Chapter Text
She runs into Beedle the merchant and his enormous backpack while getting her horse settled in at the Wetlands stable. “Heading to Zora’s Domain?” he asks, obnoxiously cheerful. “I’m going that way too!”
“Who isn’t?” Zelda says underneath her breath. Then, louder, “See you later then, Beedle.”
Indeed, Zelda isn’t the only traveller heading for Zora’s Domain. She stops to talk with a few Sheikah – seems like most of the tribe are coming to the wedding. She spots a few Hylian merchants making camp beside the road, too, and when night falls and she lies down to sleep in a natural alcove in the side of the mountain, she can see fires burning all along the river. This really might be the biggest party in a hundred years, Zelda realises. Wooho.
Next day she finds a Gerudo guard giving advice to two Zora guards by the bridge, and a merchant from Lurelin village. He’s sure got some grit.
The bridge to the city itself is in the process of being decorated, Zora and Hylians alike hanging long garlands of white flowers from the lampposts. Zelda can’t help but look at everything with the scrutinising gaze of someone who picked out at least half of those flowers, but everything looks alright at first glance. Thankfully the Prince isn’t allergic to anything (Zelda recalls another tiny memory here: her trying to get the Prince to eat a slug and him actually doing it) and Zora aren’t that prone to being allergic anyway…
Soon enough people start to recognise Zelda as she walks, so when she reaches the plaza with Mipha’s statue a Zora kid shouts, “Zelda is here!” and then Prince Link comes rushing out of a tailor’s boutique, wearing only half an outfit.
“Zelda!” he exclaims.
“Put on some pants!” Zelda exclaims right back.
Prince Sidon then rushes out after Link, holding a pair of pants – and. Yeah okay, those two deserve each other. This is almost as bad as that time Zelda walked in on Link and Sidon dramatically serenading each other with absolutely terrible innuendos. At least Link gets to be whoever he wants to be with Sidon, even if it’s so sweet it makes Zelda’s heart ache. An old, bitter fool, that’s what she is…
That night, Prince Sidon set up a table on one of the many balconies by the palace, and then he asked Prince Link and Zelda to dinner. So, that’s why Zelda sits up here now, looking down on the city. Glittering in the dark. The water far below is as black as the sky, but the Domain shimmers and shines, a beautiful pearl among the mountains. Just like it’s always been. Just like a hundred years ago, on another balcony…
“So!” Prince Sidon says, sitting down and placing a bottle on the table with a satisfying thunk. “How was your journey?”
“Long.” Zelda shrugs. “Good to see how the rebuilding was coming along, though.”
“Any Yiga?” Link asks seriously.
“No. I think they’re starting to run out of assassins.”
Link grins. Zelda grins too. The Yiga – pain in the ass, they were. Dangerous, unpredictable, and many… an annoyance even a hundred years ago. If their ranks are truly finally drying up then good fucking riddance, rest in pieces.
-Then they talk some politics, except they all hate it and quickly start talking about the wedding preparations instead. Then Zelda tells a story about Link involving lizards, a castle maid and a dozen flour sacks, which Sidon finds very amusing an which Link says he absolutely hates. They eat. They laugh. It’s just the three of them, no champions, no anything but – Zelda feels content. Or at least she wants to be content with this, happy with the Princes being happy, just be happy-
It’s easier here, at least. Here where she can say, “Do you remember that pie shop down by the chapel…” and then someone, Link, will answer and say “Duh, remember how the baker’s husband always gave us free cookies?”
Link. The Prince, he seems to have adapted almost seamlessly to this brave new century. So why the hell is Zelda lagging behind? This is ridiculous. She wants to laugh or maybe slap herself. You’re the chosen knight, dumbass, so show it. Time can’t beat you. Grief can’t beat you. SO LIVE.
Next day Zelda wakes up at dawn and goes to buy herself some clothes. She’ll be wearing her champion’s tunic to the wedding, but she wants a pair of clean pants that aren’t full of patches. As she stalks through the city she finds herself pleasantly surprised. The decorations in the city are coming along nicely, with a bunch of market stands popping up as well, but she isn’t complaining as long as she can buy salted nuts from them.
