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Once upon a time, there was a Zora princess.
Her father, speaking of her later in history inscribed on stone plaques, would describe her as being as lovely as a jewel. It was not beauty alone that she was known for, however. Through her own tireless efforts her skill with a spear won great renown for her, and it is said even to this day that she was without peer. She was blessed also with a relentlessly kind heart and the ability to heal all wounds, which earned her the eternal adoration of the brave Zora soldiers who risked life and limb to keep their kingdom at peace. In time this gift drew the eye of the Hylian princess, who came to call one fateful day with the request that she pilot a grand construct from antiquity against the dark beast who threatened the land once more. She was thereafter called Champion of her people, and loved by all who knew her.
All but one.
He was a Hylian youth, whom she had been friends with since their shared childhoods in Zora’s Domain. Several years prior, while still a child, he had departed the Domain for the land of his birth in order to train as a knight. She had not seen him again until recent times, when he returned as a man and the wielder of the sword crafted by the goddess to banish the wicked monster the Zora princess had pledged to take up arms against. He was, therefore, destined to fight beside the Hylian princess, and had been appointed her personal knight. Most of his time was spent with her, though he still returned to Zora’s Domain when he could, to see old friends and the land he had loved dearly.
On one such occasion, he drew the fabled blade of evil’s bane and slew a Lynel that had been troubling the Zora. The Zora princess fought at his side, and what she saw that day sparked a new emotion in her heart for him, one that he did not feel in kind.
He cared for her in his own way, that cannot be doubted. But his heart did not beat in time with hers.
For a while, she thought it might; she clung desperately to things she should not have, that she mistakenly took for reciprocation of her feelings. Encouraged by what she thought were signs of a mutual affection, she began to prepare special armor for him as per her people’s traditions. Dreaming of a life with him beyond the war, she presented the finished armor to him with a heart full of hope and love.
A heart that he broke.
He explained to her, as gently as possible, that she was not the one to whom his heart belonged. He valued her as a friend, yes, but did not see her that way. Instead, he had fallen in love with the Hylian princess during the time they had spent together, a rocky beginning giving way to a great love that felt—to him—inevitable. Fated.
He seemed pained by having to reject her, but the Zora princess could tell that he was also radiantly happy with the goddess-blood princess who had captured his affections. Swallowing her tears, she accepted the blow with as much dignity and grace as she could muster, and congratulated him on his newfound happiness.
Later, she would perish in the war.
Later, he would lose all memory of her.
Later, they would both move on.
Once upon a time, a Hylian man rode to Zora’s Domain.
It was the home of his heart, if not his birth. For a handful of halcyon years in his childhood, his father had served as guard for the Hylian ambassador. He, thus, had resided there until the day came for him to return to his birthplace and begin preparing to follow in his father's footsteps as a knight of the realm. It had been a day of much grief, for prior to that his life had been all he could have dreamed of. He adored the land the Zora called home, as well as the Zoras themselves. Among them he had many friends, the dearest of which was the princess herself.
Friendship alone did not blossom in his heart for her, however. Romantic yearnings grew there too, taking root as deeply as his platonic feelings. He dreamed—perhaps foolishly—of marrying her when they both were old enough. She too seemed to feel as he did, her affection bestowed lavishly upon him. When the day came for him to depart her side, both wept at their loss. The boy pledged through his freely falling tears that he would not forget her, and that he would return someday. The princess promised much the same, swearing to wait for him, and they sealed their vow with a kiss.
All would have been well, had not a frightful thing happened during the interval of time between the boy’s departure and the man’s return.
The Zora King, a man of boundless wisdom and kindness, fell to an invading army of lizalfos one fateful day, a shock arrow burying itself in his chest and stopping his once-mighty heart. The princess, still a child, grieved without end for the loss of a beloved parent. Her mother had passed away some years prior under similar circumstances, and it seemed too much to bear that she was now alone in the world, with a baby brother to look after as well. Her grief mingled with her fear that she would not be able to manage raising him and ruling her kingdom, and would bring her people to ruin.
She soon learned, however, that she was not to have such responsibility thrust upon her. As she was too young and inexperienced to take the throne just yet, a regent would be appointed to rule in her stead until she came of age, and would be in charge of her and her younger brother’s care and education as well. Her late father’s chief councilor was, after much deliberation, chosen for the task, and placed in the role immediately.
