Law and Disorder
Groose gets added to the Laser List.
It, of course, started raining when they were on the road. Autumn does that. Now that Groose knew why Ravio was so jumpy, he started getting a bit jumpy too. There were so many questions Groose and Linkle had to ask Ravio but it was hard to ask over the sound of galloping hoofbeats and pouring rain. They didn't want to exactly go about yelling stuff like 'Where is the Yiga Clan hideout so we can go attack it?' as a Yiga patrol might overhear.
They did have a plan: pretend they didn't know Kishgal was a total fraud for now. Linkle wanted to march right up to the guard station and declare to the world the guy was a charlatan. Groose very much wanted to at least try to put out some message. The most likely reason for the disguise was to get in close for assassination and/or kidnapping. Gustaf would recognize the sword was a fake as surely as Ravio had, so a longer con game was probably not happening. Kishgal would probably be after the royal family or worse, a government authority.
The problem kept coming back to not having any evidence whatsoever. If the Yiga Clan deemed them a threat to the plan, they'd be attacked by assassins for certain. Linkle still hated the plan. It maybe wasn't the best plan ever. Only in hindsight the group would think of the many ways to improve it. When Strich came back, they would ask him to scope out the place and make sure that Kishgal wasn't waiting at the Lost Woods. Ravio thought there would be someone watching the entrance to the Lost Woods on behalf of the Yiga. Given the circumstances and planning time it was a decent strategy. Little did they know, Strich lost track of time; he found an insect merchant after stopping to chat with an old friend at the Woodland Tower. It was like starting a Gut Check challenge with an untied shoelace.
The Woodland Tower was just way too convenient to be ignored. Building up the station required taking care of the mud, which had been slow going. It was well worth the effort as there was now an excellent bastion of law and order. The three travelers were spotted coming up the road from miles off on account of the watchman.
The mob was alerted.
The Woodland area wasn't too densely populated, yet there was a good size to this mob of about twenty people of various races. Had it been Hateno, or Tarrey, it would most certainly have been much larger. The trio was quickly captured and only saved from being victims of vigilante violence by a couple of Hyrulean Knights that had common sense. This and a minor miracle wrought by capitalism. The stable owner refused to sell them firewood. Local burnings-at-the-stake were bound to end in Poes hanging about. Ghastly apparitions would put customers off their morning porridge. The mob was delayed while looking for dry materials. Captain Raven showed up before the mob assembled a proper funeral pyre.
The three were separated for interrogation. Ravio was put in special manacles on account of being directly accused of being a Yiga spy. Picking locks wasn't an option for him. Groose was certain he saw a blond figure watching from the roof of the stable while they were dragged off. The figure had a sword gleaming on his back and a smile wide enough to be seen from a kilometer off.
Now in the heavily secured interrogation rooms, Groose had decided this was hands-down the worst night of his life. He didn't know how Linkle and Ravio were faring, but he was extremely annoyed. His oath as a member of the law enforcement meant he couldn't lie when made to swear by the Golden Goddesses. He wasn't very good at spinning lies anyway. The plan to pretend they didn't suspect a thing was obviously not happening.
Groose told the ridiculous truth in all of its stupid glory and left out the bit about Gustaf assigning the mission to him and Strich. Strich was brought in to verify this was actually Groose and not some Yiga spy disguised as Groose at one point. Strich spent at least half the time asking what the heck was going on and Groose couldn't blame the Rito. The lieutenant who questioned him ended up with eyebrows further up on his forehead than Groose ever thought was possible on a Rito.
"...Groose, I have never known you for a liar, but are you sure this Ravio guy isn't using you?"
"I thought of that, but he knew what happened on that raid. He's the same guy that saved my life. You also cannot believe I'd be so stupid as to say all that stuff about His Highness Prince Sidon. I've met him. No one says mean things about him after meeting him."
The Rito lieutenant leaned back in the chair, let his eyebrows drop, and frowned deeply. "We did not find the completed Yiga eye tattoo they get on initiation, but we can't just drag the Hero in and question him without a really good reason. Actually, it is a really good thing we took you into custody. That mob was about to skin you alive. There is one more thing I want to know..."
