The Scales That Bind

Chapter 5: A Respite to Heal

Mipha's fingers fiddled with one another as she rested her hands on her lap, staring off into the distance from atop the lengthy trunk of the Divine Beast that perpetually remained stationed within the Zora's reservoir, Vah Ruta. Her eyes had remained narrow as she watched the sun disappear behind the mountains surrounding her, her voice all but non-existent as she sat here alone, not even invoking one of her mother's old hymns.

She played back the scene from earlier in her mind, again and again, sometimes pulling her hand up in front of her, watching her hand glow as though making sure it still did as she wanted. What had she done wrong? Her eyes fell in time with a sigh as she stared wanderingly toward the reservoir waters below. How her powers had been so unwillingly reserved as well, she thought for a moment.

Gradually arising from behind her came the unmistakable grunting of Link, carefully climbing up to where Mipha sat with bruised hands from Vah Ruta's craggy frame. He brought himself up with a sharp exhale of breath, relieved that he'd made it as he reached up to stretch his arms, watching Mipha as she remained as distant as she'd been a moment ago. He made his way closer to her atop Vah Ruta's trunk, sitting along its edge as well and remaining there silently, knowing Mipha hadn't come all this way to speak, but for silence.

He pulled his rucksack to his lap, pulling out a bag of boar jerky and offering a piece to her, though she only replied with a shallow shake of the head. Link returned to himself, feeding himself as he stated off into the distance, aware that Zevan was, at this point, "uncomfortably stable"- for the time being, he hadn't much to weigh his mind. Removing a pairing knife from his bag, Link began sliding the jerky into bite-sized bits, causing the fins along either side of Mipha's head to shiver at the sound despite her stillness.

"Zevan is hanging in there," Link spoke up simply, returning to silence as he went on cutting up his dried meat.

Mipha still didn't speak, nor did she make any movement that showed any kind of relief, leaving Link even further disillusioned by the sight. Her hands slid down past her knees as she slumped forward, shutting her eyes in disbelief as she finally managed to speak up.

"I've never felt so useless..." she muttered quietly, leaving Link to turn his eyes toward her, sadly, "Never before has a life been lost while in my hands, and yet..."

Her skin crawled like goosebumps, "And right after mentioning Princess Zelda's inabilities as well... Perhaps my own powers are-"

She heard the sliding of jerky again, though this time, her fins twitched with a far more violent sort of shake, just catching the difference in tone; she was listening to the sliding of living flesh, not the dried jerky of a boar. Her head bolted up, eyes wide, as Link sat there with a painful wincing across his entire body, his hand running the length of his arm, trailed by his pairing knife, drawing blood that quickly poured from the lengthening would, like a cascade of red wrapping along his arm.

"What are you doing?!" Mipha shouted in shock, throwing her hands toward him and grappling his arm, yanking it toward her through a sudden burst of dewy, golden cinders of light.

She quickly ran her hand up and down the wound, too frightened to notice the smile Link wore as the laceration rather quickly sutured itself up beneath the shining flakes of sunlight, his pain immediately subsiding as Mipha's body shook worriedly, finally barking aloud with a furious tone, "What do you think you were-?!"

Her eyes met with Link's grin, turning her to stone as the last of his wound healed, a boyish shrug coming from him as he answered her simply, "You made a promise. I knew you'd keep it, regardless of whatever doubts you had creeping around your mind. I knew you'd be there to save me."

Mipha's stony face gradually softened into a frown, "So I'm just a simple parlor act? Some conjuror of cheap tricks?"

"No," Link answered, "You're my savior."