Chapter Summary: All may not be as it seems as Hyrule prepares to surrender to the Yiga Clan and its new-found leader.

Zelda put down the letter, or rather the Yiga Clan ultimatum. Her eyes filled with tears.

"I cannot betray the goddess Hylia," said Zelda. "Her blood runs through my veins. I would rather give up my life than do that."

"I understand," said King Rhoam. "How can we renounce the goddess we have worshiped for generations and destroy her statues? And destroying the ancient Deku tree and betraying the simple Kokiri is just hateful and vindictive."

"And knowing Link, he will never yield his sword," said Zelda. "He will flee and hide out in the wild if necessary. His fighting spirit would never accept these terms."

"But if he does not hand himself in, then you and his family are in jeopardy," said King Dorephan. "He will sacrifice himself rather than let harm come to any of you."

"Let me see the letter," said Rudin. He picked it up and read it.

King Rhoam

This is a formal demand for the surrender of the Kingdom of Hyrule, including the destruction of all statues of your false goddess Hylia. However, we do not wish to cause your people further harm.

Our demands are new, but they reflect our desire for justice from the Hylian oppression of our ancestors of long ago.

You must arrest and detain each Champion. You must disable the Divine Beasts and surrender or destroy all Sheikah developed weaponry. You should understand that these orders apply not only to Hylians but to all races too.

You must kill the evil tree that has helped in the war against our master for so long, known to you as the Deku. The Princess of Hyrule, who caused so much harm to our former leader, must also surrender. You must hand over the so-called sword that seals the darkness. You must reveal any who aided in the hiding of that cursed sword, including any Kokiri.

A copy of your surrender and acceptance of our rule shall be posted in a public place so it can be read. The notice shall include the statement that we mean no harm to your people, wish to be fair, and seek only justice. And from any hardships they have suffered, we wish to offer them relief.

To investigate possible further crimes against Lord Ganon while he was alive, you will provide us a copy of the Hero of Hyrule's journal. As you must know, the so-called Hero of Hyrule is our most hated enemy. Besides killing many of our allies, we believe he was also a thief. His behavior for most of his life has been illegal. If you hand over the Hero of Hyrule promptly for trial and justice, we will spare his wife, Mipha, his family, and your daughter Zelda.

We need your signed agreement to these terms, affixing your royal seal as Hyrule King.

We expect you will accept these terms promptly. Our messenger will return in one week for your answer.

Yiga Clan

"This is pretty bad. Is there really no hope?" said Rudin. "There is no other way to end this and save our people? This surrender is our only option?"

"I do not know," said King Rhoam. "Each day things grow worse. This is an enemy we have never faced before, fear of ourselves. Of course, I do not wish to accept their terms. But if I do not, what will happen to our people? Will they all be destroyed?"

"I do not think the other races will be willing to surrender," said Zelda. "I think they will fight alone if necessary. But it will mean the break-up of our kingdom at first, and their likely eventual destruction but on a longer timescale."

"Yes, that may be true," said King Rhoam. "Can you please summon Purah and let us hear if she is any closer to a solution for us? I do not know where else to turn."

A trio of guards was sent to escort Dr. Purah to the meeting room. A few minutes later, she arrived.

"Dr. Purah," said King Rhoam. "The Yiga Clan has demanded our surrender, and I need to answer them within one week. Are you any further along in solving the mystery of these masks?"

"I have made some progress, Your Majesty," said Purah. "Using the ocarina and a slight variation of the song of healing, we are able to create a mask of a living person. The person goes into a deep sleep or coma while someone wears the mask and assumes their identity. The person revives when the mask is removed. The mask has no effect if the person wears their own mask. And there is no effect if the mask is destroyed. However, I have not been able to find a way to determine if someone is an imposter wearing a mask or the real person, and that is our real problem. And the ocarina seems to have no power over the masks left behind by the Yiga Clan. So, it cannot be used to unmask a traitor. I wish I had better news to report. May I ask how onerous the terms of the surrender are?"

