The Scoundrels of Virtue

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

Endel, Torianna, and Maia occupied themselves by setting up their tents and building a small camp fire. They set up camp a good few feet away from that of the networkers, still weary of them. Once this task was completed, all that was left to do was wait. Torianna had sat a while with Endel and Maia by the fire, but she really did get the sense that three was a crowd. She excused herself, claiming that she needed an early night, and clambered into her tent.

And as she lay there, listening to the conversations occurring either side of her, it occurred to her quite how different she felt now to that evening in the shop - her last proper looting job. She hadn't considered it until this point, but it suddenly seemed so glaringly obvious as she sat, staring at the silhouettes against the canvas walls. She didn't know how much longer she could keep ignoring the fact that, despite her earlier attitude, Endel and Maia were her friends. Companionship carried with it an unexpected warmth, something that she wasn't entirely accustomed to.

She pulled her blanket a little tighter around her shoulders. It was a cold night, after all.

 

---

 

Torianna was awoken in the small hours of the morning by the thunder of hooves and a loud, bellowing voice.

"Scoundrels! Networkers! Rise!"

Torianna bolted upright, fumbling about in an attempt to unravel herself from her blankets. She could hear the movement of other bodies around her, and the rustling of canvas as the others left their tents. She hurriedly pulled on her jacket in an attempt to protect herself from the cold, before stumbling out of her tent.

A junior networker -a messenger- was sat astride a horse, it's breath misting in the cool air. Endel and Maia were already stood before it, along with the networkers. Torianna shuffled over, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Jaydon has been located and secured," the messenger announced. "You're being summoned immediately."

And just like that, the Scoundrels were hustled into the carriage belonging to the networkers. One of them stayed behind with the messenger to collect up their supplies, two took the reigns, and the last was put in the carriage along with the scoundrels to keep an eye on them.

A whip cracked, and the carriage jerked into motion. Torianna shivered from where she sat next to the networker. He cast a judgemental gaze over her.

"To think I used to take orders from you," he smirked. "And now here you are, following our demands. Looks like you made a bad call, scoundrel." He placed careful emphasis on the last word, making it almost sound like an insult.

She simply glared at him, choosing not to say the thought on her mind: This war isn't over yet.

[Knuckle 484]

Endel didn't like the direction this jerk was taking the conversation, but there was hardly anything he could to do shut him up. Since they were going to be in the carriage for the next few hours, he tried to change the conversation. "Torianna, what can you tell us about your father?" It might not be the most tactful thing to ask (and she made no attempt to hide her annoyance), but the question was a way to find out more about who they were up against. It was also something their captors wouldn't mind talking about even if it meant informing the enemy.

"Well..." Torianna began, "first of all, he goes strictly by 'Darius' when you're doing business with him, so that's something to keep in mind."

 

The other boy from the Network scoffed. "As if trash like you can call your dealings business." he said, "Besides, why are you asking her?"

"Surely you don't think you know more about your boss than his own daughter?" Endel replied back. The network boy frowned, but didn't say another word. "Sorry about that, I just want to get to know more about him. Where did your father come from, how did he start such a huge organization, stuff like that. You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, I just want to get a feel for who I'm about to meet."

[ButterflyBabyBlue 2]

Lorcan shifted nervously as the carriage jumped with each bump on the road, fumbling idly with the rope around his wrists. The rope Darius had held onto while tracking Jaydon was still secured about him, the end hanging loose for now.

The Princess herself sat next to Lorcan, poised and regal as she had always been. She looked somewhat gaunt, though, and her eyes seem tired. Her wrists were bound more securely with two silver cuffs linked together so that she could barely move them more than a few inches apart. Darius kept a sharpened knife pointed in their direction, it's blade glinting menacingly under the sunlight pouring through the window.

The network leader sat in the seat across from them, his arms crossed firmly across his chest as he frowned at Lorcan. The knight, for his part, did his best to avoid eye contact. After a while, though, Darius' face cleared and he smiled at Lorcan.

"Scoundrel," he spoke up, and Lorcan snapped his gaze back to him. "You know my daughter pretty well, huh?"

