The Scorched Library (Clooby, Darth, Squishy)

Julius addressed the Headmaster's concerns and cries of torture first. "I will say that simple sleep deprivation is rather humane compared to more unsavoury techniques we've employed in the past. The Shiekah, if you'll recall, were rather... What is the word? Ruthless? With how they treated their prisoners, or captives, or whatever you'd desire to call them. Either way, I must defer to miss Vilcaron's judgment on this; it'd take far too long to be effective. Perhaps if we had more time.." He trailed off, searching over the man's body. He first stripped the man of his armor, weapons, and shield, before coming across a small satchel hidden under his armor.

"Everyone, take a step back, please." He announced, before carefully removing the satchel from the man's body. It seemed to be... an Adventure Pouch? But what was--

Before he could finish his own question, a BombChu -- a real one -- leapt from the sack. It leapt about a foot away from Julius, but he was more than ready, quickly raising his shield and knocking the rat away from doing anyone harm.

"Hm. I suppose that was to be some sort of last-ditch suicide method -- eerily similar to..." Julius racked his brain for a moment, trying to recover the relevant information. "There was a legend long ago about a race of strangely garbed entities from a far off land... They used a similar suicide technique, to prevent information from falling into enemy hands. I can't recall their names right now, but I've no doubt that they attempting to emulate that. Maybe we're not dealing with a specific set of imposters, but rather an amalgamation of them. I cannot say." He returned to the satchel.

"Miss Vilcaron, I'm sure there's little in the way of actual danger left in this. If you'd please look over it for the time being, I must go and make sure this... criminal is kept detained. He would possibly be a danger to all if he were kept out of confinement." Julius left the pair there again, hefting the unconscious man over his shoulder and walking off to another of the tents. They would be getting some information out of this fellow, one way or another.

"Are you referring to the Garo, perhaps?" Clarence offered upon Julius' description. He had let out a small sigh of relief when Judith pointed out the unpracticality of using the all-night mask, although that feeling had quickly dispersed when the Bombchu flew out of the bag. "Whoever is comitting these crimes is well-taught in Hyrule's history, it seems. ...Although I do wonder, why such a set-up? Using the Sheikah symbol, Garo techniques... Perhaps it is simply a flair for the dramatic, or perhaps there is some kind of message hidden in these actions?"

He pondered this for a moment, while Julius started to lift the unconscious man.

"There might be something we're overlooking. Or perhaps there is a pattern to this. I would have to look into some books and scrolls, but seeing as there is not much else to do at the moment..."

It was a small chance, but while Julius removed their would-be assassin, the remaining two investigators could delve into the books to look for similar patterns, or at least more information on the elusive Sheikah and Garo.

"Miss Vilcaron, if you would accompany me? While Sir Surgate deals with our... perpetrator, perhaps we could see if there is anything useful in the remaining tomes and documents."

He started back towards the tents, filled with new determination. And perhaps, finally, anger? Ever since the fire he had felt afraid and helpless, but now they started to find more pieces of the puzzle, something flared up in him. This had been an attack to the Academy, his family, and his personal pride. And he would not let it slide, nor sit back while others cleaned up the mess.

"I like your train of thought," Julius commented, turning back towards the tents. He thought he felt the prisoner stir for a moment, before lying still once more. He immediately double-timed it back towards the tents, his grasp tightening on the captive.

This was going to take a while indeed. Far longer than Judith thought, at least, as he well and truly was going to get some kind of information out of this criminal. He wasn't going to let his comrades' lives be in vain.

...

Well, that had certainly taken a while longer than he would have liked. He looked at the traces of blood on his hands as he washed them in the pool of water. Bloodier than he would have liked, too; but, something had to be done. They had to find something out. And, as it so happened, find something out they did.

He was... well, rather good at what he had learned over his years as a captain. See, sometimes you had to deal with these kinds of people: agents of Ganon, hellbent on destroying the way of life that many depended on in Northern Hyrule; where a person's existence could, usually, be peaceful if they wanted it that way. He wished he didn't have to be good at what he was good at, but intimidation and torture... He was good at both of them. Not as good as he was with a sword, nor as good as he was strong, but the point remained that he had literally made the youth nearly defecate himself when he realized the six-foot-something guard captain looking over him, silently polishing an instrument.