The new regent could not be said to be incompetent. He possessed a breadth of knowledge on many subjects, as well as experience in politics, and for those reasons was selected. However, his kindness was at a level far below that of the deceased king, and he harbored long-standing prejudices against those who were not Zoras. Hylians in particular drew his considerable ire. As well, he had a reputation—and a well-earned one at that—for being inflexible and rigid, with far less humor than the fallen king. He sought, too, to have tighter control over the royal siblings, to imbue them with his own outlook and values, in line with his ideals and ideas for what was best for the Domain.
So it was that when the young Hylian man, newly knighted and titled and seeing to make good on his oath, found the princess quite changed from who she had been when he left her. No longer was she as warm to him; no longer did she shower him with affection and kindness, nor did she truly welcome him back to her home. A layer of frost had formed over her heart, and her would-be lover recoiled at the sight of it. Under the iron-fisted influence of her regent and guardian, she had become disdainful of Hylians, and looked down even upon her once-dear friend.
Still, he hoped—might he not convince her to return to her old self? Might there not be a glimmer of a chance, if he could persuade her to remember their promises, their bond, to break free of the regent’s mindset and remember who she truly was?
There was not.
She explained to him in tones lacquered with ice and considerable condescension that their promises meant nothing to her now, that she had grown up and put such childish fancies behind her. She had been taught, she continued, the importance of her role as princess and eventually queen, and how seriously she must take the expectations upon her. Marriage to anyone but the most appropriate suitor was out of the question. Moreover, she had already made her choice of bridegrooms: a wealthy and titled nobleman, nephew to the regent, who laughed a sneering laugh at the Hylian man. Heartbroken beyond measure, he did his best to hide his pain and wish the couple well, before departing the Domain and returning to his own lands alone.
He never saw her again.
Once upon a time, war came to Hyrule.
It descended with frightening speed, brought on by the imminent awakening of an ancient evil. Monsters bedeviled the kingdom on all sides, threatening commoners and nobles alike, and the people cried out for a hero. All the more so when an emissary from the future arrived, carrying with it images that portended a darker fate for the land. Was all lost? Could fate be changed, or was it as immutable as the rising of the sun?
It was during this turbulent hour that a young Hylian man stepped forth and claimed the sacred blade, bringing some hope to the troubled populace. He, along with the Zora Princess and others of similar prowess and renown, were named Champions, and fought together to keep Hyrule safe whilst awaiting the awakening of the Hylian princess’ divine inheritance.
For a moment, however—a brief, terrifying moment—it seemed as though the cruel future predicted by the mechanical emissary had again come to pass, despite their best efforts at averting it.
It was not to be so. The emissary’s mysterious powers had summoned forth others from its era, arriving in the Champions’ most desperate hour to provide the help they needed to survive what would otherwise have been their deaths. The Zora princess, instead of being fated to be lost on that tragic day, lived, to the joy of all who knew her.
She and the Hylian Champion, thus, were allowed to continue growing closer, as they had been from the moment he first returned to the Domain as part of the Hylian princess’ escort when she came to request the aid of the Zoras. Hope and love grew in her heart, and she watched her dear friend closely for signs that it was reciprocated, or not. He had grown less expressive in the months since drawing the legendary blade and turning the eyes of the kingdom upon him, but still he confided in her, still he showed to her his true self. As he was the appointed knight of the Hylian princess, though, she could not help but worry.
The Zora princess wavered, many times, over the course of the war. Finally, as it drew to a close, she summoned forth all her courage and approached her friend in private, with the intent of confessing her feelings and inquiring about his. Requesting that, if her affections were returned, he come with her and live in the Domain as they built a life together.
He did love her.
But he would not come with her.
His duty, he explained to her, was to Hyrule Kingdom first and foremost. The war against the calamitous beast was over, yes, but his duty to the kingdom—the oath he had taken—was not. He was still bound to serve the princess, the king, the people. How could he abandon it? He asked the Zora princess to understand, and offered her a compromise: he would continue to do his duty in central Hyrule, but would come home to her in the Domain as often as permitted. They would be separated much of the time, but would make the most of his periods of leave from the military. Could she be persuaded to accept that?
All at once, the princess could see the thread of her life if she accepted his offer, unspooling before her. It wove itself into a tapestry so bleak she could barely breathe. Her love—far away in the capital, or accompanying a different princess around the nooks and crannies of the land, for months on end. Herself—trapped in the Domain by her own duties, seeing him only for a handful of weeks each time. She saw the repetition of painful goodbyes, of endless stretches of separation, of herself being left alone to take care of herself during any pregnancies that might ensue from their ‘making the most’ of his periods of leave. She saw herself being left to care for any and all children largely alone, the sorrow she would have to hide when their children plaintively asked why their father had to go away so often. She saw their already limited time together cut even shorter by his long absences, robbing her of precious swathes of his short life. She saw the distance forming between them while he lived, and felt for a knife-sharp moment how it would feel to bury him after a small handful of decades, the bulk of which he would spend away from her.
