Scene #7219: Zora's Domain-2

Owner	Pose
Link	ZORA'S DOMAIN LATE AFTERNOON It's been a week since the arrest of the Zoran Royal Family, and perhaps the best time to investigate the charges placed against them. The city looks the same - glass underfeet, a city built over a lake, with buildings mostly submerging instead of rising except in the tourist district, where they're the same as normal. Reds and greens flit around, and a palace stands in the center of the city. The tourist district is quieter. People are being careful. Zorans /avoid/ it dead-on, sticking to their own neighborhoods. Storefronts have had rocks thrown through them, patched back up. The residential district has neighborhood watches looking for tourists coming around, watching them carefully. A few protestors with signs hang around outside the palace, away from the guards. They're anti-royal. The nearby orphanage, Lulu's, has kids playing outside. They're not charging money for information at the moment, and they shy away from unfamiliar strangers. The Paladins have a full set of clues on 'what to do next': they need to find the evidence lockers where they are keeping the evidence for treason, find the witnesses who are set to testify, and find out what happened to Lord Jabu-Jabu, who has been poisoned into a coma, the living god of the Zora. The Concord also know about Jabu-Jabu. While they don't have all the same leads, they have more access to the palace and those inside, if they want to ask questions. But the family's under house arrest - they'll be watched by soldiers. Speaking of soldiers, General Mikao is available for contact through radio. If anyone has questions of him, he has recently obtained one for Multiversal purposes.
Revali	Revali has enlisted some help for this. He's gone to find any rito who might be staying in the tourist district, as well as called in a couple from his village, and gotten them on the same page. The first order of business is setting up some private space - the backroom of a foreign food cafe that's selling Rito fare (Meuniere and More). It's a space for storing evidence, interrogating witnesses, or simply just a safe space for unwinding inbetween investigations. With that in place, a search plan is formed - the rito cohort taking wing and doing some aerial surveillance from high above the city, looking for Jabu-Jabu's location, anything that stands out as a suspicious site... kinda just doing a rapid scan of the whole area, in case any places of interest stand out. There's about half a dozen Rito up there, including Revali himself - not a huge force, but bringing in too many might attract attention or cause the Zora to draw a wrong conclusion about why they're there.
Mordred	Once again, the Knight of Treachery and self-proclaimed Future King arrives in the Zora's Domain, but she looks a little different from the horn-helmeted and armor-clad figure that had come not too long ago. Today, she's dressed in a red and yellow t-shirt bearing the logo the Eggman Empire, a light denim jacket, and matching shorts as though that'll actually help stave off the cold at all. It doesn't, but she's not shivering. Noticing the patched up windows and the swathe of people outside the palace, however, she doesn't make a boisterous appearance at the palace. Instead, she takes a detour through the tourist district first to get some snacks, then stops at the orphanage. She has no idea what these kids know, but it might not hurt to get their take on the situation. "Oi. What happened over here?" Mordred gestures towards the boarded up windows first, then at the palace. "I thought folks here loved the royal family. What gives?"
Link	Revali goes scouting for the location of Jabu-Jabu. He spots some things - the rare house with a balcony in the residential district, a lot more soldiers than normal patrolling. He also spots the large staircase at the back of the lake, up the cliffwalls. There's a massive overhang, guarded heavily by a contingency of soldiers. Inside this overhang is a giant whale-hippo looking creature, currently in a deep sleep, inside of a grotto. Landing at the grotto would Absolutely Cause Problems, but, it might be necessary if they're going to solve the coma. They just have to figure out their approach. Mordred approaches the kids. One of the kid just jeers at her. "Don'tcha know? The Royal Family was arrested for treason! They're in their palace guarded by soldiers! How can we trust them anymore?" He looks away from her, while a girl turns her head. "Hey, weren't you /in/ the palace? Are you one of their lackeys?!"
Maksim Messerglas	Maksim has never been to this part of Hyrule. The Zora never before seemed like the type to welcome visitors from distant lands, and now they seem even less inclined to roll out the red carpet. That just means that it's going to be slightly more difficult to get to the bottom of whatever's going on. Just as well, though; Maksim always did love a good mystery. "They aren't going to like us wanderin' 'round the palace," Maksim's more disheveled companion asides. The roguish-looking fellow, wearing a recently-restitched leather coat and carrying knife and pistol at his belt, lurks in Maksim's shadow. He's not at all the type to get invited to the kinds of high-society locales that Maksim drags him. "Come now, Dismas," replies the much more well-dressed young man in the lead, "we've an invitation on behalf of the Concord. Surely they won't turn away such enterprising fellows as ourselves in their hour of need? We're just visiting, in any case. Mayhap we'll come across a clue, though!" Dismas grunts in response. Maksim steps into the next hall, beaming a smile at the interior. "Wipe your feet," he idly asides. (Dismas does not wipe his feet.)
Lilian Rook	The tourist district getting roughed up isn't Lilian's problem. Protestors aren't her problem either; in fact, if she has to try suppressing a laugh when within eyeshot of them, and utterly fails to do so should they so much as look at her funny. Anyone being the slightest bit uncooperative though --that she won't stand for. Of course it's not tremendously likely, given she's returned with the same aura of uncanny charm and allure as last time, and dressed only slightly down from 'meeting with the prince', but at no point does she ever conduct herself with the slightest hint --not even a trace of posture-- that she's here to concede to the locals and try and be 'one of the good ones'. Considering she'd divined the details of the whole mess before, she feels confident in her plan of attack. Since she navigates these things by a powerful, blood-given sixth sense, rather than having to throw down tarot cards or anything of the like, her first few moments through town are spent laying her gaze about the architecture, feeling out the direct route to her object of interest: the letter.
Staren	Staren shows up dressed in normal clothes this time because it seems merely visiting the city doesn't require going underwater. He can change to a swimsuit quickly enough anyway. The state of the tourist district is mildly alarming. The zora are attacking EACHOTHER over some of them taking money from foreigners? It's fucked up! But he doesn't stick around, even to talk to the orphans; It seems clear enough what happened, that opinions opposing the royal family and foreigners have spread more over the past week. No, he's here to try and make use of the resource he HAS access to, the palace and its people. Unfortunately, he has no leads and no clever ideas for investigation, so he's going to brute force it, letting the guard follow him as he asks everyone in the palace he comes across what they know about events, what they actually witnessed around the time of the supposed poisoning, where the royal family was, and any other information they feel like volunteering in support of or against the royal family. There's a lie here, and that means SOMEWHERE there will be a contradiction, a discrepancy between witness accounts, that hopefully will lead to an actual clue.
Link	Down, Lilian will find. The letter is down, beneath the 'police station-slash-military base', inside an evidence locker. But there's a problem. There's no land access to the building with the evidence. They don't want Hylians anywhere near it. You have to swim, get through a door that is airsealed via water magic to prevent flooding, get into the locker, past security, and get the letter. Lilian has the stamina and superhuman capability to make the deep swim, but she'd have to slip past the guards in the process, get through the door, and not get caught 'underwater' by security that can swim better than she can.
