"Under my leadership, Hyrule will not live in fear of heretical sages, rebels, or monsters. As a kingdom, we must be brave. We must be strong. And we must be united."
The crowd cheered as Prince Percival finished his speech. It was the third one he'd given this week, and even Mila could tell he was improving.
These people are idiots. All you need to do is shout a few adjectives and talk about how great the kingdom is, and everybody claps.
"This is insufferable," Mila bemoaned, standing at the perimeter, sword on her back and arms crossed in front of her. She expected Vanova to say something in response, so when all she received was silence, Mila glanced up at her retainer. The round-eared girl was staring at the prince with a dreamy expression on her face. Sighing in annoyance, Mila smacked the back of Vanova's thigh with her hand.
"Ouch! Thank you, my lady. Sorry, my lady." Vanova hurriedly bowed in apology.
"Will you stay focused, you tart?" Mila scolded. "It's bad enough I have to stand here and watch this tripe." The Kokiri girl glanced around her, making sure there was nobody close enough to overhear. She would normally have waited until she returned to her chambers to complain, but being on guard duty for the prince while he campaigned for kingship was heavily grating on her nerves.
"I thought you would be happy, Lady Shadowgale," Vanova commented innocently. "This assignment is safe and easy. The worst we've had to deal with has been drunkards."
Mila snorted derisively. "True. But this is so slow and boring. The princes and princesses are supposed to be fighting, but all they do is give speeches to useless peasants. Why are they so bad at killing each other? If I'd been a candidate, I'd be the bloody queen by now."
"My lady!" Vanova said in a frantic whisper.
Mila sighed, deciding she'd voiced her treasonous thoughts in public enough for one day. "You're right. I apologize for my stupidity." Luckily, there still did not appear to be anyone else within earshot, so she would not need to kill or intimidate anyone into silence.
From behind her, Mila heard the telltale ring of her fairy returning.
"Oh, good. The bell is back," Mila said.
Vanova giggled.
"Har, har." Luft fluttered over to Mila's shoulder and sat down on it. "The tall one wants to see you."
Mila turned her head to glance at the fairy on her shoulder. "Finally." Even after she'd started working with the Lord of Spikes, Mila had been having difficulty finding a time when he was free to meet with her. Between his duties as acting Grand Artificer and whatever other nefarious plots he was concocting against the Royal Family, he was hardly ever in his office.
"Should I tell him you're able to meet, or are you too busy babysitting the prince?" Luft asked.
"We're almost done here," Mila replied, watching as Prince Percival shook hands with the nobles he'd allowed to come to the front of the crowd. "I'll be off duty once the prince returns to the castle. Tell him I'll be there soon."
Mila approached Lord Remoth's office without any of her guards in tow, only bringing Luft with her. As far as she was concerned, the fewer witnesses she had, the better.
Just as his personal chambers had been, Remoth's office had a number of black-cloaked knights with face-concealing helmets guarding the door. As they peered at her through the slits in their helmets, she saw their glowing red eyes, and she was convinced they were not human. Others may have mistaken them for Sheikah because of the eyes, but Mila knew better. Any one of them could have been the monster who'd attacked her in her bed that night. He may have wanted revenge for what she did to his friend.
Nevertheless, Mila did not bat an eye. She walked right up to them and nodded her head to the side, silently telling them to move out of her way. Two of them did so, allowing her to reach the door uninterrupted. Turning the knob, she opened the door and stepped inside.
"I have arrived," Mila announced herself.
Lord Remoth sat at his desk, looking over some parchment. He glanced up at her when she entered. "Sit."
Mila did so, taking a seat in one of the chairs on the other side of his desk. "Are we finally ready to act?"
Remoth looked uninterested. "In what way?"
Mila raised an eyebrow. "The election has started. The people know the late king's children are in direct competition with each other. If any of them were to mysteriously end up dead, all of Hyrule would suspect it was their siblings who did it. Now is the perfect time."
