The Scoundrels of Virtue

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((Thanks!))

Lorcan marvelled at having a room to himself, grinning at the neatly made bed before discarding his armour and flopping down onto the mattress. Exhaling contentedly, he crossed his arms behind his head and frowned at the ceiling.

Endel's outburst still had him feeling conflicted, though he tried to shrug it off.

Why had he taken Torianna's side, jumped to her defense? He should be mad at her, her father had threatened his life!

And yet he wasn't angry. Not entirely, anyway. But he couldn't seem to fault Torianna as much as he'd have liked to. She should have told them, yes, she had been in the wrong but...

Then he realised why he wasn't angry with her. Because he'd seen firsthand what her family had done to her. Tying her up, leaving her isolated in their basement or some other empty room. Whether she believed it to be true or not, he'd seen the small hint of gratitude, of relief.

Curses. It seemed he might actually have some shred of sympathy for a thief, and it bothered him to no end.

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Waking up in a reasonably comfy bed was a new sensation for Endel. He'd been used to cots or hard floors for so long now, the stuffed mattresses and soft sheets were enough to knock him out in seconds after yesterday's trials. He was still brooding over the revelations from Skallin and Kazdan, but he decided to push those into the back of his mind until he learned more. In the meantime, he wanted to talk to someone about other things to help clear his head; his outburst at Torianna was proof of how tightly wound up he'd become.

 

Not wanting to bother Skallin and knowing better than to disturb Lorcan, he decided to try Maia. She was treated to a bed in the guest rooms just as they were despite her actual bedroom being a few floors down, and thankfully the young lady was up and about at this hour like he was. After knocking on the door and being let in, he took a seat at one of the chairs near her, while she stood looking out the window.

"Something interesting catch your eye?" He asked.

"Just some of my friends working in the courtyard." She replied distantly. It had constantly occurred to Endel after her near-assassination that she'd given up a nice life to come with them, but now the proof was there for him to see.

"Hey, I know I might say this a lot, but we're really thankful you chose to tag along with us." He said, to which Maia looked back to him.

"What makes you say that all of a sudden?"

 

"Well, I really don't want you to think you're being dragged along." Endel explained. "I don't like to make people do things they don't like, so if I can help it I try to make them enjoy these sorts of tough times." Maia seemed to regard him curiously at this statement, so he continued. "We get into a lot of fights, we steal stuff all day, there's a lot of travelling in places where you have to sleep in dangerous spots... I can't imagine you like most of it."

 

"It's not my favorite thing in the world, true... but it makes me stronger for Zelda and the people I care about." She replied to his surprise. Endel was a fan of self improvement too, but that was always for his own ends; Maia did it for everyone but herself it seemed.

"You don't mind living to serve the will of others, do you?" He asked, to which she shook her head.

"I live for the satisfaction of everyone but myself. It gives me strength, and a purpose beyond my selfish desires. If you live and die only for yourself, then nothing you've done will live on after you go away, and I don't want that to happen."

 

Endel wished he could bring himself to think like that. Perhaps he was just too selfish for his own good. No, he was too selfish for the good of others. Maybe it was actually a bit of both.

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The sunlight was freely streaming through the white linen curtains of Torianna's room when she awoke. It must have been mid morning, because she could hear the sounds of others up and moving about elsewhere in the castle. She had never been much of a morning person. That being said, she seemed to have shed at least some of her anger in the night. She took a hot bath (for she was lucky enough to have an en suite bathroom), towel dried her hair, and pulled the damp remains back into a tight bun.

A guard escorted her down the dining room where she could chose from a selection of foods. Torianna wasn't used to being treated like this, was this what it was like living in the castle? Being rich? Or was this simply how people lived when they weren't criminals? Endel was sipping hot tea across the table from Torianna, along with Maia. He gave her a small smile as she slipped into her seat. She didn't mention his outburst, and he didn't mention her deceit. It wasn't a soppy apology and a hug, and that was exactly why Torianna liked Endel.

"Sleep well?" he asked.