King Rhoam sighed. "Extremely onerous. The Yiga Clan demands the total surrender of ourselves, and all we hold sacred. You can read the terms for yourself; the letter is over there. It hurts to think of them, and I certainly can't remember all of them. Although their messenger had the arrogance to tell me that I should learn them backward and forwards."

"Indeed," said Purah. "Those were the messenger's words? And he was of the Yiga Clan, a Sheikah?"

Purah picked up and read through the letter. Then she reread it. But her reaction was anything but what the Royalty in the room expected. She burst out laughing.

"So, we finally have a ray of hope," said Purah.

"What! Are you mad?" said King Rhoam angrily. "You find these outrageous demands amusing and a ray of hope?"

"What do you mean a ray of hope?" said Zelda.

"You did not pick up on the messenger's clue about backward and forward," said Purah. "It is an old Sheikah code, one so simple that only children use it these days. We Sheikah abandoned it long ago for serious encryption. But I imagine the writer was willing to take a considerable risk to make sure his secret message would be found. Reread the message and take note of the last letter of each sentence."

Zelda picked up the letter. Then she read off the last letters.

"AMONYOURSIDEFLYFLAGYR"

"So, the messenger is telling us he is on our side, and we should fly the flag he gave us to acknowledge receipt of his message?" said Zelda.

"That is how I read it, Your Highness," said Purah.

"Well, this is interesting," said King Rhoam. "I wondered what the flag was for. But can we trust this person?"

"I think we have no choice," said Zelda. "He obviously took some risk sending us this message. Had it been discovered, I am sure his life would be forfeit. So, I think we should fly his flag and hear what he has to say."

"What about the last two letters?" said Rudin.

"Probably initials, Your Highness," said Purah. "Or nothing."

"Very well," said King Rhoam. "Let us raise his flag and see what happens."

They hoisted the flag on one of the castle spires where it would be clearly visible. Then came the wait. They dared not communicate anything about this for fear of discovery. The daily reports from the various races were the same and gave no cause for optimism. At this point, their only hope was to learn what this Yiga Clan messenger had in mind.

When the week was up, they again saw the messenger approaching alone on his horse. He was greeted by the castle guards and told His Majesty was expecting him. He said nothing but followed the guards to a meeting room. King Rhoam, Princess Zelda, and Prince Rudin were all present.

"Well, well, I am honored, so much Hyrule Royalty gathered together at one time," said the messenger. "I know who all of you are, though, Rudin, you are late to the table. But let me introduce myself. My name is Yongan Rhee, and I am a high official in the Yiga Clan. I won't say how high since our leadership structure is of no concern of yours. I was sent to work out the details of your surrender. But I see you found my hidden message. I made it dangerously simple, but even so, I bet you needed a Sheikah to help find it. The Hylian Royal Family is not known for its wits."

"Did you come here to insult us?" said King Rhoam. "Or do you have something useful to say? You have a great deal of nerve coming to us. You and your people are the cause of this trouble, as well as many other sufferings over the years. And why the elaborate secret message? Why did you not simply meet with me the first time here and convey your message directly?"

"Because I was being watched," said Yongman. "My instructions were to deliver the terms of surrender and depart. I could not engage in a long conversation with anyone and also needed you to be prepared to speak with me knowing my intentions. But I do have something very useful to say. And first, I need to tell my tale and how and why our interests are aligned now. It was not too long ago, digging through an abandoned mine, that we came upon a very ancient artifact. It was like nothing we had seen before, and our scientists proceeded to study it. We could not figure it out, but apparently, our tampering with it triggered some sort of awakening of a strange being somehow bound to this item. It was a shapeless dark creature, clearly something not of our world or at least not anything we had knowledge of. The creature was highly intelligent. It knew of Lord Ganon and seemed to consider itself his equal. But the creature had been dormant for many, many centuries, and was now weak. It told us, however, if we helped it, then it would help us."

"What did this creature want?" said King Rhoam.

