Tenuous State

Name: Tenuous State

Plot: About three years ago, the queen of Hyrule became deathly ill from a mysterious disease. When conventional medicine and magics failed to cure her, the king sent out a call to all the healers, sorcerers, alchemists, and doctors in the land, promising great riches and fame to anyone who could cure his dying queen.

Scores of practitioners from all across the lands came to answer the call. Despite their best efforts, there was no magic, medicine, potion, ritual, or appeal to the gods that could improve her condition. All seemed lost until a familiar robed figure emerged from the shadows and presented himself to render aid: Facade.

Naturally, they were suspicious. He had tried to conquer Hyrule in the past and was the leader of a cultish group of partisans, the Forsworn Army. However, he professed that he had turned over a new leaf and abandoned his old religion to become a follower of the three goddesses. He offered to cure the queen in exchange for amnesty for himself and his followers and promised to answer for their crimes should he fail. Besides, he added, what other choice did they have?

Reluctantly, they permitted him to try. With the aid mysterious magics and a simple song, the queen was miraculously cured and was up and about mere hours after the treatment. The king was overjoyed and held up his end of the bargain. In fact, he even went one better and granted Facade a position as the official court sorcerer.

At first it seemed that his intentions were benign, but bit by bit it seemed that the suspicions of him were not unfounded.

As the years went by, the king and queen started making fewer and fewer public appearances, members of the Forsworn Army began appearing in the ranks of the royal army as "auxiliaries", and Facade began establishing his own personal guard from their ranks.

Worse, diplomatic relations with the local tribes has began to deteriorate: The people of Ordon began decrying crushing taxes, even though they had not been raised for almost 20 years. The Zora have become increasingly hostile and insular, and any envoys sent to negotiate with them have not returned. Likewise, the Gorons and other tribes have seemingly cut off contact with the outside world altogether. To make matters even worse, the technologically advanced kingdom of Labrynna has become increasingly belligerent and trying to goad Hyrule into open war. If Facade is indeed behind these events as Princess Zelda and some others believe, he has covered his tracks well.

Regardless, if action is not taken soon, Hyrule will be ripped apart by war between former allies. For any heroes or would-be's, there is no better time than now to come to the defense of all they hold dear, but any aspiring or established villain could certainly turns these events to their advantage...

Races: Any

Games it ties to: Takes elements from many, including TP, OoT, OoA, WW, and others

Sequel/Prequel: Indirect and distant sequel to Dimming of Hyrule

Timeline: Unclear

Note: Anyone wishing to play an Canon character, villain, or from a tribe should PM me for their special briefing.

RP belongs to Fractured-Sanity

The garden party was in full swing. The members of court and other important guests filled the courtyard and joined in the dancing, games, and merriment in the comfort of this beautiful spring day. It was such a beautiful day that one could forget that the kingdom was slowly collapsing outside.

Facade stood off to the side and watched as the dancers flowed through the movements of the waltz with practiced ease. Out of the corner of his eye though, he kept his eye on a secluded part of hedging. The king and his daughter were arguing again. Out of respect for the guests they were keeping to hushed tones, and out of respect for their rulers the guests pretended it wasn't happening. After a while Zelda stormed off into the castle and the king wearily made his way to Facade's side.

"What am I going to do with her?" he asked exasperated, "You'd think that keeping her mother alive would be enough for her, but she still thinks you're up to something."

"Your majesty, if I may, girls of her age tend to be rather protective of their fathers. Perhaps she's just worried I'm trying to steal you away from her. If you spend some more time with her, perhaps that will quell her worries."

The king stroked his beard as he considered this. "That does make sense..."

"Perhaps you could go one better," added Facade, "Let her watch as some of your guard search through my things. That should put her fears to rest."

The king laughed and slapped Facade heavily on the back. "You old devil, you think of everything don't you?"

"I try sir."

"Now try to enjoy yourself and don't come back to your room for...twenty minutes lets say?"

"That should be plenty."

No sooner had the king left to console his daughter than a member of Facade's guard, identical in every way to a royal guard save for a red sash of office, filled the empty space. "Nidi thanks you for the puzzle box, and wishes to know what you wish her to do with it." the guard whispered.

"Tell her to keep it on hand for now. No need to rush things."

The guard departed with his message and Facade returned to watching the dancers. All he had to do was wait and soon everything would be going his way.

