fleets: I would just like to give a huge shoutout to my outline, because without it I could not have written the craziness that follows in this chapter as well as the upcoming ones. Outline I wrote 2+ years ago... I love you. Marry me.

Chapter 14: Occult Ascendancy

A heavy quiet had settled down in the apartment in Cambridge. It was the kind of a quiet that comes with a puzzled sense of mystery, where everyone is waiting for some kind of magical revelation that would suddenly explain everything that was going on. Dark and Hawk looked over Kestrel's shoulders to read his notes as the Asian man told them what he had learned about Corbin Robespierre.

"No one really knows what era Corbin Robespierre lived in, but it's been so long that he's passed into folk stories and legends instead of recorded history. There seems to be an agreement that he's from ancient Avalon, the city of paradise, otherwise known as Hyrule. There are other references that he'd originated from somewhere called Holodrum, but it's such a vague reference that it might as well be fiction."

"According to these stories, Corbin was a Lord of sorts; at least someone of an elite standing. He was extremely wealthy, well educated, and someone who would have ranked quite high in the social sphere by birthright alone. It seemed like he was one of those people who could have everything he'd wanted, but there was one thing he couldn't stand. It was divine right. He was Lord, but he could never rule because the royalty were ones with divine blood."

Kestrel paused, then, with a small frown on his lips. He scratched his head and waved a hand at the screen. "This is where supposed 'history' begins to sound more like fantasy and lore. But I'll humor this a little since we're having our own encounters with sorcery as well," he glanced up at Bates sitting on his head, while the little sentry gave a tiny shrug. Kestrel continued.

"He foolishly proposed a new system where those capable of sorcery would also be able to rule. Believing he was gifted with magic, he thought he would be able to rise above lordship and overthrow Hyrule royalty. Unfortunately for him, he had been delusional, and he was not one of the ones gifted in magic although he adamantly believed he could commune with the arcane. He pressed onwards with the idea of Occult Ascendancy. It was the idea that magic would rule all, and anyone, even commoners with the gift, could rise to kingship. It was their goddess-given right to do so."

"By this point, even though Corbin himself had yet to demonstrate magic, the young Lord had been able to gather quite a few followers with his incredible charisma. He was a great public speaker and could rally crowds to fervor with his voice. It was right when Occult Ascendancy was on the verge of overturning the entire monarchy when a group of dissenters had attempted to overthrow Corbin from leadership. They'd found out that he wasn't blessed with the arcane, and so they had made a move to remove him. Corbin fled out of the country, but stubbornly believing he was still capable of sorcery, he didn't run far. He remained within the borders of Hyrule, biding his time."

"The text becomes extremely vague at this point. There are mentions of how the Occult Ascendancy movement gradually faded away, losing its cohesion once the leading voice of Corbin had disappeared. There are other tales of how another, more sinister group had briefly emerged; a secretive cult that only went by the name The Guild. Next to nothing is known about this cult, except that there were rumors of summoning demons and trading souls. Kind of similar to the Faust stories of trading souls with the Devil for incredible knowledge and worldly pleasures. The Guild was supposedly a powerful group of sorcerers, though some texts describe them as so insane that they had lost whatever humanity had been left of them. Others conjecture that they may have been under the influence of hallucinogens. Here, Corbin Robespierre is mentioned once again, and there are suggestions that he'd also joined The Guild. It is unclear what had happened to him at this point, because it appears as though he had gained the ability to control fire where before he clearly had no such ability. This little fact could just have been a rumor that Corbin's few loyal followers had spread to help save his reputation, I don't know."

"And that's basically all I have of him. It's as though once he'd joined The Guild, Corbin Robespierre gradually disappeared into obscurity."

Hawk, Kestrel, Dark, and Bates stared at the softly glowing computer screen with the story of the mysterious Corbin Robespierre. They were all quietly absorbing what they had just read. Dark didn't really understand why the codes they had followed linked them to the story of Corbin, someone who was from the past so far back in history that he might as well have been a legend.

He… did know of another person who was from an era of legend.