That was when he screamed, and because he had jerked so violently, it meant that he had missed his mark as well, which lead to him bleeding profusely.

He exited the tent. He knew the kid wouldn't die, at least. It wasn't a major enough offense to be executed for, but he would most certainly be facing imprisonment. For how long, however, Julius was uncertain.

Julius was back in the center of the temporary camp after a short walk. His companions were bound to be somewhere -- likely somewhere private, he soon realized. After all, it wasn't like Clarence was exactly unattractive... But weren't priestesses of Nayru usually sworn to celibacy, or something along those lines? He wasn't exactly sure.

He found Clarence's tent and rapped on it covering for a short moment, before asking, "May I speak with the both of you?"

"Ah, please... It's just Clarence. My students call me 'Sir' enough already."

While Julius had been off doing... well, Clarence didn't really want to think what the man was doing to their captive. But while the Captain was away, he had taken to looking over the rescued books again, sorting any books or scrolls that appeared useful from the ones that did not. He handed half of the selection over to Judith, settling the two of them down in his tent so they could scour the texts for any shred of information that might prove useful.

"I suppose anything related to the Sheikah or Garo might be of use. There has to be something that can explain what happened..."

One particular set of scrolls came in sealed canisters, closed to prying eyes by a heavy plaque of wax. Clarence felt his hands tremble slightly when he held them. The canisters were the only remnants of the more... sensitive content the library had held. The seal bore the familiar triangular crest of the Royal Family, though another symbol had been combined with it; the eye of the Sheikah. Clarence had never thought its contents would ever become relevant, he wasn't even quite sure why these records were actually kept. For that was what the canisters contained. Lists of agents, records of missions, information that had been kept away from the public. Even Clarence's family, despite owning the library, was not freely allowed to open them. Not that there ever had been any reason to, until now.

Clarence was about to tell Judith of the records, when someone rapped on the tent. The sudden sound made the headmaster jump in his seat, expecting another assailant. Only then did he hear Julius' voice.

"Y-yes, certainly! Please, come in."

He waited for the guardsman to enter the tent and take a seat at the table, still holding the sealed scrolls in his hands. When Julius took his place, Clarence spoke up, offering one of the canisters to the man.

"I think these might be the records Miss Vilcaron suggested we look for. Lists of former agents and their missions." He said, nodding to the priestess across from him. "The only thing I know about these records is that they are of agents loyal to the crown. I can't... I can't imagine they would turn on their masters. Perhaps something changed in death, or perhaps they were from another clan altogether, and not in service, but still... Everything seems to make so little sense. But we might as well see if there are any deaths under suspicious circumstances." A thought struck him. "Although, don't Garo appear the very moment an individual dies? If so, there might not be a recorded death. We should look at the agents listed as missing too."

"Well," he began, recalling the horrified screams of the infiltrator, "He screamed a lot at first. After some of the initial stuff, though, he was pretty loose lipped. Said he had some kind of... go-between. So, in a way, you're at least partially right about your theory-- even if it's likely not Sheikah that are perpetrating these crimes." He recalled all he knew about the infamous Shadow Spies. It was incredibly unlikely that it was a Sheikah.

"Anyways. That's about all he could tell me. He even lives in Castle Town-- been out a few times, as far as I can tell from any of the paperwork I've obtained with his name on it, but he's never been anywhere incredibly suspicious. So, what I'm saying, is that they're likely coming to Castle-Town to recruit those who are naturally more knowledgeable of major areas, and then likely training them and equipping them, as we saw." What a shame they weren't trained to resist the rather incredible interrogator he'd become.

"Other than that... He couldn't give us a clear description of who this 'go-between' was. I couldn't make it out quite so clearly between sobs of pain, but from what I did make out, is that it's someone different each time."

He looked at Clarence and Judith. "So that's the information I was able to actually obtain. Seems they paid him quite a large sum of money, too... Or they trained him to be like that. It's a thought, at least."

The only question, though, was what in Nayru's name they would do now.

Clarence winced at Julius' story, quietly listening to what he had extracted from the prisoner.

