Link followed the short hallway leading from the entrance platform into the belly of Vah Ruta. At its end, he emerged to find the wonders of the Sheikah technology on full - if temporarily stalled - display.
Enormous gears fitted with equally large chains were fastened in a system of cooperation that far exceeded Link's comprehension. Platforms hung suspended and frozen in midair along their intended paths. Centered within the Divine Beast was erected a great metal mill, its bottom submerged in a deep pool of water. Droplets still fell from its blades, indicating it had only just ceased its normal motion. The shock arrows, it seemed, had all but immobilized Vah Ruta.
Link's awe at the Divine Beast's interior, however, was tainted with repugnance over what now desecrated it. Oozing fungus of red and black covered large patches of stone and metal alike. That which had grown in corners or crevices had spawned web-like tendrils to expand its hold. From several of those evil nets grew grotesque and singular eyes, each lidded with the same ooze from which they had sprung. As one, each yellow orb swiveled toward Link and widened in shock.
Link grasped the sword hilt over his shoulder, but the malevolent eyes did nothing. The veritically slit pupils merely stared with what Link felt could only be fear. Had this been the moment they had dreaded for a century? The coming of Hyrule's Champion, bent on rewriting the ending they had nearly wrought upon the world?
Then, cutting through the scene of sickening corruption, came a voice heard only within Link's mind.
"You're here."
Link staggered in shock. He had heard Zelda's voice resound within him before. It was not the phenomenon itself that shook him. It was its source.
"Mipha?" he gasped in disbelief.
"Yes, Link," he heard her answer in the same, gentle tones he barely remembered. Not since his awakening had his heart twisted so bittersweetly. "I am here."
"How?" he asked, his heart leaping hopefully into his throat. "Have you been alive all this time? Like Zelda? Like… like me?"
The sorrow in Mipha's voice was but an echo of what Link felt upon hearing the answer.
"No, my dearest Link. I am here only in spirit, captive within Ruta the last one hundred years."
The sense of loss was more than Link could bear. He fell to his knees, tears streaming openly down his face.
"I'm sorry," he whispered in agony. "I'm sorry."
"Do not weep, current of my heart." The love and comfort in Mipha's voice filled Link, made him lift his head as though he could see her tender expression in person. "This is our fate, painful as it is. You are here, now. You must take control of Ruta before she awakens once more. Already, she is stirring."
At Mipha's words, a rush of water poured anew from one of the previously disabled vents, and Link understood that the shock arrows' effect must only be temporary.
"Make your way to the control terminal," Mipha instructed him. "There you will find the means by which to take Ruta back. Take care, for Ganon's malice and minions guard the way."
Link rose, wiping the tears from his face as red light further illuminated Vah Ruta's interior. He was, he realized, near the back end of the Divine Beast. The lights focused on a broad, central causeway leading directly toward Ruta's head.
Link followed it, stopping only when he came upon the first web of malice. A yellow eye stared balefully at him, but it did nothing to deter his path. Perhaps it could not. Link did not wait to find out. The eye widened in panic as he unsheathed the sword from his back and thrust straight through its vertically slit pupil.
Like a bag full of air now pierced, the thing shriveled in on itself. The fungus and tendrils attached to it also diminished and ultimately disappeared, leaving a clear path where they had once clung.
Twice more Link severed pieces of Ganon's essence from Vah Ruta, but he knew that, like the water, their return was inevitable until he seized full control of the Divine Beast.
A miniature Guardian - identical to the one inside Kakariko's shrine - rushed from hiding behind the third eye and its accompanying malice. Link did not hesitate. With Impa's admonishment ringing in his ears, he raised the slate and froze the machine with the stasis rune. Flickering light showed the rune's effect would last only seconds, but Link needed no longer than that to pierce the creature through its single blue eye. It collapsed in a heap, smoke pouring from its now empty socket.
Again and again Link cut his way through malice and machine alike. Each victory felt as though he had severed a small filament of Ganon's hold on Hyrule. Each time he felt as though another step had been taken toward Mipha and Zelda. As he progressed, Link heard water spring forth from a second vent.
