A/N: If action isn't your thing, skip ahead to chapter 2.
Quinn pushed a branch aside, navigating up the forested hill. Through the canopy, she could occasionally catch a glimpse of Valor, and when she did, she readjusted her course. The sloped terrain was unforgiving. Tall grass hid the countless holes in the ground that were dug by some animal, and once or twice she had to slow herself down or risk spraining an ankle. She had to have been nearly there – wherever there was. She'd been racing after Valor for quite some time now.
As for the reason, she didn't entirely know. All Valor had indicated to her was 'danger'. The Demacian eagle had swept down into the valley she was navigating and suddenly redirected her. Her other activities, those requiring sneaky steps among the Noxians, would have to wait until later. It wasn't often Valor thought something else was more important than their assignment from the army.
Finally, the trees and hills stopped. Quinn took the last few steps and realized she was at the top of a cliff, overlooking a quaint little village. Catching her breath, she examined the place. Farm land extended far to the east and west, and the village was backed against the cliff she was currently on, to the south. Valor settled down beside her, perched on a shoulder height branch of a nearby tree. Together, they continued watching the village.
Just as Quinn was about to complain to Valor, she realized something was off. Judging by the house count, she estimated the village population to be nearly a thousand. Yet there wasn't a single soul in sight.
Evacuated, she wondered?
Not sensing any nearby magic, Quinn crouched down. It was quiet and she didn't think anything overtly nasty could have happened to the village. A Noxian army marching through would leave burning buildings, crops, and people. A single assassin, on the other hand...
And then she saw it. A hundred meters down the dirt path, a single individual walking towards the village. Immediately, she knew both that he wasn't human and that it was him who the villagers were hiding from. A ghostly spirit from the underworld was her first thought. Of course it was impossible, she rationalized. The closest anyone in Runeterra could get to the underworld was the Shadow Isles.
Valor's eyes intently tracked the entity as it made its way into the village. He wore black cloth over what was supposed to be his body, but instead it looked as if it were simply draped over a green gas, vaguely shaped like a human. His head, however, looked to actually be solid – bone? Or maybe it was just a mask, Quinn couldn't tell from the distance. He held a scythe in one hand, but not one taken from a nearby farm. It looked sharp, personalized in shape and well used. The weapon had probably slain countless people. Upon squinting, Quinn noted there was a chain attached to it, leading to somewhere inside his cloak.
The scene before her developed slowly, almost too slowly. The specter refused to increase his gait from the slow trudging he maintained. Only when he reached halfway into the village did Quinn realize something with a certainty. Something was afoot. A trap, perhaps an ambush by the Demacian military? Only that didn't explain why Valor had dragged her here; the military could handle things on its own.
Okay, Quinn thought to herself. Worst case scenario, the villagers themselves had prepared a trap and they would all die trying to kill the ghostly spirit of Doom. Best case scenario, the Dauntless Vanguard would jump out of a nearby house and bop the enemy on the head for a quick victory. Though Quinn knew that was thoroughly impossible. Their captain, Garen Crownguard, was in Senta, where the Institute of War was located, when she had left the Demacian Capital. There was no way an armored soldier could have beaten her out this far from the ocean, especially at the pace she had kept. There was no Dauntless vanguard, but perhaps another battalion was stationed here in preparation?
The specter stopped in the village square, which amounted to a well and a few stalls with dried animal hide stretched out on them, and reached into his ghastly body. Then he withdrew – Quinn took a double take, not expecting it – a lantern. It held a green fire inside a wooden frame, probably magically strengthened, and not unlike the rest of his body, it looked extremely old and misused. She watched in confusion, wondering what on earth was about to happen.
But nothing happened. He stood idly by the well, holding his scythe and lantern with bony fingers, as if waiting for someone. He might have been expecting more resistance? Beside Quinn, Valor watched silently, his feathers twitching a couple times. Quinn got the impression her companion was impatient, a rare trait for him to exhibit. Though she couldn't deny she was a little curious and her impatience was growing too.
From a nearby farm, she could hear a sheep baaing. Where she was stationed on the cliff, the birds around her resumed their chirping, having lost interest in her and apparently not being afraid of Valor. Quinn shifted her feet, eyeing the cliff. How fast could she get to the specter in case things went awry? It didn't look like a cliff she wanted to jump down.