She saw all of it—saw her cruel and lonely fate if she accepted this ‘compromise’ between love and duty.
A part of her heart wished to say yes, was so desperate for him in her life that she would take even this wretched arrangement.
The rest of it clamored for a refusal, saying that she wanted and deserved better.
So she said no.
Because she knew, deep in her aching heart, what the cold truth of the situation truly was.
He loved her.
But not enough.
Once upon a time, a Hylian knight proposed to a Zora princess.
It had been a long time coming, he explained to her. He had loved her since their shared childhood, and the agony that had torn him apart at their parting had been born of his love for her, his grief at their being separated. For several long, long years, he had dreamed of returning to her side. For several long, long years, he had cried many tears, wishing he could be with her, wondering what she saw, what she felt, if she gazed at the same moon, the same sky, at the same moment he did. All that time, his heart had held onto his love for her.
The knight had waited all that time, training and working towards the status he held now, longing for the day in which he was free to return to the Domain and offer the world to the one who held his heart. In recent weeks, his wish had come true, his ascension to knighthood opening doors that had remained tightly shut until now. The moment he had grasped his freedom, he had used it to return to the waters he loved best. He was only on leave now, but upon returning to the castle, he would seek a permanent position in the Domain, that he might be with his beloved at all times, not only part of each passing year. During the past few weeks, he told her tremulously, he had watched and waited, hoping for a sign that she returned his feelings, that he could make this dream come to full fruition at long last. Say the word, he pleaded—say just one word, and he would ride back at once, the happiest man in all Hyrule. He would ride back, and secure their joyous future together.
She said no.
Through tears that flooded down her lovely face, she explained that it was not out of lack of love. Her heart belonged to him, and always had. The rest of her, however, was not so free. For she had, even before her hatchday, been bound by a promise made to the ruler of another Domain. The agreement could not be broken for any reason, so said the law of both Domains. In time—far too short an interval for her liking—she would be wed, against her will, to the son of the other Zora monarch. It would solidify the alliance between them, and guarantee peace for generations, not only between the two Domains, but among all Zora kingdoms.
It would be, however, a peace bought at the price of the misery of the two standing before each other in that moment. Hearts shattered by the love that could not be—that had been smashed to bits long before they had even met—they could do nothing but hold each other and weep. The Hylian knight knew now that he would not take a post in the Domain as he had intended; for how could he bear to see her wed to another? How could his heart not wither in agony each time he witnessed it? The Zora princess sobbed in his arms as the same realization took hold of her, at the knowledge that she must now be forever separated from him, not to see him ever again as she languished in the prison that was her unwanted marriage.
Unspoken was this: that they loved each other so fiercely, so desperately, that the temptation to carry on an affair despite her marital status would have been present. So present, in fact, that it would have overwhelmed them, to their mutual ruin. Both of them knew it. Even at that moment, they could see in one another’s eyes the desire to consummate their love then and there.
They did not.
Because they knew, also, that to say it would be only once… would be to lie.
And so they parted.
Once upon a time, a Zora princess perished in a terrible war.
Or so it was thought.
In truth she survived, though just barely. A twist of fate allowed her to escape her Divine Beast, flinging herself out of its windows and into the storm-wracked night. Wounded, bleeding, she swam to shore, evading the pursuit of her enemy every inch of the way. The demon that had possessed her mechanical partner could not leave the construct she too had been meant to be trapped within, but it was able to marshal the battle capabilities of the Divine Beast against her. Through some blend of luck and skill, the Zora princess achieved a second miracle: she evaded the blocks and spikes of ice that came hurtling out of the dark at her, and once upon land again managed to find a hiding place where she could tend to her wounds.
An endless downpour of rain hindered her as she made her way slowly and painfully home, but ultimately did not stop her. The Zora princess collapsed on the borders of her beloved city, weak and weary but still very much alive. Her healing power had aided her in her efforts to remain that way, but had run low in the night as her energy waned, and now she dared not press upon it any longer. Fortunately, she was soon discovered by guards and brought to the palace.