"What?" Groose had a bad feeling about this next question.
"Why would you and Strich be away from your posts in Tarrey to escort these two strangers? Strangers who are not official dignitaries or incapable of protecting themselves. Darbus generally doesn't give escorts to just anyone because a fortune teller said something."
Groose hesitated before coming up with something that wasn't technically lying. "Why don't you ask Captain Darbus?"
Linkle, like Groose, would say this was the worst night of her life for obvious reasons. There was another nasty consequence to Kishgal's lies. Her Prince Sidon Fan Club Membership was revoked. This was in spite of some mob individuals recognizing Linkle from a meeting and speaking on her behalf. She also settled for telling the truth as she understood it.
"That is NOT Link's reincarnation. I know because I'm the Legendary Hero!" Linkle was doing a remarkably good job of holding back her indignation. This guy didn't have all the facts and his obvious disbelief was just insulting her. He was talking as if she were a child. She was fifteen. This was awful.
"Um, how do you know that? Do you have any-"
"Grandma said so and she wouldn't lie to me. Also, Ravio said that guy is a fake working for the Yiga! Shouldn't you be arresting him instead of us?"
"So the one member of the party, you and Groose both said is Yiga, is the-"
"He was Yiga. Past. Tense. He said he quit and went to go live with the Koroks for a while. The Korok told me he lives in the Lost Woods, so I know he isn't lying about that."
"A Korok." The guard scribbled a note to get a Second Sight test along with a lawyer for this girl. "A creature that no one else can see."
"Ravio saw it too." It was obvious the guards did not believe her. Later, she fumed in her cell until blessed sleep overtook her.
Shad pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed it. It was late and he should probably get to bed, but this Adventurer's pouch was full of confiscated things to catalog. The owner of the pouch was in another room and had given up on yelling about his merchandise being taken away in a miscarriage of justice. When asked what was in the bag, Shad and the two guards were treated to a rather zealous sales pitch. Even were it not the time and place for shopping, Shad would not have felt like spending money on the magic rods. Two guards were helping him and had found food, warming elixirs, empty bottles which smelled strongly of boiled hearty lizard, carrots, swift violets, and Bokoblin guts. The mountain of stuff was starting to fill the room and there was still more in the pouch.
This wasn't counting the equipment. Most of Ravio's weaponry looked fairly ordinary. The wooden spear and shield were of unusual make and surprisingly tough, they appeared to be Forest Dweller workmanship. It was a pity the shield was half-digested. Then came the rods. The fire, ice, and lightning rods were normal but the sand rod was not one he'd seen before. Shad had been put in charge of going through the ledger that was found for any indication of an encoded message. So far, the meticulous account book looked like what it advertised itself as. It certainly matched the number of rupees in the bag right down to the amount Ravio said was eaten by the Like-Like. The handwriting reminded Shad of something. He made a mental note to check the Castletown archives for that something later.
Guard A cautiously set down a yellowish-brown cane on the table. It had the faint thrum of magic about it and a small paper tag tied to it said, "Cane of Pacci." Nothing in the pouch had cursed them yet, but they were still being cautious with the inspections. Neither of the two guards had heard of any such artifact. Guard A prodded it gently with a grey stone rod while Guard B glared at the cane.
Shad scribbled down notes and observations in his office until he decided enough was enough. He pushed back the chair and stood up in one smooth motion before he threw open the window. With the window open, the yelling was much less muffled. The mild-mannered scholar was not prone to shouting, but it was well past midnight and irritation had been building dangerously. Everyone had a limit and here was Shad's.
"YOU LOT SHUT UP! I'M DIGGING THROUGH EVIDENCE IN HERE!"
The shouting took everyone by surprise and they dropped their own volume. Someone became spokeswoman by virtue of being headstrong. (Bloodthirsty and stubborn.)
"Are you going to let us bring justice to the vicious slanderers and spies? We've got rope." From her spot on the ground below she could see the illuminated face of Shad praying to Hylia for patience.