"Like a log," Torianna replied, before taking a bite of her toasted muffin. Maia still wouldn't meet her gaze, but she could live with that. "Any word on Kazdon?"

"The soldiers have gone out to arrest him. I don't exactly have high hopes," Endel muttered. Torianna grinned.

Just then, the door opened and a guard entered, followed by Lorcan. He was dressed but missing his armour. His curls were a clumped mess, and he only looked half awake. He flopped lazily down next to Torianna and dropped his head down on crossed arms.

"He's not a morning person," Endel said with a grin.

"So," Torianna continued, ignoring the half conscious Lorcan. "What's our orders for today?"

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"We don't have much to do until the arrest is attempted." Endel admitted. "I guess we can sneak back to base and fill Ashei in on the details." Lorcan gave a nod of approval, always more eager to follow protocol than Endel ever was. "And while we're there, I want to ask about a little idea I've had for a while..."

"Oh, what's that?" Torianna asked, but he only smiled and shook his head.

"You'll find out when we get there, I promise!"

 

A quick walk through the Castle Town later, everyone was back among the Scoundrels of Virtue in their underground headquarters. Endel left the others behind for a moment, insisting that he met with Ashei alone. "Gotta discuss secret information between leaders only, you know?" He said with a teasing grin and swept into the office before anyone could object.

"If you're done being full of yourself let's get down to business, yeah?" Ashei quipped behind him, and Endel apologized before making a quick debrief to get her caught up on the events at the mansion.

"This is way more than we're equipped to handle." she admitted bluntly after hearing everything. "An army of weird monster-people? We're occupied enough killing the regular thugs in the forest as it is!"

"Yeah, I thought about that and, well, there just might be a solution." Endel responded. "Have you thought about going public with our operations?" Ashei looked at him like he'd just suggested to hand over leadership of the scoundrels to Cheval, so he continued before she could get a word in. "Hear me out, the princess now knows all about us and where we are, just like I told you. With her at our back, we can freely operate and recruit new members as openly as we want! I'll even get the rest of the sketchy agents like myself to stop thieving if you want."

 

Given that the organization was in sore need of members and would have to fight the threat of Kazdan whether they wanted to or not, Ashei reluctantly agreed to the idea. "But if I catch any of you thieving for no good reason again, I'll have you put in irons and thrown in the waterway, got it?" she warned, to which Endel complied. He could always go back to stealing after this crisis blew over anyway.

"Oh, and one more thing..." He asked. "I wanted to go ahead and suggest the first of our many new recruits."

 

---

 

A few minutes later Endel left the room with Ashei behind him, much to the surprise of the others. "You, from the network, I just got through with Endel and he wants me to ask you something." Ashei said to a confused Torianna. "Your buddy, who I got to admit has been pulling his weight pretty well lately, tells me you would make a good Scoundrel. Same for uh, metalhead and the dainty one over there." She motioned over to Skallin and Maia. "I can only make them honorary members since one's not a human and the other, well, doesn't fit in with us types, but how'd you like to be a full-blown agent for us?"

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Torianna blinked, unsure quite how to respond to Ashei's question. Her? A scoundrel? She'd spent her whole life working for the network... though it was the same basic job, it was a completely different type of organisation. Yet the Scoundrels of Virtue caught her attention from the day she first arrived, even if it was just intrigue and first. She'd been operating as a different kind of thief ever since she first met Endel and Lorcan. She knew now that she couldn't be satisfied working with the network again. Not that she'd be welcome there.

Endel was awaiting her response with a proud smile. Lorcan, who stood beside her, gently dug his elbow into her side, spurring her on. She already knew her answer, but she was enjoying the anticipation.

Eventually, she smiled. "Well how could I say no to that?"

Ashei nodded, seemingly satisfied with Torianna's response. They shared a warm handshake, before Ashei crossed her arms once again. "Now, I understand that you've got family ties within the network, that... complicates things a little. Endel tells me that they're family you'd rather do without, but who appear to be quite insistent..." she paused for a moment, then turned from Torianna. "Lorcan. You really should have returned to your ordinary duties by now... but it's clear to me that you offer something to this group, so I'll let that one slide. Instead, for now, you're assigned as Torianna's personal guard. You catch a whiff of the network, you've got to get her out of there! Understand?"