"To rule the world, of course," said Yongan. "At first, this sounded very much aligned with our desires. We were told that once victorious, we would be its most valued servants and have a special place in its rule. Since Lord Ganon's defeat, we have longed for another chance like this. So, we agreed. It needed our help to create fear. It fed on fear and was weak at first since so little fear existed in Hyrule. It had access to some ancient magic, the magic of masks that could capture the essence of a person at death, and allow another to mimic that person, a perfect copy. Its plan was to give us the use of this magic to create imposters throughout Hyrule, breeding fear in the inhabitants. I think you will agree its plan has been a great success. Your kingdom has been brought to its knees by fear and mistrust."

"Sounds like just the sort of plan you would love," said King Rhoam. "So, what happened? What went wrong?"

"We learned that not everything it told us was true," said Yongan.

"Imagine that," said Zelda.

"You may mock me," said Yongan. "But it will be in your interest to hear me out. As you know, we are not without some secret powers of our own, though sadly, they are declining since Lord Ganon's departure. We were able to listen to this creature when it thought no one could hear. We overheard it conversing with someone or something, though we could hear only its side of the conversation. But from what we heard, it became clear that, should it prove victorious, we were not to be treated any better than you. We would have nothing to show for our support and would be worse off than we are now. So, we find our interests aligned with yours in its destruction. However, it is too powerful now. We cannot do this alone. We need your help."

"Does this thing have any weakness?" said Zelda.

"It apparently fears the Divine Beasts," said Yongan. "It was most explicit that the Divine Beasts were to be rendered unusable as part of your surrender."

"So, what is your plan," said King Rhoam.

"This creature has grown to trust me. It made me its emissary in setting up your surrender," said Yongan. "Among other things, it is counting on me to assure that the Divine Beasts are disabled. The creature wants the ceremony of your surrender held publicly in the Sacred Grounds. It will be present and expects you, King Rhoam, to kneel before it and acknowledge its rule. It wants to be a ruler, not simply destroy everything. What is the fun of ruling an empty kingdom? Better to rule one filled with subjects it can fill with fear, and the more, the better. So, it craves a peaceful transition leaving as many alive as possible. It will be glad to hear of your agreement to surrender peacefully and eager to come here to accept it. Then you can surprise it with your Champions and still very much active Divine Beasts it thinks are disabled."

"So, the success of this plan hinges on our trusting you and this creature trusting you," said King Rhoam. "Trusting you is not something that will come easily to us."

"Maybe so, Your Majesty," said Yongan. "But do you have a choice? If you do not help us, you, too, will suffer. This evil has grown beyond what we expected."

"Very well," said King Rhoam. "So, what comes next?"

"Can you be ready to surrender in one week's time?" said Yongan. "I need to go through the motions of inspecting all the Divine Beasts, pretending to assure they are not working."

"One week should be enough time," said King Rhoam.

"But wait a moment," said Rudin. "How do we know this thing won't want to inspect the Divine Beasts itself? It seems their disablement is very important to it. You seem very confident it will rely solely on your word."

"Because it fears to get close to any of the Divine Beasts," said Yongan. "Getting close enough to inspect it would leave it very vulnerable. As it is, I believe we will need the power of all four Divine Beasts to assure victory. Were it to approach one so closely, a single Divine Beast could destroy it. It does not want to take that chance."

"I will have to inform the Champions of all this, of course," said King Rhoam.

"Of course," said Yongan. "They need to be ready to attack when the time is right, while you are preparing to surrender at the Sacred Grounds."

"Very well," said King Rhoam. "I need to play along with this and announce our surrender. This will not be easy for people to accept, but I will do my best."

"Farewell, then," said Yongan. "I will set up a schedule for me to tour the four Divine Beasts. Please let each Champion know to expect me. As part of our agreement, I will notify my Yiga Clan comrades to stop creating new imposters. But we are not going to reveal the existing ones yet. Another important point. Keep in mind that not all of the Yiga Clan is aware of or part of this conspiracy. We had to limit the number who knew about the creature's true plans to keep it unaware we knew of them. So, you must be certain word of our plan does not reach a Yiga Clan imposter, or they could betray us. You must pretend you are proceeding with the surrender. Oh, and one last thing. Please make a note of our surrender demands but change their wording slightly, so my secret message is deleted. Then sign and seal it as requested. And destroy the letter I sent. We cannot risk anyone else seeing it and deciphering the text."

