The next day arrived, a part of her still didn't expect her existence would go further. The conversation she had with Sooga was still fresh in her mind, Zelda thought to herself as she stretched and suppressed an heavy yawned by covering her mouth with her left hand.

"Perhaps things aren't as bad as I would think them to be."

Freya was still in her bed, snorring silently, the princess didn't notice her at all yesterday ... at that point Zelda remembered that her roommate was supposed to wake her up, and yet she was up earlier. Zelda put on the Yiga suit she had been given. And checked the time being displayed on Freya's clockwork.

If she read correctly it was about- ... 7 AM ? ... She was used to wake up much later, most likely because despite Impa's requests to not work overtime the princess would complete her work correctly and on time, often finishing near midnight.

When did she go back to sleep then ? Much earlier than she was used to most likely. Zelda tried to sleep again, to get as much rest as she could but now that she was awake it seemed that the princess would have to wait until night comes.

So Zelda decided to rearrange her side of the room, she managed to do so without waking up Freya. Her father would never have tolerated this kind of mess. Zelda liked compact yet organized space, she moved her bed closer from the second desk in the room and also brought a large shelf closer. While it looked rather difficult to access, Zelda saw this as the perfect way to work, sleep and eat while having access to anything she would need ... now about half of the available space was empty now ...

Perhaps Freya could just use it for herself ? Speaking of which, the engineer woke up about when Zelda was done moving everything around.

"Heyyyyyyy, out of bed early ? That's surprising, people say newcomers tend to sleep until noon. Had nightmares last night ?" As Freya was removing her blanket Zelda turned around to face the opposite direction, her roommate didn't seem disturb to have half of her clothes missing next to the princess.

The engineer seemed to notice and let out a small giggle "You do not have to feel so akward with me Sheik, I guess it's not a "proper" situation to find yourself changing tour cloth next to someone else or to see someone changing their cloth in public ... or perhaps you are-"

"N-no I'm not ! It's-it's just a reflex sorry, I thought you had forgotten about me being here and-and I didn't want to bother you." The princess apologised.

"It's fine you can turn around now." Freya was wearing a Yiga outfit similar to the one Zelda was wearing, excepted the color was less intense, and the tissue seemed lighter. "I made some adjustments to mine, I work inside the hideout most of the time and even though we aren't directly in the desert it gets hot around here. Your suits fits you perfectly, if you have any idea for improvement in mind please tell me !"

"I-I shall, thank you ... oh I almost forgot." Zelda searched around her belongings for her mask, Freya shrugged.

"Still wearing your mask ? I guess it's not just about being shy, are you worried someone might recognise you ?" The engineer's grin did not make help Zelda to feel safer. "Hehehe, I'm kidding it's been only one day but I think I managed to learn your game Sheik, I hope you aren't constantly suppressing a scream with your shyness, moght be akward if you accidentally bumped into someone." But it seemed her roommate was still oblivious ... did she even know how the princess looked like ?

Freya noticed Zelda's organisation after some friendly chat they defined their own roommates set of rules ... which as far as they could agree on was summarised by "Let's not do something that could disturb each other, and always talk to the other if you have a problem." The princess could only agree, simple and efficient.

"It's about time to head out, Master Khoga will give us our assignments for the week. Hopefully I'm not heading out the hideout yet, I hate Summer." Freya said as she left their room with Zelda.

"I assume it's because you do not like the heat ?"

"No it's- ... I do like being outside during Summer, especially here near the cliffs, it's just- ... anywhere else really." Zelda decided to not push the question further, Freya's expression hardened while she was "answering".

"How about spring then ?" Zelda changed the subject.

"Oh yes, spring. Definitely the best, we actually get more fresh fruits at the cantina, hell, it's better than half frozen melon." Bith girls giggled, they arrived at the pit, most of the clan was already here, the other Yigas were sitting on the ground with their legs crossed.

Khoga and Sooga were the only one standing up, overlooking the clan. Zelda spotted Khoga's head slightly snapping toward her direction when she advanced among the other members of the clan. She wasn't the only one wearing a mask but she couldn't easily hide her hair.

"Good good, if some of you are late I assume that your brothers and sisters will kindly transmit or summarise the informations brought up during this meeting. First of all the Molduga hunt is still planned, no sandstorm signaled for the week, secondly it seems our stock of meat is running low and we might need more salt to conserve everything unless someone actually volunteers to get some frozen chuchu jelly ... for those who weren't resent yesterday I would like to welcome Sheik among our ranks."