Edward Blackwell	Messy. Eyes the dark brown of twilight's edge stare down at the tourist's district. Tennis shoes swing back and forth off the ledge. Black smoke caresses brown hair. He scratches the stubble on his scalpel-sharp chin. Messy. The whole situation's messy. It's blood on ground drip-dripping from the arm. The royals arrested. Drip, drip. Won't kill by itself, not yet. But the government's bleeding. Drip, drip. Embers slide along paper chimney towards thin lips. The tourists are on edge. The natives aren't there. Bruises through shop windows. Bleeding inside. Won't kill by itself. But the nation is bleeding. Green rupees dance on nimble knuckles. Four at a time. Gathered like protesters. An ill and quiet god. The people are angry. LOCK THEM UP written in black-bile ink. Won't kill by itself. But the people are sick. There will be violence soon. Maybe not tonight. But it's inevitable. They're tearing themselves apart. Edward Blackwell lays back against the glass overpass. The green rupees glitter as they hit the floor. Damn. Would saving the god change anything? Would knowing the poison, getting the blood, help? That was the plan. Learn the poison. Get the blood. Save the god. Save the Zora. But it wasn't that simple. It didn't uncommit the crime. Didn't fix the window. It patched up one wound. Six more bleeding would still kill you. Damn. Edward sits up. Revali's got the location. Grotto up the stairs. Edward sits up, tapping ash from his smoke onto the ground. Grotto up the stairs. He pulls himself to his feet, slouches forward, and starts heading up the stairs, past Maksim and Staren. He stops, one foot on the stairs. "God damn." "What in the fucking hell are you wearing?" And then he resumes heading up the stairs. He doesn't really feel the need to make eye contact or linger. He's got a destination. He's got a plan. He's got a mission. Might as well see it through.
Link	The Concord have an appointment in the palace, while Staren moves to talk to everyone. A lot of people refuse to answer Staren's questions if they're workers, telling him that they've been informed to save their testimony for the case, but the actual royals/royal allies are more forthcoming. They tell him that there's not really 'alibis', because it's treason. Mipha does not have an alibi on the poisoning, because she was literally there right before it happened. A lot of servants were apparently used for the 'treason', and they plan to testify on what happened - something about selling spears and armor to the Gerudo. Maksim and Dismas get a meeting not with Prince Sidon or the king, but with Princess Mipha. She's heavily guarded by soldiers since she's thought to have 'actually poisoned the god', but, she's there, sitting on a couch across from a table and another couch. She offers them a seat, some tea, and a sad smile. "Mr. Messerglas, Mr. Dismas, please, take a seat. I am Princess Mipha, priestess of Lord Jabu-Jabu." Her voice is serene, sweet, and honestly, she looks like she couldn't hurt a fly. "You are investigating our 'crimes', correct? I am happy to help clear our name in any way I can." Edward approaches the stairs, and is immediately stopped by two guards with heavy duty armor and spears. There's another one up on the stairs, leaning against the cliff face, and even more up at the grotto. They immediately tell him 'go away, sir, the tourist district is that way'. Tourists are not allowed to see Lord Jabu-Jabu, at all, especially right now.
Rean Schwarzer	Rean is here. His movements are a bit more lethargic than normal, but he's here. After all, he did say he'd help check out the Zora situation. For now, he just heads over to where the protest is happening, to see if anyone saw what happened. "Uh, hey." Rean says, lightly tapping one of the protesters on the shoulder. "What're you protesting?" Straightforward as usual, Rean.
Revali	At the moment, Revali holds his action, letting Edward take the lead. He stands ready to back him up, though.
Edward Blackwell	Guards approach. Edward looks at the three. He taps some ash onto the ground. The Zozo's getting thin, getting light. His eyes are fixed at a point past their heads. The smell of sea-salt memory. The taste of liquid feelings. Dancing thoughts pirouetting through the smoke. "Hey, I'm confused. You already said we could go in. What gives?" The tone is music to their dance. It twists the song. It spins the dancers to a new beat. Tap tap tap, the drumbeat to the cigarette ash. Tap tap tap, the dance to his words. "Did you forget or something already? Damn, you guys must have real bad memories. Like goldfish." A quiet little joke. A quiet little laugh. He's not serious. He's disarming. So they don't look too close at the thoughts. So they don't wonder at the strange decision.
Lilian Rook	A brief sequence of impressions. A point in space. A beacon in the mind's eye. A sense of its surroundings. Flashes of the route. The straightest path. The shortest path. What stands in the way. All the relevant aspects of what it is Lilian Wants. That's all that is ever relevant. "Underwater. Well, it's to be expected that this would happen at some point. Aquatic people wouldn't keep everything in easy reach of air breathers. Especially not anything important. I could change, but . . ." "That feels like dignifying them a little too much." Already knowing what she's about to do, Lilian maneuvers to an edge of the glassy mosaic plaza, behind one of those lightly vandalized stores, where everyone is conveniently refusing to go for distaste of outsiders. She motionlessly keys her communicator, barely putting in the effort to inform her allies "Engaging in materiel acquisition. I'll have the letter in . . . let's say a hundred seconds.". Tapping the channel closed, she peers down from the edge. 00:00:01 -----[stop]----- Lilian lifts off the edge, drifting serenely, if eerily, from the glass, and to barely a centimeter from the water's surface, now a finely sculpted terrarium of glass, exquisitely sculpted with minute whorls and ripples that'd be the envy of any natural history museum. As if intending to shatter that glass, she stomps down on it with a significant amount of force. The water flexes for an instant. Ripples. Craters. A foot of splash rushing up the edges of its glass bowl and spilling over --and then stopping, a hundred little glass beads suspended in the air on invisible strings. Prying one of those board equivalents off the shop window, Lilian descends into the deep cavitation, taking up the makeshift patch in both hands and using it as if she were hammering in a railroad spike or ramming shot down the mouth of a cannon. Repeated blows drive the frozen wake of air and plastic deformation of water down ten meters at a time, becoming easier and less violent the further she goes, as a vacuum on pause forms. Pretty soon, she has a direct route to the top of the building, standing atop a narrow and dry corridor. Tapping her heel against it to be sure there isn't anything wet in the way, she briefly returns to fix the patch back where she found it, and makes one more round trip, this time at a swift glide, gracefully hovering back down to the underwater rooftop. Disassociating into a ghastly flicker of black static, she drops through the solid matter entirely, and lands soundlessly on the floor inside, stepping behind the nearest corner, and taking a deep breath. -----[start]----- 00:00:02 Now inside the no-doubt guard compound, Lilian spends a few seconds, checking the relevant routes to the evidence locking, and feeling out the overall rotation of guards, and any further security checks, in the way. Up above, there's a moderately loud splash, as if someone had dove in from a somewhat unnecessary height, but nothing special at all for a busy city full of aquatic Zora constantly going up and down through the lake's surface.