So it was clear they were dealing with an entire network. It was both good and bad news. Good in that a network meant that once they had a firm lead on it, uncovering the rest of it should not be impossible. Whereas a single operative would be nigh-impossible to capture. But the bad news was that there would be more people like this. A lot more. And by now they no doubt knew one of them was in trouble.

"Well... it seems we have a proper lead now. If we can somehow locate more members of this... network, then perhaps we might be able to get to the heart of it."

Clarence folded his hands. They were slowly putting more pieces of this puzzle together, but there were still many holes in the story. They could almost definitely cross Sheikah off the list of culprits, but that put them back to square one. Might it be a true Garo then, after all? But even that had to come from somewhere... Only rooting out the network would answer those questions.

"Although, there is one thing that still bothers me. Why? I mean, miss Vilcaron's explanation seems most logical, that they were looking to destroy any trace of their existence. But that does not answer why they wanted to do so in the first place. It... makes little sense. Sheikah or not, we still have very little information on their main motive."

What had they done that prompted them to that course of action? What had been so terrible that it had to be erased from the very records of history?

"Is this even within your jurisdiction any more, Sir Surgate?"

He stopped for a second. There were a lot of variables that would influence whether or not he, as a law enforcement official, would have jurisdiction in the case beyond Hyrule Castle Town. But, if the root of the crimes were within his jurisdiction, then it would probably fall to him to bring this group to justice.

"I can't give a precise answer to that question. What I can say, however, is that regardless of whether it's exactly within my jurisdiction... They will send me to clean up whatever operations they have set up throughout Hyrule. They've infiltrated the Hyrule Guard, and burned down a library full of relatively old knowledge, along with housing an important magical artifact. Whatever their aim is, it will be dealt with swiftly, even if we seem to be at something of a dead end at the moment."

He listened to the rest of what Judith had to say to Clarence.

"I believe you know where to find me if you require any further assistance, Clarence. That said, we'll be dispensing units of Guardsmen to provide extra security over the rest of your family's assets. If we find any further unusual events or details, then you'll be hearing from the Guard as soon as we've confirmed the event."

He proffered his hand to Clarence for a handshake, before turning to Sister Judith and thanking her for her assistance in the matter. He jokingly remarked, "You'd have a future in the Guard if you ever decided the church wasn't for you."

"Yes, I thank you both for your help. I'm not quite sure what I would have done were I on my own in this." Clarence smiled at the other two. "And thank you, Miss Vilcaron. Any shred of knowledge we can save is more than welcome. As for the other archives... I do hope this was a singular occurrence. Though I suppose only time will tell."

For now, they could only wait and see where this investigation would lead them. For now, they had uncovered everything they could with their own abilities. Clarence shook the captain's hand, watching the man leave before turning to Judith.

"Miss Vilcaron? Before you leave, I... while I understand we're dealing with a criminal here, I have to admit I am... not entirely comfortable with our treatment of our prisoner." Clarence took a deep breath, steadying his voice. "Does the Cult of Nayru not have specialists in healing? He did what he did, but still... For my own peace of mind, I would like to see if there might be something we could do." Yes, he certainly would sleep better at night with the knowledge there was no screaming or sobbing man locked away deep in a dungeon- not if he should have been able to help. Criminal or not, torture was not something Clarence condoned.

Clarence's features lit up in relief. It seemed the priestess' had similar feelings about their comrade's tactics. He smiled gratefully at Judith, though his eyebrows rose in surprise when she offered to be the one to go. He had not expected the woman the jump in so readily. Though really, from the way she had handled this investigation, he should have.

"Ah, perhaps I might go, in your stead? While I admit I do not know any healing spells at present, your time should go to consulting your sisters. I have no further pressing matters to attend to today... If it would not be too much of a hassle, perhaps you could teach me this cantrip?"

He had heard of some spells, yes, but never found the time nor opporturnity to learn one. Perhaps this was the right moment. However unpleasant the circumstances, a chance to broaden his knowledge on magic brought some much-needed joy to Clarence. And if it was a simple cantrip, it should certainly be possible. He prided himself on being a quick learner, after all.