Lorcan nodded obediently, and Ashei returned her attention back to the group.

"Now listen up agents," she said sharply. "The Scoundrels are blowing up, we're going public. You need to get your backsides down to the castle and tell the princess about this. I don't doubt that she's got work for you with Kazdan too; knowing the Hylian guard they'll have made a sham of his arrest. Now scram, the lot of you!"

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Maia felt happy for Torianna. She was shocked when they had found out that her father was the one that had ordered her assassination, but she knew that it wasn't Torianna's fault. She could sense that Torianna disliked her, probably because she was weak and scared. But she didn't mind, she wasn't going to change... Still, she was wondering why Torrianna's father had wanted Maia dead. Not that she could ask, ever, and she doubted that Torianna knew the reason.  

She was watching Endel. They had had a nice talk, and he was the first one to actually start a conversation with her. It seemed that he understood her situation and respected her. He could become the first friend she ever had, next to Zelda.

Speaking of Zelda, they were going back to the castle, to see her! Maia couldn't help it to be excited every time they went back to her home. She missed it a lot, but she convinced herself that travelling with this group, and being protected, was the best.

"Happy to see the Princess again?" Endel asked her. Maia looked at him. It still surprised her when someone spoke to her. She always thought that they didn't because they thought that she was just a scared little girl.

"Yes," Maia answered. "Very." 

Endel tried to smile at her, but it seemed fake, which confused her. But maybe it was just something that she imagined. 

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"Personal guard, eh?" Torianna asked Lorcan with a grin. "Not that I need protecting, but it sure is nice to know I'll have all that time to pester you!"

Lorcan rolled his eyes half-heartedly, glancing down at Torianna with a small huff. She frowned up at him curiously, eyes searching him. Lorcan tried to ignore it at first, but eventually he couldn't take the staring and raised his eyebrow in question.

"Why is it you're so grumpy?" she asked. "Even when you're happy... you're grumpy."

Lorcan glared at her -only serving to further Torianna's evidence- but found he couldn't exactly keep it up. He shrugged as nonchalantly as he could, wishing their conversation to end.

"I'd bet your feeling odd after sticking up for me yesterday," Torianna guessed, looking to him for any reaction. Lorcan just shrugged again, to her annoyance. "I don't think that's a reason to be permanently grumpy though."

Lorcan nodded his agreement with that statement, looking about to find a nice spot for some quick sword practice before they had to leave again. Torianna wasn't quite finished, however, and she simply pattered alongside him as he navigated the underground tunnels easily.

"You've been grumpy since I met you. And you don't seem too bothered with not talking, so I don't think it's that."

Lorcan let her ramble on about possible causes for his grumpiness, mostly ignoring her as he focused on finding an empty room. He stopped in his tracks, though, when Torianna hit the nail on the head.

"It's the forest!" she said, and Lorcan whirled to face her. He tried to hide his glare with an incredulous expression but failed to. Torianna's grin widened as she nodded decisively.

"I knew there was something up with that!" she said, triumphant. "You lightened up there, huh? So then what about it's making you all annoyed?"

Lorcan huffed, crossing his arms before he looked to her with a softened expression. He tried shrugging, but Torianna cut him off with a sharp look.

"Come on, Lorcan. What's so special about it?"

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Lorcan glanced around himself nervously, as if he were worried that someone was listening to their conversation. Once he was sure that the coast was clear, he took Torianna by the arm and lead her up the tunnel to a short ladder with some sort of manhole cover at the top. She gingerly followed him up, and found herself in a small alleyway to the north of Castle Town. It was quiet here, cut off from the busy streets. She watched, baffled, as Lorcan sat down cross legged on the ground and motioned for her to do the same. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pale, stubby finger of chalk.