Staren	One or two idiots who can't see the contradiction, Staren can roll his eyes at, but eventually the servants get an earful about what kind of justice system prevents investigation while the crime is as fresh as possible in everyone's minds and before they all get to talk to eachother and 'get their stories straight' if anyone is lying, and instead favors waiting to argue over it in a courtroom and hope everyone has perfect memories? If this doesn't persuade anyone to start helping, he confesses to the royals that their own justice system is clearly rigged and they may need to come up with alternate plans. "Look, is there anyone at all left to appeal to when the corruption is /inside/ the system that's already decided to blame you and stop everyone from talking to investigators? I'm TRYING to show some respect for this kangaroo court and not jump to burning it all down but they're not making it easy. Do you have a lawyer who can get a court order to make the witnesses talk, or something?"
Maksim Messerglas	Maksim only slows down when Dismas gets into a weird name-calling-slash-greeting-ritual incident with Edward, who indeed only merits a quick glance and a polite nod until he's dragged into it. Upstairs, though... He makes a silent note of that. "Dismas. Come along. We're expected." The Highwayman grunts again, giving Edward a marginally unfriendly look. He moves off, rounding a corner in Maksim's wake. Maksim and Dismas both bow their heads in Mipha's immediate presence. "Your Royal Highness," says Maksim. He sits. Dismas hovers. Maksim's manner is comfortable in surroundings like this, going so far as to mentally just paint the guards out of the picture. Dismas is all tension and wariness, as if he's an animal who thinks he smells a trap when he expected dinner. "I am. First, allow me to express my utmost sympathy for your present plight. I can't help but wonder, however -- as the royal family," he emphasizes the 'royal' part slightly, "what precisely is keeping you here against your wishes? Are you not the head of state?" He sighs deeply. "My apologies, Princess; this is a frustrating set of circumstances for you, I'm sure." Dismas says nothing. He watches the guards carefully instead. Maksim doesn't seem to notice his eagle-eyed interest. "If I may ask, what are your duties as priestess, precisely?"
Link	"The royal family has betrayed the Zoran people to the Gerudo!" The protesters tell Rean with a sneer. He's human. They're mad at outsiders. "You outsiders are trying to take away our rights, our sovereignity, our safety!" There's about four of them, all holding signs. People nod to them as they pass. They have support.
Link	Staren complains at the servants. They just apologize, look away, and try to avoid him from there on out. Prince Sidon blinks at him several times and tells him simply, "You shouldn't burn down the courts! They're doing their jobs. Witnesses can be tampered with if they speak their testimony, of course, or have it altered by outside parties, or simply taken out for, well, having the best testimonies." Sidon pauses, then grins a toothy grin. "Perhaps you could ask your allies what to do? The lawyers aren't going to help, either. Legal situations are complex!" Maksim talks to Mipha. When he asks about 'what is keeping you here', she sighs. "General Mikao of the military has us arrested. We've accepted it, because to do otherwise woudl cause riots in the streets, most likely, as the people turn against us. We don't want them to fall to bloodshed." When asked about her duties, though, Mipha perks up a little, then gets sadder. "Our god is Lord Jabu-Jabu, divinity in a living shell. I feed him, bathe him, and divine his intentions. My innate Grace also allows me to heal the wounded, which happens in front of him, but...not right now. I'm not allowed near him, otherwise I'd just remove the poison myself." Edward convinces the guards that he's allowed through. They think the thought, let him through, and then when he's up the stairs, the third guard starts to snap out of it, and move to turn around and approach him from behind. He's not immediately attacking, but since Edward needs to slip past the guards on top of the grotto, it'll be a problem. Hopefully, Revali can intercept. Lilian sifts through the water, landing on the base of the building underneath, and phases through without getting wet. She ends up in a corridor, /right/ behind a guard who isn't looking at her. She can slip over towards the lockers with careful stealth usage and timing, but there's a problem - there's a guard inside, going through a different locker for a case to retrieve the evidence. The one she wants is very close to it, so 'opening it' would require getting /uncomfortably/ close to the guard. And then, she needs to find an exit, as well.
Revali	OVERWATCH ACTIVATED! "Excuse me!" calls Revali, landing right in front of the third guard, placing himself neatly between him and Edward. "I had a question! This is the tourist district, right? I seem to be a bit - how do you say - lost?" "You see, I was flying here from Tabantha - lovely place, you simply must come visit - and wouldn't you know it, but I think I took a wrong turn somewhere and, well, Hylian roads all look the same, don't they? There's really no character to them. So I decide to travel down one - Oh, pardon my manners, I never asked your name, did I? Manners these days, they simply are going by the wayside, aren't they? So as I was saying, I got a bit lost..." Revali just brazenly launches into the longest, most rambling story full of lots of tangents and extraneous information, speaking loudly and quickly and in a tone that just simply will not be interrupted. "And then there was this farm - have you ever been on a farm? Lovely place, if a bit farmy, do you know what I mean? Lots of horses, certainly, if you like horses..."
Rean Schwarzer	Rean sighs. Well, that's a chilly reception. Now what? "Oh man, that's terrible!" Rean says, maybe laying it on a tad too thick in the (fake) concern department. "Do you know anyone who saw what they did? How'd they betray the Zora?"
Edward Blackwell	They let him by. He's persuasive. They dance the song he sings them. Cigarette arcs downward as thin lips purse. The taste of their memories lingered on his tongue. Those twilight-dark eyes are uncomfortable. The feet ascend the stairs all the same. He doesn't hesitate. He never hesitates. But damned if he's not uncomfortable with the aftermath. There's soldiers up ahead. His eyes flicker shut. Revali's a better fighter than he is. And Revali's apparently a better talker than he is. Probably draw a crowd. Guards up coming to investigate the noise. Edward shouts, "INTRUDER!" And then he falls off the side of the cliff, dangling there by his fingers. He takes a last, loving drag of the cigarette and drops it off into the water. Sorry, Revali. Good luck.
Staren	Staren sighs. "They can also be tampered with if they DON'T speak. If their testimony is recorded, then 'taking them out' won't also take out the testimony. And when they give their testimony in court, what are they going to do, have everyone twiddle their thumbs while investigators are dispatched to check their facts?" He throws up his hands. "Your 'justice' system is ludicrous! Doing their job? Their job seems to be to waiting for any actual evidence to grow cold so they can decide guilt by he-said-she-said hearsay! You don't NEED someone who does that job! You need people who SOLVE CRIMES and CATCH CULPRITS! IF you somehow get back control, you should do something about that." But, Sidon did suggest SOME course of action, so at least Staren can trudge his way over to Maksim. "Apparently the local justice system doesn't much favor 'investigation' and is based on arguing over unreliable memories long after the fact. If this is how this society sees 'justice', public opinion is going to decide this case far more than any actual evidence, and it's not lookin' good." He jerks a thumb out the window in the direction of the protesters. "You're some kind of noble, right? Moving about in those elite circles, playing political games, keeping the citizens happy enough not to mob your door with torches and pitchforks? I don't suppose you have any idea how we can swing this thing?"