Lorcan shrugged uncomfortably, wishing to be anywhere else but here.

"Let me tell you something you probably didn't know about her," Darius replied with a sudden grin. Lorcan clenched his jaw, waiting.

"When Tori was very young, maybe six years old, she was terrified of the dark."

Lorcan frowned at that; he'd never exactly imagined Torianna as someone with... well, fears.

"And as a thief, that was unacceptable," Darius continued. "We had to get rid of that silly fear, you know. What good would you be as a guard if you were scared of your own shadow, huh?"

Lorcan supposed the man had a point, but he wasn't about to show any outward emotion. The princess watched on coolly from her seat, her back straight as an iron rod.

"So what I used to do was, I shuttered her windows at night, and I locked her in her dark little room all night."

Lorcan froze, his gaze sliding to meet Darius' shining eyes. 

"For the first night, oh, the screaming was awful," he went on, leaning closer and keeping his knife trained on Lorcan.The knight seethed where he sat, his hands fumbling clumsily with the rope.

"I don't think she slept at all; like I said, she was scared of her own shadow." A sick laugh. "Thought they were monsters or something. The next night..."

Lorcan's breaths grew laboured as he tried furiously to undo his binds, but to no avail.

And Darius did not stop talking - not for a long time.

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

Torianna chanced a glance at the networker who'd been assigned to watch them, but he was staring idly out of the carriage window. Clearly, he wasn't interested in their conversation. She blew out her cheeks, and began at the beginning.

"My dad was from Castle Town, always has been, and always will be. Gran was a seamstress, and Grandpa a miner. The organisation came about when Dad was in his early twenties, before Jaydon and I were born. It wasn't just his organisation to begin with, there were four of them. Dad was a skilled thief, his friends a knight captain, a castle guard, and a man who owned a bar and had a particular knack for organisation. They started small scale, meeting at the bar and pulling off house burglaries, shop looting - small time. Then they planned a big heist of the castle. They had two men on the inside so they knew exactly how to do it. And they pulled it off - that's when people started coming in. Skilled thieves, looters, tricksters, conmen - anyone they could get on their side. Everything kind of spiralled from there..."

Endel frowned. "What happened to the other men?"

"I don't know exactly..." Torianna replied. "But from what I could gather, the guard got caught leaking information and was sentenced with time in prison, the captain quit because he got married and started a family... I'm not too sure about the bartender..."

"Interesting..." Endel muttered.

 

* * *

 

Torianna's hands were shaking by the time the carriage finally came to a stop. The doors were opened, and the three of them were led down a dusty pathway to a smaller, secluded area in Hyrule field, surrounded on three sides by steep cliff faces. Torianna saw her father was already waiting there, in front of his carriage. Princess Zelda was by his side, her wrists secured with silver cuffs; she looked worn out, tired, but she didn't appear to be injured and held herself in the same regal fashion as always.

As they drew closer, Torianna laid eyes on a few extra guards, two of them standing in front of Lorcan. He was near the corner of the carriage with his wrists bound and another length of rope looped around his waist and tied off to one of the beams beneath the carriage. His arms were bruised, but other than that he appeared uninjured. His tired eyes brightened as he saw he friends approach.

"Good job, boys," Torianna's father said, before raising his hand sharply. "Stop there, scoundrels! Don't come any closer... good..."  he smiled tauntingly. "So very wonderful to see you again. Your friend here has been good to us, he's quite the woodsmen when he puts his mind to it, hey?"

Lorcan blushed, and Torianna scowled darkly. Making a mockery of monkey-man was her thing.

"He upheld his part of deal fantastically, and I am a man of my word..." he rummaged about in his pocket for a few moments, producing a small silver key which he then tossed to Endel. With a nod of his head, he motioned for Princess Zelda to walk back towards Endel, who freed her without a moment of hesitation. Darius gave them a sharp nod as the silver cuffs slipped open. Maia was immediately at Princess Zelda's side, guiding her to the back of the group, away from the networkers.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you," Darius said with a mocking grin. He turned away, but was interrupted by Endel.

