glad for it, even though her own relief made her feel a little sick. Breathing in deeply, she scrounged up as real a smile as she could, reaching out to touch Mipha's hands. The Zora Princess's eyes searched her face carefully. "It really is fine, Mipha," She said, and tried her best to mean it. "You and Link are childhood friends, are you not? It's not my place to tell him or you who he's allowed to fuse with. He may be my knight but he isn't my slave."
Link twitched behind Mipha, head just barely raising. Zelda still couldn't catch what expression might have been on his face.
Her words weren't an apology, but she hoped it was working towards one. A proper one. No matter what she saw (what she interrupted) she still came with a purpose she intended to fulfill. No matter what.
I refuse to be a failure. Even if––
"Then," Mipha fidgeted a little, cheeks flushing. "Would you... Do you mind if we re-fuse? We promised Sidon Lipha would take him swimming today." When Zelda didn't respond, Mipha went right back to wringing her hands but did not back down. "You can come if you would like to, of course," She added. After a moment, the idea seemed to light something back up in her, pushing her nervousness down. Zelda was unsure whether to feel heartened or offended by it. "Oh, Sidon is a shy little fry right now, but meeting more people outside the Domain would truly do him some good! Would you please accompany us, Princess?"
Link remained unmoving. He hadn't twitched since Zelda had said he wasn't her slave. The only sign he was even listening was the perk of his ears towards them.
His demure posture, submissive and silent... Zelda's blood boiled a little and she had no idea why. The frustration was a constant when it came to him, but she couldn't fully identify what exactly about him now was so frustrating. He was just one big... something. The most irritating mystery she had ever dealt with. She could hardly believe she had come up here with the idea that she would just–– what? Apologize? Fix things, just like that? That wasn't how things worked. That wasn't how––
Just spend time with him, Urbosa's voice chided gently. You can't force a fusion with a partner you can't trust, much less one you don't even like. A dance alone isn't enough to sync with someone you don't know.
Mipha seemed to have managed it so easily. Practiced and smooth and perfect. Just like how she had easily learned to guide Vah Ruta. Just as she was perfect and polished as the heir to her throne.
Maybe Zelda needed to just take a step back and observe. Link himself would likely not appreciate being treated as an experiment but... ashamedly, she could admit even that would likely be a step up from how she was already treating him.
Link was Mipha's childhood friend. They knew each other in ways Zelda didn't expect to herself. If Urbosa was right–– and Zelda didn't doubt she was–– that she just needed to "get to know" Link, well. Mipha would be the best person to teach her, wouldn't she?
(I wonder if he drops that stoicism if he's with her.)
"I'd love to, if you'd have me," Zelda said, and when Mipha beamed at her she could only feel, even through her frustration and fear, that she had made the right decision.
The Zora girl turned on her heel, trotting back towards Link.
Link finally stood to face her properly, and Zelda's vision tunneled in on them. On their hands, their feet, the tilt of their torsos; what sort of dance did the Zora people prize? Was that maybe the kind of dance Link himself was familiar with, having grown up with them? Maybe–– maybe it was all he knew. She had no idea if the Zora made use of a waltz to fuse, after all, and all her education of fusion fixated on her fate as the Princess with the Blood of the Goddess––
Mipha held out her hand for Link to touch, and their bodies lit up in white.
Zelda's mouth fell open.
Barely a second passed. Zelda stood, shocked, as the same peach-colored Zora turned to face her. Ragged fins, marred with scars and yet just as beautiful. A slight face framing intense green eyes. Mipha's wrap stretched to cover the fusion's shoulder down like a shawled sleeve, held in place by a shiny silver buckle.
Several of Link's belts still wrapped the figure's lithe hips, even transformed into something halfway as elegant as Mipha's adorning jewelry–– silver metal anklets moved up to the knees, bracelets switched out for Link's own Gerudo arm straps. Mipha's silver headdress had shifted into something sharper, circular jewels and loops becoming the taunting points and edges of triangles. It trailed down the back of the fusion's finless tailfin rather than wrapping around, silver bands wrapped around the middle like armor.
Delicate. Petite. Yet all of Mipha's easy grace and Link's stoicism had transformed into something quiet and fierce, small figure focused and deadly.