Mordred	"That so, huh? Yeah, we'll see if that's the case." Mordred strokes her chin a few times as she keeps watching the protesters from a distance, raising an eyebrow when one of the orphans questions her directly. After a moment, she lets out a mocking laugh and shakes her head. "Like I'd be caught dead working under those chumps. They should be thanking me for even coming out here." With her ego self-stroked, she furrows her brow right afterwards. "Seriously, the hell am I supposed to do here? Pain in my ass is what..." Mordred's irritation is rather evident as she heads for the palace, not being all that subtle as she aims to just walk right on in the palace to seek out an audience with... Someone. She's not sure. She has't really planned this out at all, and the best she can hope for is something weird to just fall into her lap! And then Edward shouts about an intruder. "The hell...?" Mordred looks over just in time to see him dropping falling off the cliff, and instinct takes over as she leaps towards that cliff face, bounding off staircases and rock formations just in time to... Not catch him and instead just sort of loiter beneath him when he manages to hold on by his fingers. "Having fun there, big guy? Need a hand, or you just trying to start something?" There's a distinctly mocking tone in Mordred's voice as she just hangs out nearby-ish, not quite moving to catch him nor moving to pull him down. Distract, perhaps. "Your friends around today to see doing... Whatever this is?
Link	Revali comes in with stammering, flying in. The guard starts telling him to leave, grabbing his spear as he goes into a story. But he doesn't want to attack a confused tourist. He eventually moves to start helping him, until... The chaos with the crowd. Edward shouts out intruder. Guards up top see a Rito on the stairs harassing another. They run down the stairs, past where Edward's hanging, and start throwing spears and trying to push him off the cliff and into the water below. It's a very narrow room to dodge and fight, but Revali has an advantage. He can fly. And Edward can probably swoop past and up to Jabu-Jabu. Not every guard left, but there's only like, two left. He can handle it. Mordred can also slip past, as long as she's not too loud, and join him. He'll probably need her to take out the guards, if he doesn't want to get his hands dirty. Rean starts asking how the royal family betrayed the people. "They're selling our god's scales and spears to the Gerudo!" They say, in their incense, because they have someone who'll listen. "They're selling us out to gain power! They'd kill us all with the dams if they thought they'd get away with it!" This is the part where Rean notices the three dams above the city. In the cliff. They were seen last time, but no one knew what they did - they were just there.
Edward Blackwell	Mordred bounds over. Edward moves to take a drag of his cigarette. He remembers that it is gone in the water. He remembers that he does not want to be found by cigarette smoke. Mordred asks him if he's having fun. He winces. "Yep. Real blast. Thought I'd just hang out, watch some fish beat up a bird. But first I gotta see a god about some feeple. Make a new friend." The guards pass. Edward hauls himself up by one hand and holds out his other to Mordred. "How about you, guy, you wanna go meet Feeple God? It won't be fun but it might be neat. Tell your girlfriend about it." One way or another, as the guards go to fight Revali, Edward heads up to Jabu Jabu. He's a lot faster than he looks. Even walking fast he's just surprisingly quick. No running - running draws too much attention - but a very fast power walk up to Jabu Jabu's grotto.
Maksim Messerglas	"Dreadful. Absolutely dreadful." He shakes his head. "I understand too well, though. It is the duty of the nobility to be noble, and to act to protect those who cannot protect themselves. If staying within the confines of your apartments is what you must do..." Maksim sighs, trailing off. Maksim is presently seated across from the Princess Mipha, having tea and comisserating about the horrible things the commonfolk-- er, the military-industrial complex are doing to keep the poor royalty down. He looks up when Staren makes an appearance. Dismas steps aside, keeping his back generally pointed at a wall. "'Some kind,' yes. I hold land and title in addition to the blood." He raises his eyebrows. "You convince them you understand them, that you are doing everything you can to make them happy, and, ideally, have some means of accomplishing both these things visibly enough that certain distractions overcome the disruption in their daily lives. I believe the phrase is 'panem et circenses.'" He turns to the Princess. Maksim leans in, speaking lowly. There are up to half a dozen guards nearby at any given time, but he knows how to pitch his voice such that they won't catch an earful. "You are certain that you can cure the poison? I may be able to allow you free reign to roam the palace." He does some little hand motion, producing a leather cord with a sharp-looking shard of green glass affixed to it. It reflects everything nearby except the light, leaving it strangely dull. It's cupped in his hand so it's covered from obvious sight. "A valuable bauble to hide you in plain sight. While I do not condone simply fleeing the palace," he continues, "I do believe curing your god's ailment is paramount at this juncture."
Lilian Rook	00:00:03 A couple of guards. Extremely close, but in all honesty, there is no 'uncomfortably' close for Lilian. Not with people. For a perfectly simple reason. The letter being held in a police locker is essentially child's play at this point. Of course, since this is all an orderly and above board prosecution case, it's not as if they'd have evidence locked away in some explosive-wired underground vault at the heart of a mountain guarded by a private army. But, still. 00:00:09 -----[stop]----- Lilian backs up from the guard she landed behind, finds a T-intersection, goes down the left branch and directs her 'clear' area downward to clap her heel hard against the floor, just short of what her shoes can actually take, leaving the hair thin ghost of an air ripple paused as it enters stopped space, instead of dying away harmlessly. She then goes down the opposite end of the intersection entirely. -----[start]----- 00:00:09 A loud noise jumps out from the hallway behind the standing guard, echoing in a way that is quite clear it came from the same level. When he turns around, he finds nothing out of the ordinary. When he reaches the end of the corridor and looks one way, he doesn't even find so much as some piece of junk someone might have thrown down the hall to get his attention. It's nothing. Really just his imagination in the end. 00:00:21 -----[stop]----- Really, the little maneuver is a bit 'extra', but it creates some time and distance where a guard isn't staring into the hall she's about to 'do things in'. Basic caution and pre-planning in infiltration. Seriously, she's in accelerated training for the most elite of black ops. She goes to the evidence locker. She walks right up to the guard at his side. Even the most cold-blooded of stealth agents would feel an increase in tension here, but Lilian feels nothing. There isn't even the slightest hint of 'what if' in any corner of her mind. This guard, like everything else, is 'off' right now. He might as well be a statue. Assuming that the locker is, indeed, locked, she looks for keys on the guard accessing the adjacent one, resorting to the light fingers of an absurdly expert pickpocket if there's anything to be found on a belt or something, since the Zora don't seem to be fans of pockets. If it is still locked, and failing that, she precisely squeezes the locking mechanism until it just snaps through. Once she has it open, she simply takes the letter (and/or whatever container it might be in) and smoothly closes the locker again. This time she lets the sound die off, albeit they're still likely to notice a broken bolt once the pre-trial starts in a few days. From there, it's a return in a similar way, though this time through the airlock, since she'll be able to open the outer door and still have a dry space inside. She assumes there's essentially zero possibility of some complicated keycard-based computer system, and so cranks them manually like any normal person would do, repeating the slightly tedious process to get back to the surface without wetting the letter. When in her own little world like this, Lilian is nothing if not exceedingly patient; almost zen. -----[start]----- 00:00:21
Lilian Rook	Clearly unrelated to that one random noise that is just a guard's imagination, partway across town there is another plop and slosh of water of moderate volume. Lilian walks out from behind the building she'd originally gone behind. There is, of course, not a single drop of water on her, so random splashes in a city on a lake have nothing to do with her. A letter is in her bag. And without even stopping to read it, she goes all the way to the palace. She doesn't bring it back to the cafe --not yet at least. She doesn't squad up and hash things out. She doesn't stop to plan her next move. The witnesses are hers next. It's all a procedure. She's running down the list. Walking down the path. The shortest path. The straightest path. Everything she Wants laid out in front of her. She doesn't walk herself there like she's here to overturn a legal system. She walks herself there like she's buying groceries. Like there isn't a single person here that even twitches her meter of relevance. Items on the shelves. The natives, the tourists, the guards, the protestors; so much to walk past. They aren't what she Wants --that would be her, in a room, with witnesses, immediately. 00:01:33
Staren	Panem et circenses...? "...I don't think 'bread and circuses' is going to help when their god is dying." Staren paces over to the window to look out. "I suppose we could try to cure the 'god', but that wouldn't make the accusation go away." He turns back to Mipha. "Hey, wait, just what IS this god, anyway? It was 'poisoned' so it's a living, physical being, but it's also not powerful enough to STOP itself from being poisoned. Does it... talk? Or is it more the inscrutable sort that the clergy have to interpret? If we helped the god somehow, could it grant a divine pardon?"