After the guard left, a green-eyed raven with a tiny roll of paper tied to its leg landed on a post near Facade. It sqauwked once to catch his attention and then carried on priming its black feathers. If anyone had of been watching closely, they may have noticed faint wisps of darkness rising from the bird as it cleaned itself.

On the far left side of the garden, opposite of Facade and the raven, stood a nicely dressed man with wavy blonde hair neatly brushed out of his face and reaching to his neck. His cheeks and eyes gave off the impression of him being a rather jolly man, and his short blonde beard did as well. His red silk garments with black dress pants complemented his dazzling sapphires for eyes, and gave him that bright fiery look.

Yes, Steven Roz was a rather wealthy man nowadays. The freelance knight spent his days dueling casually and living a luxurious life while it lasted. He worked at one of those fancy Malo Marts, and moved on from his petty quest for vengeance after hearing about the dreaded Azure Knight's demise at the hands of his good old friend Ryan Taigo. He never heard of him since though, but he knew wherever he was, the proud Gurinfaita was out there fighting epic battles that Steven himself could only imagine. At least he could talk to Konbei on occasions, who reminded him of Ryan.

"Pleasant day, isn't it Mister Roz?" came the droopy voice of a ball of man, the wealthy manager of Steven's workplace. "A day off the job to enjoy fine wine and...watch dancing...is well earned by successful men such as us."

"Agreed, Mister Rolan." Steven simply replied as he sipped his wine with a small smile. "Lucky men we are..."

The manager chuckled a bit. "Oh, Mister Roz. We didn't need luck to get so far in life. Hard work. Now that is how we got here." he said with a grin as he rearranged his glasses.

"Right you are. Luck is an awkward term when it comes to business." Steven replied. Both men turned their attention back to the waltzing people. They listened to the music in sync with the dance before speaking up again.

"I never was one for dancing." began the Rolan fellow. "I get rather nervous, like I'd miss a step..."

Steven felt pity as his boss admitted that he couldn't dance. "You certainly are one for success though, right Mister Rolan?"

Rolan smiled at Steven. "You're a good fellow, you are Roz! I need to fetch me another drink. We shall speak again?"

"Yes sir, perhaps we shall." Steven replied and nodded to him as he left. He returned to casually sipping his wine and watching the dancing.

On another side of the garden, a man in a full black suit sat quietly. It wasn't a calm quiet, but a tense one. His predatory green eyes scanned the garden like a panther searching for prey. His black slicked back hair gave him the looks of a gentleman, and his rough beard the look of a rugged adventurer. This was James Panthier, a wealthy crook and bounty hunter/mercenary. This was his vacation time.





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Facade plucked an hors d'oeuvre from a nearby tray and approached the raven. He proffered the tiny sandwich on a toothpick and watched the tiny roll of paper closely.

The raven continued about its business. As the bird shifted around on the spot, two elegantly written letters faded up on the outside of the paper as if an invisible pen had just written them there. The letters were a set of initials, more specifically, Nuala's initials.

The bird moved again and the initials vanished and the little roll of paper could have passed for a regular message.

Facade delicately reached out to take the little message and discreetly unrolled it to read.

As soon as Facade took the message the raven sprung from the post and took off. When it was safely in the sky, it beat its wings and disappeared in a twist of darkness.

Perhaps if I knew exactly what your plans were I could provide you with more relevent information. Either way, as long as we both get what we want, I'll be more than happy to share with you what I know.

Consequently, I felt it necessary to warn you as soon as I could to tread carefully when dealing with the Novafaita. They have eyes and ears everywhere, even a faction of their people can become the very wind around us and I fear that Tage will not hesitate to usurp the Throne should the opportunity present itself. Give them a reason to hate the Royal family more than they already do and they will give you a war...

When Facade stopped reading the ink on the paper faded away leaving the paper completel bank.

Panthier reached for the wine glass on his table with his eyes still scanning the folks around him. It was turning out to be a rather dull party for the wealthy hired killer. The people he tried to converse with had boring professions with no excitement or thrill in them.

He wanted to speak with men who hunted game or gambled high stakes for sport. So, he sat there listening for exciting conversation. He would find a way to enter in this conversation, and he knew a way. Perhaps he could find a hunting partner out of this crowd.

Facade tucked the letter away. He couldn't write a formal reply without a pen, and he couldn't go inside to get one since the king was no doubt going through his things right now to show Zelda that Facade had nothing to hide. They wouldn't find anything there of course. In the meantime, he'd just have to kill some time for now.