If Vaati, someone who had been alive back in the era of Hyrule as was mentioned again here, who was he to say that Corbin Robespierre was also a legend? No, he was sure of it. Corbin Robespierre really had existed, and there probably had been a cult and maybe even demons. He might not have believed any of it two years ago, but after the Avilux incident he could believe anything. The question now was, who was the person who had written the encryptions and why did Corbin Robespierre have any relevance?

"What does some crazed lord have anything to do with this?" Dark asked.

Kestrel gave a small laugh. "Ha. I thought you could tell me."

"No. Although, Vaati might know something. Actually," Dark looked up as something occurred to him, "I wonder if that could be part of the reason why the government wants him? This guy who you've managed to track is interested in Corbin Robespierre, and he also has some connection with the government. If there's anyone out there who knows anything about Corbin Robespierre, it would be Vaati." Dark's expression turned serious. "We have to find him. I have a bad feeling about this."

XXXXXXXXXXX

"The government wants you too, eh?" the man with the bird mask snickered lightly while his partner regarded them from the corner of the messy room with a catlike gaze. Vaati sat propped on the makeshift file-cabinet seat, while Dugal leaned against a bookcase next to him with his arms crossed over his chest in reserved caution. "Oh I am so sorry; in my excitement I completely forgot introductions. My name is Thistle," the light green eyes glittered from behind the mask. Thistle's beak swung over to the sultry dark skinned woman, "and that is my wonderful assistant, Thyme. We run a little fortune telling shop, and she helps bring customers around. Although, it seems her methods were a little deceptive?" At this, Thyme rolled her eyes wordlessly.

"Let's see, you're situated right next to a strip club and you go up to people suggestively. I bet all of your customers didn't exactly want their fortunes told…" Vaati muttered flatly.

"So you make a living giving fortunes?" Dugal interrupted from his corner. There was still a suspicious edge in his voice. "I can't imagine you would make enough to get by with only fortune telling."

Vaati noticed Thyme smirk a little before turning her head away. His attention turned to Thistle, then, who chuckled. "Kehaha, well no. I suppose it's more of a side job. It's a fairly entertaining one as well! You get to meet all sorts, and you can dress however you'd like." Thistle absentmindedly twisted the thin gray braid that hung past his left ear while he stared at a worn poster of the world map. There was an expectant pause while Vaati and Dugal waited for an explanation about the man's real job. Thistle gave a short glance, and then went back to staring at the map. "At any rate, the government is annoying, don't you think?" He asked, changing the topic and giving no indication of telling them more about himself.

Dugal's eyes narrowed behind his glasses, and his fingers twitched towards his gun but he kept his patience. Instead he took Thistle's bait. "What do you know about them?"

"Oh, I know plenty about how nosey they are, and how they ruin everyone's fun with their policies and laws. I'm quite a fan of anarchy myself," Thistle nodded earnestly. Then, he burst out laughing about something he had said, while everyone remained not very amused. "Kehahaha! I'm only kidding of course. I love the government."

Behind him, Thyme was shaking her head tiredly. "You're really impossible…"

"It's true, I love the government! They can be the perfect comedy to an otherwise dull life. Just as funny as an ex-wife. Did you know they were after me, too?"

Vaati leaned back from the bird-beaked mask that had suddenly swung towards him, nearly smacking him across the face. "The government or the ex-wife?"

"The government of course. My ex-wife is imaginary."

Hellooo crazy, Vaati thought momentarily. However, he was startled by the brief look of cunning clarity in those eyes behind the mask. Vaati's guard shot up to overdrive and his left hand clutched the red gem of the Wishing Cap tightly in his pocket. He'd almost been fooled by the man's silly charade, and a critical thought had nearly slipped his mind. Why was the government after the toucan, too?

Thistle straightened up, and it seemed the mask was hiding a knowing grin. Fully anticipating Vaati's question, Thistle continued. "I'll tell you why. They're after everyone who is connected to Magic. You know, like you, me, Harry Potter… kehaha but mostly you and me."