Mordred	"Huh. Yeah, why the hell not. Not like I got anything better to do." Mordred shrugs lightly, taking Edward's hand to get up despite not really needing it. No sense discouraging chivalry, after all. "Feeple... Fee. ple. Heh. Wait, girlfriend?" That's what confuses her the most. Trying to figure out who Edward's referring to keeps her quiet on the way in, even, following his lead and actually making very little noise now that she's not clad in that bulky suit of armor like last time. She's even content not to mess with the guards, sticking to corners as best she can without blowing her or Edward's cover. "... Yeah, I give up. Who?" Of course, she does need to figure out who that girlfriend is before the day is done.
Rean Schwarzer	"Your god's scales do anything special?" Rean asks. He then looks up once the dams are pointed out to him. "...Huh." He then thinks for a moment, trying to word this in a way that wouldn't come off as racist. "...But your city's mostly underwater. Wouldn't you be fine?"
Revali	Revali can fly. He takes off, getting a bit of aerial distance in - at least enough to get out of casual stabbing length - but his main focus is on pressing the offensive. He draws his bow, grabs three arrows, aims- - at the ground, not at any of the guards. No need to escalate this further yet, even if they're already swinging. Three arrows impact the ground at roughly the same time, spread out across the stairwell, and then another three more quickly fired off further down just for good measure. The arrows are not normal arrows - they're blue, with tri-tipped arrowheads in a snowflake pattern. The snowflakes shatter, releasing their stored magic - an icy blast of coldness. If there's even a little moisture on the ground - presumably for a cliffside staircase there is - the ice starts spreading, and in short order the entire stretch of stairs here becomes an icly-slick trap!
Link	Maksim talks to Mipha. She listens to his conversation to Staren, and then, he begins whispering, leaning in. Mipha's shocked at the idea, at first, but then thought overcomes her. If Jabu-Jabu dies...they all suffer. "I could, yes. It's my blessing. What do you need from me in return?" And then Staren asks. "He has the intelligence and ability of a positively massive animal, but divinity sparks inside his soul. He is important to our people - without him, the nation would fall." Rean asks about the dams. They're so angry they actually tell him. "Then they freeze it! They freeze us inside the flooded water, using ancient magical amplifiers!" Then they grouse at Rean. "Dirty foreigner!" Revali can fly, and therefore, avoids the casual stabbing and fires arrows at the ground. The ice arrows explode with the moisture of the water and air and lake, and start slipping the guards down the stairs. They start throwing the last of their spears to try and take him into the water with them, but they're going to fall down. They'll be fine - they can swim. Edward and Mordred slip through. The two guards aren't currently looking in their direction, though if they make too much noise, they will. Jabu-Jabu is a massive whalehippo. He's asleep, clearly in pain, some sort of coma, in the middle of the grotto. His head sticks out, he's so large. It'll take a bit to cure him, Edward can tell that instantly - and he's defintitely been poisoned. Lilian has to take keys off a waist-sash, which is easy enough for someone of her skill. Since time is stopped, she makes no noise, opening the lock, finding a water-proof case, and retrieving the letter. She manages to escape just as easily... And the next step is the witnesses, which is the much harder step. She doesn't have the same 'permission to enter the palace' on standby that the Concord has. There's a lot of witnesses, too, but not all of them are going to be integral. The steward, Evan, one of the Council of Elders, the most important witness, is currently not in the palace - she's out of town on business - but destroying the rest will destroy the case.
Revali	There's spears. Revali dances around, dipping into his hyperfocus as needed to try to track and stay ahead of the thrown projectiles. He lands - carefully, not wanting to go slipping himself. The guards can swim, sure... but they aren't going to be getting back up here. Not after this. The rito concentrates, placing one wing-hand palm flat on the freezing ground. He has innate magic, but has only ever gotten it to work for one spell. Fortunately, that one spell is all he ever needs. "Revali's... Gale!" The wind starts blowing unnaturally strong - a downdraft, angled along the line of the stairs. Anyone trying to climb up them is going to have to deal with not only the wind pushing them down, but also the ice keeping them from getting any traction at all to fight against it.
Maksim Messerglas	"I have a home to reclaim. I would very much like Zoran aid in my endeavor, once you have stabilized things here; nothing more. The nobility must take care of its own, mm?" Maksim smiles. He reaches out and gently takes Mipha's hands, bowing his head over them. He passes the talisman over in the motion. Then, he looks up. He catches Dismas' eye, makes a quiet throat-clearing noise. Dismas nods slightly, sliding over to the guard with the highest rank. "My lord wishes a few moments to confer with the Princess about a... sensitive subject." He makes a little motion, sliding something into the soldier's palm. The rupee gleams with a silver shine. "Alone," he stresses slightly. "Won't take but a minute."
Rean Schwarzer	By the sound of things, he's exhausted this line of inquiry, since the guy seems to just be rambling now. "...I see." Rean says. "Thanks for the input!" He says, and with that heads off to see what else he can do. He looks up at the dams and hums to himself. Would there be anything of interest up there? Could he even /reach them?/
Edward Blackwell	"Might take a bit," Edward says to Mordred. Forward unto God. God is a giant fucking fish. Dusk eyes fill with mania into dawn's maddened gaze. Fingers tap a Zozo from the pocket into the mouth. Flick, flick. Flame in the sanctuary of water. Heresy. Blasphemy. Smoke in the sacred hall. Footsteps along the water's edge. No way around it. Have to go in. Fuck. "Also hold this." Edward strips off the labcoat. He tosses it at Mordred. "Don't want my smokes getting wet. Or my coat. Be a bitch to sit in." Into the water. Into the water of a god. To the place the god rests. Nimble, dancing fingers brush along scales, seeking poison, touching aura. Black spots in the radiance. Sickening to look at. Track them back through the body to the blood. Find the poison in the flesh. Cut it out. Bleed the aura. A scalpel from his left pocket. A handfull of rupees from his right. They're not the right shape but they are the right color. They'll do, won't they? Good enough. Simple operation. Pain in the ass. But simple. Swish, swish. Right next to the eye. Fish blood spills into the water. Divine ether flows from wounds. The aura starts to dim. The black spots spread. The rupee, slipped deftly into the eye. Crystal therapy. Drink the black spots from the aura. Soak up the sickness into the healthy gem. Spill the health into the sick fishy body. Simple procedure. Simple idea. Pain in the ass. He walks over to the other eye. Swift incision. More blood. Crystal inserted behind the other eye. Then, hemostasis. "I need you to get up here and sit on the fish," he says, "If you've got armor or some shit get into it. Apply pressure right at the top between the eyes." He doesn't explain why. It's to stop the bleeding, of course. To make the fish appear to die. To fool the black spots into thinking the fish died and send them rushing to fill the healthy rupees. "Probably gonna need a few more of these fucking gems, too, if you happen to have any. Big fucking fish."