Finally, the last yellow eye lay pierced and dead. The methodical nature of his advance had blinded Link to his path's downward slope. Now it opened into a great, circular chamber with a floor covered thinly with water, which Link could only assume was for the comfort of its Zora pilot.
At the chamber's center reared a stone and metal structure as large as Dorephan. It looked something like a rosebud with its petals still tightly closed. An orange-glowing Sheikah pedestal stood directly in front of it.
Raising the slate in his left hand, Link stepped forward.
"Wait. There is… someone-"
An arrow's hiss interrupted Mipha's warning. The shaft went straight through Link's outstretched hand, its silver head protruding sharply from the other side of his palm.
"Not again, Hylian! Never again!"
Link whipped around to see Bazz leap down through one of the metal gaps in Vah Ruta's broad back. The ebony skinned Zora rolled smoothly to his feet and nocked another arrow to his bow.
"No!" Mipha cried out desperately as though Bazz could hear her. "No, please!"
Link's injured hand had dropped the slate, but he dared not waste time searching the ankle-deep waters. He leaped to one side and felt Bazz's arrow pierce the air where he had stood an instant before.
"Coward!" Bazz spat. "Face me, Hylian! Accept your fate, as my people were forced to accept theirs a century ago!"
Link quickly snapped the arrow protruding from his hand and painfully removed the embedded half. Blood poured from the wound, but he did not have time to staunch it. He rolled out of the way just in time to avoid another angry shaft, then darted behind the control terminal.
"Stop, Bazz!" Link shouted urgently. "I am here to help your people, to help all of our people! Mipha's spirit is trapped here, as surely as Zelda is trapped within Hyrule Castle!"
"Lies!" Bazz screamed as, in a fit of madness, he blindly loosed arrow after arrow at the immobile terminal. "Mipha is dead, all but slain by your own hand! I will not allow more of my people to suffer your treachery!"
Link's attention was divided between the Zora bull's rage and Mipha's urgent warnings.
"You must hurry, Link!" she pleaded. "If she awakens, Vah Ruta will sense one who is not a Champion aboard her!"
Even as Mipha spoke, a third vent gushed to life. What would happen if Bazz was allowed to remain? How long before Ruta punished his presence?
"I do not wish you harm you, Bazz, but I will stop you if I must!" Link loudly warned from behind the terminal. "Leave now before you endanger us all!"
"Now you reveal your true intentions!" the Zora cried triumphantly. "I was not fooled by your guise of ill-earned respect like Dorephan and his milk-hearted son. You are nothing more than a thief and a murderer, Hylian! Come and face me, then!"
Resolved to end this, Link unshouldered his bow and quiver. As urgent as the situation was, he did not dare resort to shock arrows that could instantly slay the Zora. Link's hope was to subdue him and take control of Ruta before the machine reacted to Bazz's presence.
The Zora had either run out of arrows or was simply eager to slay Link with his own hand. Bazz had discarded his bow in favor of the fishtailed spear that was longer than himself. Link held his own sword in his right hand, his wounded left all but useless at his side. He kept his eyes locked on the crescent head of Bazz's spear, allowing his mind and body to meld into the same, fixed focus.
With a snarl, Bazz darted forward, his spear seeking the Hylian's less defended left side. Link stepped backward and deftly turned aside the attack with a flick of his sword. Despite his skill, he knew disarming the Zora would be difficult. Bazz's height and reach dwarfed his own. All he could do was defend himself with his one good hand and wait for an opening.
The Zora offered no such opportunity. Link struggled to keep his measured defense circling around the terminal rather than allow Bazz to pin him against the wall with his superior size and strength. His opponent was formidable, even more so now that he was fueled by passionate hatred.
"You do not remember them, do you?" Bazz taunted as his spear probed for an opening. "Those who died believing you would save them? My own mother was among them, Hylian, crushed by the waters Ruta spewed a century ago. You will answer to her and countless others before you are barred from Hylia's waters!"
