Chapter 40: Façade; the Final Round
Stralanavian Slavery Emancipation Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.
Featured Music: "Bittersweet Victory" – Fire Emblem IX: Path of Radiance OST. Chapter Briefing.
"The Way to Last Night" - Black Lagoon OST. Scene 1 (First Half).
"The Task at Hand" - Fire Emblem X: Radiant Dawn OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).
"Here We Are! The Shepherd's Garrison" - Fire Emblem XIII: Awakening OST. Scene 2 (First Half).
"Renon" - Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness OST. Scene 2 (Second Half).
"Destiny" - Fire Emblem XIII: Awakening OST. Scene 3 (First Half).
"Destiny ~ Ablaze" - Fire Emblem X: Radiant Dawn OST. Scene 3 (Second Half).
"Oppression" - Dynasty Warriors II OST. Scene 4 (First Half).
"Ferocious Red" - Lost Judgment OST. Scene 4 (Second Half).
With their companions having been sent to 'Morovo', a small settlement just outside the border of Kaiohdrahl and Stralanavia itself, Impa and her group of heroes are thrown in the deep end by their new companion; a woman and governmental senator by the name of Nadya. Nadya soon finds herself explaining to the heroes, with great concern and regret, over the unfortunate circumstances with which Stralanavia is stricken with; slavery and lots of it.
While in official history it was Hyrule, especially having been the original capital of the continent of Aurelia that started the slave trade, for some countries such as Stralanavia they have not let go of the ancient-old traditions and customs. Indeed, in Stralanavia, it can be argued their extreme customs and laws are even more strict than that of any other land known throughout Aurelia; something Link himself discovers first hand while exploring the capital city Velinsk's main market district with Malon in tow, stumbling upon a poor rag-wearing slave-girl.
When the irate blonde youth voiced his concerns over this, Nadya was only happy to oblige; she sends his group of companions off and across the freezing snowfield to the border of Stralanavia and Kaiohdrahl, near a small settlement known as 'Morovo' and all to intercept what seems to be a merchant slave trade transportation. While the initial battle with the basic bandits appears to go off fairly smoothly, it is only halfway during the engagement that the surprised Link makes an encounter he had not expected since the last martial arts national championship in Kaiohdrahl.
Raynard Van Garrick himself.
The former Kokiri attempts, with great fervour, to reason with his raven-haired rival; something that does not go over well with the uneasy mercenary. The Hero of Time makes the (correct) assumption that Raynard's presence on the battlefield indicates his allegiances to the opposite side and, just like in the Hylian Hyrax a few months prior, the two do battle without another word as if it were second nature to them. Unlike in the Hylian Hyrax however the resentment and even sheer hatred itself Raynard has for the Hylian royal family and indeed, anyone else closely affiliated to them comes out in his fists.
The pair have an incredible fire-filled fist-fight that concludes much the same way it did in their original go-around; a draw that sees the two Hylian boys bleeding and extremely fatigued, near falling from their overuse of Aegir and physical stamina. Before the group can sink in the realisation of the situation however, yet another surprising discovery comes to pass; the newly-blind Scaverin himself resurfaces and reveals himself at long last to collect Raynard from the battlefield directly, an appearance not seen since the Hylian hero had exited his original era and timeline.
In their adventure across Stralanavia into Morovo, while the group have managed to succeed in their mission, they can't help but feel bittersweet about the experience; something they seem to know fairly well by this stage in time. Even following their glorious victory over the slavers at Morovo, Link cannot help but feel a great cloud of concern and apprehension begin to fill his mood on the way back to Velinsk as a result of his unexpected clash with Raynard and Scaverin...
Scene 1
"She's found a way through the law."
"What?! How's that possible?!"
"I'm not sure; something to do with the 'quality of life' or some nonsense like that."
Two men's voice filled a darkened chamber; a very well-designed and furnished one. They stood huddled around crackling fireplace, simple brown-shaded cloaks adorned on their bodies as if to hide their identities.
"'Nonsense' or not gentlemen, our very way of life itself is now threatened... and quite substantially at that."
The two cloaked men, surprised, could only swing their heads 'round to face the third voice's intrusion before soon settling themselves as they seemed to recognise her; a woman standing in the darkened entrance to the chamber. Unlike the men she opted not to wear a cloak, dressed in similar business wear to the other senators of Stralanavia.
"Were you followed Lara...?" The first man on the left asked curiously, eyebrow rising up as he darted his eyes in the direction of the now-open door itself.
The woman snorted back at him, a kind of contemptible sneer upon her face as she did. "Please...," she chuckled mirthlessly back at him as she began to saunter further into the room. "I would have thought you'd have given me a little more credit than that Dmitri..."
"He's not wrong...," the second man started, a disapproving scowl written across his lips, his brow furrowed over at her as she began to make the final approach. "Now that, that cow has outlawed slavery-"
"She's only modified the rules Yevgeny."
"Modified or not, it's bad for us...!" The second man hissed back in a mixture of anxiety and urgency. "You realise she's been aiming for us with this move?"
"I disagree," Lara responded with a bold-faced smirk, folding her suit-wearing arms back at the man as she leant her body to the side. "That pathetic xуесос will be fairly predictable; I anticipate she will instead utilise those little flies of hers she's procured from Hyrule."
"I hear they even have the Palashian and Hylian princesses with them as well..."
"Seriously...?!" Yevgeny hissed a second time, eyes widened in shock. "This is too much Lara...!" He whispered, swinging his paranoid-stricken look on the newly-frowning woman next to him. "If the Stralanavian ministry find out about this, we won't just lose our jobs-"
"They'll put us to death..." Dmitri spoke up quietly and yet boldly; a strong finish to his baritone as he agreed on with his eagerly-nodding comrade-in-arms.
"Exactly...!" Yevgeny gasped out. "I'm not going to die! Not for you or for anyone else in this pathetic country!" He called out hysterically, turning his frantic-eyed delusion on the glowering-faced Lara.
An uncomfortable degree of silence soon descended down upon the group of three politicians, almost as if the mood that had suddenly began to overtake Lara's once-calm expression of indifference soon infected the atmosphere surrounding her. It was something the two watching men soon picked up on and turned to look at her, eyebrows both risen as they did before they exchanged a quick unsure glance with one another.