Mordred	And there's the whalehippo god. Mordred resists the urge to whistle at the sight of Jabu-Jabu, stepping gingerly towards it and just doing a slow lap to get a better look at the whole thing. "So this is the thing that everyone's so worked up about...?" She doesn't sound disbelieving so much as she sounds vaguely irritated. Not at it, necessarily, but definitely at something. "Looks pretty sick, alright. I wonder... Eh?" Turning to Edward, the knight nods once and catches the labcoat, unable to resist the urge to whirl it around herself and slip it on in one smooth movement. She even straightens up to look down at an imaginary knee-height person and brings her hands up to nudge up some non-existent glasses, then gets to work standing guard for lack of her own plans on what to do next. At least she can get someone else to do it. "Hey. See if this thing's got any.. I dunno. Brands or seals or designs put on it. Doubt our culprit's that stupid, but..." She trails off, climbing onto Jabu-Jabu towards the spot Edward is indicating, taking a moment to remove the jacket and toss it into the air before armoring up. She catches it on the way back down, still holding it out of the water aside from however it might droop from being next to a water-based animal god. As for the pressure? The armor is armor-weighted, of course, but Mordred's careful enough to sit just so that the spikes (mostly) don't stab into Jabu-Jabu. "I got a few from earlier. What's the plan for all this, anyway?" Of course she has to ask now, but at least she's doing it while tossing a coupel of spare rupees towards Edward. It's not a lot, but it's something. She'd probably have more if she hadn't bought those snacks earlier.
Staren	Ideas are discussed... Maksim tries bribing a guard. "There must be SOMEONE around this palace who will talk..." Staren wonders aloud as he vacates the room, giving the guards what he hopes is reason to focus on him. He'll then find the nearest person in another room and start loudly arguing (or lecturing, at any rate) about whether the purpose of the justice system is to find the TRUTH and stop evildoers, or to serve as empty bread and circuses for the people, giving them a show and the false ASSURANCE of evildoers stopped. He's not a good actor so it's better to go with a distraction he can get into!
Link	Revali pushes down the guards, forcing them into the water if they can't keep up. This allows him free range - their spears are gone, and Edward and Mordred are already up there. He could probably regroup or leave, if he wanted. Edward starts the absolutely insane healing process involving cuts and money. Mordred helps out. As the water starts to pollute, though, the guards will notice. While Edward's starting to make 'progress', Mordred will probably want to deal with the guards. Maksim makes his deal. Mipha sighs, and nods. "We will support you, in return for this." A contract sealed. Dismas approaches the guards. It takes a /long/ moment, one where he probably thinks he'll get stabbed, before they pocket the cash and filter out. Not completely, just to the next room. They're in earshot for a loud and violent escape, and they have all the doors guarded, so an escape would be impossible. Or so they think. Staren's distraction helps muffle things, but also earns him Absolutely No Friends as people try to avoid him. Mipha turns invisible with the bauble. She waits for an opening. Hopefully, Maksim can provide it. There's a long, and winding way up to the dams. It'd take too long to get to, but as he leaves the protesters, he sees something in the distance. One of the outer gate guards is running towards the military base, from past the entrance at the tourist district. What's going on?
Revali	Revali heads upstairs. Mostly so that he can get a look for himself at just what Edward is doing. "... Huh." "Yeah, you weren't kidding."
Rean Schwarzer	Well, He'd have to go check that dam later. Rean runs ahead, following that guard to the military base.
Maksim Messerglas	The pact is sealed. Maksim merely nods. The guards file out after a moment's thought. Not far, but far enough. "Now! I was hoping, your Highness, to speak to you about... ah... well, this is rather embarassing, but --" Maksim clears his throat and then lowers his voice below the threshold of the guards' eavesdropping. "My man Dismas is going to hold the door for me on the way out, very politely. Slip out while he does so. Our other friend who was just here should be keeping them occupied otherwise. I'll tell them you took to bed early; it ought to buy you some time." Maksim waits a minute, then goes about doing exactly that. Dismas opens the door, glaring at the guards outside. He steps to one side, holding it. "Time to go, lord." Maksim adjusts his coat, his vest, and his collar. He sighs. "Very well." He walks to the door, then, after a second, steps outside. "The Princess has taken to her chambers for the evening. Please convey my apologies for the sudden exit. There are matters to attend to elsewhere in the city. Dismas; come along." He starts walking. Hopefully, they don't notice she's gone until after they're all well away.
Edward Blackwell	Mordred sitting there stops the blood flow for the moment. But the damage is done. There's blood in the water. The sharks will come to work. Swish, swish. Rupee in the gill. Fingers up inside the gooey guts of God. A puff of smoke blown inside to chase more bad aura into the crystal. Makeshift but good enough. The parasite will have to fight. Have to struggle. It'll take time to get the poison back to the level it was. He spins the rupees on his fingers thoughtfully and jams a second one up the gill for good measure. Revali shows up. Edward hops up onto the fish's back. It's brute force hopping, not elegant parkour. Raw strength. Cracks in the ground. He waves. "Toss me a few more green rupees. Have to be green. Don't ask me why." The scalpel digs into the flesh. It stinks. A string of curses under his breath. More gems jammed into the back. In the distance there's a ruckus. No time. Mania dances in those dawn-lit eyes. More coins in the back. No time to sew it up. He stamps down on one of the chakra points. Divert energy to the healing process. Running out of time. Someone will be up soon. Mordred goes to fight the guards. Edward looks over at Revali. "Come up here and help me get my hand into God's blowhole. I need you to hold one side so I can...you know what, it's not important, just help me up here."
Lilian Rook	Invitations. Normally Lilian places an extreme stake in those. Not being invited to something may as well be a slap to the face in many circumstances. This isn't one of them. The Concord is dicking about the castle in a way she assumes, naturally as it comes to her, will be completely impotent, and she doesn't need anyone's say-so to find her own ways to enter. If it isn't 'persuading' a guard or three, it's by infiltration again. Witnesses are liable to be far more oblivious about who's supposed to be there, and ridiculously more pliable. "Three hundred gold rupees. Fifty now, the rest at trial." she goes with for many, palming stupid amounts of little gold gems out of her bag. "No, I'm being quite serious. Who really told you?" for others, green eyes piercing through them, every flicker of micromovement reading words straight from the surface of their minds, intuiting their deepest intentions. Should any be so ridiculously unwise as to comply at all, then it's things like "That's very unfortunate. Because your friend told me something very different." leading down the faux-blackmail --followed by cold reading real blackmail-- chute. She makes sure to record each and every confession, and let them know she did; that way they have plenty to lose should they share the fact they talked with anyone. Then, applying some metaphorical thumbscrews, the last she needs to dally about: Where is 'Evan'?