"Hello," The fusion said quietly. Zelda couldn't honestly decide whether their voice was rough or smooth. It came out of them quiet, deceivingly gentle; ocean waves on the sand. "I am Lipha."
"You––" Zelda swallowed. "You didn't dance."
Lipha's eyes strayed slightly to the left of hers, settling somewhere in the distance. "The first time I was made was an accident. But it never needed a dance."
None? None at all? Zelda's heart dipped. Does Link not know how to dance at all, even if he fuses? Did he just never bother? She certainly wouldn't have bothered to learn, as a child, if she could just fuse with a single touch, but this way...
The despair roared back in full force. I will never be able to do that with him.
Unbeknownst to her thoughts, the fusion offered her a hand. Zelda could only stare at it. Her thoughts were still reeling. How was she supposed to just keep moving? More and more things just kept being thrown at her.
"Sidon is waiting," Lipha reminded her. When she managed a tiny nod they took her hand, pulling her back towards the reservoir stairs. Their hand felt cool in hers, calloused and oddly rubbery–– as if the typical Zora scales had become something almost amphibious in fusion.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Zelda registered that as fascinating.
Her guards were nowhere to be seen when they walked back into the Domain plaza. If she listened, Zelda swore she could hear at least one of their voices, chatting with a Zora woman inside a store, but none of them noticed her return. Not that she bore much of a presence at the moment to be noticed. If anything, she was grateful for it.
What attention they did get, Lipha commanded elegantly away from her. Though quiet, it seemed that Mipha's poise and charm still shone through even Link's stoic awkwardness into something controllable.
"Lipha!"
Zelda finally snapped out of her trance at the feeling of a small body catapulting into her legs.
"Sidon," Lipha said quickly. Zelda only blinked down at the little Zora prince, taking in his tiny, squishable features. He gazed up at her with just as much surprise, golden eyes huge. "Mipha always says to be careful running in the Domain."
"It's alright," Zelda found herself saying. Sidon startled at her voice, finally moving to duck behind Lipha's slender legs. It didn't do much to hide him. Not when his long tailfin dragged behind him, circling one of Lipha's legs–– and especially not when he peeked around them to keep staring at her. "Hello, Sidon."
"Hi," He murmured.
His eyes were huge. Were all Zora children supposed to be so cute? Zelda smiled more easily down at him, crouching down. Sidon leaned a little further from Lipha, tail anchoring himself around their shin. "Are you a Hylian like Link?" He asked quietly. "You don' have 'ny fins or scales..."
"Yes. I'm a Hylian like Link is. Is it okay if I come with you for your swimming lessons?"
Sidon watched her warily for a moment. He looked up when Lipha nudged him, reaching down to pat his head. Zelda watched with rare delight as he took a careful step away from the fusion, stretching out a tentative hand to touch her knee. She smiled when he nodded.
"Thank you," Zelda said warmly, and when Sidon slipped back behind Lipha, stretching up on his tiptoes for the fusion to scoop him up, the lingering cold in her chest stayed pushed down.
It was... only a bonus that it made it far easier to meet Lipha's eyes.
Zelda smiled at the Zora. "Where to?" She asked.
Lipha smiled at her. Zelda felt her cheeks warm up and hoped it didn't show on her face. Luckily the fusion turned away to instead face Sidon, nudging the tiny Zora until he pulled his face from their neck. "Mikau Lake," They said, "It's accessible on foot and a good size for practice."
Sidon pouted up at them. Lipha squinted down at the prince, green eyes faintly playful even through their seemingly default stoniness. Zelda felt the need to push a hand to her mouth to avoid laughing when she noticed their long tailfin wagging behind them, swaying like a cat's tail. "You're not big enough to scale bigger waterfalls on your own yet," they reminded him evenly. Sidon looked away, huffing, but didn't argue.
Lipha looked back up at her. Zelda startled and quickly focused elsewhere. She hoped she hadn't been caught staring, but she wasn't ever that lucky, was she?
Something cool and smooth nudged her hand and Zelda jumped, turning back to see Lipha's hand. The petite fusion only tilted their head up at her when she looked at them. Sidon, balanced easily in Lipha's other arm, didn't seem off-put, and Lipha only continued to stare––
Zelda put her hand in Lipha's. The fusion didn't smile at her again, not quite, but when they turned to lead her down towards the right bridge Zelda's eyes pinned to their swaying tailfin.