"If you're both that paranoid...," she began at last, her cool and calm mezzo-soprano cutting through the tension in the air like a saw through flesh. "Then I have a solution."
"R-Really?"
"But it requires you both to come closer and have it whispered to you."
Dmitri and Yevgeny both flinched, a kind of unnatural fear beginning to take hold of their senses in response to the strange and sudden change in their conspiracy associate. Lara's frown slowly slipped upward into a light-toned smile, somehow malicious and scheming to match. The two men, perhaps wisely, exchanged another unsure look with one another before at least one of them seemed to acquiesce; possibly due to little choice in the matter otherwise.
It was Dmitri that held back from gulping down his saliva and stepped forward closer to the smiling Lara, wincing as he stood side-on to place his ear closer to her. She opened her mouth and blew on it, making him flinch and stiffen in anxiety however he stayed the course and stood still to listen to her.
"Those in the streets call it...," she began lowly, whispering quietly into his ear as she pulled very subtly from below her belt. It wasn't much but a glint of silver was enough for the watching Yevgeny to widen his eyes from beside the politician. "A 'deep-six'."
SQUELCH
"Gurgh...!"
Dmitri's own eyes widened and he could only gasp out drops of blood as he felt a small blade successfully pierce through his undefended side. He soon dropped to his knees, leaving the horrified Yevgeny to merely watch on in growing concern and fear. The standing Lara slowly turned her frowning face in his direction, slipping it up into another light smile again; almost as if triggered by the face-change in his colleague, Yevgeny scrambled to run by swinging his body frantically 'round behind him. It was only when he faced the fireplace that he realised his mistake and gasped as he felt her approach his back.
CRACCCK
"Ugggh...!"
"Shhh..."
This time the sound of bone being broken into joined the sickening squelch of flesh of being ripped through as she tore her small weapon into him, bringing him down just as easily as the last. He gave out one final grunting cough of blood as he collapsed to the floor lifeless, leaving her in a simple-faced frown as she dropped her silver blood-laced dagger to the ground.
CLANNNG
"What a waste...," the now-frowning Lara spoke up quietly, lightly running her hands over one another as if to rid them of the stray blood that had collected around them as a result of her actions. "Two Joker cards... completely wasted...," she sighed lightly and lamentably, as if she had experienced a mere minor inconvenience. "Well...," she began again, turning her black-haired head to cast her slow-growing smirk on the door behind her. "There's always the Queen to beat..."
The sound of singing birds felt so far away, so muffled; something that seemed to be so calming for the otherwise on-edge young blonde boy. He drifted in and out of sleep, an odd poking dragging him directly in and out of it; an odd kind of wavy, dreamlike quality that clashed rather achingly with the irritating sensation of something prodding his face.
Somehow, even by opening his cerulean-ocean eyes up to get a look at the culprit, he knew exactly who it was.
It was only when he opened up his oceanic eyes however that he realised the offender instead wasn't man but bird; the Cucco that he had managed to panic-buy merely the day before soon re-entered his memory as he stared back at it, now hovering in his line of sight somehow.
"W-What the-?" He murmured out, blinking as if caught within some strange kind of nightmare. When he caught the sight of the smirking-faced Malon further above, seemingly holding onto the clucking little Cucco poking him with its small beak.
"Morning fairy boy," she greeted him with, drawing an irritated groan from his lips as he sat up from his seat, rubbing at his sleep-filled eyes when he did. "Say 'good morning' to Grasshopper."
He turned his half-annoyed frown down on the hovering little Cucco in his line of sight, sighing through his nose as he did, very tentatively and carefully rising up his right hand to rest on the bird's left feathered side. It turned its head but opted not to move, seemingly having trusted not just the smirking Malon but its frowning-faced rescuer as well.
"Um... mornin'...," he began uncertainly, staring back into the little Cucco's eyes carefully and suspiciously. "... Grasshopper..." The blonde murmured out half-heartedly, rolling his eyes as he wandered them away from it, drawing out a satisfied-seeming little giggle from the listening Malon.
"Good boy!" She began with, dotting her patronising words with a similarly insulting pat on his messy head of hair as she stepped closer to him. He pulled his head back before jokingly throwing it forward and biting at the air in between them both, almost as if he were an angry dog in response; she merely kept her light-faced smirk adorned on her face as she made to lower herself into sitting on his right. "Have a good night's sleep?"
"You realise I'm naked under here right?" He fired back at her, his brow furrowing in half-suspicion as he watched her carefully. Malon's ocean-blue eyes very briefly lowered to his covered lower half before soon re-rising to eye him back, her light smile soon widening back into her confident-faced smirk.
"Yep."
One of Link's eyes narrowed at her, this time in doubt and wariness.
"Impa-sensei's gonna kill you if she finds out you got in here this early...," he murmured out as he turned to pull the quilt covers off of him, revealing the light boxers he always liked to wear. She cast her satisfied look on him as she managed to confirm what she was seemingly thinking earlier. "What the hell you doin' in here so early for anyhow?" The blonde youth batted back her way as he reached for his trusty Kokiri tunic hanging up on a closet next to the room's snow-caked window. "Everyone else should be asleep."
"I come from a farm," she pointed out as she let go of Grasshopper on his unmade bed, chuckling on as he began to hop around its quilt and mattress, a kind of curious air around him. "Remember?" She reminded him ever-further with, her grin growing a little as she did.
"Yeah...," he sighed back in response, rolling his eyes again. "I remember."
Her words brought him back to their original meeting in the era he came from; a completely different feel to their relationship as it was now. He couldn't help but let a small smile grow upon his face as he thought of the red-haired farm girl in his original time, opening her home and her ranch to him even in never having met or spoken with the blonde boy.
It made him feel terrible when he realised he used her as the brunt of most of his quips and jokes.
I should be nicer to her, he thought.
"You got anythin' planned for today?" He threw over his shoulder as he pulled the Kokiri tunic over his head. She cast a curious-eyed look on him in response, blinking as she did.