She walks past the statue of Mipha. It’s just a statue, but it’s also very well-made and recognisable, and long story short Zelda just doesn’t want to waste time looking at a carved piece of stone when she’s got business. Sweet bitter nostalgia…
The tailor has been sewing clothes for Hylians ever since Link and Zelda first got here, weeks ago, so he’s well-accustomed to pants by now. Though there’s not really an abundance of tailors in Zora’s Domain. Still, Zelda hopes this guy can spare some time to make her a pair of pants.
She wastes several hours at the tailor’s. When she leaves she’s got a pair of pristine white pants and a nice little embroidered cape, though she can’t remember how she was convinced to take the cape too. She can use those royal guard’s boots for shoes; they’re nice and clean and traditional. See, already done with this. Now she can start harassing the chefs for real.
Not that she will. Goddess knows she can’t cook gourmet worth a damn.
The statue is, of course, still there when she goes outside. She can look alright? She’s letting the past go. She’s trying to be as good as Link. She’ll overcome, she’ll be stronger, she’ll-
And still it hurts. A little pang in her chest, the bitter regret she swallows back.
…There wasn’t ever really a shock stage for her. Some old Sheikah people used to say that there are stages to grief but – Zelda isn’t buying it. It’s one long stretch of hurt, with occasional bursts of anger or determination. A background buzz of hurt as long as you’re moving, doing things. When you slow down… it catches up! A beast Zelda can’t fight with her sword or bow.
She would’ve loved to fight it.
The statue. Zelda looks at the statue, thinks back to the old Sheikah lady and her stages of grief – acceptance. Thinking about those always makes Zelda pissed. At least ‘acceptance’ doesn’t mean that you’re cured or some other magical thing – like, Zelda isn’t going to ever forget Mipha and the others if she has a say in it. And that means she’ll always be missing them! She can’t make that go away!
She doesn’t want to. If the alternative is not remembering them at all then it isn’t even a choice, obviously Zelda will live with the pain as long as she’ll get to keep the memories too.
So, she’s mad. But she’s got her memories. And she’s got shit to do, and a wedding to look forward to, so Zelda stares firmly up at statue Mipha’s magnificently carved face and smiles at it. They had a beautiful run, didn’t they?
Yeah they did.
It’s the last night before the wedding day, and the day after that Link will be made King of Hyrule. The single heir to this enormous kingdom, this staggering responsibility. The knowledge that he will have Sidon by his side is the only thing that gives Zelda peace at night. She’s not exactly worried – but she likes the thought of Link having someone there to catch him if he falls who isn’t Zelda. Getting into the mindset that the whole of Hyrule depends on you and your faulty memory isn’t the easiest hole to dig yourself out of, and she doesn’t want to have it be true. She did it. They beat Calamity. It’s over; whatever may happen, Link and Sidon should be able to handle it on their own.
It’s the last night before the wedding day, and Zelda sits in her room, churning in her thoughts. A crisp new notebook in her hands. A diary, blank pages. She plans to just stay inside and then go to bed, turning her book over and over in her hands, but then someone knocks on her door. When Zelda opens it, it’s the Prince. “Hi Zelda,” he says. “Do you mind if I…?”
“Come on in.”
He’s carrying a bottle and two glasses. He sits down on the floor, looks at Zelda’s empty notebook, and says, curiously, “You’re starting something new?”
“Yes. Maybe. You…” Zelda sits down next to Link. He hands her a glass. “So you’re planning to hang out with me. Don’t you have a bachelor party or…”
“You’re the closest thing I have to family, Zel.” Link isn’t even looking at her as he says it, but his voice is dead serious. “Of course I’m spending it with you. Sidon is out with some of his Zora friends, but I’d rather…”
“Really?”
Link looks at her. He raises an eyebrow, smirking, and Zelda’s exhale turns to a dry laugh. A hundred years seem to stretch between them – all this time. All that time. They were there at the beginning and they were here at the end. So maybe Zelda really truly gets it, or maybe Prince Link really truly gets her too. Of course they’d go to each other if they wanted to reminisce and tell stories to drink to, what better choice is there?
It’s the last night before the wedding day, and Zelda shares a bottle with Link as they tell each other stories of the past. So many things happened – and yeah, fuck, all the champions died and Hyrule was nearly destroyed – but the memories before that? Their whole lives before Calamity? There was a lot of good, too. Beautiful, brilliant moments – some excellent stories to share at parties…
Link can’t sit still. It’s driving everybody in the vicinity crazy.