Was she still flushed? She still felt like she was flushed. It had to be because of Mipha's side of the fusion, that Lipha was so easily open and touchy with her, surely.
Surely.
She didn't dare break the silence, just in case, until she could feel the spray from the falls on her face.
Immediately, Sidon was wiggling to be put down. Lipha carefully set him on his feet and they both watched as the prince threw himself into the water, splashing both of them up to the calves.
Lipha shot a glance at her, but Zelda only laughed. Something was so easily pried loose in her, watching Sidon splash through the scattered frogs and lotus leaves. Away from the Castle, away from the Domain. This was a pool of water that wasn't the Spring. That wasn't any Spring. It was just a little Lake, just deep enough to swim–– no Goddess staring her down, no judging deities or weight of magic and power. She was alone, alone with... with...
"We invited you, but you have nothing to swim in," Lipha said, jolting her. Zelda was almost certain the waver in their voice was of embarrassment. It was difficult to suss much out of them even with Mipha's influence. "We can find something back in the Domain if you wait here with Sidon."
"No, no, that's–– I'm alright," Zelda stammered.
She glanced around quickly, looking for a good spot–– there! Her eyes lit up. Lipha jerked forward, freezing in place just before they touched her as Zelda struggled to pull her boots off. The fusion was still blinking, green eyes wide, when she had managed to carefully wade into the Lake, still rolling her tights as far up as she could. They still got a little wet, but she reached the large rock in the middle just well enough.
Zelda pulled herself up out of the shallow water and sat firmly down. Lipha only stared. It made her want to puff her chest out, oddly pleased with herself even as her toes were cold.
"I'm plenty happy watching from up here," She said stubbornly, "The spray feels wonderful even if I'm not swimming."
Two Zoras, blinking up at her. Zelda refused to let it make her nervous.
Finally, Lipha's expression broke. Zelda watched, fascinated, as the fusion bared their teeth in a very toothy, wide grin, all of their fins seeming to flutter where they raised. For a moment, when they locked eyes, Zelda swore they vibrated with something electric.
It was over just as quickly. The Zora wadded into the Lake to join them, leaning down to take Sidon's hands when he swam into their legs. Still, their green eyes remained fixed on her own.
"Whatever pleases you, Princess," Lipha said, and Zelda relaxed into her new perch as that intense focus shifted away from her. "Now, Sidon, you're working your arms too hard. You need to use your fins, like this..."
Without any real attention on her, it was the easiest thing to fall into a new role as an audience. It wasn't one Zelda got to indulge in often–– she had plenty of opportunities to watch her knight when it was just them, but... there was something so different about watching now. Combined with Mipha, Link's awkwardness and stony silence seemed to translate into something softer. More approachable. As if all of Mipha's gentleness smoothed out his edges into something that didn't feel so... abrasive when Zelda interacted with him.
"Yes," Lipha murmured encouragingly. Sidon swam circles around them, dragging lily pads in a gentle current with him. "That's it. You're doing great."
The master sword rested, silent and untouched, against the trees. Laying quietly in the wet grass. It was beyond weird to not see on Link's back. Lipha wasn't Link, not really–– but Zelda could pick out the shape of his shoulders rounding out Mipha's slim physique. The dips and rises of the fusion's back were familiar. Their stance, their posture...
If she squinted, she could so easily imagine it to be Link, waist-deep in the lake, back bared of the sword.
Just Link. Just another Hylian.
She could so easily imagine him as someone other than a reflection of her own failure.
"Maybe later, when Link and Mipha unfuse," Lipha said to Sidon, the Zora happily holding onto the older Zora's arm as they slowly dragged him around them in circles, "you can ask Link to teach you how to hold a sword again. Would you like that?"
Sidon hummed happily, the sound bubbling up through the water.
Lipha was smiling. Something soft, and gentle, and kind.
Zelda tried to imagine that expression overlapped over Link's face.
"He would like that too," They murmured. "I can tell."
Maybe... maybe she would like to see it for herself.
happy thanksgiving!