An angry jab punctuated the Zora's words, which Link again turned aside. His strength, already tested by the lynel and Vah Ruta, was ebbing. His left hand throbbed mercilessly. A small part of him acknowledged the water now flowing from the fourth and final vent.
"It will be over soon, Hylian," Bazz cruelly crooned. "Soon, now, you will answer the dead that have awaited you. I pray to Hylia that your fate be made known to my people-"
"Intruder detected. Intruder detected."
Every gap and window slit within the Divine Beast slammed shut, leaving only the faint red glow of overhanging malice to illuminate the scene within. Link could not help it. He looked behind him and saw red and black mist begin to swirl around the terminal. With a yell of triumph, Bazz thrust his spear forward.
The longer of the weapon's two needle-sharp points struck the white scale - Mipha's scale - within Link's pendant. With a sharp report, the entire blade snapped cleanly off.
His spear's unexpected yielding caused Bazz to stumble head-first into the chamber's shallow waters. Link had also fallen under the pure force of the blow, but he lifted his head enough to see the horror that had emerged from the terminal.
The thing was half malice, half machine. Its flesh was made of the same black and red ooze Link had cut down throughout Vah Ruta. The rest of the creature was covered in some corrupt version of Sheikah metal and stone. It had no legs, but hovered several spans off the ground. Its face was devoid of any normal feature save a single, glowing blue eye embedded between two broadly twisted horns. Its left arm was made almost entirely of Sheikah metal. Instead of fingers, that arm ended with a flat, elongated spear of pure blue light.
The creature raised its nightmarish head and let out a blood-curdling shriek.
"What sorcery is this?" Bazz cried out, his fury at war with fear of this new threat.
Mipha provided the answer, albeit one only Link could hear.
"That thing is a creation of Ganon, spawned when his malice overcame Vah Ruta! It proved to be my undoing a century ago. Please be careful, Link!"
But the princess's warning fell on suddenly deaf ears. This monster was the reason Mipha had died.
With a roar of reckless fury, Link charged forward with his sword upraised.
Only instinct and speed saved the Hylian Champion from certain death. The Ganonspawn lashed out with its spear, which left the acrid smell of burnt air and water in its trail. The odor wafted over Link as he leaped over the lethal blade and landed awkwardly on his face in front of the terminal.
The monster immediately glided to him, its eerily glowing spear reared back and ready to be driven through the helpless Hylian.
A shout. Something large slammed into the malice-bred beast and drove it to the ground. Link realized with shock that it was Bazz, who was using his considerable size to keep the Ganonspawn pinned to the watery floor. The Zora stabbed wildly with the blunt shaft that remained from his own spear, its broken end gouging sizeable wounds within the creature's red-and-black flesh.
The monster's orb-like eye flared red, and a brilliant beam of blue light blasted Bazz to the opposite wall. The Zora crumpled to the floor like something broken, his half-charred body hissing as it touched the water.
The water…
With the minimal light available, it was but the work of a moment for Link to spot the glowing surface of the Sheikah slate lying just under the water's surface. He scrambled to it on hands and knees, his body shaking as he heard the angry hum of the Ganonspawn's spear coming near.
Praying that neither fall nor water had damaged it, Link seized the slate, pointing at the ground directly in front of him and pressed the cryonis rune.
A square pillar of ice sprang to life just as the monster's thrust arrived. The icy block shattered under the blow, but the blue spear disappeared upon impact. The Ganonspawn shrieked as though in pain. Then, still hovering several spans off the ground, its baleful gaze focused on Link and began to glow red once more.
"No!"