"Well... we got whatever Impa wants to do... obviously." She shot back smarmily, grinning on as she always liked to. He rolled his eyes again as he looked for his belt.
"I mean after."
"Oh," she blinked back again, genuinely surprised. She cocked a fire-haired eyebrow upwards in response to his words, unsure and curious. "Why?"
"Just tell me."
She lowered her blue-shaded eyes, this time as if to ponder before soon realising as she rose her head to convey it to him. "Nah, no plans. Why are you asking?"
He turned his blonde-haired head toward the door before reaching for his boots, careful and curious to make sure no-one else was listening in before he turned his head 'round fully to meet her gaze. "Still want that date?"
She blinked one more time, taken aback and sheerly shell-shocked by his words. "W-Wha-?" She murmured out. "R-Really...?"
He groaned out of embarrassment and rolled his eyes for what felt like the umpteenth time as he reached down for his boots. "Well if you're gonna ride me about it..."
"N-No, of course, yes!" Malon quickly amended her earlier sentence with, swinging her white-dressed body 'round to meet his, wildly waving her arms at him as if to dissuade him from disagreeing. He raised an eyebrow before soon returning attention to affixing his boots on his feet, frowning. "But... why?" She prodded him with further, stepping off her seat on his bed as she stepped around it carefully and curiously. "You've never wanted to do it before..."
"I dunno...," he answered her with a nonchalant shrug, frowning as he fingered the laces on his boots. "I've already gone on one with Vass and Zel; I may as well finish with a hat trick."
"You've gone on dates with Vassia and Zelda...?!" She exclaimed out suddenly, a kind of odd anger in her tone. He double-took in her direction before rolling his eyes again, this time gaining a small grin as he did.
"Zel was nice enough about it but Vass had me at sword-point." He quipped back at her and, contrary to her earlier anger, she washed it away with a half-frustrated chuckle, briefly shutting her eyes as she did.
"I'm sorry; I should be more grateful...," Malon answered in a light sigh, lowered head and all, playing with her fingers as she did. She timidly re-raised up her head to face his and spread on a similarly tentative zig-zag-like smile across her face. "Thanks..."
Link gave her a smile of his own and this time a genuine one as he looked up from kneeling at his boots. "Don't worry about it."
His answer still left her carrying the warm smile that newly grew on her face, even as she turned to leave the room in a grateful sigh. The blonde youth also sighed to himself as his earlier smile dipped lightly into a patient-faced frown as his thoughts carried him back to a standing position.
"Just don't tell Vass."
–
2
"Thank you all again so much! While I knew you were all competent, I never expected a job done this well! I'll have to think more highly of Hyrule and Palashia in the very near future."
The sound of Nadya's pleasing mezzo-soprano, a voice the group of heroes had come to know fairly well, echoed out favourably for them to successfully draw out appreciative smiles and grins, especially from the ever-cheery Barkner and overconfident Vassia. While Zelda herself was fairly grateful for her words, she chose not to voice the obvious implications that Nadya skilfully sidestepped.
A quality that the overeager and intently listening Malon did not.
"Hey! Wait a minute," she began, frowning firmly as she placed her calloused work-hard hands across her white-dress hips indignantly. "What's that supposed to mean? You didn't have much expectations for us in Hyrule?"
"Whoops!" The auburn-brown haired senator smiled mischievously back at the insulted farm girl, her dark-brown eyes wandering diagonally upward as she rose up her left hand to softly rest on her briefly-closed mouth. "You caught me!"
The listening Sonya at her side snorted fairly loudly to match the half-smirk present on her face; a display of her own amusement as she watched on.
"Seriously though, we're all very grateful here in Stralanavia," the brown-haired senator smiled again, re-affixing a more genuine tone to her mezzo-soprano. "Even if some of us can't quite show it..." She finished as she turned her head 'round as if to direct her statement in the newly-frowning Sonya's direction, her smile growing a little as she did.
Sonya rolled her eyes as the listening Barkner and Malon exchanged amused chuckles and chortles.
"How are the cargo?" The ever business-like Impa began from the group's front, her armoured arms folded as per.
"All intact, all thanks to all of you!" The smiling Nadya responded, turning her pony-tailed head 'round on all the well-meaning group members in front of her as she did.
"And may we ask what exactly all of that cargo was...?" The half-smirking Vassia spoke up from her side, single hand on her hip as she did.
The silent senator opted merely to give the Palashian princess a wily wink as she lightly tapped the side of her nose; a telling yet fairly subtle-enough gesture that didn't reveal too much information.
"Figures..." The disappointed Malon muttered out, wandering her own ocean-shaded eyes from the sight as she folded her arms in response.
"Trade secrets at the moment I'm afraid Malon." The half-amused Impa spoke up from the front, drawing out a light chortle from the standing Zelda next to the Sheikah.
"I apologise; it's just until the end of this endeavour!" Nadya began in a desperate-faced smile as she joined both hands together lightly, as if to plead with the party of heroes further.
"I'm sure it will." The frowning-faced Alwyn spoke up, a kind of light sarcasm and playfulness entering his baritone as he spoke, drawing out snorts from the listening Barkner and giggles from Malon on his left.
"So...," Impa began again, her light smile soon descending back into her normal-faced frown. "What's our next objective then?"
"I'm that easy to read am I...?" Nadya smiled back at the Sheikah, a kind of sheepish crease to forehead as she did. "Well... next..."
The listening Zelda glanced over at her back-right only to double-take when she suddenly realised the frowning-faced Link had managed to remain silent all through breakfast and their meeting with Nadya; she blinked over at him and reached toward him with her right hand, pulling at his left arm demandingly as she did. He blinked back at her out of his seeming reverie and opened up his mouth a little, as if surprised by the sudden pull.
"W-What is it?" He asked her curiously and she shook her blonde-haired head back at him, half-amused as she smiled similarly and understandingly.
"Nothing, I'm just...," she began curiously, tilting her head at him. "Are you okay?"
"How d'you mean?"
"I mean you've been quiet since yesterday's fight...,"
Her wise words, easily pointing out his mistake, managed to make the regretful youth wince in realising it before he soon re-opened his mouth to answer her.