Keeping one eye on the specter, she cautiously leaned over the edge and examined the ground below. Twenty or so meters along the cliff, she spotted a building. A smithy's, if she wasn't mistaken. A large outdoor forge was stationed against the cliff, its embers long since cooled. It only confirmed the fact that someone knew in advance of this. Everything about the atmosphere whispered ambush to her. The specter didn't seem to care. Could they feel emotions? Could they experience pain and fear?
Quinn pushed the question away. It didn't matter. Slowly, she made her way over towards the smiths. In case she needed a quick descent, she could jump onto the roof – hoping it didn't collapse – and from there onto the solid ground. It might be a little jarring of a jump, but Quinn was confident she could make it without hurting herself too much. Satisfied with her position, she turned to watch the entity again.
The specter moved. His scythe flew out at an unseen foe, embedding itself into the wall of a nearby house. At the same time, Quinn's eyes caught a shimmer of light moving aside. The specter's lantern glowed a dark green and even from her distance, Quinn could sense the magic within. Dark magic, both very dense and disorienting in its aura. At the same time, his opponent appeared. Quinn instantly rose to her feet.
A child?
No, she realized. Not a child. The distance made the young girl look small, but really the specter was just unnaturally large. Her body was petite, but she held a strong aura of magic in front of her that Quinn hadn't been able to notice earlier. Quinn calmed herself and watched as the battle begun. The girl who faced the monster showed no fear.
Light magic seemed to be her theme. She swung a baton whose tip was either golden or simply shining so bright from magic. A beam of light erupted from the end, heading directly towards the specter. Only when he dodged and the girl continued her offensive did Quinn realize what she was watching.
No, it wasn't Garen from the elite Crownguard family and his Dauntless vanguard. It was his younger sister, the light magic prodigy who joined the army at an alarmingly young age and performed dangerous missions behind enemy lines, not unlike Quinn herself. The mage had proved herself valuable to the army and she quickly found herself promoted through the ranks, though considering her elite social status it would likely have happened anyways. Luxanna Crownguard had flowing blonde hair, perhaps more adeptly called golden, and she seemed to radiate light. Up close, Quinn could only imagine the girl was suffocatingly happy and oblivious and exuded an aura of hugs and unicorns. She had found too few contradictions to the dumb blonde stereotype to ignore it now.
Quinn settled down on the cliff, letting her feet dangle off the edge. She was reasonably confident she wouldn't be noticed until she wanted to be. Humans had a tendency not to notice things above them, and she was hoping the specter's brain – or mind, perhaps, considering he was mostly a gaseous entity – worked relatively similar to a humans. Valor gave her a look as if to tell her to go help. Quinn shrugged.
"Look Val, she can handle – ouch, she's a little slow, huh?" Quinn said as Luxanna was sliced by the flying scythe. "What I was saying was – she can handle it herself. I wouldn't want to step in and steal all her glory, right?"
Valor blinked in disbelief, but made no further actions indicating she should get a move on.
The fight had started moving through the village as the Demacian girl threw herself sideways countless times to avoid being cut. Whenever the specter attacked, it seemed like he was trying to destroy the village at the same time. His scythe would break a door open and in the spare seconds he earned during the fight, he would toss his lantern into a haystack or a building or woodpile, igniting it and then gradually reeling the lantern back in while he simultaneously continued his fight with the mage.
When the specter claimed another clean hit on Luxanna, Quinn hesitated. She shouldn't have been here, and she wouldn't have if not for Valor's interference. Getting involved seemed downright dangerous and threatened her overall mission. If she was hurt, even slightly, she would be slowed down and perhaps unable to catch up to the Noxian battalion she was ordered to track. If she simply left now, she wouldn't need to worry about anything else. Besides, Demacian heroes – or heroines, Quinn supposed – were supposed to live and die on the battlefield. There was nothing strange with the scene in front of her.
Yet Quinn continued to watch. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen. With each passing minute, Luxanna slowed. Not her magic, it kept throwing itself out of her baton like a waterfall, but her movements weren't quick enough. More and more often, she would enshroud herself in a blindingly light barrier, letting the specter's scythe dig into it before quickly recreating distance and continuing her barrage of spells. The problem was, Quinn couldn't be sure it was doing anything to the specter. He stumbled upon being hit, but the bursts of light seemed to either travel through him or quietly disappear on contact. Nonetheless, the girl continued fighting valiantly.