Kogha pointed directly at the princess, most of the people present took a look at the newcomer, they smiled at her, greeted her kindly. She disliked the attention brought upon her, but she appreciated their kindness and replied with a small wave of the hand to avoid disturbing Sooga's briefing.

"Also you may have heard the rumours already when the group of scouts sent to Hyrule came back early this morning." The Yigas began to exchange whispers, most of them seemingly unaware regarding these "rumours", Freya looked as confused as the princess. "Nothing to worry about yet but it seems some local idiot or idiots thought it was a good idea to make everyone panick by spreading the word that the princess of Hyrule disappeared during the night."

Zelda shivered, what was Kogha doing ? Sooga briefly looked at the princess, but then Kogha continued his briefing. "As far as we know the princess is still in the castle and none of this is true, in the best case it's really just a bad joke that went to far, in the worst case it's a trap to lure us into action. Now that this is out of way ... Sooga will be leading a squad of volunteers to raid the next caravan on it's way to the Zora domain so anyone who is interested might as well manifest themselves now, otherwise everyone is free to go back to their current occupation."

The Yigas, as Kogha told them went back to their own business. Freya was about to say something but Kogha arrived next to Zelda and asked her to follow him. Zelda told Freya that she would come back later as she was almost dragged away by Kogha.

They went directly into Khoga's apartments, Sooga was already here.

"Is it true ?" Zelda immediately asked.

"Well ... the information got out of the castle pretty quickly, I wonder how the kind is going to handle that. We can expect more patrols on the roads and even special search parties sent to the other provinces. Sooga can deal with these, but I'm worried about how long it is going to take before the king either gives up or goes insane." As he spoke Kogha pushed, sorted, searched for various documents and reports that were placed on a large table, too big for himself.

Sooga grabbed a chair and offered another to Zelda "We do not have to worry about our safety yet ... when you left I assume you knew this would happen. You were conscious of the consequences."

Zelda agreed "I was, but it didn't hold me back ... what will happen when it becomes official ? The longer you keep the truth for yourselves the more the other Yigas will express their anger and feeling of betrayal."

"You are one of us now "Sheik", if some of us cannot accept this fact then perhaps they should reconsider their own legitimacy to be a part of the clan ... though if you ever feel at some point in the future that you should expose yourself, that is your choice." Sooga reassured the princess.

However on the other side of the table Kogha wasn't approving at all "Just try to not scream in the middle of the hideout that you are the princess of Hyrule, and if you ever want to suic- I mean expose yourself just warn us before hum ? ... oh I almost forgot, we hum ... we discussed about your first assignment, everyone here has to work for our community, you included."

"O-Of course !" Zelda replied with motivation.

"This shouldn't be too hard, our uh ... logistic sucks, and that's a fact. Our depot is full and we need to sort and make a full inventory of our resources. Take as much time as you need but do keep Sooga or myself in touch with your progress." Kogha handed some documents to Zelda, it was the last inventory of their depot ... which seemed to have been finalised about two years ago.

"I will do my best Ko-, master Kogha." Zelda bowed at Kogha "May I go ?"

Kogha and Sooga looked at each others for a second "Sure just go work" Kogha gestured the princess away, pretending to ignore her or to simply not care about her politeness ... in fact he was surprised and ... a tiny bit proud.

"She seems really nice don't you think ?" Khoga asked with a tone that could barely hide that he was lost in his thought.

"I can only agree on the fact that she has not given us a reason to be our ennemy, but instead a worthy member of the clan."

"Worthy yes ... but trustworthy ? I feel like I'm babysitting a bunch of kid every day, and if you weren't here Sooga I do not know how I would be able to keep everyone safe."

"Most of use had to grow up prematurely, the princess is not an exception. Despite our goals ... she has all the qualities of a true Yiga. She is strong and she knows the burden of pain and hatred. You can count on my to make sure she doesn't drift away from our path." Sooga bowed and went back to his current occupations.

Khoga sighed ... he wondered if Zelda should know about what was truly going on at the castle, if it was wise to bring up this knowledge.


Zelda wandered around the hideout, she hadn't seen anything close from a storage room when Freya escorted her to the cantina ... turns out she did find the "storage room" after some time.

She ended up asking the other Yigas, no one seemed to know where the storage room was, actually some even thought she was joking because they had never heard of a storage room. Instead they explained that they would send back their loot directly to the cantina or the armoury when they weren't sharing it for themselves.

Since asking for help did not seem to work she thought about just asking Khoga for it's location but at the same time she didn't want to bother him or Sooga.