Lord Remoth turned a page. "It's still too early."
Mila looked confused. "Why? What is the point in moving at a snail's pace?"
"The Royal Family members are not the only variables in this equation," the Lord of Spikes explained. "Their time will come, but at present, their lives are necessary to draw out the other necessary target."
"There's someone else more important than the Royal Family?" Mila asked. "Who? Is it a god?"
"It isn't relevant to you." Lord Remoth put a stamp on something and put it to the side. "Now, as for why you're here." Reaching his arm out to the side, he gestured with his hand as if he were beckoning someone to join them.
Mila turned to look. At first, she saw no one there. But then, a shadow appeared on the wall, and a man stepped out of it. She flinched in surprise as Grand Watcher Socicilla walked across the room and took a seat beside her. The Sheikah man wore a dark, hooded robe and a face covering, so only his blood red eyes were showing. He did not show any interest in Mila.
"What is this?" the Kokiri girl asked in annoyance. If there had been someone else listening in on their private conversation, she would have liked to have been informed ahead of time.
"Lady Shadowgale, you informed me that Prince Lancel possessed a device that allowed him to control the movement of Skyloft," Lord Remoth said, reiterating a conversation they'd had earlier.
"Yes, indeed," Mila confirmed. Luft had discovered this after eavesdropping on a conversation between the princesses. "Are we ready to act on that information?"
"I believe so." Lord Remoth turned to Socicilla. "Grand Watcher, would you kindly share your plan with Lady Shadowgale?"
The mysterious Sheikah man nodded. "My watchers have confirmed Prince Lancel keeps the control device secured within his tower. I will arrange for the prince to be away from the tower, and for its wards to be disabled. Lady Shadowgale can use that opportunity to enter the tower and retrieve the device."
"What?" Mila was shocked by all of this. For one, she had no idea the Grand Watcher was working with Lord Remoth's insurgency group. Additionally, she took issue with her sudden involvement in the Grand Watcher's plan. "Why me? What the hell's the point of that? Why not have one of your stupid watchers do it?"
"I can disable almost all of the prince's wards, but I cannot disable the ones meant to ward off shadow magic users like myself and my agents," Socicila explained. He spoke completely emotionlessly, not appearing to take any offense to Mila's rudeness. He also showed no apparent qualms about betraying the prince.
Mila furrowed her brow. She knew little of that kind of magic, but for the prince to have multiple wards set up against multiple different types of possible intruders, he must have been pretty paranoid.
"Fine. I'll do it," Mila agreed. "But on one condition - I get to keep the control device."
"I see no reason not to entrust it to you," Lord Remoth agreed. "Given your affinity for wind magic, we may require your skills in order to make use of it anyway. Grand Watcher, have you any objections?"
Socicila shook his head.
"Excellent." Mila smiled. "Well, then. When are we doing this?"
Mila crouched atop a wall that stood high along the side of the castle. She had positioned herself a fairly large distance away from Prince Lancel's tower, knowing it was important that she not be spotted. Peering through a spyglass, she waited until she saw the prince leaving with his bodyguard.
"Looks like the Sheikah did his job," Mila remarked to Luft.
"What about the other guards?" the fairy asked.
Mila moved the spyglass, focusing on the two royal guards standing at the end of the bridge leading to the entrance of the prince's tower.
"This will be a lot cleaner if I don't have to kill anyone," Mila whispered. "There shouldn't be any guards within the tower. I just need to get inside without the guards spotting me."
Sneaking into the prince's tower did not seem difficult to pull off. Mila had the cover of night on her side, her small frame made it easy for her to hide, and her wind magic gave her mobility that most sentries would not be considering. While she had not dressed herself in an outfit too obviously built for stealth, she had opted not to wear her armor, so she would make little noise as she moved.
"Follow me, Luft."
"As if I have a choice."
Collapsing the spyglass and putting it away, Mila leaped over the edge of the wall. She used the wind to slow her descent, landing almost silently on the level far below. She then repeated this action, jumping down another level that would allow her access to the base of the prince's tower.