"Hold on!" he snapped. "You haven't given us Lorcan back! We had a deal, Darius!"

Darius paused for a moment, and Torianna's heart sunk into her stomach. Lorcan began to struggle furiously, wrenching against the ropes that confined him. Suddenly, Torianna realised exactly how the network had planned to cheat them. The twisted smile on her father's face merely confirmed it.

"We did indeed," Darius said slowly. "The Princess in exchange for my boy. Woodsman, here? He was never a part of our agreement."

[Knuckle 484]

((I love that backstory Nayru! It gives me some really good ideas ))

 

Endel's face went red, but he tried to contain his anger a little longer. "What do you want for him, then?" He asked through gritted teeth, but Darius just laughed.

"Aside from you life? Nothing. I'm perfectly justified in taking this boy for the loss of my... fallen daughter." He replied. 

 

It was clear to Endel that this man was a complete sociopath. Darius only saw himself as a businessman, taking steps to manage humans like collateral, and 'fix' them when they did work the way he wanted them to. Sure, his old partners had made a profession out of their thievery, but he obviously saw the network as a tool to achieve his desires. His own children were assets in this game too, the most tragic victims in all this now that Torianna was disowned and Jaydon was something less than human. It was like someone had taken the old, selfish Endel and stripped him of his conscience, creating a monster that impulsively twisted everything to suit his own pathetic image.

 

All of this was too much. With a howl, Endel reached back and slugged Darius in the face.

 

The older man didn't seem terribly injured by his fist, but the other networkers looked mortified. Before they could enact their retribution however, Darius raised a hand instructing them to stand down. Wiping the blook off his cut cheek, Darius looked at him with perverse delight. "Don't worry, I'll be sure to take out any displays of violence on your friend." He warned. Endel stood there, fuming but unwilling to risk another assault.

"... you've got that look in your eyes, boy." Darius uttered; Endel gave him a confused look. "Yes, I knew it had to be you. I can see it in your gaze, and that stupid expression some people call 'righteous indignation.' You look the same as your father." the leader of the network looked dead serious, but Endel stared at him with disbelief. Parents? He didn't have family of any significance, given his mother had died a long time ago and his father had been shipped off to the desert in chains. Darius' expression darkened. "He looked at me that way after walking out on our partnership... betrayed me after ten years of friendship, all because I wanted his wife. I arranged to have him exposed and sentenced to banishment in the Arbiter's Grounds, but the woman and her kid got away."

"No, you're mistaken. I'm... a regular orphan!" Endel shouted.

"You're the bratty spawn of a two-faced thief that got what was coming to him." Darius taunted. "I can tell, you look too much like him. And that story about imprisonment hits a little close to home, doesn't it? There aren't many men sent to the Grounds... it could only be you."

"They say my mother died of grief... you did it, you ruined their lives because you couldn't get your way." Endel was shaking now.

"It's nothing personal, I just don't like it when people double-cross me." Darius reasoned.

 

((What do you guys think? Do you all like my plot twist?))

[Franne 2]

((I really like it!))

 

Without saying anything else, Darius turned around, gestured to his guards to follow him and got into the carriage. The group watched Lorcan trying to slow his departure down, but the guard that held the rope around his waist pulled it hard and forced Lorcan to follow. One last time he looked at us, his eyes tired and sad, and his eyes lastly landed on Torianna. The guard pulled the rope again, and Lorcan turned around and got into the other carriage. Helpless, they watched as the carriage disappeared.

Next to Maia, Endel fell down to his knees. Maia knelt down too and hugged him. They didn't say anything, and when Endel started to sob quietly Maia just held him.

After a few seconds, Torianna started to yell curses and swearwords Maia never heard before. She too fell down to her knees and started to punch the ground, never stopping to yell. 

Maia watched her, biting her lower lip. Princess Zelda was still at the same place as before, and the only movement that she made was rubbing her wrists. Maia's instinct told her to go to the Princess, but she knew that the Princess wouldn't mind if she stayed with Endel while he needed her. 