He looked around the crowd until his gaze fell on someone who seemed rather uninvolved in the proceedings. The approached Panthier and said, "Good morrow sir, I trust you are enjoying the party?"

Panthier stroked his beard and nodded in response, though his eyes said otherwise. "Yes, yes. A wonderful party this is. Royalty knows their wine too." he said as he swished around the wine in his glass. Panthier looked at it and bit his lip.

"Are you royalty, my good man?" he asked as he looked up at Facade, seeing his mask and robes. "You look rather enigmatic...no offense."

Wrapped in a warm coat, Gwene continued to wade through the snow, her destination not too far away, a bunch of flowers in her hand.

She then reached her destination, a small village high on the Snowpeak mountains, she walked to the chapel and around the back to the cemetery, she found the gravestone she was looking for, some of it had faded away and the name 'Longoria' was still present. She sighed and placed the flowers down on the grave and stepped away, her memories wandering to the times she had spent with her father, he had passed away some years back and had left Gwene to fend for herself, it was unclear what had happened to her mother, but her father always said she passed away from childbirth. Without any reason to doubt him, she believed him.

Konbei stood beside Gwene, no need for a coat or thick gloves; snow and ice were part of him. His hand found her's and his foggy breath misted when he sighed. He had never known what to say in these kinds of moments; he'd never experienced the great pain of losing someone close. Instead he just looked at Gwene with a brief, yet comforting, smile.

Her teary eyes found his and looked at his comforting smile, she started to smile to "Thanks for coming." she let go of his hand and wrapped an arm around his waist, she rested her head on his shoulder and looked back to her fathers grave.

"I wouldn't not come," Konbei said. The wind picked up and howled through the valleys surrounding Snowpeak, Konbei wrapped his arm tighter around Gwene like an involuntary reaction. "I don't want to drag you away, but you're gonna freeze to death if we stay standing here too long..." He said with a little hesitance.

Gwene nodded "Okay, take us back when you are ready." she snuggled up to him tighter. Growing up on the mountains, she had come to like the cold, but she knew the winds of Snowpeak like no other, and Konbei was right, even the best could be overcome quickly.

Facade took a seat. "I'm told the wine is most excellent. I believe one of the castle has an exclusive contract with one of the elevated landholding families. In fact I believe one of them..." He scanned the partiers, "...has declined to appear to this event. How odd."

He returned his attention to Panthier. "I am no royal, and my appearance is merely an expression of humility. Meanwhile, you look like an adventurer of some description. If so, I don't suppose you would be willing to take on a small job? I'd leave it to a courier, but the King frowns on sending his staff on personal errands."

Konbei kept Gwene close as he navigated carefully through the snow, watching every step. A heavy snow had fallen that morning and who knew what traps were lurking beneath its crust, ready to catch the careless walker unawares. When they were outside the village, Konbei wrapped his arms around Gwene and let his energy materialise and envelop them both. The wind blew roughly again and they disappeared into the wind.

Moments later, they reformed in a very different part of Hyrule. The ground was brown and the air warm. The snow left over from Konbei's warp melted before it even touched the ground. They were back home, on Death Mountain of all places.

"Why is it you always warp us here, and not home?" Gwene asked, she then lead Konbei down the path for the next 20 minutes to what seemed to be an Oasis. The greenest of grasses growing around them, a cool water supply flowing from a small fall into a rockpool. A hotspring was also nearby and the steam issued from it. One final pond which was nice and cool was close to the water supply. Over near the hot springs were a few bushes and tree's growing, rich fruit was growing there. All around them they were surrounded by small cliffs, it was a nice secluded area that no one knew about.

A small house was situated near the water spring, this was Gwene's and Konbei's home.

"I thought you would have been invited to the Garden Party at the castle," Konbei said to Gwene with a small frown.

"I was." Gwene said, taking off her coat "But that new man that healed her father really creeps me out. Zelda said she was going to investigate him a bit more to see if anything came up, she seems intent on doing it alone for some reason."

"You would think she would treat the man who saved her mother with a little more respect..." Konbei said.

"Yeah." Gwene agreed as she sat down at the table "But didn't he have like an evil past or something like that."

"Even if he did, why would he save the Queen?" Konbei said. "If he was trying to get the throne, he should have just helped her die and then said she was beyond healing..."

"You seem to have put some thought into it." Gwene said with a raised eyebrow "Not trying to take the throne are you?" she asked with a humoured tone.