As she made her way across the castle grounds, she saw many guards on duty, but none of them spotted her. She did her best to keep out of sight. It would not have been inherently suspicious for her to be found outdoors this late at night, but if she were spotted, it may have caused issues somewhere further down the line when the prince started asking questions about his missing control device.
When she made it to the base of the tower, Mila tilted her head to look upwards. The closest window was several stories up. Climbing all that way was going to be a pain.
"Nothing you haven't done before, right?" Luft pointed out.
Mila grunted. "The Talus Titan was much easier than this. Lots more handholds." She sighed. For most people, falling while attempting to climb the tower would have been fatal. For her, it would have meant starting again from the bottom. A mere inconvenience compared to certain death, but Mila hated inconvenience. And so, she started climbing, trying her best not to fall.
Luckily, she managed to climb all the way up to the lowest window with nothing more than a few scrapes on her hands. Luft was able to slip inside the tower and unlatch the window to let Mila in. When Mila crawled inside, she found herself atop a spiral staircase, upon which she sat down to catch her breath.
"Heal," Mila demanded, thrusting her hands out towards Luft.
"Heal, what?" Luft teased.
"Heal now."
The fairy giggled, but complied, hovering above Mila's hands as she sprinkled them with her healing magic.
When she was ready, the Kokiri girl climbed to her feet and dusted herself off. "Alright. Let's get searching," she said to Luft. "Warn me if you see anyone. Socicila said there wouldn't be any guards inside the door, but you never know."
"Yeah, yeah."
Mila wasn't sure exactly how much time she would have, so she wanted to search quickly. However, she also did not want to make her intrusion obvious, so she had to be careful.
Try to think like him. Where would the supposed genius prince hide something this important?
The prince's tower was filled with items that looked delicate and expensive. It was decorated with fine portraits, porcelain vases, magical artifacts, and trinkets from numerous other civilizations. Probably more than anything, it was filled with books. Despite Hyrule Castle having its own considerable library, the prince had his own personal library that spanned three levels of his tower.
Mila expected to find the control device in the prince's bedchambers. She looked under his bed, mattress, and pillows, in his wardrobe, behind the mirror, and everywhere else she could think to look. In numerous other rooms, she checked beneath the furniture and behind every portrait, hoping to find a safe or a hidden compartment somewhere.
"For Din's sake," the Kokiri girl said in annoyance, sitting herself down on the prince's couch. "I didn't expect this to be easy, but gods is it frustrating."
"I'll say," Luft agreed, jangling in annoyance. "If I have to look at one more pretentious piece of art, I'm gonna burn this damn tower down." The fairy settled down on Mila's shoulder, raising her tiny arms up in a stretch.
Mila mimicked her fairy partner's actions. "I hope the device in question isn't small," she said aloud. "If it can fit inside of a hollowed out book, we might have to search Lancel's entire library."
"Well, I've often said people should spend more time in the library," came a man's voice from the doorway.
Mila leaped to her feet, immediately drawing her sword.
"Now, now." Prince Lancel leaned against the wall. "It's poor manners to draw your sword in someone else's home, you know."
The Kokiri girl did not know what to do.
I took too long to search! Either that, or that idiot Socicila didn't do his job right.
"Please, sit back down," the prince insisted, gesturing to the couch Mila stood in front of. "We no doubt have much to discuss."
Prince Lancel remained friendly and affable, but Mila did not feel safe. The sound of clanking metal followed from behind him, and a moment later, the prince's bodyguard appeared in the doorway, blocking Mila's exit. Sir Anselm had his axe drawn, but he placed the head of it on the ground in front of him, with his hands resting on the pommel.
"Please listen to the prince, my lady," the distinguished knight requested.
"What are you so scared of?" Luft asked in the Fairy tongue, hovering beside Mila's head. "He's just an old man. You can take him."
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that," Prince Lancel replied, also speaking their language, much to their surprise.