And then Quinn heard Valor's wings as he took off. Instinctively, she shoved herself off the cliff at the same time. There was no questioning it. When Valor moved, she did. The six meter fall onto the smith's roof left her feet stinging about as much as she had expected, but she shrugged away the discomfort and threw herself off the roof. Overhead, Valor was quickly making his way into the fray. Quinn started a quick jog down the dirt road leading towards the inner village.
Within seconds, she had joined the semi circle of combatants. Before either Luxanna or the specter noticed her – though they were likely distracted by the bird overhead who swooped down and tried ripping the specter's head off – Quinn unleashed a bolt. It dissipated into the specter's chest, leaving a hole in the cloth but no slowed to a stop. It was probably time to head home, she thought to herself.
It wasn't to be, however. The specter immediately turned his attention towards her, as if she were an easier target to kill than Luxanna. This thought spurned Quinn into further action. With lightning quick fingers, she reloaded her crossbow and moved. Not a moment too soon, she realized as the scythe flew past her. She unleashed the arrow and repositioned herself opposite of Luxanna.
As if someone had hit pause, the battle halted as everyone stopped to reevaluate the situation. Quinn's heart was beating far harder than it had all day as she realized how threatening the specter was up close. Watching from afar and not participating, things were easier to follow and the actions looked slower. Here, she could sense a powerful magical force protecting her enemy, and his movements were much faster, beyond the capabilities of the mutated and magical beasts she had experienced in the forest. It was most obviously not a fight the young mage could win on her own. The specter blocked her view of Luxanna, but Quinn was pretty sure there would be nothing to say to the woman. Their fighting styles were completely different and the best they could do was keep away from each other and their attacks and keep the opponent busy. Reinforcements were coming, right?
The fight resumed. With Luxanna already tired, Quinn found herself fighting more aggressively then usual, keeping the specter blocked and too busy to switch targets. As the fight wore on, Valor made his appearance only a handful of times, saving Quinn at key times and enabling her to recover. Gradually, frustration grew. Her dagger couldn't do any damage to the specter because of the massive scythe always overpowering her when she tried to move in close, and her bolts were in limited supply. There was also the small fact that watching her carefully crafted bolts vanish upon contact with the specter's gassy figure bothered her and broke her concentration.
For the hundredth time, the scythe rushed towards her. Her timing had gradually improved as she learned the traits of the weapon, but her exhaustion slowed her down. She lifted her left foot in a motion to throw herself to her right, but a string of dark blue magic appeared next to her, stretching into a thin magical veil that looked lethal to the touch. She could even feel as magic left the specter and infused it further. It was too late, however, as she'd already committed to dodging the scythe. Unable to alter the laws of physics, she began to fall towards the gas wall. She opened her mouth, to scream or swear, she wasn't entirely sure.
Vision blurred and the scene of a vast beach of fine, yellow sand rushed into her mind. A warm, sunny day on the beach, laying in the sand and listening to the waves crash against the shore. Her brother and parents beside her, she brushed a pile of sand over her feet and felt its warmth as it covered her, forming a shield against the air. The happiest memory she had never experienced.
When Quinn passed through the wall, the light magic that had encased her shattered, no longer protecting her from the elements of reality. She hit the ground hard, the air knocked out of her. She could hear her heart pounding and her laboured breathing, but nothing more. Blinking a few times, she told herself it was only a fall. Her vision, gaining clarity after her entire body had been buried in magic, centered on Luxanna, whose attention was split between her and the specter. Words passed through the girl's lips and Quinn couldn't hear them.
And then she felt tugging on her hair and sat up, spinning her head to glare at Valor before realizing they were in battle and he couldn't have gotten her up so quickly in any other way. He looked apologetic, maybe for more than just pulling her hair. She gave him a forgiving poke and steadied herself on her feet, immediately earning the attention of the specter. When she heard Valor's wings lifting him back into the air, she realized her hearing was coming back too and felt a little calmer.
An indeterminate amount of time had passed since she'd been knocked down, but Luxanna looked worse for wear and a desperation took hold of Quinn. The two of them were not going to win a battle of attrition. A glint of light caught her eye and she looked down. Chain ran along the ground, originating from the specter and leading into a burning pile of logs. The specter's chained lantern. Valor, as if able to read her mind, swooped down to attack the specter and its attention was peeled away from her for a moment. Quinn swore under her breath as the specter pulled on the chain. The lantern rolled out of the fire and into view, and she charged towards it, reaching out and grabbing a hold of it.