He leant forward, and began to scrawl across the pavement in his unusual script. His writing was inconsistent, some letters were too large, sometimes the different parts wouldn't meet each other, but it's was legible none the less.

'The forest was my home.'

Torianna frowned. "You lived there?"

He nodded, and continued to write. 'I grew up there. That's where I learned to navigate.'

A small smile crept across Torianna's face. She laughed lightly, nudging Lorcan. "That's why you love being there so much! I can picture you as a little forest boy; climbing all the trees, sitting by a bonfire, taking a whizz against the tree trunks..." He shot her a glare for that one, but she just laughed. "Come on Lorcan, tell me I'm wrong!"

He pressed one hand to his head, sighing, which just elicited more laughs from Torianna. Eventually, though, her laughter quietened and she turned to look at Lorcan. "So... why did you leave?" she asked.

Lorcan's lips pressed into a firm line as he leant down once again, writing a little further away this time. 'Monsters came with the Twilight crisis. They took over the forest and it became corrupt. I couldn't stay.'

Torianna frowned, her eyes fixed on his last sentence. "So you joined the Scoundrels?" He nodded, before pocketing the chalk and wiping the white dust off on his trousers. She didn't say it, but to her, his actions in the forest made a lot more sense now. He didn't want weapons wielded there, because it had already suffered enough for it.

He clambered to his feet with a soft grunt, before offering Torianna a hand to help her up. Neither of them spoke as they slowly climbed back down into the underground tunnels and walked back over to join the group. She felt that peculiar tug once again, but it wasn't guilt this time. She didn't know what it was, but she wasn't entirely sure that she liked it.

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"Straighten up guys, we can't be bickering in front of Zelda!" Endel whispered as they made their way through Hyrule Castle's main hall. Upon entering the throne room, however, they found the chair un-occupied. One of the guards pointed them in the direction of the debate hall, where "some sort of emergency meeting was being called." Nobody liked the sound of that, as only the court would call such a meeting, and there wasn't a soul in Hyrule that trusted their machinations.

 

Making their way up to the hall, another guard told them they were being summoned to the meeting and had arrived just in time. This especially worried Endel and the others; Zelda had never summoned them before, what was the meaning of all this? Their concerns were validated the moment they walked in and beheld the distraught face of the princess as Kazdan stood over her. Circled about the hall were half a dozen other nobles who seemed to be in league with the master warlock, and the bodies of many others were  strewn about the place.

 

"Ah, your timing is impeccable!" Kazdan announced as they looked about in shock. "I've just finished an important session that will change the political landscape of Hyrule. Trimming away the excess of political leaders, convincing Zelda to abdicate the rest of her meager powers to my friends and I... so much more done in the last few minutes than what my fallen brethren had accomplished in years!" He told them of his evil deeds with a horrifying smile. Endel was too shocked to say a word, and the others seemed to be of a similar mind.

 

"Oh, but you must be worried about the guards you sent to arrest me?" He questioned mockingly. "I saw they were insufficient from the task and gave them the tools they need to eliminate the real criminals here; yourselves!" Turning about with a sweeping motion, a group of four soldiers wandered into the room... or at least what must have once been soldiers. Each was sporting a mutation of their own as one of Kazdan's twisted monster-folk: one resembled a Tektite, another a White Wolfos, the third was undoubtedly part Keese, and a Toadpoli was apparently used for the fourth.

 

"I wish you a slow, painful death, Scoundrels!" Kazdan said with a cackle before he, Zelda, and his cohorts disappeared in a flash of magic. The monster-soldiers began their horrid advance.

"Get ready, everyone, we're not about to die here." Endel said, "Maia, see if you can find help, the rest of you, let's split up and take them one-on-one!"

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Lorcan whipped his sword out and found himself faced with the Wolfos monster. It moved around him in circles, emitting a low growl as it did so.

Lorcan waited for it to pounce, and it came at him in a snarling blur of white, claws extended and ready to tear him apart.

At the last moment, Lorcan flung his shield up and managed to knock the creature away, but not before it raked its claws along Lorcan's arm. The claws of the creature tore through his armour like a knife cutting butter, much to Lorcan's horror.