"...Very well, my prince." Mila sat back down.
"Splendid!" Lancel clapped his hands together and sat down on the sofa chair across from her. "Now, then. Dame Shadowgale. Or, I hear it's Lady Shadowgale now, is it?"
"That is correct," Mila nodded, showing some pride.
Lancel laughed. "Excellent. I see working for my brother has its perks."
"I suppose it does." Mila eyed Sir Anselm, wondering if she would be fast enough to slip past him.
"So, why don't you enlighten me as to your business in my dear home?" the prince requested.
Mila only had a moment to think. "Prince Pervival sent me. He wanted me to find any information regarding your campaign that would be useful to him."
Prince Lancel smirked. "That is not a bad fabrication, but I'm afraid I already had you at a disadvantage, given that I already know why you are here." Reaching into his carrying bag, Lancel pulled out a rectangular slate of some kind. It was about the size of the clay tablets the Zora wrote on, but Mila could not quite tell what material it was made of. It didn't look quite like metal or quite like stone.
Is that the control device?
"This is what you were here for, is it not?" the prince asked, wearing a cocky smile on his face. "Not that I blame you, or my brother, of course. With this little thing, I can control each and every sky island that makes up the whole of Skyloft." The prince tapped his hand against the slate and one face of it lit up, making a gentle noise. Lancel swiped his finger across it a few times, which caused the lights on the slate to change, showing various symbols and images.
Mila was amazed by what she was seeing. She'd never heard of a device like that, whether it was magical or technological.
"I know! It's quite impressive. I call it the Sky Slate. I was quite happy with it after I managed to repair it." Lancel tapped the slate in a way that caused the lights to turn off, accompanied by another noise. He then slipped the slate into his bag.
Mila furrowed her brow. The prince was being extremely open with her. He no doubt believed he held all the cards. However, he seemed to still believe she was there at the behest of Prince Percival. That meant there was some information he did not have.
Maybe I can convince him to let me go if I agree to spy on his brother for him.
"How did you know I was here?" Mila asked probingly.
"How would I not have known, my lady?" Lancel replied, still smirking insufferably.
Mila hesitated, choosing her words carefully. "There were not any active wards on the tower." She was unable to know that, and Socicila had told her there would still be a few active. Nevertheless, she didn't want to give away any useful information.
Lancel laughed. "Ah, so is that what Socicila told you?"
Mila was shocked.
So it was on purpose? Socicila set me up? But why?
Perhaps she'd been stupid to agree to do this in the first place. She had no reason to trust Socicila, even if her business partner appeared to trust him. However, something still didn't add up.
If the Grand Watcher told him everything, why does he still think I'm working for Prince Percival?
"What do you mean?" Mila asked noncommittally.
Lancel looked as smug as ever. "He's quite brilliant, you know. He's always had everyone convinced that he's working for them – my father, Lady Impa, Lord Remoth – but really, he's been reporting to me this whole time. It's allowed me to stay three steps ahead of everyone else from the very beginning."
Bullshit. If he betrays everyone else, what makes you think he won't betray you?
"If all that is true, then why bother telling me all of this?" Mila asked, hoping to steer the conversation favorably for her. "Would you like me to work with him, too? To spy on your brother?"
Lancel clapped his hands together, then held them out invitingly. "Now there's an idea!" he said happily. "I'm sure my brother must be quite difficult to work for. He's never been great at properly rewarding his subordinates. Me on the other hand - I'm an excellent lord. Isn't that right, Anselm?"
"He pays quite well," the elderly knight replied. "The problem is everything else."
"See?" Lancel said proudly, as if he were satisfied with that answer. "So, how about it? Let's make a deal! I love deals. Tell me everything I want to know about Percival's campaign, and I'll give you whatever you want. Especially after I become king!"