"Is it... Raynard...?" The young princess prodded him quietly and delicately again, a likewise fine softness overtaking her concerned-faced frown. His brow furrowed as he wandered his oceanic-eyed gaze from hers, as if she struck a bullseye.
"Yeah."
"No-one expected him to be there yesterday, least of all you," she began in reply, a light smile dotting her complexion as she turned to face him, a new frown soon re-forming even as she took his fingers into her own. "And then there was Scaverin..."
"Yeah..." He murmured back this time, lowering his furrow-brow gaze in deep-thought.
Of all times for the former bishop to reveal himself, he wondered.
Why now?
Maybe he was desperate.
Maybe he had no other choice.
"Well... at least he's still alive."
"At least he's still alive."
Her mind-reading whisper, so surprising and shocking, managed to make him re-raise his similar-haired head to face her as if to register his awe at her inner wisdom.
How does she do that, he wondered silently to himself.
"And I just know that you'll bring him back someday," she spoke again, this time in another smiling whisper as she lightly shook his hands with hers, as if to wake him up a little. "He's your best friend, isn't he?"
It was only when she actually spoke the words that he found himself dropping his slow-growing smile into a curious-eyed blink, surprised again by her words.
"Huh...," he murmured out, briefly lowering his oceanic eyes as he did. "I... guess he is," he began again before re-rising his head and his eyebrows in realisation, a new wince creasing his features. "Don't tell Saria I said that."
Zelda chuckled back at him in an amused smile as she shook her head, as if to indicate her agreement. "Chin up... huh?"
This time he found himself smiling back at her, nodding as he realised he was brooding so obviously as to call her attention on it. "Sure."
"So... why are we here again?"
"Alwyn... tell him," Impa sighed in response, her arms folded in her winter coat. "I'm sick of repeating myself."
The well-protected Zoran turned his frown on the curious young Hylian standing next to him, his arms also folded within a similar coat he wore to block the cold from his sensitive body.
"Nadya's sent us out to deal with one of the only remaining suspects in her list," he claimed, briefly turning an upward nod in the direction of the close-by mansion sitting behind the large steel gates they stood outside of. "Lara... Volkova was it?" The man asked, eyebrow risen upward as if for confirmation as he swung his head in the smiling Zelda's direction on the blonde boy's left.
"You'd think she'd just have gotten the military to do her job for her," Barkner pointed out curiously, single hand on his rocky-skinned, winter coat hip. "Why the hell does she need us for every little thing?"
"Isn't that good though? For her at the very least." The ever-smirking Vassia responded, turning to face the Goron on her left as she did. The standing Link cast her an eyebrow-raise before opening up his mouth to voice a reply in behalf of his companion.
"Gonna have-ta walk us through that sweetheart." He spoke over at her in a limpid-eyed frown, deadpan and all, his words managing to bring out silent smiles in the listening Zelda and a quiet giggle from the standing Malon. Vassia rolled her eyes but kept strong the look of superiority she wore so well.
"Think about it for a minute...," the Palashian princess began in her eye-rolling smirk. "If she sends the official Stralanavian military to deal with this woman, not only will it cause an intense panic and risk her fleeing..."
"But it'll cause political issues too!" Barkner responded, boulder-brown eyes widening as if in realisation as he clicked his fingers in her direction. He upturned his surprised frown into a light-faced smile as he re-opened his mouth. "Hey I never thought I'd get that!"
"Makes two of us."
Vassia's insult, so harsh and suddenly-spoken as if with little thought at all, could only make the listening Goron shrink his raised hand back and drop his smile into another frown, this time of saddened origin. While it managed to create a new yet familiar kind of uncomfortable atmosphere within the group, it was the single-eye narrowed Link that broke it with one of his many quips.
"Shut up Vassia."
The listening members of the group, while some were respectably silent, others (including the insulted Barkner) found themselves sniggering and chuckling, drawing out an annoyed frown from the rolling-eyed Vassia.
"Остановка!"
The group swung their heads in the gate's direction, only to find what appeared to be a lone soldier dressed in the olive-green armour of Stralanavia, a deep-faced frown upon his expression as he held tightly onto what seemed to be a steel lance.
"По чьему разрешению ты стоишь перед этими воротами?!" He exclaimed out fairly loudly as he stood imposingly behind the gates, frowning over at the group firmly as he did. Before even the business-like Impa could open her mouth to respond, it was her very Hylian charge herself that deigned to speak up not only for her but for the rest of the group as well.
"Доброе утро," Zelda spoke up in a light-faced smile as she bowed forward respectfully, her Stralanavian speech surprising and drawing sudden looks from some within the group, including the wide-eyed Link. "Нам предъявлено обвинение в расследовании сенатора Волковой," she explained further, pulling a surprised-faced frown from the listening guard. "Сенатор Тарасова прислала нам."
"S-сенатор Тарасова?! Подожди здесь минутку!"
With that, the wide-eyed guard turned and jogged off, presumably to go search for someone else to assist the situation with. The frowning-faced Link, further surprised, could only swing his blonde-haired head 'round in her direction to voice his awe.
"I didn't know you knew Stralanavian!" He called out, eyebrow raised as he did. She smiled sheepishly and lowered her cerulean-shaded eyes from his as she scratched the side of her head, as if slightly embarrassed.
"She's our princess ain't she?" The ever-grinning Barkner spoke up, folding his own arms this time as he spoke cheerily. "She'd have-ta know Stralanavian wouldn't she."
"All right, that's enough," Impa spoke, breaking up the conversation in time before it could gain any successful traction. "Sonya, Alwyn... just like we talked about." The Sheikah turned to direct her words toward the frowning young girl and the former Zoran soldier; they exchanged a quick look together before swiftly nodding and registering their confirmation with their leader.
"Shouldn't we go with 'em...?" Link began worriedly, briefly eyeing the pair as they turned to walk off around the manor's large left side, their steps crunching through the deep snow around them. "I mean, if they're found..."
"They'll be fine," Impa dismissed the frowning-faced Hylian's anxieties in a simple shake of her silver-shaded head. "We've already done dry runs and talked about this at length; this can't be done without them."
Link winced back as he turned his head from his mentor's, a kind of defeated look to it.
"I get that, but..."