The fortune teller, who had been prowling back and forth between the various cluttered objects around the room, had finally made it back behind his desk. He'd stopped pacing, and had his head cocked towards the two visitors with a bit more gravity than before. "The art of sorcery, though practically extinct, isn't completely obsolete, as you are no doubt beginning to realize. Congress wants to monopolize it, and that's why they are after people like you. People like me." Thistle picked up a small, mechanical silver sphere that was on the desk and carelessly spun it on the surface. "I'm not even that good with magic," he spoke more to himself. As he spun the sphere, a tiny red light blinked from the center. "Still, a monopoly is a monopoly. At any rate, I figured out how to know everything they know, inside out. Any correspondence they make, any note they save on a computer server, I have access to with a neat little trick. Information is extremely powerful. Mr. Dugal, you probably know a lot about that yourself?"

Dugal shifted his weight to acknowledge he'd been addressed, but remained guarded and silent.

"The government knows quite a bit about you, did you know? And because they do, so do I. Sounds like a traitor ratted you out? Kehaha, you should pick your friends more wisely next time." Thistle prattled on, letting the small metal ball bounce in his palm. He gave it a cursory glance, and then tossed it over to Thyme who caught it. She gave an annoyed sigh and got up to put it away. Vaati also noticed her flip on a light switch next to the door on the other side of the room, but nothing turned on. It was a trivial detail and he soon forgot about it when Thistle turned back to him. "And you, Vaati. I'll tell you what I know about it but I can't just go around giving away information about magic for free, you know? Take my offer and I'll tell you what you want to know: the reason why we persuaded you to come here is because we'd like to team up with you. And by team up, I mean keep you under our watch so you don't mess up and hand yourselves over to the government. Thyme and I agree that you've caused enough of a ruckus out there already and it's time someone babysat you."

Thyme looked over her shoulder with her hands on her hips. "Contrary to what Thistle thinks, I actually don't agree because his idea sounds a lot like keeping you two under house arrest."

"Thyme, you are not helping."

During the past few minutes of conversation, Dugal's gaze had been locked on the silver sphere that Thistle had been playing with earlier. Thyme had put it back on a shelf in the back corner of the room with other similar metal spheres. Although Thistle and Thyme appeared relatively harmless at first glance in their goofy outfits, something about them kept him on edge. And the whole issue with Vaati's teleport sending them conveniently in front of the two fortune tellers' doorstep was yet to be explained and highly suspicious. Maybe magic was able to influence things from extremely far away, he wouldn't know, but it sounded too convenient for his liking.

But… that wasn't the thing that finally convinced him to grab Vaati by the wrist and pull him quickly towards the door. He'd been trying to figure out why the spheres Thistle had seemed so familiar.

They had an uncannily similar design to the metallic enhancements he'd seen on Condor and the shadow hounds.

They should never have gone back to the fortune telling shop.

"We are leaving now Mr. Engst."

"But…" Vaati hesitated, his urge to know the secret of escaping his curse stopping him. However, he saw urgency in Dugal's face that he'd rarely ever seen and he suddenly got a creepy feeling about the way Thistle was grinning at them. Okay, so he couldn't actually tell that Thistle was grinning because of that silly toucan mask, but somehow he just knew there was a grin behind it. He shook Dugal's hand off of his wrist and he followed him quickly toward their exit. "Right."

"Kehaha, it is far too late, gentlemen," Thistle's voice cut through the air like a whip as soon as Dugal's hand was on the doorknob. Then, he added in a much more lighthearted tone, "Can't we just all agree that my place is nice and comfortable, and that you'd rather be here with me and Thyme than outside with the horrible government chasing you forever and ever?"

Dugal swung the door open and stepped outside with Vaati following closely behind him. As soon as the door shut with a soft click, an unexpected thing occurred. The evening scenery of the island melted away to darkness, disorienting both of them with a dizzying effect. Then, a new surrounding materialized, and to their horror it was an unwelcomingly familiar site.

It was the exact same room they had just left, except this time, Thistle and Thyme were nowhere to be found.

"You have got to be kidding me… they know how to cast Labyrinth spells?" Vaati hissed, his eyes darting towards the four doors, one on each face of the four walls of the rectangular room. "They have us completely trapped." He recalled how the woman Thyme had flipped on a seemingly malfunctioning light switch earlier, and he suspected that had been the trigger to snare them within the spell.

"Is this an illusion?" Dugal whispered, in utter shock. His expression hardened, and before Vaati could stop him, he had whirled around and opened the door from which they had come from.