Mila internally breathed a sigh of relief. Despite having been caught breaking into a prince's private domicile in an attempt to rob him, not only was she not to be punished, she was actually being rewarded. The Kokiri girl smiled. "Well, my prince. I think-"
Nothing could have prepared Mila for what happened next. In the middle of her sentence, something large and heavy tore through the prince's tower, as if a giant boulder had fallen through the ceiling right above Prince Lancel. Whatever it was, it tore through the tower like it was nothing, knocking chunks of stone and wood free and scattering them to the ground below.
In an instant, the prince and his bodyguard were gone, as was a huge chunk of the wall and much of the furniture. As much of the wall had been torn away, Mila could see a colossal monstrosity hovering outside. It appeared as some sort of undead giant, with a great red eye in place of a head, and with severed hands floating in front of its wrist stubs.
Mila remained seated on the couch for a moment, stunned by the sudden destruction in front of her, and more terrified than she could ever remember being.
Demon!
Alarm bells began ringing throughout the castle grounds. The Headless Demon let out a deep, anguished groan from its mouthless body. It then lifted its arms and swung its severed hands back towards the tower.
Mila shrieked as more large chunks of the tower she was still inside of were quickly dislodged by the sudden force. The room she was in tilted forward, and she realized the whole thing was collapsing.
"Mila, get out of here!" Luft shouted, flying out through the opening in the wall, ringing loudly in alarm as she did.
The Kokiri girl did not have time to think. The piece of floor she was standing on slid free from the tower, plummeting towards the ground. Reflexively, she jumped away from the collapsing tower, summoning the power of the winds as strongly as she could to propel herself. She found herself diving straight into the castle moat. Before she collided with the water's surface, she summoned the winds once more to cushion her landing.
When she broke the water's surface, she plunged deep into the moat. She felt disoriented, as if she'd just been smacked in the head with a heavy wooden club. It took her several seconds to realize which way was up, but once she'd righted herself, she swam upwards as fast as she could.
Mila drank in a gulp of air as soon as she got her head above water. She could see the demon was still present, hovering above the ground beside the rubble that was once Prince Lancel's tower. There was an odd, rhythmic thumping sound coming from the monster as it slammed its hands against the ground repeatedly, as if it were beating an invisible drum.
Is that really… Lord Remoth?
As Mila treaded water, staring at the demon in horror, the monstrosity turned its eye towards her, casting a red light upon her like a searchlight. She instantly felt a searing pain in her head, as if the demon's eye were penetrating her mind.
The pain did not last long, however. A cannon from atop the castle wall fired at the demon, causing it to emit a sudden squeal of pain. The demon turned its great eye upon the cannon. It instantly swiped one of its severed hands across the wall, obliterating the cannon that had fired upon it, as well as a chunk of the wall where the cannon once stood.
Mila thought the demon would proceed to destroy the entire castle next, but it did not remain much longer than that. The shadowy portal in the night sky from which the demon hung opened wider, and the demon ascended upwards, disappearing through the portal. Almost as quickly as it had appeared, it had left.
What the hell was that?!
"Stupid… fucking… demon," Mila muttered to herself, panting as she swam to shore.
I swear, if Lancel's control device was damaged…
When she made it back to land, the area was absolutely swarming with guards. There had to have been dozens of soldiers in the area, surveying the wreckage and barking orders to each other.
"Make way!"
"Clear a path!"
"Give them some space!"
Mila watched as four women in priestess robes appeared. The guards cleared a path for them, forming a circle around what Mila realized was the mangled body of Prince Lancel. The priestesses knelt beside him, and a white glow enveloped them as they tried to heal the prince.
Idiots. He's clearly already dead.
For a moment, Mila considered slipping away from the crowd before anyone could ask her what she was doing there. However, unless anyone had seen her diving out of the collapsing tower, she figured she was safe.
Where is the Sky Slate?
It was probably still on the prince's corpse, but it was too difficult to see through the crowd of guards blocking the way.
Some of the guards began clearing a path once more. A knight in golden armor appeared, who Mila recognized as the Grand Protector. He spoke a few words to the priestesses, but Mila could not hear anything over the commotion. One of the priestesses stood, shaking her head.