"Ah... the group from... Hyrule was it?"
The heroes swung their heads 'round in the direction of the new voice that spoke, this time in modern Hylian for them all to understand; it belonged to a thick Stralanavian accent, mezzo-soprano and seemingly also a senator. Sure enough, a woman of smart business-wear stepped up toward the gates, a fairly sociable smile written across her pleasing complexion. Hardly dressed for the weather, as opposed to the hardy group of adventurers before her, she seemed to match the description of the target that Nadya had informed them on.
"Welcome, welcome...," she greeted, hands on her hips as she rose up her right index finger and forefinger before swiftly clicking them in mid-air. Like magic, the gates groaned to life and began to creak open as they pushed through the growing snow around them, like gears from a clock. "You say you are here on behalf of...?"
"Senator Tarasova," Impa responded with, speaking up for the group as she kept her arms folded as always. She reached into her inventory and pulled out what appeared to be a letter, holding it out for the woman to take as snowflakes slowly began to fall upon and dampen the blood-red seal upon it. "As well as the ministry of justice."
"Hrm..."
As the black-haired woman peered forward at the letter, almost as if it were some kind of weapon, she eventually reached over and slowly peeled it up from Impa's hand before looking it over herself. Impa rose an eyebrow curiously.
"You are Senator Volkova I trust?"
"Oh yes, yes...," the newly-introduced senator smiled back at the silver-haired Sheikah, tearing her eyes up from the envelope in her hands. "You've all come to the right place... please, step inside my humble home Аутсайдеры ."
The frowning-faced Link turned his eyebrow-risen expression on his knowledgeable companion Zelda next to him, as if for the translation. She smiled back at him as she opened up to mouth the words.
'Outsiders'.
–
3
"Oh, really...? Senator Tarasova is accusing me of abusing our right to slavery...?"
The sound of the black-haired woman's voice, an odd tinge of amusement to its mezzo-soprano, left the listening Impa furrowing her brow in thinly-veiled suspicion and the rest of the standing group in unsure looks and frowns.
"That's quite funny..."
"Do you understand how serious this is?" Impa questioned her, tilting her silver-haired head ever so slightly to the side as she spoke.
"Oh, quite so," Senator Volkova responded with a smarmy little smirk upon her face, joining her hands to lower under both of her elbows at her front as she raised her head at the Sheikah, as if to talk down to her. "You'll all have to forgive me... but I find it quite difficult to believe that the Stralanavian ministry of justice has Аутсайдеры working on behalf of them," she explained briefly, chuckling knowingly as she did. "And some of you are... royal family members of Aurelia? Is that correct?"
"Yes," the listening Zelda nodded and bowed forward dutifully and respectfully. "Hyrule."
"Palashia." The similarly smirking Vassia shot back, folding her arms up at the woman as she did.
"Such prestigious names...!" The sneering Senator smiled back, a kind of over-friendly look in her similarly sarcastic demeanour. "And all the way from such faraway countries! What possible interest could you have in our little rural getaway here in Stralanavia?"
"Martial arts tournament, mostly," Link answered for her, speaking up from his standing position next to Impa and Zelda, hands joined behind his green-hat head in a carefree manner as he did. "We're here for the-"
"Ahhh... the 'Speedy Skirmish' is it...?" Lara prodded curiously as she turned her eye down on the youth, eyebrow rising as she did. "We all know of the Prima World Tour of course... but that still doesn't explain how-"
"We ran into some trouble on the way here," Impa interrupted the woman with, a firm-faced frown ever present on her face. "It was Senator Tarasova's mother that saved us all," the Sheikah claimed, drawing out a surprised look from the woman. "She's been fairly kind to us considering our outsider status in this country... so we're repaying her with some favours we owe her."
"Convenient...," Lara sneered back, a kind of dissatisfied scowl to her mirthless smirk as she re-opened it to speak. "And have your men managed to unearth anything unsavoury or illegal yet?"
Almost as if cued up by the senator's words, Impa swung her silver-haired head 'round to her right and, sure enough, the frowning-faced Barkner marched toward them with two other guards dressed in what appeared to be official armour of the Stralanavian ministry. She rose a silver-shaded eyebrow up at him and he shook his head back at her, a kind of disappointed wince on his expression as he did, drawing out an annoyed twitch to her frown.
"There...," Lara spoke again, this time with a stronger feel to her smirk as she swivelled it slowly back on the scowling seething Sheikah next to her. "You see...?" She began again, lowering her black-haired head ever so slightly as she did. "Be sure to tell that woman what happened here today...," she started, her smirk slowly falling into what could only be perceived as a hardened-faced frown, her eyes falling with it to match. "And to give her one last message from me-"
"Senator!"
"Commander!"
Both Lara and Impa swung their heads 'round to the pair of voices' direction, soon joined by the group behind the Sheikah, widening their eyes as they did only to find what appeared to be a frowning-faced Alwyn and Sonya being escorted by guardsmen of the manor, seemingly having been located and apprehended.
"Senator, these two hoodlums were found skulking around your quarters looking for something." One of the guardsmen spoke up, frowning from beneath his helmet as he did.
"Is that right...?" Lara began again, her grin growing as she 'rounded it slowly on the group behind her before soon re-facing the guard. "Did they find it?"
Almost as if he were addressed directly, the firmly-frowning form of Alwyn opened up his Zoran mouth to respond to the Aurelian senator as the similar-faced Sonya nodded alongside him.
"That we did," he answered, reaching back as if into his inventory to produce a scroll, recently re-sealed, holding it upward to display to the group. "It's all here, just like you said Impa."
The listening Sheikah smiled back; a rare sight, as she nodded back to the reliable former soldier and their new Stralanavian companion next to him.
"Tch...," Lara tutted angrily, her smirk very quickly dissolving as she did. "This is not on!" She called out loudly, her volume increased to convey her growing lack of self-control. "How dare you infiltrate my home like this! That scroll could contain any sort of information!"
As if he were cued up a second time, Alwyn frowned on as he opened up the band holding the scroll together and began to read it aloud. "'NOTICE; This bill of sale is to commemorate the purchasing of slaves by Lara Volkova, procured by the Sic Mundus group. For the sum of five-hundred thousand rupees the following slaves have been purchased.'" He ended reading out the first paragraph, turning his eyes up from the scroll as if to receive some kind of response. The watching Lara snorted back at him angrily.
