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Link approaches the mountain where Mipha had positioned Vah Ruta after Link freed her soul. The Divine Beast had lain somewhat dormant since making its strike against Calamity Ganon. Link gazes up at Vah Ruta, and briefly considers donning her climbing gear or using Revali’s Gale-until the great elephant trumpets in her presence, and looses a torrent of water from its trunk, which strikes the rocks next to her and quickly forms a miniature stream to the larger Zora River below. Link smiles-Mipha is giving her the easy way up. Link is already wearing the Zora Armor Mipha had made for her one hundred years ago. Normally she would have been wearing one of her dresses, but she knew that wouldn’t be an option today. She uses the armor’s superior swimming abilities, and begins to swim directly up the veritable waterfall which has descended from Ruta’s trunk. The water is comfortably warm, like a nice bath after a long day.
When she’d told Zelda and Sidon about her visit to Mipha, they’d had no qualms about it whatsoever. Mipha had been her lover before the Calamity-she of all people deserved to know who Link truly was, and Link had been too frightened, too unsure of herself, to tell Mipha while freeing her soul from Waterblight Ganon. Zelda and Sidon had given Link a hug, and wished her all the courage in the world. Link was still frightened, that much she was sure of. Telling a loved one that the person they thought you were since the day you met was a lie would be a daunting task for anyone. But she also knew this was what she had to do. She knew Mipha would never hate her, of course, but she was worried that even a momentary look of betrayal would break her heart in two.
Link shoots upwards from Ruta’s waterfall, and pulls out her paraglider. She slowly descends to one of Vah Ruta’s balconies, where she sees Mipha waiting for her. Mipha’s ghostly form gazes up at her with a warm smile, a dozen tiny emerald-colored fires floating around her. Once Link lands, she embraces Mipha in a hug-while her body no longer holds the warmth it once had, the simple feeling of their arms around one another after so long makes up for it one hundred times over.
They each take a step back, and Mipha is the first to speak. “It’s so good to see you again, Link.”
“I’m glad to see you too, Mipha. I’m sorry I didn’t visit,” Link replies, apologetically.
“There is no need to apologize-I understood perfectly. I saw you fight Dark Beast Ganon from here-you were wonderful!”
Link blushes. “Thanks… and thank you for your help. I’m not sure if I could have beaten him on my own.”
“As always, it was my pleasure.” Mipha replies with a smile.
The two of them talk for some time. Link tells her about her recent success as a chef, and that she plans on publishing her own recipe book soon. She tells her about Sidon, and about Zelda, and how she feels about both of them. Mipha is happy that Link had found love again-while she still loves her with all her heart, she would rather Link move on than cling to a literal ghost. Link is glad to receive her blessing on the matter. Link tells her a few highlights of her adventures-of Daruk and Urbosa’s descendants, Yunobo and Riju, as well as Teba, all of whom had been instrumental in freeing the other Champions’ souls. Mipha is comforted to know that, in the absence of the Champions, Hyrule is still in safe hands. Link also tells her of the senators she and Zelda had collected to represent all the people of Hyrule, doing away with the absolute monarchy of the past. Eventually, however, she runs out of conversation topics-running dangerously close to the one she’d been dancing around all this time.
Link takes a deep breath. “There’s, um… something else I need to tell you about, Mipha.”
“What is it?” and her smile gives Link the courage to continue.
“Well… first of all, I’d like to apologize.”
“What ever for?” Mipha says with a chuckle.
“For… not telling you this sooner. I promise, it wasn’t because I thought I couldn’t trust you-it wasn’t for anything to do with you specifically-I just… I wasn't ready. To tell… anyone. Back then.” Link takes another deep breath. “The truth is… I’m… actually… a girl.”
Link is about to give the explanation she’d prepared about who she is, what being a vara’vai means, but she is stopped in her tracks as Mipha says the two words she’d least expected her to say: “I know.”
“O-oh…” Link tries to rationalize it in her head. “Yeah, I… suppose you were watching over me, after all.”
“No-I knew before that, too. Before the Calamity.”
“You… you did? How!?” Link is incredulous-how could Mipha have known something before she’d even accepted it for herself?
“You told me,” Mipha replies with a smile.
“…Where?”
Mipha takes Link to a small cave on the side of a mountain. It is located high above Zora’s Domain, providing a beautiful view of the entire town while also shielding the cave from prying eyes. It is perfectly placed to catch all the light of sunset, bathing the cave in a rich and beautiful orange hue every single day. And this is happening at that moment, as Link descends from Revali’s Gale to find Mipha’s spirit waiting for her inside.
“This was one of our favorite places… to get away from it all,” Mipha tells her. “You found it yourself, and surprised me with it on my birthday. We came here many times, after that-we both were glad to have somewhere to just be with each other.”
Mipha sits down in front of a large stone, and pats the ground next to her. Link braces herself for a moment, not expecting a very comfortable sitting experience-but as she sits down, she feels every part of her body fall perfectly into place, as if this stone was made for her. She's sat here many times-her muscle memory remembers this place, even if her mind isn’t so lucky.