See? What did I say? Dead.
A group of guards arrived carrying a padded wooden stretcher. They set it down beside the prince's body. The priestesses gave up on their attempts to heal him as he was loaded onto the stretcher. The Grand Protector waved his hand, and they carried him away.
Dammit.
She would not be able to retrieve the Sky Slate that night. If it was even still functional, she or one of the Grand Watcher's agents would have to swipe it off of the prince's corpse later. Slipping away from the crowd, Mila retreated back to the castle to plan her next move.
The next day, Mila was not happy. Grand Watcher Socicila had set her up somehow, which meant Lord Remoth probably had as well. On top of that, if Lord Remoth truly was the demon, he had nearly killed her. He may have even intended to. And to make matters worse, the Sky Slate had been lost, and possibly destroyed.
I need to get to the bottom of this.
While the rest of the castle was in mourning over the death of Prince Lancel, Mila marched through the halls towards Remoth's office. When she arrived, the guards stepped in her path, but she was in no mood to deal with them. Swinging her arm through the air, she summoned a gust of wind, knocking all four of them against the wall. Before they had a chance to recover, she stepped through the door, slammed it shut, and locked it behind her.
In the office, Lord Remoth took notice of her, but said nothing. He merely glared at her with a look of irritation on his face.
"What the hell was that?" Mila spat out, stomping closer to him.
"Might I ask you to be more specific?" Remoth responded with little interest.
"You know what I mean, demon," the Kokiri girl continued scathingly. "I do not appreciate being used like that. The Sheikah lied to me. If the prince hadn't been in the mood to negotiate, I could have been executed for treason."
"Yes, he lied to you," Lord Remoth confirmed, sounding as if he thought she was an idiot for ever assuming otherwise. "We needed a way to trick the prince into bringing the control device out into the open. It worked. I fail to see the problem."
"The problem is you two selfish bastards threw me to the wolves!" Mila asserted, angrily swinging her hand through the air, blowing the papers off of Remoth's desk in the process.
"If you are worried about Prince Lancel, I highly doubt he will be a problem anymore," Lord Remoth said dryly, unfazed by Mila's rage.
"And that's another thing!" Mila went on. "I can understand killing the prince, but doing so by destroying his tower with me inside of it? You could have killed me!"
Lord Remoth raised a brow. "I could have?"
"Don't play dumb with me," Mila said in irritation. "You, Socicila, or whoever it is you've got wearing that big, ugly, demon corpse. We had a deal, monster. I am not to be harmed." Mila drew her sword and trained it on Lord Remoth. It was not her gilded sword, but rather a fairly accurate replica she carried with her while her true sword was hidden away for safekeeping. "You forget - you still need my sword. If I die, you'll never find it, and the Triforce will remain out of your reach. You would do well to remember that."
Remoth eyed Mila's sword, showing no interest in her threat. "You have my word that I shall do you no harm, nor shall anyone under my power."
Mila hesitated. She looked for a loophole within his words or any hint of him lying. He clearly did not care for her safety, but the threat of losing the key to his prize would have to be enough to keep him in line. Slowly, the Kokiri girl slid her sword back into its sheath. "I do not have the Sky Slate," she informed him, moving on to business.
"Sky Slate?"
"The prince's control device. That's what he called it," Mila explained.
"I see. Fear not. Socicila's agents have already recovered it," Lord Remoth informed her.
Mila sighed angrily.
So everything went according to plan, huh?
"Then what's next?" Mila asked. "There are still three Hyrules left."
"We have discussed these private matters enough for one day," Remoth said, raising a hand to stop her. "All in due time. Now, please. Allow me to return to my work." He gestured to the door.
Mila remained a moment longer to glare at the man in annoyance. However, she relented, turning back to the door. "You should get better guards," she remarked on her way out. When she opened the door, she preemptively blasted the guards out of her way with her magic and continued on her way.