After a few minutes, Torianna had become silent. Maia moved so that she sat in front of Endel. She took his face in her hands, and used her finger to wipe away his tears. He looked up and into her eyes. "Are you okay?" Maia whispered. 

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

There wasn't a single part of Torianna that wasn't drenched with rage. It was as if some bestial creature had clawed it's way from behind her ribs and was enacting a violently loud revenge upon it's captor. She pounded her clenched fist into the ground time and time again, allowing the fury to dispel through her knuckles and into the rocky earth. Eventually, the creature was beaten into submission and all that remained was the snivelling little girl, hiding from the shadows in the corner of the room.

She despised her father with every fibre of her being. He didn't have the right to take Lorcan like that, and he didn't have the right to mock Endel as he did. The thought of that encounter was enough to build the furious monster again. Torianna stopped, taking a deep breath and forcing the creature to subside.

As she looked up from where she was kneeling on the ground, the first thing she saw was her bleeding knuckles. After watching them for a moment, she decided that it wasn't a priority. Maia and Endel were knelt down next to her, talking softly between themselves. Princess Zelda stood behind them, her hands clasped nervously in front of her. She greeted Torianna with an apprehensive smile - way to go looking like a psychopath in front of the princess.

"Where do we go from here?" Maia asked, her arm still wrapped around a trembling Endel - Torianna wasn't sure if he was trembling from hurt, panic, or rage.

"Lorcan," Torianna replied without a moment of hesitation. "We go save Lorcan."

"We need to get Princess Zelda to a secure location..." Maia reminded her. "She's not safe out here in the open."

[Knuckle 484]

Thinking rationally wasn't easy right now. Endel had always disliked Darius, but now a need for justice and revenge was clouding his thoughts. It took everything he had left to push aside his thirst for retribution and think like a rational leader. "Damn it all, chasing Lorcan would be the end of us." Endel reluctantly concluded. Torianna looked none too pleased at his decision, but Maia and Princess Zelda gave a nod of approval.

"We're heading back to Zora's Domain. They'll never expect us to retreat there, and it's the safest place I can think of anyway." Endel decided. Everyone gathered what they could and braced themselves for a long walk.

 

Maia was able to disguise Zelda with some of her extra cloaks, and so they didn't draw any attention to themselves for the first few miles of the trip. It wasn't until Zelda started showing signs of fatigue that Torianna stopped them for a moment. While the others rested, she scouted the road ahead and charmed a caravan driver into giving them a ride. With a bit of hitchhiking, the group made their way to Zora's Domain again late that evening. The trip was slow and all of them were dragging their feet by the time the waterfall came into view.

 

"This is it, Princess Zelda." Endel informed her. "We'll take you to the king. Thankfully, he was hoping to meet with you last time we visited, so he'll have no problem accommodating you. After seeing you off... we have business with the Network."

"King Ralis is a strong young man, I am sure he will be able to protect me here for the remainder of this crisis." Zelda spoke confidently."It is the three of you I worry about. Do not allow your anger to control your actions."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Maia said. 

[ButterflyBabyBlue 2]

The first thing Lorcan received was a hard smack across the jaw. It sent him flying into his seat, the rope pulling harshly against his torso. He straightened himself, about to spring up and make some futile attempt to fight back, but was promptly shoved back by Darius without any visible effort. The other network member in the carriage watched on in mild amusement.

Lorcan accepted defeat as the carriage sped up, bumping rhythmically as before. 

"Now, listen to me, scoundrel," Darius said lowly. "You are going to do exactly what I tell you to. Hear me? Exactly. If I tell you to track something down, you do it. If I try to get information from you, I'm going to get it. If you disobey me, I'm going to make you regret ever having the thought in the first place. Think about your friends - when I tell them you're barely able to move, let alone pick up that old sword of yours. Are we understood?"

Lorcan fought the urge to pull against his constraints, knowing already it was useless and yet trying anyways. Darius laughed harshly as he wound the rope about his fist, yanking it sharply and forcing Lorcan's gaze back to him. Darius lifted a hand.

"Are we agreed, scoundrel?" he repeated. 