Mostly the maid who’s trying to help him put on his clothes (there’s a cloak involved) because Link keeps pacing and gesturing and almost vibrating with excited energy. “Take it easy,” Zelda tells Link. “You’re marrying the love of your life. And it’s going to happen in just an hour, and after that you’ll spend the rest of your life with him, so be patient and let the poor woman fasten your cloak.”
They get his outfit fixed. It’s relatively simple – white shirt, pants, boots – so it’s just the ridiculously long one-shoulder cloak that’s annoying, because Link keeps stepping on it… And then there’s his crown, of course. His clothes already have a stupid number of diamonds and pearls on them because Zora, so the crown is the only actual jewellery…
Link’s tied his hair back into a braid. Link’s done with the outfit. Zelda puts the crown on his head (tomorrow it’ll be the real one) and takes a step back, and together with the maids she just looks at him. She feels strangely proud.
She’s always been kinda proud of him, deep down. His father was cold and judgemental, but Link? Always joking, flirting, charming, doing his best. Always cheering people up, either because of his cheeriness or because his weird antics are amusing as hell.
…You know what?
“I’m proud of you, Link.”
He turns away and makes a move as if to scratch the back of his head, but remembering the braid he just makes a weird gesture instead. He clears his throat. “Thanks Zel.”
Zelda smirks.
It looks and sounds like half the kingdom’s here today.
There’s people looking down from the balconies and the bridges. There’s a giant crowd on the square. The only really empty place is the walk up to the goddess statue. Zelda and Prince Link are currently standing at the other end of it, while Prince Sidon, clad in a white sash, stands beside the statue with a Zora elder. He smiles at Link, and Zelda swears she can feel butterflies in her own stomach.
It’s happening.
Zelda pats Link on the back, and then he walks down the aisle to the sound of applause and swelling music.
Zelda slips away, swerving around the mass of people, to take her place at the front of crowd.
Link and Sidon stand in front of the goddess statue, facing each other. Zelda can’t see Link’s face but Sidon’s expression is really something else, love and gratitude and awe and a bunch of other nameless things all on display for the whole world to see.
They’ll be good together.
The Zora elder starts reciting. Link says his vows, then Sidon says his.
Then the Zora elder brings out a long ribbon laden with pearls, and Link and Sidon take each other’s hand.
The whole plaza seems to hold their breaths, including Zelda. More than a hundred years. So many chances Zelda has wasted. And here’s Link – brave, reckless Link, who’s never wasted a chance. Zelda feels so proud, and so lonely, and so happy, and that happiness is such a shock it erases all other emotions.
The Zora elder ties their hands together with the ribbon. Then Sidon leans down and Link stands on his toes and everybody cheers as they kiss. It’s their moment. The people are throwing – flower petals? – and the music’s started up again, and Link and Sidon are kissing like it’s both the last time ever, and like it’s the first time in forever.
-Then Link breaks the kiss, and shouts, “So let the party begin!”
Zelda insisted on getting the speeches out of the way before people got drunk, so here she is. Standing in the palace, clearing her throat in front of hundreds of people, and thinking back to what she wrote in her journal last night.
“Citizens of Hyrule!” She begins. “My name is Zelda, and I thank you all for attending, coming from all corners of this great kingdom, from Hebra in the north to Gerudo in the south. Today… I think we’ve all been waiting for this day for a long time.” She sure has. “A union between the Zora and us Hylians – but today’s not for politics! That’s not what we want, that’s not why we’re here. We’ve been waiting to celebrate. And today is about love. I love Prince Link like a little brother. When we met I never expected to come to care so much about the Prince – but he was funny.”
Not like that even begins to cover it, but sassy weirdo doesn’t sound as nice. And it’s all true what she’s saying, anyway. “And he was kind, and he was endlessly brave. This kingdom would’ve fallen to ruin without him! He was a great prince a 100 years ago, a hero in all the years in between, and tomorrow he will be a great king. But today? Today we celebrate him marrying Prince Sidon of the Zora, and there’s honestly no greater compliments I can give than saying that they deserve each other. Thank you.”