Link was not sure whether the voice was his or Mipha's. Perhaps both. All he knew was that his life would not end the same as hers, trapped within a Divine Beast corrupted to serve Ganon's ends. Without thought, he pointed the slate directly beneath him. He felt the ice pillar lift his body toward the Ganonspawn's nightmarish face, its eye gleaming redder with every second. Link's other hand seized the stone hilt from his belt and pressed the Sheikah pommel stone. A flash of angry yellow light accompanied the blade that emerged, its reflection visible in the red eye that was now very close. Link leaped just as the pillar stopped rising, giving him extra impetus toward the horror poised just above him. With a savage cry, Link stabbed upward.
The Ganonspawn's inhuman scream rent the air as sharply as the blade pierced its eye. Lightning-like arcs of yellow clashed with rays of blue, a cacophony of energy and power that harshly illuminated Vah Ruta's interior. Link rolled out of the way as quickly as he could to the side of the chamber, where Bazz lay slumped against the wall. From there, he watched malice pour out of the monster as though it were blood. The blue light intensified to the point of blinding, temporarily concealing the Ganonspawn from sight.
Suddenly, the light winked out. Nothing of the monster remained. The broken blade and hilt of the Sheikah sword sputtered and went dark in the shallow waters. The chamber was plunged to further darkness as the malice that had stained the ceiling went dark and shrank to nothing. Only the gentle orange glow of the Sheikah pedestal remained, barely illuminating Link and the still form of Bazz.
Knowing what he would find yet dreading it just the same, Link placed his hand on the Zora's chest. His fingers found burnt flesh, but no life stirred beneath. Hot tears rained from the Hylian's blue eyes as he clutched the body of the Zora that had tried to kill him, only to save him before the end.
"I can't leave him here," Link gasped in the semi-darkness.
"The slate, Link. Use it, and Ruta will release you."
Link unsteadily made his way to the pedestal, which glowed blue when he presented the slate to it. The terminal also began to glow blue, and the Divine Beast immediately ceased its outpouring of water. The various windows and gaps in Vah Ruta reopened to allow streams of bright sunlight into the chamber.
"Hello, Link."
Link whipped around to see what his ears could not believe. Mipha's voice no longer resounded within his head. It came from the Zora herself, who stood on the other side of the chamber exactly as Link remembered her.
The dark red skin of Mipha's arms, head, back and shoulders complemented the creamy white of the front of her body. A silver headdress adorned her fish-shaped crown, while more silver decorated her neck, chest and waist. Mipha was smaller than any adult Zora Link could remember, but her size seemed to fit the grace with which she carried herself. Gentle eyes of yellow-gold rested above a small mouth now upturned into a tremulous smile. Link felt his chest constrict upon seeing that beautiful smile shine on him again.
She walked toward him now, and only then did Link notice the vague opaqueness that betrayed the true nature of her imperfect presence. His heart ached afresh with loss after having been briefly filled by Mipha's seeming return. He wanted to say something, but his throat tightened as a flood of emotions waged war within him.
"Please, Link, do not weep for me," Mipha softly pled. "I have wept for one hundred years thinking of what your fate must have been. Never did I imagine you would return to me as you have. Now I know you are safe, and I am free to help you once more."
"How?" Link rasped. He couldn't look at her. Mipha's voice warmed and wounded at the same time, serving as an echo of the love they could no longer share in life.
"My spirit is tied to Vah Ruta until her task is done," Mipha said simply, her eyes gazing steadfastly at him.
"So you are bound to my failure?" Link asked helplessly. "Then you have every right to hate me, and I am more indebted to you and the other Champions than I knew."
"Not so, Link," Mipha gently corrected him. She was very close to him now, her heart-shaped face as young and lovely as he remembered. "I knew I would be bound to Ruta's fate when Zelda asked me to pilot her, as did the others. I agreed immediately, partly because I was so eager to learn. Mostly, I did it for you. I love you Link. I always will. And Ruta and I will fight alongside you when the moment comes."
"I love you, Mipha," Link replied while clenching the white scale pendant. His throat loosened. His tears dried. Had they ever said those words to one another before?
