Summary: Hyrule begins searching for ways to combat a new foe before it's too late.

It was mid-morning in North Hyrule, and Sheikah leader Saldon had just arrived to meet with Queen Faray at their Domain. It had been a pleasant walk there along the riverbank, the sun shining, and the temperature mild. The Zora guards knew him, and he registered on their Tabs as precisely who he was. Security in North Hyrule was efficient and foolproof now. A guard escorted him to the throne room at once.

"Good morning Queen Faray," said Saldon. "You wished to see me?"

"Yes, Master Saldon, it's good to see you again, and thank you for coming so promptly," said Faray. "May I offer you some hot tea? It's harvested, not rune made, and quite good."

"Sounds delicious! Yes, that would be nice, thank you," said Saldon.

Faray poured him and herself a cup of tea from the nearby pot.

"Now, please follow me. We need to meet in a private room," said Faray.

Saldon followed Faray to a small room that was kept locked and under guard. Upon entering, Faray closed the door behind them.

"Please be seated," said Faray.

"Thank you," said Saldon looking around. "I don't believe I've ever been here before."

"No, I imagine not," said Faray. "It's a soundproof room my sister Sopha had built for when she did not wish to be overheard. Sadly, that was almost all the time. Now, I am going to share some information with you, Master Saldon, that must be kept strictly confidential. I realize you may need to involve others, but they must be sworn to secrecy as well."

"I give you my word, Queen Faray, as a Sheikah and your loyal subject," said Saldon.

Faray took a sip of tea, then put the cup down.

"The recent announcement about Hyrule Princess Mipha's accidental death is untrue. She is still alive," said Faray.

"That is wonderful news!" said Saldon. "But why the deception?"

"I'm getting to that," said Faray. "What is true is that Princess Mipha nearly succumbed to a Shock Arrow attack. More importantly, the evidence suggests that the attack was at the hands of an invisible assailant. The inevitable conclusion is that your scientist Grendon was working on how to render objects invisible. We need you to find out how he accomplished this, and what we can do about it, but without drawing attention to your investigation."

"Indeed, that is quite interesting," said Saldon taking a sip of tea. He paused for a moment to swallow his drink and think.

"We have known in theory that such a thing is possible by cleverly bending light," said Saldon. "But producing materials or an ancient energy field to do so would be quite challenging, and likely expensive, too. If that was what Grendon was working on, I can see why he would turn to someone who agreed to fund his research. And he was unworldly enough not to appreciate the danger, the advantage that this capability would give to an adversary. He doubtless viewed it as an intellectual challenge."

"So, we need to find a way to neutralize that advantage," said Faray. "We are part of Hyrule now, and this looks to be our fault. We need to help protect them."

"And protect ourselves?" Saldon asked.

"Perhaps," said Faray after sipping her tea. "But I think the threat is more to Hyrule proper. Our full defensive capabilities are a bit of a mystery to outsiders, are they not? To attack us would be quite risky, invisible, or not. You know what I mean."

"Yes, that's true," said Saldon. "And I know very well what you mean. Will you ever share that information with them, the Hyruleans?"

"Perhaps in time," said Faray." It can't help them anyway, though. They were designed to only work here, thank Nayru, or my sister would have run amok. But we are swimming away from the current. We need to concentrate on combating this threat to Hyrule."

"Well, I suppose the beginnings of a countermeasure would depend on the range of spectral frequencies that were controlled by Grendon's process," Saldon said thoughtfully after another sip of tea.

"As you no doubt recall, Grendon's dying words were to the effect that it would not fool a Zora," said Faray. "We believe Grendon was referring to echolocation ability, that the process he created would not render an object invisible to high-pitched sound pulses."

"Yes, high-frequency audio signals would be another possible means of detection," said Saldon. "Hyrule Keese were known sometimes to use high pitched squeals for hunting insects in darkness despite their huge eye."

"And, of course, the purpose of keeping Mipha's survival a secret is to avoid alerting our enemy to our discovery," said Faray.