Time froze. Her eyes travelled to her hand, as if to make sure it hadn't been amputated or sucked into another dimension. But it was there, gripping tightly. The lantern glowed a darker, more ominous green than it hard during the battle earlier, and somehow Quinn felt her fear subside. The lantern itself didn't feel cold, nor, as she would have suspected, hot from the flames it birthed. As if it were located in a non physical dimension, the metal of the lantern didn't feel anything. She knew, logically, that there had to be a temperature attributed to it, but at that moment she couldn't convince herself of it. Nor could she feel her fingers on the lantern. Somehow she knew they weren't numb. Her body still had total control over them, but simultaneously she couldn't conjure enough willpower to move them.
And then, time still suspended and forgotten, she turned her head to see the specter. They were close, when they shouldn't have been. He never moved his body very fast during the battle, but now, somehow, he appeared less than two meters away, staring at her with an expressionless mask of bone. She took a good look at her enemy and realized with a little concern that she wasn't afraid of him at the moment. During battle, he was a fearful opponent, but in this exact moment, her hand attached to the lantern, he was just an angry cloud of green gas that had accumulated under the stresses of magic. He suddenly looked like less, as if she understood his mysteriousness wasn't a threat in itself, and only his scythe could kill her. Scythes were familiar. Therefore her enemy was familiar.
Beyond both her enemy and the village, Quinn's eyes were playing tricks on her. As if she were drugged and no longer lucid, she saw a horizon made up of thousands – millions – of distant flakes, all moving at once in different directions, passing through each other without pause. They were all different colors and relatively similar in shape and size. Some flakes disappeared and reappeared elsewhere. Whenever she tried to focus on a single one, it faded and its neighbours grew more apparent, like stars in a night sky. The hallucinations grew a sense of unease in her stomach, but she couldn't quite determine why.
Behind the specter, Luxanna was frozen in the motion of attacking nothing, blood dripping down her face. Quinn felt slightly confused at the sight. Light moved at nearly three hundred thousand kilometers per second. It was fundamentally impossible to dodge, but here the specter was in front of Quinn, not half the battlefield away where Luxanna's light beam was moving through the air. Seeing the young, injured mage that Quinn had jumped into battle to save, she felt a resurgence of power.
With no warning, her fingers were torn from the lantern and the horizon returned to normal grey clouds and everything began to move again. The specter was back where Luxanna had been attacking him, as if he had never moved at all. The battle continued without anyone acknowledging the pause. Quinn was breathing a little harder and her mind was swimming with questions, but she pushed them aside and threw herself back into the fray, a moment after the barrage of light died against the specter's body.
Hard fought minutes passed where Quinn ended up using three more arrows to deflect the scythe's path because she was unable to move fast enough and Luxanna wasn't able to create her blindingly bright walls of protection. When the scythe flew again towards her, Quinn checked for signs of magic barring her path before rolling over and picking herself up off the ground a short distance from where the scythe passed by. It was a thoroughly trained action by now. She felt no pain, a clear sign of the adrenaline in her system doing its job and allowing her to focus on the battle. Behind her, she could hear Luxanna's heavy breathing. Her opponent was pulling his scythe back, earning her a half second respite. During this time, Quinn looked behind her.
Luxanna's light armor was dented and cut in various places, the cloth covering her shoulder completely sliced in half and clinging to her through sweat, blood, and dirt. Her golden hair was held back by what appeared to be a leather head band, though some stray hairs found their way over her face. She had a bloody lower lip, likely from one of the times she had to recklessly thrown herself out of the way of the scythe, and a gash across her forehead which bloodied her face. Fingers clutched tightly at her baton – up close it looked like nothing more than a plastic toy, though Quinn had no experience with true magical items – and she wore a grim smile on her face.
Their eyes met for a brief moment. Somehow, despite possibly being minutes or even seconds away from death, all Quinn could think about was that Luxanna wasn't at all how Quinn thought she would look. Despite sweating, bleeding, panting, and generally being in a bad condition, Quinn realized Luxanna still had a certain, unexpected allure to her. Maybe it was an inherent beauty that all Crownguards had, but Quinn felt she couldn't deny that the young mage was a pleasant sight in such a disastrous battlefield.
And then Luxanna's eyes flickered away and Quinn spun around and charged the monster.