He hissed in pain at the cuts he'd received, but turned to face the creature again. He hated being entirely on the defensive, but in a fight like this one it seemed it was a necessity.

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The Tektite-human mutation advanced on Torianna as she pulled out her trusty gold dagger from her boot leg. The man, who had once been an ordinary guard, had multiple legs attached at the hips, and he leapt with the same unnerving height as a tektite. Two vicious looking fangs had been fixed onto the mans upper jaw, and they dripped a nasty looking substance as he advanced on her.

The mutated creature leapt to attack Torianna. She jumped back out of harms way just in time, but failed on the counter attack. The man's new limbs had the same hard exo-skeleton of a tektite, and it wasn't faring well for Torianna. Suddenly, he let out a disgusting, guttural noise and a sticky web-like substance wrapped itself around Torianna's legs. She hit the ground hard.

The beast advanced again, lips curled back, fangs dripping to bite. Torianna, in an act of desperation, flailed her legs and kicked the beast away. Her kick sent him scuttling across the floor, likely because he wasn't used to his new form yet. The distraction gave her enough time to cut herself free before the hybrid returned for another round.

"Let's go spider boy," she growled.

Edited by NayruGoddessOfWisdom (see edit history)

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Endel was kept on his feet as the Toadpoli-guard spewed a barrage of molten rock at every opportunity. This hybrid thankfully couldn't make much use of its webbed, lanky arms and had to rely on ranged attacks to keep the boy at bay. It was a battle of attrition to see what would happen first; would Endel fail to dodge, or would the guard run out of ammo? A few close shaves later it became obvious who the victor would be.

 

Fatigued and on its knees, the Toadpoli was easy pickings for Endel, though he was not far off from collapsing as well. He made a leap for the monster and beheaded it cleanly with his short-sword. Hands on his knees now, he looked around to see how the others fared. Skallin was unfazed by the rather flustered Keese-guard, who was too weak to chink his armor but too fast to be hit. Torianna seemed to be full of energy and matched about even with the Tektite, but Lorcan wasn't looking too good against the Wolfos-guard.

"Hey, fluffy, think you can keep up with my speed?" Endel taunted, getting the white monster-kin's attention. It quickly bound over to him and began circling, but the added presence of Lorcan made it hard to ring in two prey at once. Flustered, it made a leap for Lorcan again, but was grabbed around the hind legs by Endel, leaving it helpless as the silent guard ended its life.

 

As the battle became two-on-one for each of the remaining monsters, victory was practically theirs. These beasts were not as skilled as the Lizafos-woman, and it showed when Endel casually walked up behind the Keese-guard and sliced it nearly in two. Lorcan likewise grappled with the Tektite-guard rather easily despite his fatigue, letting Torianna impale it through the center eye.

 

Maia returned with other guards just as the four sat down to catch their breath. "What is... explain this right away!" one of the men ordered, to which Endel gave a blunt recounting of their fight, Kazdan's plot, and the kidnapping of Zelda.

"I explained everything else to the captains of the guard," Maia explained, "They want to help, but we need to cooperate with each other." Endel didn't like the sound of working with the very people he used to loathe, but it looked like there wasn't much else to do. He could almost feel the mutual unease as both parties came to decide on a truce.

 

---

 

After everything had settled down and Telma arrived on the Scene with Ashei, it became clear that, at the very least, the Castle Knights would allow the Scoundrels of Virtue to operate freely in the town and surrounding realms. Of course, Telma also had to agree to reparations for the crimes her organization had committed, which gave Endel a pang of guilt. Furthermore, they would have to disband or reorganize after this new crisis blew over, though he expected their leader was already thinking up a loophole to that condition. The Commander of the Knights, a man named Georges, finally helped pen the terms on paper, and with a handshake forged an alliance Endel had never dreamed would happen.

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"Are you okay?" Endel asked Maia, who was sitting on a bench in Telma's bar, clenching a cup of hot milk. They decided to come here to eat and rest a bit after the wild events that had occurred today.

