Lanayru, the last of the spirits to still be cursed, greets Link as he enters its spring, congratulating him on making it this far. The Tears of Light situation is well-known by now, so it gives Link the Vessel of Light and sends him on his way. Lanayru’s lands are considerably vaster than the other two spirits, and Link needs to travel all over to find all the Tears. There are only four at Lake Hylia – and along the way, there’s another shadow being fight. Midna points out the grass the Bokoblin used to call the giant Kargaroc, and at her suggestion, Link howls the same melody to summon it back. There are four shadow insects along the ride to Zora’s Domain. One more can be found near the boat rental shack, and another Howling Stone is nearby, this one singing the Requiem of Spirit and placing a golden wolf near the entrance to Hyrule Castle Town. This comes in useful because it also calls attention to a shadow insect in town for Link to come grab, with one more shadow being fight outside of town.
There are five up in Zora’s Domain; after collecting them, Midna points out that there’s still one missing. A quick look at the map shows it back at Lake Hylia, so they warp over. Immediately after arrival, a cutscene hints at where it is, and once Link swims over, the last insect pops out of the water. It’s still invisible without wolf senses, but the energy crackling around it indicates it’s massive. That’s confirmed when Link activates his wolf senses: the thing’s bigger than Midna. The miniboss fight has two phases: first, it buzzes at Link, and Link can jump at it when he gets a chance. After a while, it floats helplessly on its back, and Link needs to destroy its six appendages. They respawn too fast for Link to destroy them one-by-one, but Midna’s black circle attack works wonderfully.
As Lanayru reforms, Midna departs, reminding Link to be sure to get the last Fused Shadow. Lanayru’s form is some kind of sea serpent. It says the Fused Shadow is underwater in Lake Hylia. But before he goes after this, there’s something Link should know. Link has a vision while Lanayru narrates the history of the Fused Shadow: it was the artifact of a group of people who tried to use magic to conquer the Sacred Realm. Eventually, the goddesses had enough of this and had the light spirits intervene, breaking the Fused Shadow into pieces. It warns Link not to let himself be corrupted by the power of the Fused Shadow.
The vision was filled with strange and disturbing images: Link and Ilia with all-white eyes, a bunch of Shadow Links (one of which transformed into a normalish Link with the white eyes), and a bunch of upside-down creepily laughing Ilias. I’m not quite sure I entirely understood it, but I think I hit the main points. There’s one thing that I do know about it: when the Fused Shadow was broken into pieces, there were four of them, not three. However, that may not be a problem, because a couple of the pieces looked a lot like Midna’s headgear.
Getting from Lake Hylia to the higher ground where the bridge is requires Link to talk to the guy who spotted the Bokoblin earlier. He’s got a giant circus cannon that sends Link flying; he lands on the deck of a house with similar circus music playing. Midna reminds him of Queen Rutela’s quest, and promise to give him something that might let him actually visit the Lakebed Temple. Heading into Hyrule Castle Town, Link takes a moment to talk with the golden wolf, which opens up another sequence where the undead warrior teaches a skill. The skill this time is the Back Slice, in which Link rolls around behind the enemy and stabs it in the back. This is apparently useful for armored foes, so I fully expect Darknuts and/or Iron Knuckles to show up soon.
At Telma’s Bar, the town doctor decides he can’t help the Zora and storms out. Ilia tries to get him to stay, but he’s gone. She notices Link, but has no reaction to seeing him again, to Link’s dismay and confusion. The woman suggests taking the Zora to Renado, who might be able to do something. The soldiers in the bar say the journey’s dangerous, but are all excited about escorting them to the village, screaming and waving their spears – they remind me of Tusken Raiders. When the woman mentions dangerous beasts on the road, the soldiers fall silent, and when she turns to look at them again, only one is left, and he runs off. She curses their cowardice, but recognizes that Link’s still there and willing to help. She also recognizes that Link knows Ilia, and explains that she’s having memory problems.
Next: …this is whom Hyrule Warriors gave a roster spot to?
