"It's strangely quiet." Noxus mused.
"Uh, what?" Drakath was wincing, unable to hear anything in the cacophonic melding of skeleton shrieks and hissing monsters slinking in the dark. Sepulchure's fortress became busier as more elemental orbs had been claimed. Through it all, the shrieking of a baby reigned supreme.
"I said, it's too quiet!" Noxus shouted, only somewhat audible. The entire conversation would consist of yelling, and both of them were quite adept at that. "Ah, no matter. I assume you know why I called you here, Drakath."
"Prince Drakath," The title-less bandit corrected him, staggering back when Noxus flashed him a silent glare. The nightmarish glow in his eyes illuminating the otherwise pitch black. room. "W-well, you assume wrong! Lord Sepulchure entrusted me with a…multitude of gravely important tasks. There isn't time for me to waste on a failure's side projects."
"Oh, I'm sure," Noxus nodded, circling around the strange markings he had drawn on to the floor. If. Drakath squinted, he could see the bitter limp the collapse of the Necropolis left him with. "And that's why the Prince of Fools is kept in the fortress. Because he's done so well claiming the Orbs."
"Exactly! I'm too important to be wasted on such mundane…did you just call me a fool?" The bandit would have crossed the room to kick him down to his knees, but why waste time on a washout?
Drakath wasn't scared of the necromancer turning him into an undead rat nest. Who said he was scared?
"What could you be up to," He asked instead, curious. "Last I heard, Sepulchure wasn't interested in your schemes anymore. And we're weeks away from the next holiday you need to ruin."
"Yes yes, that would be the back-up plan," Ignorant to the jab at his unspoken demotion, Noxus waved his hand and the markings on the ground glowed a poisonous green. "The opportunity presented to me now is the best chance I have at grinding the Hero's bones to dust."
Whether the necromancer was aware of Sepulchure's plans needing the Hero alive or not didn't matter. The venom tinging Noxus' breath spoke of revenge; blind and mindless.
Listening to the odd 'quiet' of the fortress again, Drakath crossed his arms. The wet weight in his pocket was throwing him off balance.
"Would that opportunity have something to do with the smoke that's still in the sky?"
"This was the first Orb taken by the Shadowscythe. A victory that taught me much," Noxus willed the glow to rise from the runes, forming into a bulging shape floating in the darkness. "I thought about conjuring their greatest fears. But what are their greatest fears? Not corpses, or anything they can be molded into."
The shape morphed, flitting through forms of Noxus' past creations. Drakath made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat, trying to find a space in the necromancer's rambling to talk over him.
"Not werewolves or vampires either. A hybrid of the two?" Noxus wondered aloud, swirling the image until a winged wolfman formed. "No, too plain to fear."
Rolling his eyes, Drakath said "It would make sense for rabid vermin to breed."
"Then something abstract? How old is the hero? Late teens? Early twenties," The necromancer dwelled on a thought. "Aha!" Noxus shot a bolt of dark magic into the floating slime. "The fear of unexpected pregnancy!"
The slime started to bloat into a grotesque lumpy figure.
"That's too much."
"That's way too much." Noxus agreed, dashing the image away.
"Not even their greatest failure staring them in the face could break their spirit," He continued, sculpting the shape into a familiar face. "But he did come the closest."
Priding himself in the noble poise and control he projected, Drakath contented himself with imagining his blade ripping through the horned visage. Noxus was too absorbed in his own voice that he didn't notice the jagged scowl on the bandit's face.
"Perhaps it isn't about fear or tainting relations. This close success must not be about the Hero's mindset but about their enemies.' A thirst for vengeance so deep, it kills reason before it takes lives," A dark laugh bubbled behind Noxus' lips. "Given the right resources, I'll have the Hero groveling in just under three days."
"Three days? No!" Drakath's exclaimed, upset enough to make Noxus' illusion shudder. "Both of the hero's legs were broken during the Orb's recovery. You wouldn't be satisfied with crushing them when there's no chance of them showing up. Believe me when I say that nothing would satisfy me more than personally crushing their skull under my boot. You are wasting your time and mine."
"That reckless Hero will answer the call of their friends. Running in on their hands if they must. Even if they don't-" Noxus snapped his fingers, and the shape flattened on the floor, becoming a thin black membrane and pulsing with red veins. "—Crushing their home will be close enough to the real target."
Staring at the vessel writhing at Noxus' feet, Drakath clenched and unclenched his fists.
"Which brings me to why I requested your presence." Noxus's grin glinted from under his tattered hood.
Leaning on the railing of the balcony, Princess Victoria gazed to the East of Swordhaven where the smoke was still visible. Being stuck in the castle, she only heard stories of the burn scars left by the fiery invasions.
Victoria was filled with nothing but guilt, surrounded by flowers and pretty white stone. The next chance she'd get, Victoria would rush as fast as she could to Falconreach to help with providing aid, and at the very least support her friends.
Her chance came eerily on cue, in the form of a battered carriage being dragged into the castle's courtyard on its last two wheels. Flanked by his guards, the King was there speaking to the carriage's handlers.
All of them were in on their knees, giving apologies the King refused to accept. Judging from how Victoria could hear him asking the poor citizens to stand from several floors up, it concerned something particularly special.
"Victoria, good morning," The King greeted his daughter when he returned to the throne room, smiling in relief. "I was about to join you and Brittany. We haven't had much time to talk these busy days."
"Busy is one way to describe them," Victoria smiled back, becoming startled at the rising wail from outside. "Oh, did something get stolen again?"
The King's posture stiffened but he quickly made himself relax.
"I must be honest, I'm relieved that it was stolen." He admitted, walking to his daughter's side as they both headed for the upper floors. Their guards followed closely behind and though they were much appreciated, it made it harder to chat.
"Was it another ugly painting?" Victoria asked.
"Hmm, more of a relic that should be left to gather dust," King Alteon said, more aware of the bright banners that now coloured the castle. "We've never needed that rusty thing."
"Be more vague." Princess Victoria joked, laughing easily at her father's bewildered expression turning into a half grin that didn't reflect in his eyes. "Father? I'm sorry, did I—"
"No, no! You're right, I was being vague," The King cut her off quicky. "Ah, it's just that, I've criticized the fine Hero in Falconreach for possessing a Doom Weapon, but I haven't lost friends to them. "
Brow furrowing deeply, Victoria tried to understand but her thoughts became jumped as the Castle began to violently shake. Through a window, Victoria could see one of the towers teeter dangerous, losing half of its roof to the quaking. Her father gripped her arm tightly, urging her to move.
Swordhaven rumbled and cracked, throwing the denizens of the castle into disarray. The guards were quick to usher the royal family outside despite the King's shouts to take Victoria and let him rush to the Crown Princess' side.
Scanning the area, Victoria searched for any signs of attack but the sky was clear the only rising smoke came from chimneys in the city. Was it only an earthquake?
"Stop!" The guard leading at the front of their protective formation raised their hand and their mad rush came close to piling over their King.
Beyond them, the courtyard had collapsed into itself, revealing a deep pit that could easily swallow several homes.
"What is this?" The King demanded, finding his footing once the shaking came to a complete stop.
Several guards began speaking at once and before he could become frustrated with another problem on his doorstep, the King turned to Victoria.
"I'm sorry, please let the guards take you and your sisters to the westmost estate."
Her father didn't need to say more and Victoria didn't want him to. Nodding sharply, she and a pair of knights rushed to find the other two princesses. The moment Victoria would get privacy, she would rush to find the Hero as fast as her feet would carry her.