A handful of days later, she and the rest of the Domain were given the news: the Hylian Champion had fallen in Blatchery Plain, and at the order of the Hylian princess had been rushed to the Shrine of Resurrection on the Great Plateau. There, if the ancient technology still worked, he would convalesce for an unknown period of time until his ravaged body healed and he could once more stand and fight the Calamity. The Hylian princess’ sacred power had awakened, and she now held back the wicked monster that had laid waste to Hyrule, but…
… it had come too late to save the countless dead who had lost their lives in the disaster.
Including her own appointed knight and the rest of the chosen Champions.
Over the ensuing century, the Zora princess navigated a labyrinth of grief. Her Divine Beast lay dormant, hidden within the depths of the reservoir where she’d left it, and so there was no longer an immediate threat to the Domain. Hyrule went quiet, silence descending where there once had been the din of many lively people and cities. Monsters roamed the countryside freely, harassing travelers and hampering communication between peoples; this too contributed to the hush that held fast the land. Zora’s Domain, isolated from much of the rest of the kingdom by its geography, settled into near-isolation. For the princess, there was little to do but help where she could, fighting off monsters at the borders and aiding her people in any way they needed.
While mourning her fallen lover.
For they had all but pledged themselves to each other before parting that fateful day, their hearts united in euphoric adoration tempered only by their fears for the future. A terrible one had indeed come to pass: their fellow Champions had perished, the kingdom had been scorched and laid to waste, and even the Hylian hero so many had believed invulnerable had succumbed to his injuries. Only a fragile peace existed now, one that many knew was temporary. Borrowed time, bought for them by the Hylian princess… so long as her strength held out.
The Zora princess experienced periods of anger as she grieved her beloved, casting irrational blame at the Hylian princess for not awakening her powers sooner. Blaming herself for not being there to heal him as she had promised. Both were irrational impulses. In whatever privacy she could wrest for herself, she screamed and wept and prayed, begged the heavens and any listening deities for a second chance.
Her prayers went unanswered.
Yet still, she never fully accepted the state of things. Her would-be betrothed still slept. He would awaken. This she wholeheartedly believed, and refused to allow herself to lose even a crumb of faith. He would return to Hyrule, to her, and all would be well.
One hundred years passed.
The day after the anniversary of the cataclysm, an earthquake shook the land. Towers rose impossibly from the ground, and the Divine Beasts sprang back to life. Even as the Zora fretted over the emergency they had been thrown into by the return of the endless rain, reports came in from other lands, speaking of the avian menace in the northwest, the impending eruption of the volcano overlooking all, the furious sandstorms that threatened to swallow the desert whole. The end, it seemed, was nigh.
Yet the Zora princess found that something had awakened in her after so long.
Hope.
It had to be, she knew, only a matter of time before her beloved returned. He would be able to aid them in their hour of need, and they would be reunited at long last.
And indeed, he did soon come to the Domain. As she had predicted—hoped—he was able to save the Zora from the threat of her Divine Beast, reclaiming it for her to use when he finally faced the great evil that had plunged the world into such a state to begin with, that had attempted to take their lives all those decades ago.
There was one problem, however.
He had lost all his memories.
His long sleep in the Shrine had deprived him of all his recollections, of his entire life. Including their childhood together. The blossoming of their love. All of it—gone. The Zora princess felt her heart break a second time as he gazed at her without the light of recognition in his eyes. Without the affection he’d once felt for her.
The sight of her did manage to make a single memory trickle in—just one. A handful of others he regained over the course of his journey after leaving the Domain, scattered moments they had shared in the company of others, but they were not enough to make him remember how he had felt about her.
So he told her, when he returned to the Domain and she timidly presented the armor to him a second time, asking if he remembered its significance. She did so with the intent of making the proposal she had never been able to a hundred years prior, but it seemed to only bring pain to the Hylian knight. In a voice fraught with regret, he explained to her that his memories, still so fractured, were not enough to allow him to know how he had once felt about her. Nor enough to feel the same way for her. As such, he did not feel right about accepting it. Accepting her. He apologized many times, but the princess bit back her pain and assured him, as her heart broke a third time, that she understood. That it was fine.
Perhaps if he had still remembered her well enough, he would have been able to recognize the lie.
He did not.
Instead, he thanked her for her understanding, and offered her one last apology before departing the Domain.
She never saw him again.
Once upon a time, everything went right.