No, instead Zelda found the storage room completely by accident, it was hidden between a few piles of crates and barrels, the room was large, but it had been filled up with loot in such an chaotic fashion that at some point the Yiga might have just dropped their stuff outside and forgot that the room even existed.

The princess found her way inside, she couldn't see exactly how large it was but she assumed it was at least as tall as the library of the castle. She thought a few times about how much time the Yiga had spent building this place, but she kept theorizing that it used to be some kind of Gerudo cache. Urbosa's people must have forgotten about it, just like their fabled eight heroine.

"Where am I supposed to start ..." Zelda thought out loud, there was too much stuff to sort, no she had to proceed with method ... this room was full obviously, but the rest of the hideout was definitely not. That would be a good basis to prepare herself a schedule.

She was getting hungry so Zelda headed back to her room, Freya was still here, this time she was drawing schematics. The engineer wasn't as focused in her work as she seemed, she greeted the princess as soon as she stepped inside the room.

"Heyyyyy if it isn't my favourite roommate, how is it going Sheik, what's your task ?"

"Nice to see you again too Freya, Kh- Master Khoga told me to clean up and sort the content of the storage room." Explained the princess as she grabbed a piece of paper from Freya's stack and began to write down about everything she managed to see or identify inside the room.

"... You mean the- ... the armory ?" Freya arched back on her chair, not wanting to completely turn around but curious enough to stop her current activity.

"No, turns out there is an actual storage room but it was left abandoned and now Khoga wants me to make it usable again, but it's filled to the brim with whatever the clan brought back, there are even some zora weapon, why would anyone bother to bring these back ? I know their steel never seems to gain any kind of rust but still, I thought Yiga only used light weapons like scythe." Zelda added the zora weapons as she mentioned them, she had already filled up about one third of the page.

"Well we do, but no one would mind if you have your own collection of small stuff, trinkets and baubles right ?"

"Well in that case I personally mind considering someone forgot their personal collection in the storage room." Zelda added with some sarcasm, she couldn't bring herself to stop smiling though, even though her task appeared to be more and more challenging she felt like she could do it with enough time and effort.

She raised her head to look at her roommate, the engineer seemed a bit startled when she noticed that the princess was starring into her eyes. Zelda chuckled, Freya was helping too in her own way.

"If you do find some antic hearts or power sources of any kind I'm interested though, and some springs, and some inverted axis ! Oh and also-"

"W-wait I-I don't even know if we have that." Zelda liked Freya's enthusiasm but sorting what might not even be in the storage room was definitely not her priority ... what is even an inverted ax- ... Zelda's mind went to a standstill, the solution was right there. "Actually, could you have a look at this list ? Is there anything that you might be interested into ?"

"Hum ... oh this ! The old lantern, if it has some kind of recipient for oil I'm definitely taking it !" Zelda noted Freya's name next to the lantern. She had found at least one way to efficiently empty the storage room, and Freya was just a small part of it.

After resting a bit, Freya and Zelda headed for the cantina, Zelda wasn't really feeling hungry, she had something else in kind. She asked Freya about all the other members of the clan that were responsible of supplies in general. The engineer gaddly helped.

Then, once they were done with their lunch break Zelda told Freya that she would go back to work on the storage room. The princess found the courage to meet with most of the supply managers. They were all more friendly than she expected.

Her idea was simple, instead of sorting the storage room in it's current state, it would be easier to just bring out anything that the clan might need at the moment. She spent her afternoon alternating between looking through the storage room's content and checking back for what she could give out directly.

The other clan members even offered to come all the way to the room and help to take out what they needed.

After a single day Zelda had managed to clear out about one twentieth of the room, she estimated that it was an good performances considering she was working alone ... sort of.


Freya had finalised her "stable" clawshot prototype, now all she needed was-

The door of the apartment slide open, the princess stepped in and closed the door behind her. "I'm back." She removed her Yiga mask and put it on her shelf.

"How was your first second day ?" Freya rolled with her chair toward the princess who proceeded to collapse in her own chair.

"It went well, I think I should be done in a few days ... oh also I found this !" Zelda handed Freya a small antic heart, the engineer beamed and made some silent yet high pitched scream while she snatched the artefact from the princesses' palm.

"Oh great Calamity you found one !" The engineer rolled back to her table and spent the next minute in total focus, carefully connecting the artefact to her prototype. Zelda did not found her behaviour rude, she was really happy that her discovery brought such enthusiasm to her friend.