There’s applause, and Zelda bows and goes to take her seat. Link and Sidon both sit at the head of the table, and Zelda sits closest to Link. On Sidon’s side sits a Zora noble girl with peach scales who Zelda knows to be one of his friends, and that seating arrangement’s because King Dorephan is sitting on the throne as usual.
Sidon’s friend gets up, and that’s when Zelda realises she’ll be making a speech too.
“Hello everybody!” is her opening. “I’m Forell and I… I’m standing here because Sidon’s older sister, Princess Mipha, can’t. And I’m standing her because Sidon is my best friend! He’s noble like you wouldn’t believe, he’s sweet, he’s…”
-and it’s so unfair, that Mipha never got to see Sidon grow up. It is.
King Dorephan doesn’t really hold a speech – he says a few words. Link and Sidon do too, though theirs are mostly about how happy they are. Thanks for coming!
Then Riju, dressed in something long and dark and flowery and seated next to Zelda, taps her glass with a spoon and clears her throat. “Now then,” she exclaims. “A toast for the happy couple! Let’s fucking party!”
Zelda scrambles for her glass, clinking it together with Riju’s.
There’s no fireworks and no dragons and no enemies, no disasters, nothing out of the ordinary – so Zelda can drink a bit if she wants too. And after Riju challenges her then duh, obviously, it’s a dare.
At some point a few Sheikah started taking turns singing songs about love and victory and happy endings, which was Zelda’s cue to get up and do something.
So Zelda goes to hand over her wedding gift to Link and Sidon.
It’s a painting that she paid a traveling painter to make. It’s of a picture from the Sheikah slate. Mipha, Link and Zelda, posing together on the bridge to Zora’s Domain.
“Thank you,” Sidon says, softly. Touching the picture carefully with his free hand. And then he turns to deal with the thousands of other gifts they’re getting, handing the little painting to Link. Link looks down at it, and then he stares right at Zelda and smiles.
“I miss Mipha.”
Riju pats her shoulder. “Tell me about it.”
There’s nowhere to begin to talk – maybe she’ll begin in the middle. Maybe she won’t. “I loved her.” Zelda looks down at her glass and then up at the sunset. “She’s – she was so thoughtful? Sweet. She was so sweet. She’d heal injured birds if she found ‘em. She’d heal injured fishies.”
She was so graceful. Always, she was polite and she moved with such an ease – but sometimes Zelda got to see her being sloppy and playful and goddess, what can she say? Mipha was kind and perceptive. She always knew when someone was feeling not so great and tried to raise their spirits. She kept a jar of cookies with the rest of her medicine and healing supplies, to give to kids. Once she decapitated a Lynel for Zelda and then yelled at her for ten minutes about her being reckless.
…Except of course she didn’t actually yell, because Mipha was soft like that.
Zelda runs out of words and- and yeah-
“I miss my mom,” Riju says quietly, and that’s so infinitely sad that Zelda says c’mere and then she’s hugging Riju like she’s the tiny Gerudo lil sis Zelda never had.
She strokes Riju’s head a little clumsily and Riju hiccups. “Thanks.”
And what do you know, maybe talking does help after all. Zelda releases Riju and says, “I should be thanking you. Thanks.”
The next generation will do amazing things. Zelda feels it in her bones.
“Hah!” Riju takes a pastry. If Zelda looks to the left she can see Link and Sidon dancing together, hands still tied together according to Hylian tradition. Next to them, Teba and Saki are doing their best impression of a Hylian waltz. If she wills herself to focus past their bizarreness, she can see Yunobo entertaining Tulin and a few Zora children by juggling. It’s crowded. There’s white flowers scattered absolutely everywhere. But there’s drinks and food and music, and there’s nothing that can interrupt them. Nothing can destroy this.
The Yiga clan are on their last gasping breaths, Calamity Ganon is gone, and Zelda’s task is finished.
She’s tipsy and at her best friend’s wedding and it’s a perfect summer night.
Tomorrow Hyrule will finally have its king.
A breeze tugs gently on Zelda’s hair, a strand coming loose and brushing over her forehead. Like a kiss. And out of the corner of her eye she thinks she sees a flash of blue light. She smiles, and mouths goodbye.
Tomorrow Zelda will begin the rest of her life.
And it feels great.