Mordred	With little more than the coat to amuse herself with and the squelching sounds from below, Mordred's starting to get a little antsy. Luckily for her, she spots the guards before they see her. <<"Gonna borrow your coat for this. Might look pretty bad if they see me with the armor on.">> She relays to Edward, standing back up and dispersing her armor to get Edward's coat back on. Before leaping off the whalehippo god, though, there's one thing she has to do. She checks the pocket that the cigarettes are in, makes sure they're secured inside, then formulates her plan. Might as well try and take advantage of the noises in the distance to cover her own moves while she's at it. Mordred only catches a glimpse of Revali coming in as she leaps right past him towards those guards, aiming to land nearby and dispatch them with the stealthiest of moves: Punching them in the faces really really hard.
Staren	Hooray! Staren sort of helped. He made no friends in the process, but whatever, he wasn't doing that ANYWAY. He waits for Maksim to pass by and then out of sight before he winds down his argument at a suitable time, saying if this person won't help he'll find SOMEONE who cares about JUSTICE, but instead he makes his way back to the front door. "Fine. Your JUSTICE SYSTEM successfully stopped us from finding evidence of whether the royal family is INNOCENT or GUILTY. I hope you're happy with yourselves." Staren storms out the front door and back the way he came and then tries to look put out all the way to the gate. He kind of IS, since he still didn't actually help absolve the royal family and what little help he did was deliberately making himself look bad, but eh. Hopefully Mipha can make contact with the Concord later and give an update on how helping god went.
Link	Mipha escapes. Maksim and Dismas have a few moments to leave, but as soon as they're outside the palace proper, they hear yelling. They probably want to run, and fast. Mipha moves towards the water, invisible. She swims, and swims. She can't risk the staircase. So, she dives as deep as she can, and then launches upwards through the water with the power of magical swift swimming, launching herself into the air up the cliff. She catches the ledge. She pulls herself up. She walks in on a guy /butchering her god/, and charges him. An invisible force tackles Edward, jabbing her with a table knife she took from the tea table. The invisibility wears off. She shouts at him. "What are you doing?! You'll kill him!" Lilian bribes witnesses. Whammies them. Blackmails them. They all tell her the same thing: Evan is the lynchpin of this plot, in that Evan is the person that was the 'go to' for all of the crimes. Obviously, she was being forced by the royals, and everyone believes her because she was the one to out them. And they don't know where she is on business. But Lilian's divination does. She just left the Gerudo Desert, on her way back to the city. She's wearing a red and purple hood. That might be important. Also, as Lilian leaves the palace, she can hear people yelling about 'Princess Mipha has escaped!'. Rean reaches the military outpost. The guard is muttering. Something about "those damned Hylians, they actually did it! They actually annexed us!" And then, everything goes insane once he gets inside and spills the news. Rean can probably enter if he presents his credentials to talk to the general.
Edward Blackwell	Edward is in the middle of shoving a crystal inside Jabu-Jabu's blowhole when there is suddenly a blade up through his gut and a fish girl on top of him. The rupee spills out of his hand. Copper taste in his mouth. Silver in his stomach. A patient bleeding out. He has no time. He has no time at all. There's something going wrong. Whole country just got stabbed. Royalty first on the chopping block. God dying under his fingers. One more crystal will buy them time. One more crystal will buy the god long enough to save. She's in the way. Autopilot. Autopilot. Autopilot. Mania in his eyes. Knife in his belly. Patient bleeding out. Overdrive. Edward Blackwell reaches up. Fingers that can crush steel close around the Princess's neck. Snap. No more effort than cracking a twig. His other hand crams a last rupee into the god. He picks the princess's corpse up over his shoulder. Time to go. Strong legs slam into Jabu-Jabu's chakra to send him, and Mipha, over the other side of the cliff. He's going to roll down it until he comes to a broken, beaten stop. It's going to suck. But the alternative is way the fuck worse.
Maksim Messerglas	Maksim and Dismas exit the palace before the uproar starts. They're partway into the city by the time the alarm is sounded. Neither of them gets wind of it immediately. "I feel as though we've done a good thing here today, don't you, Dismas?" Dismas grunts. Maksim takes it as explicit agreement and begins to hum merrily on his way.
Mordred	Mordred doesn't see Mipha. She's invisible, so of course the knight wouldn't see her. The knight's busy punching out guards thatmight be headed towards Edward's operating area, and by the time she realizes anything's amiss... It sounds like everything's going to shit. When things look relatively clear on her end, Mordred goes back to where Jabu-Jabu is, giving the whalehippo a light tap on the side as though she was knocking on a door before standing guard once more. "Yo, Edward. Uh. You done in there? Sounds like things are getting fun out here, and I don't wanna miss the fireworks." She might be waiting a while for a response. At least listening in on whatever's going on should keep her entertained until then.
Lilian Rook	Excellent. A score of matching testimonies that all nail one person to the wall, recorded audiovisual. A chain of prisoner's dilemma simpletons who all have an immense amount to lose should they mess up the timing even slightly. The exact letter by which Lilian can easily compare the missive's relevance to her stand-out figure. Her name. Her position --incredibly suspect. Her appearance and business. It sounds as if Edward has the nasty business with the living god handled for now, up to the point it won't fall over and die in the meantime, albeit it'd turned out nastier than expected, but it's within parameters. It's all exactly in line with her battle plan coming here. One that relies on nobody else; only the one person she has absolute confidence in. And then the Hylians of all god damned people have to show up. Lilian is nearly to the gates, about to leave on a direct intercept course, and then, hearing the news from Mikau remotely, Lilian-- -----[stop]----- "FUCK! You fucking IDIOTS! This is why we can't have anything! No, no, this is why you can't be allowed to have anything! This is exactly why you fucking Extras are in this whole heap of pants-dribbling shit! You're all just determined to keep pissing it all away; hoping your goddamn hero cleans it all up for you doesn't have anything to do with why you're all so hellbent on making it as difficult as fucking possible! Even when it's talking fish people and living whale gods and a prophesied King of Evil from a cursed desert destined to do battle with a farmboy hero with a magic sword and divine artifact; all you Extras are the same! How do you remember to breathe?! Why does anyone let you out of your pen?!" She takes a deep, deep, deep breath, and exhales it very, very slowly. "No. No, this is fine. It's nothing. Odds are a hundred to one that this is Evan's doing. This whole case she's presenting is far too fragile; anyone with sense would notice that every single testimony relies on her when it comes to court, rare as that may be. The culprit is going to panic when the detective shows up unexpectedly in the first act. It's a smokescreen. A countermove. Obnoxious, but amateurish. She doesn't know who she's dealing with. That filthy little pond-squatting primitive doesn't have any idea. Handle it. They're just more Extras in the end." -----[start]----- --pulls the gold Lily comb from her hair and lets it fall down low, relocating it to her temple. She hands her bag off to a hefty black crow, which goes flying away with it, beating its eerily silent wings. An aura of imperious menace trickles from her as she walks, not entirely merely affected, growing out of her shadow, lingering like stains in her footsteps. Her hand reaches down the collar of her dress, gripping the magnetite amulet and flicking it free of her neck. An arc of acerbic black fog resolves the sword in its scabbard, which she holds below the guard like a knight maneuvering around the battlefield, her thumb touching the metal just enough to cause traces of black floral markings to embrace her fingers. Right up to the gates. Right up to whatever Hylian fools are acting as the catspaws in this obnoxious game. The useful idiots. The men at arms she has no intent of respecting. Whoever has the scroll. Whoever is foolhardy enough to make the proclamation. Whoever destined themselves to contend with her. She doesn't intend to flash money at him, nor compile blackmail; he'd be on a king's errand, believing it a matter of rule. Wreathed in an air that can only be described as 'uncanny' in the darkest and oldest sense, Lilian's first action is to hold out her hand, and her first words are an irresistible demand: "Let me see."