Link brought his eyes up to meet hers, and saw Mipha's face glowing with radiance undimmed. Hylia, but she is beautiful. The Zora princess stepped closer and held out her right hand, palm down. Without thought, Link offered his left, its palm facing up towards hers. Blue light shone between the Zora and Hylian. Link felt the arrow wound in his hand begin to knit itself and close.
"You must go," Mipha whispered. "I will return you and my water brother to my people."
Light gathered around them. Link focused on Mipha's eyes, willing himself to drown in their golden depths. Once, long ago, he had allowed himself to dream of a future when those eyes would always be there for him. Now he had only a moment.
"I am with you, current of my heart."
The light was brilliant. So was her smile.
"I am with you."
Sidon stood with his father at the end of the jetty, their respective gazes joining those of the rest of the Zora. Worry had assailed both king and prince when Vah Ruta's waters returned, but Sidon could not believe his friend had done so much only to fail now.
Now the waters had ceased once again, allowing the sun to resume its triumphant return. The collective sense of relief had been palpable, but it had also allowed the Zora's attention to focus on the Hylian within. Why had Link not yet returned?
Others were clearly wondering the same thing. Sidon did not want to think of the elders' suspicions growing with every moment Link remained within Vah Ruta. That concern had intensified when his father had quietly informed him of Seggin's absence.
"Should I try to find him, father?" Sidon asked helplessly.
"No, my son," Dorephan said, shaking his head. "We know nothing of what is happening within Vah Ruta. A foolish desire to help could undo whatever Link has already done on our behalf."
The prince knew his father was right. The sun was shining, after all. Quite brightly at that. Much brighter, in fact, than it had been just a moment ago.
"Sidon!" Dorephan's voice rang out in warning.
Only by squinting his eyes was Sidon able to see that the light was gathering halfway up the jetty, directly between them and the rest of the Zora. Eventually he had to close his eyes to its brilliance.
Then, more suddenly than it arrived, the light was gone. In its place and lying unconscious on the pier were two bodies.
"It's Link and Bazz!" Sidon shouted.
Several of the Zora gathered on the dock started forward, but they were halted by another flash of light. This time it disappeared to reveal something hovering above the water, something Sidon had not seen since he was a small child.
It was a trident, its silver body shining brightly in the sun. Soft embellishments of emerald and ruby adorned the curved metalwork leading from haft to tines. The weapon itself seemed to emit its own glow, which strengthened as a gentle voice resonated within hearing of all gathered on the dock.
"Father, brother, my dear water brothers and sisters. Abandon your grief and know joy once more."
Sidon fell to one knee, his heart hammering in disbelief at the sound of his sister's voice. Dorephan collapsed to both knees as tears coursed down his massive face. When he spoke, it was with the same broken voice Sidon remembered hearing as a small calf in the days immediately after the Calamity.
"Mipha?" the Zora king asked quaveringly.
"Do not weep for me, father, nor any of you. Link has freed me from Ganon's power. Remember me by helping him in the days to come."
Sidon wanted to reach out, much as he had done as a child when his sister had to leave for some important errand. Then, his childish entreaties had been enough for one more hug, one more moment with his favorite person in the whole world. Sidon felt the same simple yearning now, but he also feared any action would shatter this miracle. Dorephan gasped audibly when she spoke once more.
"Father, I want you to know that I have always followed my heart."
"I know, my daughter," Dorephan answered, his head bowed and body racked with silent sobs. "Hylia help me, I know."
Sidon's own tears increased as his sister addressed him just as she had when he was young. He half expected to feel her gentle hand under his chin, lifting his gaze to meet hers.
"Sweet Sidon, you are our people's future. Build that future with dignity and love, and all will be well."
"I will, sister," Sidon heard himself answer in a voice that did not feel like his own. Childlike panic bloomed in his heart as Mipha's voice began to fade.
"Do not grieve. Only remember. Remember and live."
The soft glow around the trident diminished, and the weapon itself drifted down gently until it clattered lightly on the jetty.
An emotional pall fell over the gathered Zora, who slowly approached the two fallen figures. Sidon saw Muzu and Trello both openly weeping. He did not blame them. Other than himself and his father, the two elders had been closest to Mipha in life.