Hating himself, hating Darius and all of the networkers, Lorcan nodded.

"Excellent."

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

They had scarcely been back in their carriage (the same carriage in which they had arrived in the Zora domain) ten minutes before they came to a halt once again. Torianna stirred from where she sat in the back, glancing out of the carriage window to see a sleepy little inn.

"Wait..." she muttered, as Endel pulled open the door. "Why are we stopping?"

"No one slept properly last night," Endel said. "We don't want to go into a confrontation without sleeping tonight either. We need to rest."

"We can't afford to rest," Torianna pleaded. "You don't understand what a dire situation this is, the things they're going to do to Lorcan-"

"We understand," Maia said in an attempt to reason with her. "But you know it's a bad idea to attempt a rescue mission when we're so sleep deprived."

The two of them were already walking towards the door of the inn, with it's warm golden light seeping through the windows.

Torianna stumbled out of the carriage, clinging to the handles by the door to support her. She knew she was over tired, that she wasn't thinking straight, but she surpassed the point of not caring hours back.

"Solitary confinement," she spat. Endel and Maia turned back to look at her from the doorway, frowning. "Intrusive questioning, pain inflicting restraints, emotional manipulation, physical abuse, bodily torture." She paused for a moment. "Those techniques are standard practice for the network... We can't leave him there... please."

"I'm sorry," Endel sighed. "But we'll be less than useless unless we rest. I know you understand, Torianna."

Edited 16 Jan 2015 by NayruGoddessOfWisdom (see edit history)

[Knuckle 484]

Later that evening, Endel had seen Maia off before heading to his room when he realized that Torianna was nowhere to be found. Fearing the worst, he stormed down the stairs and headed for the front door of the inn when a familiar voice reassured him.

"I'm not gone, just sitting down here to pass the time instead of pretending to sleep. You can take it easy for once." Torianna called from a nearby corner of the bar.

"I don't guess you want company?" He asked, but the girl just shrugged in reply, and so he cautiously took a seat. "This is kind of a relief, since there was something I wanted to talk to you about anyway." he said.

"Shoot." Torianna replied somewhat brusquely.

 

Endel was concerned about the emotional well-being of his friend, and decided to try and get her mind off Lorcan first. "Thanks for telling me about your father back there in the carriage." He was sincere, but Torianna still gave just a shrug. "That being said, do you mind if I just call him Darius?" Torianna replied to his request with a strong nod, then proceeded to suggest he also call him a few obscenities the next time their paths crossed. That seemed to help get a lot of stress off her chest, so Endel returned to the conversation he'd originally planned.

"I thought I'd return the favor by telling you a bit of my history," he suggested, "I figure it could help us piece together the bigger story of Darius while we're at it."

"Sounds good to me." Torianna replied, her interest now piqued.

 

"Well, I never really knew my parents as a kid." Endel began. "My dad was never around, but I didn't learn until joining the Scoundrels that he was framed and send to the Arbiters Grounds.My mother passed away when I was still a little kid. She had really bad health, people always said she didn't have the will to recover from sickness because her heart was broken. After she died, I spent a long time in and out of orphanages. I get put in a home, break out, the castle guard would find me... it was an endless cycle." Torianna seemed to understand that same feeling of restlessness as he spoke. "Eventually I never came back. By then the Twilight Crisis had come and gone, and the Scoundrels were recruiting, so I joined up. They told me about my dad like I said, but they never said anything else. I don't think they knew he was a friend of Darius, and I sure never found out." He paused for a moment, thinking about how recent events fit into his story. "Being an orphan kind of made me a cynic, you know. I used to hate the gods and their meddling... but you know all about the old me." He said, stirring up memories of their first adventures and the way he was always so selfish. "I don't think that way anymore, but it's kind of surreal to find out that the man who ruined our lives is basically a more extreme version of the old me." He brooded on those words for a moment while both of them sat there in silence.

"... I guess that's enough rambling for tonight." he finally concluded and got up from his seat. "Make sure to get to bed soon, we're heading out early."