"And?! That's just a bill of sale!" She exclaimed back at the Zoran hurriedly. "Slavery is completely legal in Strala-"
"Let him finish." Impa impolitely interrupted the angry senator, drawing out a frustrated twitch of her scowl in response as Alwyn turned his attention back down to the open scroll in his possession.
"'Larissa Kuzmina; eight years of age. Katerina Sokolova; fifteen years of age and the unborn child she carries."
"What...?!" The listening Barkner hissed out, his frown wincing horribly as he could barely believe the words read aloud by his Zoran companion. "Sellin' kids is bad enough... but now you're sellin' unborn kids...?!" He whispered out incredulously, turning his shocked expression on the twitching-eyed Lara.
"Yes...," Impa began again, this time in hardened reply. "Slavery may be legal here in Stralanavia...," she claimed, her brow soon furrowing a second time as she re-opened her mouth to elaborate again. "But only to a certain age."
"'Payment of an additional five-hundred rupees will be due pending successful maturation of the foetus, the claim to which shall be guaranteed by possession of this document.'" Alwyn finished the last line of the scroll, re-rising up his hardened-eyed glare to focus on the senator of interest. Lara's own eyes darted from side-to-side, as if growing paranoid.
"That's horrible," the listening Zelda spoke up from the side, hands joined together as she frowned on disapprovingly. "How could you do such a thing?"
"My guess is she wasn't thinkin' about what a terrible thing she was doin'," Link claimed, his own brow furrowing up at the senator as he spoke. "She was probably thinkin' more about what she could do with slaves so young and what a bargain she was gettin'."
"Men!"
The sudden shout Lara exclaimed out managed to make a couple of the watching group widen their eyes in genuine surprise, ready to move at a moment's notice. The armoured guardsmen surrounding them all tensed up similarly, steel lances at the ready.
"Kill them all!" She further called, eyes narrowing deep into those of the similarly glaring-eyed Impa. "You must not let a single one leave this manor!"
It didn't take very long for the group of heroes to get surrounded; something that perhaps the wily senator Volkova was prepared for. Almost immediately they were forced to retrieve their weapons and switch their clothes (if applicable) and prepare accordingly, finding themselves entangled fairly swiftly with the sudden change in atmosphere and course-of-action.
A pair of guards behind the group dashed toward them, steel lances held upward as they roared in battle cry alongside the rest of their unit, only to be blocked dead-eyes-straight by the narrow-eyed Barkner; he widened his eyes and, without a word, swung his body so his broad rock-skinned back faced the approaching two. As his boulder-brown eyes widened, so too did the spikes on his back protrude so suddenly and with powerful Aegir that it caused small shock-waves in the ground, easily piercing through the surprised guardsmen's armour, sending them yelling and flying back the way they came.
"I said kill them!"
The group swung their heads 'round to the voice's source only to find the narrow-eyed Lara scrambling to sprint away in the opposite direction, now joined by recently-appeared reinforcements; similar armoured men and women, all possessing varying weaponry as opposed to the seemingly simple-attired soldiers of Stralanavia. As another pair approached them, this time from the front brandishing shiny steel axes, it was the newly-grinning Link and his firmly-frowning Zoran companion Alwyn that met them; the Hyrule-bound two crouch-dashed forward to meet the two axe-fighters, Gilded Sword and sword-fins elongated at the ready for use, before they both suddenly swerved their bodies out of the axe-fighters' perhaps inevitable lunge.
The glaring Alwyn and the contrastingly grinning-faced Link both grunted out as they counter-attacked by swinging their weapons in side-long swipes, catching the gasping and yelling axe-fighters' whiffs with simple yet effective punishes, sending them calling and tailspinning through the air as they did. When another pair of enemies approached them from the front, these ones instead dressed in what appeared to be red-shaded robes as if aligned for their elemental affinity, it was the narrow-eyed Zelda quick-dressed as Sheik and the ever-smirking Vassia that responded by leaping past their two companions.
The two robed offenders rose up their right arms horizontally, their left holding what appeared to be a similarly-coloured tome, and like magic a sphere of Aegir caked in fire flew at the pair of princesses. While Vassia somehow managed to dew-glide herself fairly acrobatically around the sphere of flame, Sheik merely opted to phase through it with her vanish technique; suddenly disappearing from common view in a puff of smoke before re-appearing just as abruptly fairly close to the wide-eyed fire-mage.
With little else warning than their obvious inevitable approach, the two Aurelian princesses executed their counter-assault simultaneously; the grinning Vassia spun her body 'round endlessly before eventually smashing her right back-hand filled with Aegir across the first fire-mage, as Sheik shot through the second with a simple but effective forward swipe that saw her skid past the wide-eyed man. As he dropped down to the ground unconscious, Barkner and Impa led the next charge by advancing forward past the two princesses and meeting the next pair of enemies; armoured ones.
Like the soldiers they sported the same shade of armour, yet unlike the soldiers they were built much more heavily; the plating they wore almost appeared to wear them down as they brandished similar steel-shaded lances, lumbering forward to bar the group's path.
"Now Impa?"
"Now!"
SMASSSSSSH
With a great-shaking punch aimed toward the beautiful marble floor beneath him, and with surprisingly little effort at that, Barkner grinned on enthusiastically as he managed to cause such a huge shock-wave shuddering around that the approaching knights found themselves stumbling in place; not much of an opening but all the narrow-eyed Impa needed. The shrewd Sheikah used her own expert level of Aegir-control to cut through the normally-robust armour of the two knights, frowning firmly as she skid forward in her advance.
The two knights yelled out as they too were sent sprawling across the floor, leading the watching Lara to turn and run, presumably to some form of exit in a hasty and worried escape. The narrow-eyed Impa flung her firm-faced frown up to pursue the running senator, swinging her silver-haired head back 'round to face the group as she did.
"Link, Zelda; sic 'em!"