"Yes, I understand," said Saldon. "I will be discreet and work on this at once. Will there be anything else, Queen Faray?"

"No, thank you, Master Saldon," said Faray.

"Then, I will go now," said Saldon. "Thank you for the tea. It was indeed delicious."

"The tea was a gift from my brother-in-law, Link," said Faray. "It comes from Kakariko Village."

"Oh, speaking of brother-in-law, how is your family, Queen Faray?"

"Well," said Faray. "I've been visiting every other week, and my sister's little girl is the cutest ever. My last visit was for the funeral service."

"Forgive me, but shouldn't Princess Tila be here as second-in-command during a situation like this?" Saldon asked.

"Normally, yes," said Faray. "But my sister is still supposedly grieving with her family over Mipha's loss, so we must keep up pretenses. Perhaps I will eventually need to summon her here with her husband and daughter. I would prefer them here as I feel they would be safer."

"Well then, if there is nothing else, Queen Faray, I will go now," said Saldon as he bowed and then left.

As Saldon walked back to the Sheikah settlement, he thought about Grendon's research. He would look into this personally but could use some help. Grendon's former apprentice, Aldora, was the perfect candidate.

Meanwhile, at Hyrule Castle, Queen Zelda was meeting with her two daughters and also explaining about Mipha.

"So, Aunt Mipha is alive and well, just in hiding, right, Mom?" Astra asked.

"Yes, but we are very much limiting the number of people who know that," said Queen Zelda. "This is a secret. Neither of you can say anything that would give it away."

"Of course, Mother, I understand," said Princess Zelda.

"I can keep a secret," said Astra. "Like the secret I kept about you and Randall kissing every night, right Zel?"

"Yes, Astra, like the secret you just revealed," said Princess Zelda, blushing slightly.

"You're married now, so it doesn't matter to anyone," said Astra.

"This is very serious, Astra, and I'm treating you as old enough to understand that," said Queen Zelda. "If our enemy knows Aunt Mipha is alive, then they will know we're aware of their ability, and they may attack us before we're ready to protect ourselves. Lives may well be lost."

"I understand, Mom, believe me," said Astra.

Astra and Zelda left, and Queen Zelda resumed her work.

At the Royal Ancient Tech Lab, Purah, Robbie, and Lapha were discussing what to do about this new threat.

"Let's step back for a moment," said Robbie. "The issue is that we have an enemy who can render themself invisible to our vision. There are several ways of attacking this, both actively and passively."

"Go on," said Purah. "I think I know where you're going, but it may help to lay it out."

"Well, one possibility is to defeat the process and render the object visible again to our unaided vision. Another option is to augment our vision in some manner to be able to see it," said Robbie.

He cleared his throat and went on.

"To defeat the invisibility process directly, we would need to understand how it works, which we don't at the moment. Perhaps our North Hyrule colleagues will figure it out at some point. So, adopting that approach will depend on furthering our knowledge, which will take an unknown amount of time. Let's put that option aside for the moment," said Robbie.

"We come, then, to the second option, augmenting our vision in some way," said Robbie. "And here we also have two approaches, a passive one and an active one. The passive one would augment our vision in some way to detect the subject without any further intervention. It would enhance our vision to see wavelengths beyond our normal vision that the process may not distort. The active approach is what Grendon had in mind. We cannot see the object by reflected visible light since the process interferes with the reflection. So instead, we send out a wave of another sort that will be visible to us upon its reflection but which the invisibility process does not affect. An example is the echolocation process used by Zoras and some animal species."

"You've presented the alternatives quite clearly, Dr. Robbie, thank you," said Purah. "We need to decide what method will produce practical results as soon as possible. We do not know the enemy's plans or how soon they may attack."

"This is where my brother Midon's work might prove useful in saving some development time," said Lapha.

"Yes, I reviewed the code you sent me, Princess Lapha, and it was well written," said Robbie. "We would need to design a very robust rapid transmitter that could be worn in conjunction with goggles or some other aid to render the reflected signals visible. And the range might need to be enhanced as well. We need to be concerned about archers, not simply hand-to-hand combat. These are engineering matters."