As she closed the distance, Valor appeared, tugging on the scythe's chain and slowing it. Unexpectedly, Quinn reached the specter undisturbed and her dagger entered into its body. Before she could even think about the success, she had to pull herself away from the counterattack already in progress. She lurched, however, as the dagger refused to remove itself from the rolling green gas. Quinn didn't bother thinking about how badly the laws of physics had been broken during the battle, and instead she let go, abandoning her close quarters weapon in the body of her enemy and escaping with a backwards stumble. The scythe cut her, but she didn't think it was lethal. Probably no worse than Luxanna's injuries.
At some point in the battle, she had bitten her tongue. She spat out as much blood as she could, leaving the rest to dribble down her chin. They had run the battle long enough. A clean hit didn't do any visible damage and now Quinn was one weapon short of being able to put up a proper resistance. Any more fighting and the specter would be in position to launch a quick, all out magical attack to kill both of them.
"Luxanna, leave," Quinn said, forgoing formality despite speaking to a superior in the army. "Valor, accompany her to safety."
Quinn had read too many fantasy books. She watched with hidden bewilderment as Luxanna ran away, having already turned foot before Quinn could finish giving the order to her. As if tied to Luxanna and Quinn by invisible ropes, Valor flew around the air in the space between them, trying to keep at the equidistance between them. Quinn could read his flight and knew he was stressed. She was too, so she felt little pity for him. When she remembered he was the reason they were in the now half-burned village, she felt even less pity for the bird.
If there was one thing Quinn regretted, it was never telling Valor to make sure she was buried back home next to her brother. In all their years together, cold nights, sore backs, and empty stomachs were always more of a threat than death. They had been a good duo, but being suddenly thrown into a battle with a proficient enemy, Quinn realized how much she lacked in combat skills and experience.
She raised her crossbow, deflecting another attack. It wasn't meant to take physical damage and she half expected it to break, but it held strong, at least for another moment. She fired a shot and then stumbled, the air around her turning cold. The blood running down her legs was suddenly noticeable and her anger at the situation grew. Had Luxanna's aura been affecting her that much?
Out of her peripheral vision, she caught sight of the forest that ran along the farmland. It had somehow caught fire. The village itself was already a smoking pile of rubble. She swore at the specter, but it didn't react. When she spat blood at it, however, it made sound that chilled her heart. An ugly, unnatural cackle resonated from his mask. Initially sounding like the fires around her that consumed the wooden building supports, it grew louder and louder until Quinn couldn't take it any longer and rushed him.
He was ready for the attack, expecting it. His lantern, which no longer had targets to burn, swung towards her. Despite having no sharp ends and cutting faces, Quinn had no doubts about what would happen if it hit her full force. She changed course to the side, withdrawing a bolt from her quiver to act as a replacement dagger. Like a shield, she kept her crossbow in front of her when the lantern collided. She was determined not to break stride, knowing the scythe would follow immediately afterwards, but the momentum of the lantern was too much. She knocked it away, into the air, and the impact spun her. She saw the scythe, as if time had froze again. She also saw a beam of light materializing along her original path towards the specter.
The light began to build, rapidly growing in circumference and magical aura. At the same time, movement in the sky caught her eye. Valor, in a spectacular dive, swooped in. His claws latched onto the airborne lantern, snatching it in a death grip that Quinn knew nothing could break free from. The light that had coalesced from nothing kept growing, shining through the specter and his chains as if he weren't there and continuing down the village's central dirt path. It seemed to keep going, fusing with the horizon in the distance.
In one moment, Quinn saw the scythe heading in her direction, and in the next, whiteness. The light had instantly broadened to cover her entire field of vision and she became blind as a surge of magic stronger than she'd ever experienced before seemed to cut her from the world itself. And then, an unmistakable pain took hold of her. Magic, tearing her apart. Adrenaline exhausted, her body lay itself vulnerable. She could feel as the scythe entered her, cutting into her thigh. It flayed her skin as it ran deep through her body, cutting her muscles. Like a thistle, it violently tore at the flesh, leaving it open for the light magic to attack it, to dissolve her insides and boil away the blood.
And then, Quinn gave up hold on the unpleasant feelings and awareness of her body. The light faded, and darkness took its place.
A/N: And so it begins. Thanks for reading the first chapter! Feel free to leave a review or PM me feedback.