The standing Link couldn't help but flash his Sheikah mentor a grin as he spun the Gilded Sword 'round his fingers. "Just save a treat for us both when we get back." He shot back, drawing out an amused smile from the listening Sheik.
"Yes Impa."
–
4
It didn't take long for the Hylian pair to catch up with the fleeing form of their newfound-enemy and, as they did, they soon found her running for the large manse's basement when denied the frontal exit; a fairly resourceful decision made secured by the wise Impa, having managed to set Aegir blockades in anticipation for the senator's foreseen escape attempt. As they kept in hot pursuit of the fleet-footed senator, Link and Sheik rather easily swept past each woe-begotten guard and sentry that stood in their way to protect their lord, very soon finding themselves in the pathway of a fairly interesting cellar. The narrow-eyed Hylians caught the sights of cages containing yet more raggedy-clothed slaves, all hidden from above-ground. While they were unable to directly act on their imprisonment, Link couldn't help but very briefly wonder just how long Lara had been illegally abducting slaves as opposed to Stralanavia's normal practices.
It only when Sheik quickly pointed toward the other illicit contraband laying on one of the tables in the entryway – needles and other such materials – that Link realised how deeply corrupt Stralanavia's senate was.
And indeed, many potential others.
The pair of Hylians soon found themselves approaching the end of the deep basement, weapons still at the ready as they clocked the woman they chased running for what looked like a lever. Sheik narrowed her disguised crimson eyes forward as she threw a needle of her own at the device; Lara swore as it caught her fingers and she jerked it back from the lever as she darted her black-haired head 'round to glare at the pair behind her.
"Little Hylian rats."
In the inflection of her sentence she swung 'round to glare at them, ponytail of raven-hair whipping with her as she quickly popped what seemed to be a small pill in her mouth.
"Do you really think that because you've cornered me you'll stop me...?" She spoke over toward the two Hylian children, nodding her head upward in a briefly-held smirk of contention as if she were pitying the pair somehow. The listening Link and Sheik gave each other a terse glance before swiftly re-focusing back on the senator. "I've toppled corporations... governors... even members of the royal family," she continued on, narrowing her abyss-black eyes directly toward the pair as she did, chuckling on confidently as she shook her head at them. "I have no fear of you two."
"That right?" Link began in reply, relaxing his stance a little as he twirled the Gilded Sword 'round his fingers expertly, propping up a side of his face as he did. "You sound pretty confident for a chick at the end of her rope."
"I will show you..."
CRACCCK...
The sound of her muscles convulsing was enough to make the listening pair of Hylians wince and cringe in response, even near flinching as they did. An aura of bright-red Aegir, flaming and fiery, did everything to exacerbate the already precarious situation; something that saw the basement and very manor itself begin to shake from the incredible tremors and rapidly-rising power that she gave off. Sheik and Link narrowed their eyes and held back grunts of their own from blocking the sheer strength of winds that blew from Lara's new and surprising form; as her muscles cricked and cracked, eventually her very mass and figure itself grew to match.
Perhaps a horrifying sign of her overriding strength, speed and Aegir.
Sheik threw the frowning-faced Link a worried glance, almost as if she were turning to him for some form of advice and he shook his head in response, a hardened frown to his face as he did; a look that said it all.
'Don't try it.'
Indeed, true to Link's very inward anxieties, their enemy had become a new one entirely and the pair knew little to nothing about her.
To charge now would be akin to suicide.
"Just what kind of ад you've both stepped into..."
The senator's smarmily spoken words made the two shoot up their heads in growing panic, looks of tension stricken across their eyes and faces. With little warning the grinning-faced senator rose up her left fist and, clenching its fingers tightly, she narrowed her eyes forward as she plunged her fist down crashing into the ground beneath her.
CRASSSH-DROOM
Like magic, a shock-wave of force and Aegir came barrelling towards the wide-eyed Sheik and she reacted by shifting through the air to her immediate right in evasion, red-disguised eyes focused firmly on her new foe. With her own arms ready to attack with she air-dashed forward during her enemy's recovery period and wave-dashed as if to cover more ground; as Sheik approached the narrow-eyed senator she lowered her body and her form before swinging her left arm diagonally upwards and finishing with swinging her right to follow it, joining its assault with her left in a conjoined attack attempt that looked fairly graceful.
Unfortunately for the young disguised Hylian, however, it didn't appear to leave much of an impression on the low-smirking Lara; she stood unmoving and uncaring, a kind of amused look in her eye as she reached down presumably to counter-attack. Even the watching Link barely had time to react as the wily senator merely reached down and grappled at the wide-eyed Sheik before swiftly bringing her flying upward into the air with her, drawing out a surprised gasp from her in response.
The watching Link widened his own sea-shaded eyes as he took off in immediate pursuit, Gilded Sword and Mirror Shield at the ready as the two began to drop back down to earth from the ceiling at high speed. Link pulled back his Gilded Sword with both arms as he rapidly-approached the pair, eliciting the narrow-eyed Lara to turn and swing one of her free arms in his direction into a savage back-hand; the counter-assault connected and the former Kokiri grunted out in half-surprise and half-agony as he was sent careering back whence he came, sprawling across the ground as he did.
CRASSSH
Sheik could only issue out a pained and similarly agonised grunt as she made contact with the hard floor beneath her, the grinning Lara hovering over her imposingly. As the senator rose up her pulsating left palm, charging rapidly with Aegir, the narrow-eyed Link had seemingly managed to recover just in time and leapt toward her with weapons at the ready a second time.
"HEYT!"
He called out loudly, as he usually did, when charging forward for a basic assault; a simple yet effective aerial spin-slash, both arms gripped on the Gilded Sword as he did. Though his attack successfully made contact it didn't appear to give much of a reaction; indeed, the smirking senator merely stared back at the wide-eyed youth before her, piquing up an eyebrow down at him as he beheld the true result of his actions.
Mere cuts and burns across the business suit she wore.
"Hoping to see more of me...?" The raven-haired senator shot down accusingly and playfully, chuckling malevolently as she did. "Rather lewd little boy, aren't you?"
CRACCCK
"Hurngh...!"