Sidon and Dorephan also approached the still forms on the jetty. Sidon winced as he glimpsed Bazz's body, who was burnt almost beyond recognition. Link, however, did not appear to be wounded.
The Zora king knelt gently next to each one before raising his head to address his eldest councilor.
"Muzu, where is Seggin?" Dorephan asked quietly. "If you know, you must tell me now."
The green-skinned Zora opened his mouth to answer when an angry voice from the back of the crowd saved him the effort.
"Where is Bazz?! Where is my son?"
Ripples in the crowd betrayed the source of the irate demands. They drew nearer until the gathered Zora parted to allow a heavy-breathing Seggin to approach the small gathering at the pier. The former Demon Sergeant's eyes glared suspiciously at king and prince - until they fell upon Bazz's disfigured body.
"What… what has happened to my son?" Seggin gasped.
"I do not know, Seggin," Dorephan replied levelly. His considerable attention was now completely focused on the ebony-skinned elder, whose own gaze darted wildly between the inert forms of Bazz and Link. "We know only that he returned with Link as he is now. How or why he was aboard Vah-"
"Did he kill my son?" Seggin appeared possessed. Spittle flecked off his mouth and his once-proud chest heaved with exertion bred from grief and fury. "Did the Hylian kill my son?"
"No, Seggin, I did not."
The crowded Zora gasped as Link slowly rose to his feet. Seggin, however, wheezed all the harder as the Hylian continued.
"Ganon's malice killed your son, as surely as it slew Mipha a century ago," Link informed him heavily, and it was clear to all present that the Hylian was only just able to remain standing. "And though Bazz boarded Vah Ruta to kill me, it is because of his bravery that she will claim no more of your people."
Silence as thick as wool enveloped the gathering, and nowhere was it thicker than between the young Hylian and elder Zora. Sidon looked rapidly from one to the other, unsure of what would happen next.
Seggin's sword flashed in the long-awaited sunlight as it was whipped from its scabbard. It took but two strides for the large Zora to reach the Hylian. Sidon needed only one.
The elder Zora cried out and painfully grasped his sword hand, which had received the full force of Sidon's spearhaft. His sword flew into the reservoir with a loud splash. The prince stood between Seggin and Link, his eyes blazing with fury undimmed.
"You dare attack he that has saved us, Seggin?" Sidon demanded. "From what Link has told us, your son reclaimed his honor after abandoning it to the dark waters of hate. Now you drown in your own, with your people present to witness it."
"You would side with my son's murderer?" Seggin screamed before looking to the king standing just behind the prince. "What of you, Your Highness? Do you also dismiss my son's loss as easily as that of your own daughter? Do you favor an outsider over our own people? Over those who have served and fought and bled and died for you?"
Dorephan shook his head sadly.
"You are blind, Seggin, and your blindness has cost you more than you know," the Zora king sadly pronounced. "Had you been here and not seeking to further your own hate-filled ends, you would have heard my daughter's voice telling us to leave behind our grief and move on to life. You seek to accuse him? Mipha defends him even now."
"You lie!" Seggin was apoplectic with rage, his screams echoing off the reservoir walls.
"It is the truth, Seggin!"
All eyes turned to Muzu, the source of the sobbing confirmation that made Seggin go still with shock.
"It is true!" the green-skinned Zora repeated, tearfully pointing to the beautifully carved trident still lying on the jetty. "Mipha spoke and bade we help the Hy- that we help Link. We were wrong, but it is not too late for us to make things right!"
Seggin's expression turned cold and calculated as he measured Muzu's words and Trello's accompanying, shaken nod of confirmation. When the former Demon Sergeant spoke again, it was in frighteningly calm tones that made Sidon recall the eldest of those who had survived the Calamity - the ones who had gone mad before death mercifully claimed them.
"So the Hylian has turned you as well, has he?" Seggin taunted. "A pity. But I can wait. I will see his filth washed away and our people purified once more. I have time. The Zora have time."