A war, foretold, came to the land of Hyrule. It began slowly, with the escalation of monster populations and their increased encroaching on the towns and settlements. A prophecy delivered made sense of the worrying oddities to the king, who acted swiftly upon the advice given to him by the fortune teller. The constructs of old were unearthed from the deep: the Divine Beasts named for ancient heroes, the automatons that had served as mechanical soldiers in a conflict buried in the mists of time. A people whose destiny had been cloven in two by the monarch in that era found themselves with renewed purposes, and took to each with fervent gusto.
One half worked closely with the king and his people, seeking to avert disaster.
One half remained in the shadows they had willingly cloaked themselves with for countless generations, seeking to cause disaster.
Meanwhile, the king began his search for those who would lead the charge on the fateful day the ancient evil awoke again. His own daughter, the scion of the goddess whose power would prove key to vanquishing their foe, began her long and laborious training to begin the process of unlocking that power. She worked tirelessly at it, while the Sheikah did the same with the relics of their distant ancestors, restoring the automatons and repairing the Divine Beasts. Once the Beasts were made ready for piloting, it was time to select the ones who would do so. Candidates were located among the races who had controlled them in ages past, and preparations made for the Hylian princess to set out on diplomatic journeys to their homelands, that she might secure their agreement.
On the eve of her beginning these travels, an emissary from the future was discovered on the battlefield; further investigation at a lab revealed its identity as such. Troubling images had been recorded in its memory, of a dark future that the princess—and those around her—swore to prevent from coming to pass.
One of them was a young Hylian man, the youngest of the knights in the service of the kingdom. He had spent a significant portion of his youth in Zora’s Domain before being ushered back to the lands of his birth to follow in his father’s footsteps, and still recalled the bountiful rivers and towering waters with a level of fondness that often bordered on homesickness. Through the years of his training as he worked towards knighthood, it had been instilled in him to follow orders, particularly from those of the royal family. He also had been appointed a member of the princess’ personal guard following his valor in the battle where the mechanical emissary had been found, making it imperative that he stay by her side at all times when needed, and follow her orders to the letter.
And yet, when the time came for them to visit Zora’s Domain, he all but leapt at the chance to shed his duty. Instead of standing silently at the Hylian princess’ side as she met with the Zora king, he took the opportunity to spend some time alone with the Zora princess, whose services as pilot for her people’s Divine Beast was currently being requested.
For among the many friends that the Hylian knight had cultivated during his years there, none were more dear to him than the princess. She had captivated his heart in a way no one else had, and the two had been inseparable until the day he had been torn away from her. Years had passed, yet neither had forgotten the other or the friendship they had nurtured. When at last they reunited, it was almost as if no time had ticked by at all, so easily did they fall back into their old dynamic.
Or did they?
Something had changed. This much was clear to both of them, though they did not speak openly of it. A tension that had not existed before sprang up between them. Not a negative one, born of ire or discomfort, but… a heat, a spark, that had been absent in their childhood years. The Hylian knight had privately nursed a crush on the Zora princess during those idyllic days, but it had not been returned at that time.
Now it was.
There was no time to broach the subject, however, no time to gather courage for even the most hesitant flirtation. An interruption came, in the form of the Domain being besieged by monsters, and the two were forced to take up arms together and search for the missing prince. Many fierce foes fell beneath their blades before the battle was finally done, the lost heir located and protected. In the aftermath, the Zora princess was given permission to join the war effort as a pilot of a Divine Beast, having proven her valor and prowess. Particularly when she was forced to utilize the ancient construct to rescue her father and many soldiers of the realm from certain death.
This meant, of course, that the Zora princess and the Hylian knight would be seeing much more of each other in the days and weeks to come. The knight was bound to serve the Hylian princess and accompany her in her travels, but she made frequent trips to the Domain, and the Zora princess herself, along with the other Champions, was often asked to join the royal retinue as well. Drawn to one another by their old friendship and new feelings, they sought to make the most of this opportunity to rekindle their bond.
Thus it was that they began shyly, subtly, to court each other, hearts fluttering at the slightest smile, the lightest touch. For their burgeoning attraction could not be concealed for long, the sparks that had flown at their reunion igniting into an unquenchable flame. Flirtations were had, glances and kisses stolen, notes written and hands held. They could not forget the war, nor their duties in it, but they carved out what time for each other that they could, making pledges and promises and forging dreams of what would be once the evil had been banished from Hyrule once again.
Dreams that nearly perished.