At this, Yongan left in the company of two guards, returned to his horse, and rode away.

"So, what next?" said Rudin.

"We prepare to surrender Hyrule, or act like we are," said King Rhoam. "I need to communicate with the Champions. But this is too dangerous to send a message. I think we need to meet in person here and maintain a high level of secrecy. Rudin, can you send out an emergency request to all the rulers of the various races that the Champions are to meet here in two days? Say the topic is the surrender of Hyrule. And no need to send duplicate copies by separate Rito. The Yiga Clan would have no interest in intercepting this message."

It was mid-day in Zora's Domain when three guards swam out to Vah Ruta and requested Mipha, Sidon, Link, and family accompany them home. There was also an urgent meeting request from King Dorephan. After seeing everyone home safely, Mipha and Link went to King Dorephan's throne room. Mipha could see at once how depressed he looked.

"Father, what is wrong?" said Mipha.

"Something I never expected to see in my lifetime," said King Dorephan. "King Rhoam is preparing to surrender the Kingdom of Hyrule to the Yiga Clan."

"What!" exclaimed Mipha and Link simultaneously. "That's not possible."

"I'm afraid it is," said King Dorephan. "King Rhoam has requested a meeting of all the Champions tomorrow at Hyrule Castle to discuss the terms of surrender."

"I cannot accept this," said Link. "Can we not fight on as a separate kingdom?"

"We can," said King Dorephan. "But we owe it to the King of Hyrule to hear him out first. So, you and Mipha need to prepare for your journey to Hyrule Castle. You are attending, Link, as the Hero of Hyrule for the purposes of the meeting. I will look after the children, of course. Please don't argue about this now. That is my command."

"Very well, Father," said Mipha.

They walked back home, and Link could not believe this was happening. After all his and the Champions' efforts saving Hyrule, he was about to see it handed over to his hated enemy, the Yiga Clan. He would never accept this. He would fight on alone to the death if necessary. But he needed to support Mipha and his people now. This was a journey to Hyrule Castle that he would never want to remember.

After stopping home to say goodbye, they headed off to Hyrule Castle by water, Link wearing his Zora armor as usual. They dove into the water and let the current take them.

"Mipha, you know my first priority is supporting you and the Domain now," said Link. "But after that, I don't think I can accept this surrender. I may need to fight on alone."

"I understand," said Mipha. "But let's take things one step at a time. We may learn something at Hyrule Castle that changes things. For now, let's relax. Come here, next to me. I want to hold you as we travel."

Link swam over to her, and they held each other. Mipha could correct their course with the occasional flipper movement. The sun was starting to set when they finally arrived at Hyrule Castle. They were greeted by one of the guards and shown to a guest room. A light meal had been left for them, and they were in no mood to do anything but eat and then get to sleep. The meeting would be tomorrow morning.

"This whole place feels like doom is at hand," said Link. "Everyone must know what is happening."

"Yes," said Mipha. "It's a far cry from our fun visits in the past. We better sleep if we can."

In the morning, a guard knocked on their door and escorted Mipha and Link to the meeting. Some breakfast food was available, and they saw the other Champions already there. Princess Zelda and Prince Rudin were present as well. Daruk saw Mipha and Link when they came in and walked over to them.

"I can't believe this," said Daruk. "I have the greatest respect for His Highness, but I think we Champions should try to convince him we can still fight. It seems wrong to surrender like this, though I understand the Hylians have been hit harder by these masks than the Gorons and Zoras."

"It does seem like this surrender is awfully sudden," said Link. "I, for one, am not inclined to. But out of respect for the Royal Family, we need to hear what they say."

Finally, King Rhoam arrived and called the meeting to order. The room was sealed, and guards outside made sure nothing could be heard outside the room.