"No, Seggin," Dorephan thundered. The king advanced and loomed over the former Demon Sergeant like some primeval patriarch. For the first time in a century, Sidon saw his father truly angry. All attempt at diplomacy was gone. It had been replaced by raw, unrestrained authority, and Sidon half-expected the mountain walls to crack under the weight of his king's wrath.
"You have both threatened and tried to slay the one who has saved our land," Dorephan knelled. "You have forsaken your people to satisfy lies whispered by your own hatred. And though I will not shed the blood of another Zora, neither will I allow you to endanger the Domain. You are banished, Seggin, until death claims you. And when Hylia's waters take your spirit home, I pray it may be allowed to make amends for what you have done this day."
Though dwarfed by his king, Seggin had drawn himself up to his own considerable height as the sentence was passed. At its conclusion, he swept his gaze of disdainful pride across all who were gathered before stopping on Link. Sidon's grip tightened on his spear, but Seggin merely curled his lip in contempt, his yellow eyes glittering maliciously. Then, without a word, he turned and walked through a parting sea of Zora and down the reservoir staircase.
Only when Seggin was well gone did Sidon turn toward his father and Link in disbelief.
"How could he just abandon his son?" the prince desperately asked with a gesture toward Bazz's limp and seared body. "How can he act so contrary to all that he holds dear?"
"Now you see the true poison of hatred unchecked, my son," Dorephan mourned as he knelt to gently lift Bazz into his massive arms. "It kills all in its path - honor, goodness, even love. If allowed to run its course, what is left behind is worse than dead, for it is no longer merely a shell of what was, but something else entirely: a corrupted soul all but beyond recall."
Sidon could only nod helplessly as his father held the dead fruits of that hatred. He then noticed two others cautiously edging their way forward from the crowd: Muzu and Trello. The elders knelt, their faces bowed ashamedly toward the jetty's blue-silver surface.
"We… we beg forgiveness, Your Highness, though we do not deserve it," Muzu stammered. Sidon had never heard the respected elder sound so abased. "We conspired with Seggin and Bazz, and thus are responsible for the sorrow that has stained what should be a day of joy. We give ourselves to your judgement."
The bent and wrinkled pair remained kneeling and bowed, awaiting their king's decision. Dorephan beheld them nearly as angrily as he had Seggin.
"Despite your actions, the day is still won," the Zora king finally and forcibly said. "It is not me nor our people to whom you are indebted, but to the man whose life your actions would have ended. He will decide your fate, and I will support whatever decision he makes."
Muzu and Trello merely nodded at Dorephan's pronouncement without lifting their eyes to meet their new judge. Sidon looked quickly to Link, who seemed to be weighing the pair of them. What would his friend do?
After another moment of consideration, Link stepped forward and gently pulled both Zora to their feet. Then he gestured to the dead Zora in Dorephan's arms. Sidon shivered as his friend spoke with the softness of steel.
"You will bear Seggin's son to Zora's Domain," Link issued loudly enough for all to hear. "You two will be charged with commissioning him to Hylia's waters. With him, you will also send your petty grievances and mistrust down the Zora River. Let them flow to the end of Hyrule, from where they may never return. Let the memory of today's sorrow spur you only to remember its true source - and to help me defeat it once and for all."
Without a word, Muzu and Trello nodded before taking Bazz's burnt and broken body from Dorephan. The aged pair made their way haltingly through the gathered Zora, their shared burden slowing their already faltering steps. They wept freely, as did nearly all who surrounded the two pallbearers and the dead captain they carried.
Sidon accompanied his friend and father at the rear of the procession, the three of them somewhat apart from those ahead.
"Your sense of justice is as keen as your blade, Link," Dorephan said slowly. "No one will forget what you and my daughter have said this day."
"Anything can be forgotten, Dorephan," Link quietly countered, and Sidon sensed heavy truth in his friend's words. "The question is whether it will be remembered again before it is too late."