"No," Maia replied.

"I know you're worried about Zelda... But we'll save her," Endel told her. 

"How can you be so sure of that? She's the Princess, they won't let her go so easily..." she sighed. She didn't want to cry, and forced herself to hold it back.

"I know," he sighed too. 

"If only Link would return... Why would he disappear in such needed times? And besides, I'm pretty sure he would never  leave the Princess. They were fond of each other, you know... I just don't understand it... I think that we need him to stop all this..." Maia concluded. 

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"... I'm actually kind of glad he's gone." Endel admitted.

"You... what?" Maia replied, utterly shocked.

"Think about it." He said. "There's no hero to save us this time. No divine forces to pick us up, dust us off and tell us it's going to be okay. If we manage to save ourselves from these monsters, then we prove once and for all that Hyrule belongs to us, not the gods and goddesses."

 

Maia was silent for a moment. "There might be some truth to that." She finally replied, though she didn't seem entirely convinced. "Maybe the gods want us to save ourselves this time. After all, Kazdan is a human, one of our own started this mess."

"I never like to give the divine any credit, but I think you might be right." He concurred. Let them do what they will up there, he thought to himself, meanwhile, I'll be doing as I please down here. Nothing can deter me from what I want.

 

---

 

The next morning everyone slept in a bit late, as there was little to do in the midst of Telma and Captain Georges' continuing discussions. "Hey," Endel said to Ashei later that morning. "If we have free reign to start operating in Hyrule, why aren't any of us moving out?"

The boss shrugged. "Guess we have to do what the guards want until there's a real emergency, yeah?"

"...What if we made an emergency?" Endel said with a smile. Ashei raised an eyebrow, and he began to explain.

 

A moment later, Endel had gathered everyone up for a secret meeting. "Okay guys, the guards are proving to be even more of a burden than I ever dreamed, so we're going to sneak out and do a little mission Ashei wanted done." The others, including Maia, were all raring to go now after being stuck in the castle for so long. "The other day, a scout reported that someone is stirring up one of the old Bulbin camps in the Gerudo Desert. We expect it's one of Kazdan's cronies, but they don't know we're coming this time. In fact, nobody in the castle but Ashei knows we're going out, so this is a top secret assignment. How do you guys feel about a trip to the desert?"

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With Endel's revelation, the group gathered up their possessions and readied themselves for quite a journey. The Desert was a part of Hyrule that few chose to enter. It was virtually empty, with nothing there but the Arbiters Grounds - which no one in their right mind would set foot into. Despite this, Torianna was actually excited. She'd been cooped up in the castle for a good two days now with nothing to do but beat everyone at card games and irritate Lorcan (which she had to admit was fun). Still, she was just itching to do something.

So they took a carriage and some horses and set out for the path to the Gerudo dessert. Torianna and Lorcan took the reigns this time, with Endel opting to stay in the carriage with Maia and Skallin. They got a few acknowledging glances as they trundled out of Hyrule Castle Town. Since operations had gone public, people became much more interested in the Scoundrels of Virtue. Torianna wasn't used to this kind of attention. Especially seeing as she'd spent her time working for an underground organisation.

"Don't you think it's strange?" Torianna asked as they pulled out onto Hyrule field. "Having all these people know about the Scoundrels?" Lorcan shrugged, nonchalant. Still, Torianna continued. "I mean I know that some of them knew before, but they didn't really know what was happening. Is any of this making sense?"

Lorcan just chuckled, straightening himself out on his saddle, keeping his eyes fixed on the dirt track.

Torianna huffed, but it was only for show. She wasn't really all too irritated with him. Her mind was still elsewhere. She couldn't help but wander exactly what Kazdan wanted with the Princess. And why would he, a powerful political leader and warlock, be dealing with the network? In comparison, they were inferior. But there must be something he wanted from them...

She was bought back to the present as they came to a gentle stop. "This is it," Endel said as he climbed from the carriage. "The terrain from here on out is too loose, we'll have to take the rest of the journey on foot."

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