Staren	"Also, I don't see any, you know, ARMIES. Or FLAGS." Staren rounds a corner and ther's a goddamn Hylian army. They're probably all carrying flags, too. Staren starts yelling into the radio how stupid this all is and trying to decide whether to go give these idiots a piece of his mind, but then Lilian teleports over. It sounds like she's pissed too, so this oughtta be good. No need to claim a slice of her ire for himself.
Link	Edward /kills/ Princess Mipha. She doesn't even see it coming. She gasps, her neck is snapped, and he escapes tumbling down a cliff with her body. Awkward, but he can proobably get to an alcove or secret spot with her corpse. Mordred's taken out the guards and can do 'basically whatever she wants'. Lilian is presented the decree. It's a copy - destroying it would do nothing in the long term. They're here to claim their territory. It's signed by several parties - the King of Hyrule, the Royal Family, even the Council of Elders. It has royal seals. It's legitimate. They're here to help, they say, put the coup under control, probably pardon the royal family, and get people ready for war.
Rean Schwarzer	Rean flashes his id to the soldier, or whatever the paper that gives him a passage in to talk to the general, and... ...What was that about 'actual annexation?' He hadn't been here for the whole conspiracy, but He'd gotten the gist of it. And it all sounded painfully, painfully familiar to something a (former?) friend told him once happened to his homeland before it got stapled to Rean's homeland. Would these events spawn another person like Crow if left alone? "..." Rean goes inside and pings on the radio a few times, asking what the they were going to do, but this mess was apparently legit. Now what?
Mordred	With news of what's going on outside spreading rather quickly, Mordred leaves her post at Jabu-Jabu to join the growing mass near the Hylian soldiers. Her 'job' here is done, so she might as well see why the commotion is still a commotion. Mordred is still wearing Edward's coat as she approaches the group, glancing from Staren to Lilian to Rean to the Hylian envoys and finally grinning after a few moments. "So. Mission accomplished? We good here?"
Lilian Rook	A notice of royal proclamation served. About what Lilian expected. She barely needs to skim it. Zelda jumps into the more public communication channels to assure everyone she had no part of it, but that's just sensible --if her father had asked her at all, he'd never have gotten anything done. Four viable possibilities come to mind. Lilian-- -----[stop]----- --stops to think about them pretty hard. Drumming her fingers on the paper. Deep, regular breathing. Thoughtful little humming sounds. She looks to the knight captain. She looks back to the palace. The Elder Council are anti-royalists, but evidently not loyal to Mikau. They're 'democratic' loose cannons she doesn't like here --power centralized between charismatic figures is always preferable to manipulate. They are, however, no doubt Extras themselves. Easy enough to get to after the fact. Militarizing Zora's domain works either way, if the King of Hyrule can declare a royal-- yes, that's fine; she just can't have her strings cut at this point. It'll only take a moment to have Evan --her last piece-- ready for a checkmate here, so . . . -----[start]----- --rolls it back up again and hands it over, appearing --no, 'feeling'-- immensely displeased, but in a way that goes over the knight's shoulder. A wash of relief that it must be aimed at someone else, and a cold stab of common sense urging him not to waste that good fortune. "This directly contradicts an official stay of action bequeathed by the Elder Council barely days ago. That is to say, this is a conflicting document with a binding legal agreement of the same authority that I possess, which factors directly into ending this radicalist attempt at changing hats. Typical. Just typical. Councils, nobles --they're absolutely incorrigible. No doubt they completely neglected to mention that to the King. What a grave misuse of our, and his, time." Lilian barely has to exercise the slightest effort to sound so confidently frustrated that there isn't the slightest shadow of a doubt about what she says. "Here is how things will go. I am, personally, at the final stage of pursuing a Gerudo sympathizer acting as a foreign agent provocateur and informant within Zora's Domain. If you execute on this order within the next week, you will immediately destroy any and all chance of rooting them out. Instead, this informant will swap masks and begin sabotaging King Hyrule's work just as they have with the Zoras. I assume you understand why that is strategically unacceptable, a grave offense to the King, and a disastrous blunder on the part of the Council, yes?" She doesn't actually wait for an answer. She gives off the unignorable vibe that to say anything but yes would make one look like a drooling idiot. "I don't know if you have to run back or have orders to garrison here. If it's the former, please deliver the message to forestall the actual garrison until this time. If it's the latter, I encourage you to remain outside the city boundaries until then. Once I have this Gerudo asset, only then will the spirit of this document be validated, and I will be completely prepared to annul the ongoing court case, and turn said Gerudo asset over to the King, for interrogation, repurposing as a double agent, whatever he desires."
Lilian Rook	"Of course, since I have a preexisting agreement involving the royal family and General Mikau, I cannot, in good conscience and adherence to code, hand over this valuable and dangerous asset unless the former receives a full pardon in accordance with the objective proof failing to appear before court by my doing so, and the latter retains, at least in name, strategic control of the Zoran army; ideally answering to the King, and not the Elder Council, already proven completely incompetent in matters of war." "I should expect a wise king should have absolutely no objections to forestalling his annexation by such a short period, in order to remove a severe threat to his strategic integrity, obtain a valuable enemy asset, achieve amicable terms with allied royalty, and retain the use of their most capable military assets who both maintains populist support and will be a critical asset in the upcoming war. I assume he would prefer not having a Gerudo spy and provocateur running about in his midst through no fault of his own, sabotaging his war efforts and fatally fracturing the Zoran people, all for the sake of not upsetting a gaggle of senile old fish." "Have. I. Made. Myself. Clear?"
Link	The knight stammers back to Lilian after hearing what she has to say, that if what she says is true, they'll do such, for the sake of Hyrule. They prepare to garrison outside the city borders, but the damage is done - the people know. There's going to be riots in the streets. And whatever that image of Evan was...well, she's probably not going to go easy. But, they have leads. They can nail her to the wall.