Link's oceanic eyes widened even further, if that were possible, as his very small form was sent just a few inches into the air from the sudden and debilitating low kick the woman gave him in his loins. A single tear of pure unadulterated agony and suffering escaped him as he floated there in mid-air for what felt like an eternity, before the smirking Lara decided to end the game by rising up her right fist and bringing it crashing down on his blonde-haired head.
SMASH-KERASSSH
This time his eyes shut in fierce scrunches as he was sent rolling through the air, teeth grit together harshly from the absurd agony he underwent. Even as his body trundled painfully along the ground, he turned his fall into a tactical retreat by swinging his body 'round as it flew backward, gritting his blood-covered teeth as ran his shield arm roughly through the landscape beneath him.
SKRRRRRRR
It was only when he managed to re-raise his oceanic eyes upward above that he noticed his new foe suddenly in his face and he held back a shocked gasp in response.
She's so fast now, he thought, horrified.
How's that possible?!
She was barely capable of anything above the average before!
"It has to be that weird pill she took...," he thought to himself, cerulean eyes narrowing before soon widening in worry and anxiety. "That's how she's so strong now!"
Almost as if she were reading his very ruminations themselves, the high-standing Lara hung over him as imposingly as she did earlier, a kind of wicked grin hanging on her lips. Perhaps out of desperation and growing anxiety, he hung his form back and air-dashed backward, his figure flickering in and out of tangibility.
A fairly obvious, if, uninterruptible after-image.
When he re-appeared a few yards away it was the shockingly-fast form of Lara that also re-appeared to his front that made him grunt out in pain as she slammed her knee into his lower chest, sending him flying and sagging through the air.
CLANNNG-CLANNNNG
The sounds of his Gilded Sword and Mirror Shield knocking noisily against the ground beneath him echoed out around the basement they fought in, prompting the narrow-eyed Lara to follow-up her combination by raising up both arms and slamming them down like a hammer on him, as she crashed the blonde youth into the wall behind him.
SMMMASSSHHH-CRASH
Lara chuckled in what seemed to be in some twisted form of delight as she kept one fist down on the yelling, wide-eyed Hylian's lower chest, bringing out screams and yells from him in response. It was only when the glint of a bright light managed to catch the side of her eye that she double-took upward only to drop her grin into a curious-faced frown, raven eyebrows risen upward as she beheld the source.
Seemingly having recovered from her earlier assault, the shut-eyed Sheik sat in a knelt posture as the light appeared to emanate from the back of her right raised arm, a dull hum accompanying the rapid charge. Lara's curious frown soon swivelled back up into the malignant smirk she was seemingly known for.
"Wait for your turn..." The Stralanavian senator spoke surreptitiously over at the kneeling would-be Sheikah.
SLAM
Her abyss-black eyes widened however and she let out a shocked little gasp, her insidious smirk soon fallen only to be replaced by a far more panic-filled open-mouthed frown, seemingly having been stricken by a low attack. When she lowered her ire-filled look back down on her previous victim she turned her initially-shocked frown into an annoyed scowl, growling back down at the narrow-eyed bleeding-faced Link below her as she did; he remained in his earlier position, straddled beneath her, his body now leant to the side as he cannoned up his left arm directly into her own lower chest.
Rather than the classic simple light-red fire that usually circulated his body, it was instead the deep-dark hellfire of the Shinzui and, indeed, the very hellfire of Kage Narumono himself. And yet as if to mock the chaotic manifestation of destruction, it was instead the narrow-eyed Link himself that somehow retained sane control of himself when utilising the dangerous Aegir belonging to his demonic second side.
"Metsu...!"
"Gurgh...!"
The initial tenor that gasped out the beginning of his counter-attack was a prelude to the inevitable follow-up; a brutal and wide-eyed rising dragon-like fist that saw the pair stop briefly in mid-air before soon flying high afterwards.
"ShooooooooooOOOOORRRYUUUUKEN!"
CRRRRRACCCCCK-SMMMASSSSH
As the span of hellfire that covered Link's two fists managed to infect the wide-eyed Lara's own form, she exuded a gasp and, perhaps unable to move from the sudden counter-attack she was laden with, could only watch as she was sent barrelling high and tailspinning violently through the air, her body coated in the dark hellfire Kage Narumono was known so well and feared for. When the similarly gasping Link landed, so terribly close to the fallen Lara and his attacking left arm held backward as if to finish her with, his inevitable finish was interrupted and by one he did not expect.
Having managed to somehow forget the presence of his close companion Sheik, it was the light that she had previously been rapidly-charging earlier that reminded him of her and somehow managed to bring down the sudden inexplicable rage that afflicted him. She took hold of his left arm and, in great spite to its incredible heat covering it, she seemed unaffected; instead opting to stare back into his own surprised-eyed frown with her unreadable expression behind the white scarf she always loved to wear, the only clue to her disposition being the soft look in her red-disguised eye, the other hidden behind one of her blonde bangs.
"S-Sorry..." He merely mouthed out, blinking back at her sheepishly, as if he had just had just been caught doing something he shouldn't have. She merely shook her head at him in response, an odd kind of smile present in the backdrop of her fiery red eye, somehow managing to calm him and the primal-like rage that slept within.
How's she able to do that, he wondered, the lava-like hellfire within his eyes slowly dissipating back into the classic ocean-blue he was known for.
"Maybe it's her connection she also has to the Triforce…"
It was always a possibility.
"Urrrgh…"
The sound of Lara's pained groaning below made the frowning pair of Hylians turn their blinking looks down on its source, only to exchange another unsure look with one another.
"Well…," Sheik began, a kind of cheeky grin hiding behind the disguise she so often liked to wear. "At least we can both say we managed to do this together when we tell Impa."
He couldn't help but chuckle, a similar grin growing on his lips as she gave him a comparably amused look in her eye; an unintended invitation that she took quite gladly by slowly, carefully and rather skilfully threading her small thin fingers softly through his own. Link was so entranced by the odd stare she gave him he didn't even notice it was the same hand in which she used to grapple at his own to stop him earlier; a sign of her impressive level of control.
When she re-rose her free left arm, still caked and completely coated in the bright light she was rapidly-charging earlier, his smile soon dropped as he turned his head down to face their fallen foe.
