"Seneschal I hope your travels have led you home safely." ~ Jarvan IV, The King of Demacia
So guys.... remember when I said we had two more arcs in the story? That's changing now. The thing is even though I wanted to initially do more arcs, the very storyline does not allow me at this part. This in turn means that the next arc would be the final one. It should be a big arc since I'm going to be combining the Ionia and Shurima arcs together.
It is what it is.
Also, Early chapter today! And this comes with a reminder that there will be no chapters till the new year, where you will be getting the mass release.
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"Guess what I found!" Daisy waved a piece of paper in the air.
The siblings looked at her.
Daisy began reading the words on the paper.
"Its from daddy. He said that he came back but no one was there. He hopes that we are safe and are also able to keep Mel safe. He says that we shouldn't be seen a lot and keep away from crowds that seem generous. He only has a couple places left to look through and should be done soon."
Sydell walked up and held his hand out to her.
She turned the paper around, checking if something was behind it and after finding nothing, handed it to Sydell.
He read the letter, "Where did you find this?" He asked while reading.
"I pulled that chair and it fell out." Daisy answered.
Sydell looked at the stool and the paper and nodded, "That's something he would do. Then how did he come into the place and when did he come?"
The group split apart looking for places their father could have come in through.
"The windows seem to be most likely." Rell said, "He could have entered through them with his magic."
"If its his magic then he could just pull the door open. It's just a lock, he could just flip it. And we all know that he can break in without breaking the door." Daani rebutted.
Sydell walked toward the door and inspected it, "If we had checked it the first few days, we could have seen evidence of this. But the only thing we can estimate from this is that, in the three days we spent outside, he came here. And knowing him, he comes by every ten days."
"And since we spent three days here already.... that means he should be back next week." Faye finished, "Four, five or six days from now."
"So we wait?" Daani asked.
Everyone nodded.
"What do you think he's doing right now?" Briar asked.
-x-
"Styraatu cannot be converted."
Gregori kept his eyes on his surroundings, "She would choose to serve her general over ending the Void?"
"She was one of Aatrox's most fervent followers." Caalyx explained, "And that kind of blind faith doesn't disappear."
"We could trick her." Gregori said, stepping over a step that was barely raised, "Assuming that she is still sane."
"If she has maintained her sanity... then she is even more dangerous." Caalyx 's voice was tired. "We cannot take the risk of trying to convince her. Joraal was just as faithful and his loss of sanity was what gave us the upper edge."
"He couldn't prepare his sword in time."
"Exactly." Caalyx said, "They do not think. They just act. And that works in our favor." He sighed, "Convincing them seems highly unlikely."
"On further thought.... her being sane seems even less likely. You had your brother. Naganeka could feel the surroundings around her. Horazi had the Aspects around her. Joraal, despite having the Demacians around him, still lost his sanity. But Styraatu has no one to speak to. A thousand years of silence. A thousand years were your only conversations are with yourself. She is not going to be sane." Gregori reasoned.
"Joraal was already quite unstable. The corruption took hold of him easier than it did us. But I can see the same happen to her as well." Caalyx agreed, "Careful, there is no floor ahead of you."
Gregori let his magic flow as he spotted the collapsed flooring in front of him. One step in front of the other as he continued forward.
The tunnel systems in Zaun were quite different from the ones in Noxus. The first difference would be the disarray in which they were. These were old. Unused. Extremely dangerous. And they were a lot more orderly than the ones in Noxus. These tunnels weren't just ruins, they existed before the ruins. Under them. They were decked out in traps that were clearly meant to dissuade entry. A lot of the rooms they had chanced upon had empty pedestals.
This meant that there were quite a lot of treasure hunters, explorers and adventures that braved these depths.
And they got away with a lot of treasure.
But if the skeletons that lined these tunnels were any indication.... there were quite a lot of them that did not make it.
A true high risk, high reward decision.
Stone pathways.