"You're the practical one at designing weaponry and such," said Purah. "Is what you said feasible? Or should we seek another approach, using other wavelengths such as infrared?"

"I need to experiment," said Robbie. "Infrared is another option, but we don't know if it will work. We would need a way to test it, which we don't currently have. One thing in echolocation's favor is that Grendon used his dying breath to tell us it would work. So we have that to consider."

"Yes, very true," said Purah. "I will present all this to Her Majesty. But I recommend you start by seeing if Prince Midon's proximity rune method can be enhanced to do what we need."

"And I am here to help," said Lapha. "If anyone asks, I will say that immersing myself in work was my way of coping with grief."

"Yes, that makes sense, and your help is most welcome, Princess Lapha," said Robbie. "Having personal experience with echolocation is certainly a plus."

Meanwhile, back in Zora's Domain, Mipha and Link were having lunch at home with Mila and Midon. Tila and Linky were out swimming with Tara, and Lapha had journeyed to Hyrule Castle to work with Purah and Robbie.

"I hope we can reach some plan of action soon," said Mipha. "It's no fun staying at home, pretending to be dead. I can't even use my Tab anymore."

"And it's no fun for us either, sweetheart," said Link squeezing her hand.

Mipha smiled at him, and he felt an inner warmth. For it was that same cute smile and those same gorgeous eyes that he fell in love with all those years ago. Zora's aged so well she looked practically the same, just taller now. He smiled back and mouthed, "I love you."

"I know it's difficult sitting idle," said Link. "But all of us have to wear long faces when we go out and deal with condolences from everyone. My old Bazz Brigade buddies want to take me out for drinks and console me, but I keep putting them off. I hate to do that to them, to deceive them, and then face them later. You know I don't like to lie about things."

"It's the same for all of us, Mom," said Mila. "Friends wish me well, and I have to play along."

"I keep avoiding Larena, telling her I'm not good company right now," said Midon. "She can generally read my moods, and I don't think I can deceive her in person about this."

"I guess I shouldn't be thinking only of myself," said Mipha shaking her head. "It must be hard on all of you as well as Father and Sidon. But at least you can go out. I'm stuck here at home. I thought at first it might be better for me to hide inside Ruta. But then, of course, I would really be all alone with no company but her. And seeing all of you is helping to keep me from getting overly depressed. What's the rationale for keeping guards at our house, by the way?"

"Father has told people they are to keep the family from being disturbed during this time of mourning," said Link. "But, of course, that pretense can only last so long."

"Lapha is meeting with Purah and Robbie on possibly implementing an idea of mine," said Midon. "I would have gone with her, but she was afraid that would seem strange under the circumstances."

"So, we're all coping in our own way, sweetheart," said Link. "Trust me. I am as eager for action as anyone. Probably more so given how personal this is for me."

Meanwhile, in an underground cave within the Eldin Region, Lieutenant Kenyon left the officers meeting, chuckling to himself. Then he went to find sergeant Logan. Logan saluted and came to attention upon his arrival.

"At ease, Sergeant," said Kenyon. "You'll be pleased to learn, Logan, that instead of the reprimand for ineptness I think you deserve, you're getting a commendation for resourcefulness. You're another textbook example of why it's better to be lucky than good. It was fortunate your single Shock Arrow was a kill shot. By eliminating Princess Mipha, you already achieved one of our objectives."

"Thank you, Sir, I guess," said a relieved Logan. "May I ask if this means we're ready for further action?"

"Not quite yet, Logan. As you know, our numbers are limited, and we depend upon stealth to succeed," said Kenyon. "In our parent's day, it wouldn't matter so much. We could attack each location separately whenever the opportunity presented itself. But now, with Tabs everywhere, news travels instantly. We have to coordinate attacks carefully, so we're in position to attack simultaneously. That takes careful planning, knowing where leaders are at a given time and if they're all accessible then. So, there will likely be some more drills first unless our leadership changes their mind, of course. Anyway, I'm obliged to offer you congratulations, Logan. Dismissed."