[ButterflyBabyBlue 2]

Lorcan blinked himself awake groggily and somewhat uncomfortable, and his eyes met with a dingy, cramped room, with only a chest of drawers in the right corner opposite him. He glanced down at himself and discovered he was no longer wearing his armour or any of his old clothes, now dressed in simple brown tones with no more than one layer on him. He was on his knees, too; how had he slept like that? Lorcan moved to push himself up and look around some more, and stopped himself when he found a now-familiar tugging around his wrists. Craning his neck, he found his hands were in shackles, leaving him unable to move more than a few inches from the wall. He couldn't bend them, couldn't stretch in any way. No weapons nearby either, of course.

A memory surfaced, the thud of a sword hilt between his eyes, Darius' cruel smile the last thing he'd seen before... before arriving to wherever he was now.

Groaning in frustration at his compromised position, Lorcan shuffled his feet, tried rotating his wrists, anything to relieve his sore muscles from the tension. 

His stomach growled at him for some sort of sustenance, and running his tongue over the top of his mouth, Lorcan decided food and water would have to be the first thing to find.

But how?!

"Ah, our sleeping beauty rises at last!"

Lorcan flinched at Darius' voice, eyes narrowing at the crack of light that filtered in through the open door in the left corner. Darius strode in purposefully, but it was something else that held Lorcan's attention.

Darius was carrying a pitcher of water in one hand, and in the other a handful of fruit. Lorcan's eyes followed them intently as Darius made his way to where Lorcan was held. The leader set his things down, smiling and humming to himself as he dusted his hands off and turned to face Lorcan. The knight barely registered him, his eyes still fixed on the food mere feet away. 

"Hungry, are we?" Darius asked, laughing at Lorcan's wide-eyed staring.

He only took his eyes from the food when he was taken by the chin and made to look at Darius' cold eyes.

"Answer me," he ordered simply. "Hungry?"

Lorcan shook his head as firmly as he could, but his stomach betrayed him. Darius grinned.

Lorcan's head was smacked to the side with no warning, his right cheek stinging with the impact.

"No lying," the leader said. Lorcan was forced to look at him again, glaring fiercely at Darius. 

"Here's your offer," the other man began. "I'm going to ask some questions, just some easy little ones to start with, and you're going to answer."

Lorcan was about to shake his head once more, when Darius added, "For every answer I get, you'll get a drink of water from that pitcher there. I assume we have ourselves an agreement."

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

Endel's story was the first thing on Torianna's mind when she awoke that morning. She knew exactly what he was trying to tell her: that if he had let himself continue down that path, he was going to turn into Darius - and by extension, if she carried on acting the way that she was...

She shook her head as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, running her hands through her hair. Endel was right, she knew he was; a bad childhood doesn't mean you have to turn into a bad person. Endel was living proof of that. But there was a tiny pit of fear in her gut, a fear that maybe she was too far gone.

"Are you okay?" Maia asked.

Torianna snapped her attention to the serving girl, who was already sat up on her bed, fully dressed, watching Torianna with a concerned frown. The thief glanced down, only to see her leather jacket in the girls hands.

"What are you doing with my jacket?!" she snapped.

Maia blinked. "The stitching was loose where the cuffs meet the sleeves - I was just fixing it for you."

"Oh..." Torianna felt her cheeks flush a little as she threw the covers back. She hadn't meant to snap at Maia like that... "Thank you."

A small smile passed over the serving girl's face as she tied the final knot in place and snipped off the last of the thread.

 

- - - - - 

 

"Okay," Torianna said, swallowing her last mouthful of scrambled eggs and leaning over the map laid out on the table. "Any prisoners kept in the network are held in the base just south of Death Mountain." She tapped the location on the map with her index finger. "It's secluded, and quiet, plus it's only accessible via a hidden path that can only be traversed on foot. It's the optimum place to keep a prisoner with minimal chance of interference."

"You know how to get there?" Endel asked.

"I do," Torianna replied. "But it's got a higher level of security than any other Network base. There's only one door in and out of that place and it's heavily guarded. Windows don't open, and breaking the glass will raise the alarm. The best way in is Cheval style - through the chimney. That will get us down to the ground floor - we'll come out in the kitchen. Provided we don't enter at a meal time, it should be unoccupied."