"Just gotta turn this here, then plug this here, then unplug this here to plug it back on the other side, make sure this is tightly screwed and-" Freya cleared her work table from her tools and stepped aside to show Zelda the finished product. "I spent too much time on this, meaning it's over perfect."

"It works ?" Zelda asked curious about the whole design.

"Only one way to find out !" The engineer grabbed her prototype and placed it over her left hand, Zelda took a step back just in case. Freya seemed to have some difficulty holding it up, the prototype seemed indeed pretty heavy for someone with a thin body like her.

Freya aimed at a small target that was hanging against the wall, the princess heard a small click and then next second the clawshot springed forth at the target. It didn't grab has expected though, the claw was proposed with such strength that it crashed against the wooden wall, leaving a clear mark of impact before springing back toward Freya's arm, carrying what remained of the target with it.

The engineer couldn't support the impact and fell backward into Zelda's arms. About five second later both of them heard someone yell in the next apartment. "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT NOISE ?!"

The princess and the engineer could not prevent themselves from laughing as they could not assess if their neighbor was either genuiely angry or scared.


"She has done some good work." Khoga had been keeping track of Zelda's progress and her activities during the day. He was ecstatic at this point, that would be the greatest insult into the goddesses and the king's face. Their princess becoming a Yiga, an ally of their greatest ennemy.

Though, that was what "master" Khoga had in mind, Khoga the Yiga was thinking about another issue. The princess, like most of the other recruits was here to heal ... physically and mentally as much.

Sooga had described what he saw and heard, the princess kept the details for herself and then their spies in the castle spread the rumours back to him. Khoga was already convinced that the king of Hyrule was an absolute fool, but knew he was persuaded that something was very wrong in his head.

He had considered all the problems that the princess would eventually attract along with her, the king becoming mad, trying everything to get back his daughter, the champions ravaging the land with their divine beast in a pitiful attempt to locate their base.

And yet after an entire day nothing happened. Something worse happened though, first he was forced to lie to the princess, there had never been any rumours that the princess was gone, in fact, about only five people, including him, Sooga, and Zelda, knew that she had left the castle even if the reason was unclear to them.

Khoga had been considering the problem since he received this information, she had to know. But he knew that repercussions would be terrible on her sanity ...

No, no he would tell her. With a decided composure the master of the clan walked all the way to Zelda and Freya's apartments. He found the two deeply focused around some weird tool that he remembered the young engineer speaking about, he also noticed some weird impact on the wall be he decided to ignore it for the moment.

"Hum, Ze- I-I mean Sheik." The two young women did not notice him entering, Freya hurried to properly salute him while Zelda attempted to do the same. "I'm sorry to disturb you two so late but I need to speak with Sheik in private, it's pretty urgent."

"Y-yes master Khoga." Zelda grabbed her mask before heading out and followed Khoga silently.

Freya seemed more and more disturbed and confused each time Khoga and Sooga would interact with her, Zelda had not seen them being very familiar with any specifically so of course any activity of their part around her would be seen as unusual from her point of view.

"Have I done something wrong ?" The princess asked, worried about the reason of Khoga's visit.

"Hum ? Oh, not at all, in fact I'm glad you found a simple solution to our problem, this excess of loor had been on my mind for years now and I just couldn't find to time to manage or to ask anyone to manage it ... I just happened to think you had the ability to handle it ... and I was right hehe, I'm always right."

Khoga invited Zelda inside his apartments and offered her a sit on a large couch, she sat down and Khoga did the same, sitting on another couch in front of her. "I have been keeping this from you the whole day, it's just- ... Sooga really seems to trust that you can be a part of the clan and so do I. But compared to yesterday you seemed so calm and relaxed that I didn't want to put any more pressure on you."

Zelda shivered ... something happened, something happened at the castle ? Her mind raced to guess what Khoga meant or had in mind. "Master Khoga if-if you believe I should be aware of something please, just tell me."

Khoga stood up and went to sit next to Zelda knowing that she would not take it well "Your father knows about your disappearance, that's a fact, but that fact did not exactly spread the way I announced it today ... soon after "you" disappeared "you" were found by the guards. A group of "bandits" had kidnapped you but you were then brought back safely to the castle. And that is the "official" story."

Zelda paid attention to the words the Khoga seemed to highlight on purpose, the truth seemed to be right here but she couldn't figure it out ... or was she just avoiding it unconsciously ? "I-I do not understand what-what happened ? This story it's not-"

"Zelda, your father somehow managed to found someone good enough to temporarily act as yourself, you have been replaced." The truth had to come out one way or another, and Khoga was right, the princess did not take it well.