"Wait Dugal!" Vaati cried, but by the time he had noticed it had been too late. Dugal had disappeared through the black curtain that obscured the view on the other side of the door. "Damn it all," Vaati clenched his fists, and kicked a pile of books that were on the floor next to him. Of course someone unfamiliar with magic wouldn't know that once you were locked in its trap, the concept off "going back" no longer existed. The only way they could leave was to go through the correct order of doors, North, South, East, or West, and usually the only one to know the order was the one who had created the trap.

The sorcerer stood in place for a few seconds with a troubled expression, and his fingers rubbed the smooth surface of the red gem that was still tucked away in his pocket. It was slightly comforting that he was reunited with it again, but at the same time the gem alone wasn't going to solve all of his problems right now. Perhaps if he'd had the completed hat… but there was no use wishing when there was no hat to grant his wishes. Shaking his head and at a loss on what to do, Vaati decided to follow Dugal back through the door behind him.

Just as he had expected, he found himself in an identical room. No one was there, and he was completely alone. Although a part of him rejoiced that he was separated from Dugal, he knew that he needed to find the former Talon leader, especially since he wasn't about to leave the man behind without stealing that mysterious artifact of his.

Frustrated, Vaati broke into a run and began to slam through doors randomly. Each time, he came upon the same exact room and each time his mind told him it was all futile, but he pried the doors open anyway. At least he felt like he was making progress. Maybe if he did it enough times he'd get lucky and come across the right combination.

"Aaaaugh I hate this!" He yelled after his seventeenth door. He was really beginning to hate all of the wooden figurines and various antiques that obstructed his path. Just as he was about to open the eighteenth door, a soft laugh stopped him short. It came from somewhere by the corner of the room, near one of the makeshift filing cabinet seats that Thistle had prepared earlier. As Vaati slowly narrowed his eyes towards the laugh, Thyme uncrossed her legs and leaned forward with a smug smile. In one of her hands she held a long, blue wooden staff. It was hooked on one end, cradling a dark pink crystal cut into a diamond.

"I told you," she accused playfully from her perch on the filing cabinet, "that Thistle was the worst with lies." She brushed a stray hair off the side of her face casually. "I, on the other hand, am generally truthful. I'll point you to the right door, and you'll see that I didn't trick you when you find yourself closer to the exit. Do you want to take your chances?" The few strings of glass beads hanging from Thyme's staff tinkled as she pointed it towards the door on the left. "Go through there, and then take the next door straight ahead."

With a scowl on his face, the sorcerer immediately made for the door the woman directed him to. Although he still had a lot of things he wanted to talk about with Thistle's assistant, he didn't want to waste his time getting her to cooperate. As soon as he stepped through the second door, he stopped short in his tracks. Thyme hadn't exactly lied, but she hadn't been completely truthful either. He was back again in the same room, but this time, Thistle and Dugal were there. Dugal was on the ground, disarmed and subdued, and cornered against the wall. Meanwhile, Thistle was in the process of tossing Dugal's pistol over his shoulder and into the trash bin. "Oh, hello Vaati! Did you want to join our anger management class too?"

Vaati immediately reacted, charging up an energy sphere to throw at the masked man. He'd gone against Dugal before during the Avilux crisis and it hadn't exactly been a walk in the fucking daisy park to deal with him. Just as he was about to swing his arms forward to shoot the bird mask right off of Thistle's face, powerful claws, cold and clammy to the touch, held them down and pulled him towards the floor. The sorcerer struggled against his captor, but whoever held him knew a few tricks on locking his joints. He winced when his fingers were wrenched behind his back, and he felt some kind of metal restraints lock around his fingers. Vaati's skin turned a shade paler when he realized just how unprepared he was to go against modern world: the restraints kept his fingers twisted in such a way that it was impossible for him to cast any spells. They fit so perfectly… it was almost as though the restraints had been made specifically for sorcerers.

"Kehahahaha," Thistle chuckled lightly as he looked down at them both. He fixed a few wrinkles that had found their way in his coat, and a dark shadow crept up next to him. To Vaati and Dugal's horror, the shadow rose up from the ground and materialized into the form of a mechanical Cyclops in a suit.

It was Condor.