"In accordance with section four of the Great Hyrule Constitution, we are not about to execute people without a proper investigation and trial." He realized this might not be enough as mob intelligence might forget things. "Prince Sidon himself was on the committee which drafted that particular section. His signature is on the parchment and he personally wrote half the clauses on that page and is rightly proud of that work. It is three A.M. Please, leave this to the authorities." Shad hoped that worked and, judging from the tone of the mutterings below his window, it did. The dissatisfied mob trickled away and most went in the direction of the Stables. One or two seemed to be guards in uniform. This was alarming. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be guarding the western wall?" he asked one woman. She fled in the direction of her appointed rounds and Shad wrote down a reminder to give the trainer. The man's face hadn't been visible. Shad decided to let the Knights worry about that one.
It was back to the accounting book. While number analysis was being done, an almighty crash echoed from the other room. Shad threw open the door to find an upended bookshelf. Guard B pointed to Guard A who was holding the Cane of Pacci. Shad kept his temper in check, told them to be more careful with unknown magic artifacts, and left to go back to the other office. He should be fascinated by such a weird artifact and would figure out what one could do with a cane to flip stuff upside down later. It had been, and was going to be, a long night.
Shad failed to notice the small Korok that slipped through the office door with him. Invisibility aided stealth.
Ravio would only rank this somewhere about the forty-seventh worst day of his life. Maybe lower. When the cell was locked up for the night, he'd shifted to get as comfortable as he could be in ancient tech manacles. There was nothing he could do but pray. So, uh, Goddesses, if you can hear me, please help us out here. He began. This seemed as good a way to start as any. Linkle, Groose, and Strich seem to be pious and heroic and stuff so please help them save Hyrule. I understand if you are somewhat irritated with me. I've done a few pretty blasphemous things. In my defense, I was raised by the Yiga until I was ten. He felt that was a good excuse. He hadn't done a lot of things that might irritate the Goddesses since he'd settled down in the Lost Woods. Maybe they'd be lenient for him, too? A few days ago, he'd meant to only stop in Hyrule long enough to find a Korok and hand off a letter for the Great Deku Tree. The ultimate goal was to return with enough money to retire at the ripe old age of eighteen. If he didn't have to work, he'd never have to leave the vicinity of the forest. The fortune-telling trout... sorry. The fortune-telling man changed that plan.
At any rate, there was nothing else Ravio could do tonight. The state of constant jittery terror could only be sustained for so long, especially as he hadn't slept at all well the previous night. The jittery terror gave way to exhausted irritation, then sleep. If he was going to die, he was going to get some shut-eye first.
The Koroks, so far, had not approached the Woodland guard station and stable on account of the dogs. Old superstitions of Hyrule said dogs were good luck. This superstition came about due to the Koroks and their dislike of getting barked at and chewed on. Fewer pranks were played on places where dogs lived and so the superstition came to be ingrained in the culture of Hyrule.
The Koroks had not been idle over the past few hours of the interrogation and were going to cause trouble for this evil liar who dared to pretend to be Mr. Hero.
After they solved the problem with the dogs.
One particularly brave Korok had gone on a mission to distract the puppies. There was an unexpected, yet welcome, side effect. The pack of canines barking up a storm at the stable had awakened the liar. Kishgal showed some of his true colors to the stablemaster when demanding the dogs be locked up with an angry tirade. When all the dogs were locked away, the Koroks were given free rein. The stable had a resident Cucco which would make things far more interesting indeed. It vanished from the stable mid-cluck.
Guard C had not been labeled yet. He and Guard D were the ones from the courtyard and were full of righteous indignation. It was their duty to make sure that filthy slanderers of Prince Sidon's good smile got what was coming to them. Guard D slipped quietly into the Captain's office and fiddled with a Sheikah Slate while Guard C kept watch. She pulled up the pictures of the three criminals and adjusted the compendium to add them to the Guardian Laser List. (That wasn't the official name, most Knights called it the Laser List.)
The four Guardians used by the Woodland Guard Station would be able to stop the criminals in the event of an escape. Standard routines were set to track un-convicted criminals but not kill. The Laser List addition would take care of that.
Notes: People took the time to write good reviews for this. Either I've avoided trolls, am writing better quality than expected, or you people are just friendly. Maybe it's a combination of these factors but hey, thanks! I use the word 'really' a lot. I should really go back and delete a lot of those. Updated 9/23/19