The great evil that threatened them had been more crafty than any suspected, and it wrested control of the automatons and the Divine Beasts, threatening the lives of their pilots and killing many more. It seemed at one point that all hope was lost—that the dark future the emissary’s memories portended would indeed become true—that the Zora princess and the rest of the Champions would have their light snuffed out—
—but then, through some arcane miracle, the tide was turned. The emissary’s mysterious powers summoned warriors from across time to come to the aid of those in the present, warriors who hailed from a crueler future where the Champions had perished and Hyrule cast down into ruin. One of them was the Zora Champion’s own brother, grown to adulthood and determined not to waste this chance to save his beloved sister from her doom. He did not fail, buying enough time for the Hylian knight to come to her rescue.
Lover, comrade, Champion, savior—he became to her all those things, in that sweet moment when she saw his face in the ice-wracked battlefield that her Divine Beast had become. All through her desperate battle with the demon that had come to slay her, she had never once given up hope that her beloved would rush to her side. It seemed a foolish dream, for she knew that he had another princess to protect, that he was so far away from her, that she might succumb to her wounds and weariness before he could make it. That she might never see him again.
But she did.
He made it.
Fighting like a man possessed, he had used the blade of evil’s bane to cut down the countless foes that stood between him and the woman he loved so dearly. He did not relent for one moment, leaving the Hylian princess in the care of her Sheikah bodyguard as he tore through the battlefield to reach the Zora Champion’s side. Once there, he turned his fury, his fear, his hate, upon the monster that bayed for her blood, and slayed it. No mercy was granted, for none was deserved.
In the aftermath of nearly losing her, he embraced her as they both wept in relief, refusing to leave her side and entrusting the rest of the battle to the newly arrived Zora prince. The princess was exhausted and weak, and he tended to her as best he could, allowing her to rest in his arms as he gave her comfort. The two of them shared tender kisses and words of love, parting reluctantly from one another when the subsequent battles required them to go in separate directions. Before she left his sight, however, he held her as long as he was allowed, as tightly as he could without hurting her, and extracted a promise from her: that she not fall before he could make it back to her. She swore to it, and made him swear to the same.
True to their words, they both survived the next battle. And the next, and the next, until at last the war was vanquished and peace reigned once again. A thousand tales could be told of their battles apart, of how they sought each other afterwards at the first opportunity, and cried with relief at their continued survival. Of how they took the battlefield together at times, fighting side by side in an unstoppable whirlwind that left onlookers adrift in a sea of wonder. Of how they fiercely protected each other, taking turns at rescuing their dearest one from the clutches of monsters or mechanical foes. Such tales turned them into living legends among their people.
A thousand more tales existed in silence and whispers, however, much of it unseen by others, or spoken of only in rumor, in gossip. Of the nights spent together when chance presented itself, of the encouragement given her during her private training sessions, of the gift of countless luminous stones procured by an ‘unknown benefactor’ for the festival celebrating her appointment as Champion. Of the single stone she took back to her quarters afterwards, a dear memento of an evening spent largely in the company of her beloved Hylian knight, who had ridden all the way from Castle Town to see her. Of the trio of gifts he presented to her in order to persuade her to give others a lesson in spearmanship, as the Hylian knight regarded her as a master of the weapon above all others.
Of the armor the princess constructed in near-secret.
Her progress on it was, of course, hampered by her prominence in the war effort. Bit by bit, though, it slowly came to fruition. Rumors abounded of it, fueled by an anonymous request made by a ‘concerned father’ for delivery of nourishing food items to a daughter crafting armor for someone. It was no secret by then that the Hylian Champion and the Zora Champion were very much in love, and so it seemed a natural thing that they would prepare to wed.
In the last, waning days of the war, after the saviors from the future had returned to their proper time in the wake of the Calamity’s defeat, there was little for the rest of the army to do but mop up what remnants still existed of the monster hordes. During one such skirmish on the borders of the Domain, the Hylian Champion found himself in a precarious position with a particularly massive foe. Fortunately, the Zora Champion was close by, and mounted a daring and successful rescue.
Afterwards, she presented him, at long last, with the armor she had been constructing. Her question, asked with blushing face and racing heart, was this: would he agree to be united in matrimony with her? Would he keep the promises made during the earlier portions of the war, and build a life with her here in the Domain?
Yes.
Taking her hand in his, and pressing a gentle kiss to it, the knight told her—in a voice choked with the tears she could see filling his eyes—that his answer was yes. Forever and always, yes. Overwhelmed with joy, the two embraced and shed their euphoric tears together, laughing and murmuring the beginnings of many, many plans for the bright future spreading out before them.
Many chapters remained of their story after that point, of course. It was not the end by any means.
Even so, it could be—and was—summed up in the simplest of phrases.
They lived happily ever after.