"Kehaha!" Thistle continued to laugh as he saw shock bloom on their faces. "It wouldn't have been this difficult if you'd simply agreed to stay," he chuckled. "You gave me no choice but to make this unpleasant for you. Actually," Thistle paused, tapping the side of his mask thoughtfully, "I would have made it unpleasant for you anyway. It was only a matter of when things would get ugly for you. From the moment this started I held your Fate in my hands," he flipped two tarot cards up out of his sleeve. One was right side up, and the other was upside down, and both had the inscription, "The Magician." "And unfortunately for you, my fortunes are extremely accurate."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I've been contemplating about The Guild that had been divulged from the spell block."

Dark raised an eyebrow and peered over at Bates who was hovering uncomfortably close to his face. The teenager who had been lying across the sofa shooed the sentry away and sat up groggily. "Yeah, what is it?" he asked half-heartedly. He'd been given the job to hang onto the small stone that allowed communication with Bates, while Kestrel took some time to rest. Apparently the Talon techie had been reluctant to deal with another hour of Bates' difficult-to-understand speech mannerisms, and had passed the pain back to Dark.

Bates, however, didn't seem to care much about his lack of popularity. "Well it's just that The Guild is singularly agnate to The Guild for Wizzrobes. I wonder if they are not interchangeable."

"Well, why didn't you let Kestrel know that earlier?" Dark mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"Because they will not believe me the same way you will," the sentry replied, somewhat bashfully. Then, he fluttered up and landed on Dark's shoulder, huddling his wings close together and turning his gaze away as though he wanted Dark to forget he'd ever implied he preferred him more than the Talon men. "At any rate, Wizzrobes were creatures of the old days. They were all once normal fools who, for whatever reason, decided to make a contract with a demon; their body as the demon's vessel in exchange for incredible magical power. What they never accounted for was that once the demon was allowed to dwell in their bodies, they would completely lose control. Essentially, the demon's real aim was to be able to remain in this realm not as an incorporeal shadow, but as a creature with a tangible body. The victims in these contracts usually believed they could sustain supremacy over the demon, and hoped that they could master sorcery even if it wasn't in their blood to do so."

Bates stretched his wings as though to shrug. "I am unsure how this amalgamates with what we know so far, but I assert that Corbin Robespierre may have been a Wizzrobe."

Dark blinked. Then, he shrugged with Bates. "Yeah I don't know. I'm not sure if knowing that helps us figure out what we're dealing with." Dark stood up from the couch and walked over to the kitchen to find something to eat. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Bates looking disappointed that he hadn't been able to help. Dark sighed. "Hey, well, thanks for telling me, okay? If you come up with anything else you have to let us know, even if you think we won't believe you."

Bates gave him a good long stare before he huffily turned his back and settled down by the window, folding his wings around himself. "Hmph! I do not care for your wretched appreciation," he growled.

Dark tried to hold in his laugh. Bates was just like Vaati sometimes.

And speaking of Vaati, Dark wondered just what that troublemaker was up to…

fleets: I hope you guys are keeping up and connecting the dots! Oh and like Thyme says, Thistle is a liar usually. Well, okay, so some of the stuff he says is true but most of it is distorted by lies. Trust Thyme, she's honest in words.
You know, I had a lot to say about this chapter but I forgot it all. The story is named after this part, I guess?

SubZeroChimera: I was not lying when I said OA is his story XD

Lord Siravant: And it's such a happy reunion! (shot and blasted and torched)

Reily96: And THAT is what I get for not caring about correct word usage when I go crazy with the thesaurus for writing Bates' dialogue. Apparently it means 'nonbeliever,' according to my thesaurus, but it did not go on to say the context WHICH WE LEARN IS IMPORTANT. Anyways I fixed it. Thank you.

imnotraven: Thank you! :D

Mirria1: Annnnd here you go! :)

DarkSakura: Good, thank you! I'm still trying to figure out my writing schedule and work schedule and life schedule. Haha don't worry, he doesn't have the hat back, just the gem. Not that, you know, that's any better...

Sybdoodles: Well it was certainly one of my favorites to write! This one was fun too, but mostly because I'm starting to give more things away. D'awww, thank you. I love my reviewers too (hugs everyone)

Guest: That comment almost made me snort my tea all over my computer. XD

Sapphiet: Thistle knows what to say... because Thistle knows everything XD