"Where will they be holding Lorcan?" Maia asked.

"Prisoners are usually held at basement level in chains in locked cells. There's no windows to these cells, the door is the only way in and out. We'll have to get past a number of guards in order to reach Lorcan, so we'll have to use a mixture of fighting and stealth to reach him without raising alarms. Once we're there, we'll need lock picking tools to get through the door, as well as something we can use to bust chains or bolted shackles - we won't be able to pick those open."

"Oh goddess..." Maia sighs.

"Is there anything else?" Endel asked, looking sceptical.

"There's no way of knowing what sort of state Lorcan will be in, we might have to carry him out of there ourselves. And there's one more thing..."

"What?"

Torianna cringed. "I don't know how we're going to get out..."

[Knuckle 484]

Endel rubbed his forehead for a moment in thought. His bow could pick off any number of guards, but would be useless the moment they got into close quarters. That would leave only Torianna and Maia as definite assets in melee combat, as he'd never replaced his shortsword since the last trip to Death Mountain. If they couldn't fight their way out, they'd have to convince the Network to either let them leave... or force Darius and his grunts to retreat. A plan was suddenly coming to him.

 

"Okay." Endel decided, "What we need is a sledgehammer, smoke bombs, and heavy duty explosives for clearing rocks. Here's the plan..."

 

---

 

After racing to Kakariko Village, everyone split up to buy the necessary equipment for their heist. Torianna bought the seldgehammer, Maia bought the smoke bombs and explosives, and Endel bought necessities like arrows and scrap metal that could be used as lockpicks, plus some rope for climbing. They all met back at the carriage to discuss their plan one more time.

 

Torianna and Maia would approach the base through the hidden path and place some of the explosives about two-thirds of the way down the road. Endel would be following them above from the top of the rocky walls flanking the path, and would drop a rope down to get them up to where he was. They would reach the cliffs overlooking the base in about ten minutes, at which time the explosives would run out of fuse and blast the canyon walls down into the path. Torianna and Maia would drop down the chimney, place a smoke bomb in the kitchen, and make a dash for the lower level of the compound; the smoke would expand and rise through the ground floor and above to flush out any Networkers on those levels (while leaving Lorcan unharmed in the basement). When everyone in the upper levels retreated from the base and into the canyon path, Endel would drop the rest of the explosives behind them and trap them between two piles of rubble. This left Torianna and Maia with hopefully a small fraction of the Network's forces to deal with as they picked through all the doors, smashed Lorcan out of whatever imprisonment he was detained in with the sledgehammer, and escape the emptied complex right through the front door where Endel would be picking off any hostiles and ready to toss down a rope for their escape.

 

With a bit of luck, the plan would hopefully work. At least, most of it- Endel had a funny feeling they'd need to improvise, and he was already starting to dread this would turn out for the worst. Pushing away those concerns, he got everyone into position and began his ascent.

[Franne 2]

Torianna and Maia were walking down the pathway. "I hope this will work..." Maia whispered.

"It has to..." Torianna replied. 

"I want to apologize ahead for the fact that if we need to fight, I will be useless", Maia sighed. "I'm sorry."

Torianna didn't reply at first, but after a few moments she said, "I'll give you a few more lessons, if you'd like.. Or Endel can give you those, you can choose."

Maia smiled. "Thank you." 

The following part of their walk was done silent. They weren't sure where and if the pathway was guarded. 

Maia's thoughts only went to Endel. She hoped that they all would be okay, and that everything would go as planned. Last night, she had eavesdropped on Endel and Torianna's conversation. She didn't mean to, she was just worried were Torianna was. While listening, she had realised that she and Endel didn't know as much about each other as she'd like, but when the conversation had been over, it was too late to talk to Endel about it. Now, she almost cursed herself for not saying it then. Maybe it was too late now... 

"Okay, let's start planting some explosives..." Torianna said, interrupting Maia's thoughts.