Barely lit in some places, from some light slipping in through cracks and pitch dark in others.
Having Caalyx was a real blessing however, darkness was not something that could affect him. The one organ of his body that remained worked perfectly well in the dark.
What Gregori found interesting were the bioluminescent plants that grew in some of the places. They glowed a soft blue or green depending on the type but they lit up the tunnels well enough. And the presence of these plants indicated that there were no traps in the area.
That information sped up their search a lot.
But there were some places that he was willing to voluntarily step on traps for.
Hidden rooms. Hidden pathways.
As long as he chanced upon a single pathway that led them to the Darkin, it did not matter how many traps he set off.
He had four days to before food and water became a problem.
Four days to complete another section. Then only one would remain.
"You have enough wrapping to contain her I hope." Caalyx spoke, breaking the silence, "The size of the harp would require a lot."
"She won't shrink?" Gregori asked.
"Only so much." Caalyx answered, "She would need more wrapping simply because of the nature of the item. Sharp thread would just let her saw through anything you would put against it. Needs careful packaging."
Gregori stopped walking and looked at Caalyx, "I need you to come clean with your past."
Caalyx's eye met his, "Ask away."
"I know of your character." Gregori began, "I know of who you are..... I know about the rest..... And I also know that the others turned on you and your brother because of the way you led them in battle. But what exactly happened? Why do all of them hate you?"
Caalyx didn't reply for a while.
Gregori sighed as he began walking.
The two moved in silence, led by the glowing plants.
"It wasn't as simple as the way I led them into battle. There is more to it. The Voidwas unforgiving. It was relentless. After the fall of Icathia, we had to do something to hold them back. We were warriors. And soldiers. Dying in battle was glory that we all desired. It is honorable to go that way. But we were also Ascended. Inherently our lives were easily worth more than any normal human soldier. I couldn't let them die., couldn't let them be corrupted and become the very enemy they were fighting against. Not when we still stood." Caalyx led him through his story, "So I made a decision. A decision to remove every single human from the battlefield and let the main force be purely Ascended. We numbered in the hundreds then. All of us forces of nature. But this action hurt some of their egos. And some of them believed that I had deliberately weakened their fighting force. There were some that thought that it was the right decision but they were few and far between."
"So they overthrew you?" Gregori asked.
"Yes. But it wasn't the straw that broke the camel's back. No. That happened after we faced the enemy. Hundreds of Ascended went into battle. Less than a hundred walked out." Caalyx spoke, "And before you ask, the Voidshould have consumed them or wouldn't they have become Darkin. No. That wouldn't have been possible. The Ascended are empowered by Celestial magic, each representing something. When they fell, the thing they represented was locked away. So when they rose as enemies, they came back as their normal human selves..... before the Ascension."
"Then-"
"Then how were the Darkin created? The Darkin were those who survived. We didn't get off scot-free, we were all injured. And almost all of us were corrupted by the Void. But our battle was not done yet, not while our enemy still stood. So Xolaani. Our other enemy. She devised a way for us to overcome the Void'scorruption. Blood magic. Infusing ourselves with blood magic changed us, it brought us back from all forms of harm as long as enough blood was available to us. This was when our disagreements reached a breaking point. Our transformation into Darkin had begun, and with that rational decision making also disappeared. The others wanted to bring back humans, not as allies but as storage for blood so that they could be sacrificed to heal us. I refused. I tried pulling rank over them. But they had had enough. I was the first one thrown onto the battlefield, after being covered in wounds. The first thing I did was heal myself from the surrounding humans. That's when I knew, I was no better than them. But I still had an enemy to fight. To beat. And so I did. After the Voidwas handled, the Darkin war erupted. Alongside a few Darkin, I made a deal with the Aspect of Twilight to seal them all into weapons. Now that I think about it.... I can understand why they hate me so much. Just the imprisonment alone would have give them reason enough to wish the worst of pains on me."