Link takes in everything around her. The sight of the setting sun causing the silver of Zora’s Domain to twinkle like starlight, the sound of distant waterfalls, the smell of the water vapor coming off the lake’s surface, and the feel of the sun-warmed stone against her back.
She turns to face Mipha… and begins to remember.
Most of Link’s surroundings do not change-same location, same time of day-the only hint that she is experiencing one of her memories is Mipha, alive and healthy as ever.
Link and Mipha are sat in the secret cave they share together, watching the sunset. Mipha slides herself a bit closer to Link, and rests her head on her shoulder. Link can feel her own muscles tensed up, and how quickly her breaths come and go.
“Are you alright?” Link jumps slightly as Mipha asks. “You seem tense-I can feel it.”
Link waits for several seconds, trying to ready herself to speak. Even in the present, hearing the sound of her own voice makes her uncomfortable. She remembers that she’d forego speaking entirely whenever she could help it, and that Mipha was the person she talked with the most often-she always felt safest with her. “It’s okay,” she says, her voice quiet and hoarse with disuse.
Mipha pauses. “I don’t think it is. You’re normally so relaxed when we come here-I can tell that something is wrong.”
Link can feel a lot of fear and anxiety stirring up within herself. “I’m worried,” she confirms.
“I’m worried, too-Calamity Ganon could rise any day now.”
“No…” Link denies. “Something… something else.”
“What, then?” Mipha asks, looking into Link’s eyes.
Link turns away. “I have a… a secret. I’ve been keeping it from everybody… and I thought I was okay, but… I… I love you, Mipha… and I can’t lie to you anymore. It… it hurts.”
“Okay… what do you want to tell me, then?”
Link swallows. “I don’t… I haven’t… I-I’m not…”
Mipha puts her hand on Link’s cheek, and turns her head to face her again. “It’s alright-take your time. Use simple words.” She knows that speaking takes a lot of effort for Link, and wants to make sure that she’s as comfortable as they can manage.
As Link tries to work herself up, she feels almost as terrified as she was facing Ganon. Her heart is beating like a drum. She takes many moments to try to collect her thoughts, or form some explanation… but she’s worried that taking the long route to what she wants to say will give her too much time to second-guess herself. She takes a deep breath, and lets the hardest part go first.
“I’m a girl…” she whispers. As it leaves her mouth, Link feels as if she’s torn off a piece of her own soul and offered it to Mipha, silently begging that she will care for it as much as Link does… and fearing, beyond reason, that she’ll simply crush it like a meaningless bug.
“What?” Mipha asks-she doesn’t quite understand what Link means, but she wants to understand.
Link takes another deep breath, shaking as she does so. “I know I… look like a guy… but I know I’m a girl. I just do. I don’t… I don’t know why…” Link begins to recede into herself.
Mipha slowly pulls Link into an embrace. “It’s okay… I can tell you’re scared. It’s alright.” Mipha’s touch is comforting to Link, and she can gradually feel her racing heartbeat slowing down. Mipha has never met someone like Link before, and so doesn’t yet know exactly how she should treat the situation. All Mipha knows is that the person who is known for her courage above all else had been terrified to tell her this-and she isn’t about to crush Link’s heart for the crime of allowing herself to be vulnerable. She whispers her response. “I believe you. If you say you’re a girl, then I believe you.”
Link had spent months, perhaps years at that point, hiding who she was. She’d thought a hundred thousand thoughts, in the privacy of her own mind… that she was crazy, that she had been put together wrong, that no one would ever treat her as the person she knew she was inside. And now, the very first person she’d told-the person she loves most-has accepted her without question. After so much doubt, after so much fear, after she hadn’t even been sure of herself for so long, Mipha has told her “I believe you.” That what she feels, in the deepest and truest corners of her heart, is real. Link wants to cry-she’s opened herself up, and she wants all of that pent-up mental and emotional torment to be released now that she finally has another person’s shoulder to cry on… but the tears won’t come, no matter how hard she tries or how much she wants them. She hasn’t cried in years, and sadly, it seems that isn’t going to change today.
Instead, she whispers “Thank you…” and hugs Mipha back.
After holding each other in silence for some time, they break apart. “Are you going to tell anyone else?” Mipha asks.
“…No.”
“Why not?”
“…Ganon. Everyone’s trusting me… to fight Ganon. I need to… be who they want me to be. The… big… strong… man…” each of those words felt like daggers in her heart as she said them. “… who’s gonna save everyone. If they find out… I’m taking time to figure myself out, when I should be training… everybody’s gonna think we’re doomed.”
Mipha puts her hands out to cup Link’s face. “Well… at least you’ll have me by your side. I’ll help you keep your secret until you’re ready for everyone else to know. And, until then… I promise you, whenever we find a moment like this, to be alone together… you are, and will forever be, my darling girlfriend.” and she lays a kiss on Link’s forehead.
A blush comes over Link’s face, as she feels her lips curl upward into a smile-not one she’d forced for another person’s sake, but one that came about because she was genuinely happy. She pulls Mipha into another embrace, and softly whispers “I love you…”
As Link returns to the present, she can feel her tears flowing down her face. Mipha can see that she remembers.
With a soft smile, Mipha says “I told you once that I would always love you… and it was true.”