The Twins’ Story II
Three years before Lamplight got to work in the Lylat Kingdom, a pair of twins were engaged in some machinations of their own.
The twins in question—the older brother “Soot” Lukas and the younger brother “Scapulimancer” Wille—were members of the Din Republic spy team Inferno, and armed with wiles and finesse, they were working toward the exact same goal as Lamplight. The Nostalgia Project had originated from key figures in the Lylat government, and the twins were determined to find out just what the project was about. A hunch told them it might end up spelling disaster for Inferno, and they weren’t just about to sit back and let that happen.
Their plan was to figure out what the Nostalgia Project was and crush it while causing as little fuss as possible.
Their main targets had been aristocrats, who they’d entrapped into giving them intel. Now, with their preparations complete, the twins began moving to overturn the nation in earnest.
There was a small house situated in the tenth arrondissement, and one day, as rain poured frigidly from the sky, the twins sat before a wood fire and gave a lecture to a young girl.
“There’s a group of seven people called the Ending Spies, see.
“There’s Hearth, Nike, Yatagarasu, Shadowseed, Banshee, Torchlight, and Cursemaster.
“The way people tell it, the seven of them played a big role in bringing the Great War to a close.”
The older brother, “Soot” Lukas, did most of the talking.
The two of them may have been identical, but there were a few subtle differences to the ways they carried themselves. The young man who laughed often and had a boyish innocence in his eyes was the older of the two. Conversely, the one whose meek smile belied the thoughtfulness in his gaze was the younger brother.
Lukas continued the lecture in an overly dramatic tone. “Hearth and Torchlight are teammates of ours. I’ll tell you about ’em later. Yatagarasu is this guy from the United States of Mouzaia’s intelligence organization, the JJJ. He’s basically the same age as the two of us, so it’s pretty damn impressive he made his way onto the list. He’s got a thing for little boys, though. Then there’s Shadowseed, who’s an old dude from the Bumal Kingdom’s Curse agency with a taste for human flesh. Aside from that, he’s surprisingly chill. Banshee, well… I’ve never actually met the guy. He wanders from one agency to the next. During the war, I think he was working for Mouzaia? And Cursemaster is with the CIM, over in the Fend Commonwealth. The guy wears all kinds of jangly stuff. Trust me, you’d know exactly what I’m talking about if you saw him.”
Every so often, he would smack his fountain pen against his notepad.
After rattling off the features of most of the seven, he gave his notepad the biggest thump yet for the finisher.
“But out of that whole list—Nike is the nastiest one of all.”
“I wish I didn’t believe it.”
The girl on the other end of the lecture scowled in displeasure.
The girl’s name was Suzie. She was a bright girl with blond hair.
The twins had met Suzie midway through the job. She’d been taken from her orphanage and sold to a corrupt aristocrat, and Lukas had saved her right before she got pawned off to someone truly depraved. Returning her to the orphanage wasn’t exactly an option, so the brothers had decided to hire her to help with their operation.
Now they were filling her in on the baseline level of knowledge she needed to be able to take part in their plan. Society hadn’t been kind to her, and she already held a grudge against the Lylat Kingdom.
“We don’t mean she’s nasty as in, like, a pervert or something,” Wille interjected with an awkward smile. “She just doesn’t have any weaknesses. No easy vulnerabilities to exploit.”
“Well, that’s a bit of a relief,” replied Suzie. “She does represent my nation, after all.”
“Trust me, that’s not a good thing.”
Suzie nodded. “Oh, sure—our king and prime minister are up to no good. You want to find out what they’re doing, but Nike would get in your way if you tried anything—I’m picking up what you’re putting down!”
She’d been as docile as a kitten when they initially took her in, but after a few days, she got over her nerves and started letting her brash, outspoken personality show. She bobbed her head as she eagerly listened to the twins’ lesson.
“Looks like our princess is a quick learner.”
Suzie puffed her chest up with pride at Lukas’s compliment.
Wille chimed in, too. “It’s teatime, Princess,” he said, offering her a scone.
As Suzie was the twins’ collaborator, they were doing everything in their power to make her feel welcome. At first, they’d just been doing it as part of their plan, but now, the way it made her visibly light up was as much a reason as anything.
“I have a question, Teach!” Suzie said, raising her hand. Her mouth was covered in scone crumbs. “You said that a revolution would be a good way to get Nike out of your way, right?”
“Yep.”
“But how are you supposed to make a revolution happen? Isn’t that impossible? The king and all the rich people and even Nike will all try to stop you.”
“We’d need to get three different groups on our side,” Lukas explained. “The masses, the Royal Guard, and the aristocracy. That’s the standard method. You rile the masses up and hold rallies and marches, you pull some strings so the Royal Guard doesn’t interfere, and you have bigwigs like aristocrats lay the groundwork to build a new government afterward.”
“That sounds like a popular revolution, all right!”
“But that also sounds like a pain, so we’re not gonna do that.”
When Lukas said that, all of Suzie’s excitement turned to confusion. “You’re not?”
Wille handled the explanation. He and his brother didn’t have time to do things the long way. They also had no duty of care to the Lylat Kingdom itself, so they were willing to make a bit of a mess if it meant neutralizing Nike faster.
Suzie was a bit peeved. “What’s the plan, then?” she asked.
“We’re gonna crush the country’s backbone with our very first move—we’re going after the Chamber of Deputies.”
Lukas gave her an ominous smirk.
The Chamber of Deputies was the lower house in Lylat’s Parliament, and unlike the upper house known as the Chamber of Peers, the Chamber of Deputies’ members were chosen by election.
All authority may have been concentrated around the king, but that didn’t mean Parliament was powerless. Only the king had the ability to issue legislation, the Chamber of Deputies still deliberated on those bills, and they had the right to request revisions. Convention restricted the king from fully disregarding what they had to say.