Chapter One

Test Day: First Impressions

Waking from the sound of knocking on his door, a pair of green eyes shot open and a black-haired young man jumped out of his small bed in the corner of his small room. Making for the door the man called out, asking who was there. The only reply that came was, "your summons, you have two hours." The young man replied with an affirmation before getting ready for his day, and a rather big day it was for him.

Avis Rivier walked out of the shower stall and up to a mirror in his daily clothes. Looking himself over to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything in his morning regime, Avis nodded, content with how his black hair stood up in the center. His face was angular and handsome with smooth skin and claw marked scars that ran down his face just under his eye.

Avis left the showers and returned to his room to throw his dirty laundry back in. Guess today will be laundry day, he thought to himself as he noticed a well-grown pile of dirty laundry next to the door of his room before leaving again.

Today was definitely a day he wouldn't forget. It was a day that would decide whether he would become a full-fledged summoner, or some other magic user that would live his life helping the league in more menial tasks.

Avis had been a novice summoner for two years, learning the ways of the craft, controlling the minion he had before advancing to an apprentice, where he studied the craft in much more detail for another year. Now he was preparing for another advancement. Today was his test to determine whether he would become an actual summoner or not.

Avis and the other summoners that were being tested today would be lined up with a group of champions that were on, what many summoners were calling, their "grace period." A grace period was the slang term that summoners used when Champions were forced, by the Institute, to fight with summoners free of money, faction affiliation, or influence for a limited time. It would be every students' first time with a live champion and it made everyone nervous.

Avis could see the door to the testing room. He looked around and found nobody else outside and so, assumed that everyone would be waiting inside. He took a deep breath to settle his nerves and thought back to his time as a student. He had been considered an average student that his mentor kept pushing to do more. Avis had ignored his mentor and only did the minimum requirements for his studies, however he had taken mental notes and learned much by watching the battles as a minion and by listening in on the summoner's conversations when they believed he wasn't listening. Avis had soaked up information when no one expected him to and had put minimum effort into the actual lessons.

With a sigh, Avis stepped into the room to see a wide open space of faceless stone walls and in the center stood a small group of about four figures. One he recognized almost instantly as being his mentor, Lavon, but the others were new to him. Of the other three, two were shorter than he was, one looked like an armadillo while the other like a mummified yordle. The third was taller than Avis by a good few feet as he wasn't considered tall by human standards. Avis came up to about the other being's shoulder. His face was that of a jackal's in some alien culture's clothes of gold and in his right hand he had a massive staff looking club.

"Avis," called his mentor as he approached the group, "You are early. Come here so you may meet three of the ten champions that will be available for your choosing today," he said motioning Avis closer to the three.

"Hello, my name is Avis Rivier," said Avis as he looked at each of the three and smiled "I will be one of the ten apprentices that will be tested today."

"Hello," replied the tall jackal headed one in a voice that spoke of decades of wisdom, "My name is Nasus and I'm pleased to make your acquaintance," he finished while holding out his left hand so that Avis could shake it in greeting before kneeling down to greet the others in a similar manner.

"I-I'm Am-mu-mu," replied the mummified one as he shuffled his feet nervously while taking Avis' outstretched hand and shook it carefully.

Avis replied with a smile before speaking again, "I'm very glad to have met you Amumu and I hope to work with you in the future," Amumu gasped at this response and looked at him with eyes full of hope.

"Really?" he asked and was responded with a reassuring smile from Avis.

"Of course," He said before turning to the third.

The third only stood there and looked Avis in the eye. Those eyes told of miles and miles of travel with so many wonderful things they had seen and terrible crimes that they had witnessed. Avis' smile turned serious and he stared unblinkingly back searching for signs of a response from the large armadillo.

It was a long moment of silence before the champion spoke its response, "Ok," and held out its clawed hand to shake his. Avis replied in kind with a confused smile before standing up.

"You'll have to excuse Rammus, he is not one for words," Said Lavon.

"I see, well Rammus it was a pleasure to meet you," Avis said, changing his confused smile to one of sincerity.

It was at this moment when the doors opened again and six more figures entered the room. None of them Avis knew so he assumed they too were champions, and so Avis took this as an opportunity to get to know them before the match. It took about thirty minutes before Avis had gotten to know the others. Ezreal had been very helpful in introducing him to some of the others such as Miss Fortune, Sona, Yorick, and Ryze. They had all seemed so very different, of course it had been difficult at first to talk to Sona, but she had figured out a way to speak through her mind with him. At first it had been disconcerting, but he had grown more used to it the longer they spoke.

Avis had been halfway through his talk with Yorick when some of the other students began arriving. Yorick had been difficult to talk to, but not nearly as much as Morgana. When Avis had approached her he had already talked to everyone else and many of the other students were getting to know the others.

"Hello, My name is Avis. I will be one of the apprentices testing today," he said with an outstretched hand. She looked at him with her purple eyes and the longer she stared into his the more her's began to glow, "Uhm is there something wrong?" he asked growing concerned.

"You have an immense amount of power, even by adept summoner standards," she said as if she could tell how much power he contained.

"I'm afraid you must have me confused. I have yet to master my potential," he said now letting his hand drop back to his side.

"Power is not the same thing as potential. Whether you can control this power or not is what concerns me. Have you ever lost control of your power before?" she asked. Now Avis was the one being interviewed and scrutinized. Strangely enough though, it didn't bother him. Instead he felt much more comfortable.

"I have not lost control since learning how to keep it under wraps. Why?" He asked.

"If you are to be the summoner who is paired with me I want to make sure you won't kill me before we even begin," she replied.

"If I was that dangerous I wouldn't be being tested for an adept level, would I?" he asked her trying to get a foothold in so that he might be able to ask her some questions.

"No, I suppose they would have weeded you out by now if that were a problem," she replied, the glow in her eyes growing dimer as she began to study his physique now. Avis wasn't an impressive male specimen, but nor was he a disappointment to the male gender. He was about average height, about five feet ten inches tall and his body was toned and decently muscled enough to be noticeable, but not to the point of being considered thick.

"Would it be too much of an inconvenience for me to ask of you, your name?" he asked.

"Morgana, The Fallen," she replied. Her face was stone set in grim indifference.

"You don't seem particularly nervous or excited in any way," Avis stated calmly.

"This is merely another match for me, and I will do what I can to win. I only hope the summoner that I am paired with can do the same. As well as the others for that matter," she replied now taking her eyes off Avis to scan the room. Her gaze was one of study and her eyes glowed dimly as she finished her evaluation of the others. "If it is at all possible, I'd rather you be the one to pair yourself with me," she finished.

The statement had caught Avis off guard. She was definitely someone that would be difficult to get along with and Avis wasn't sure if he'd be comfortable with working with someone who, from what he could tell, had no intention of getting along with their partner.

"I'm afraid that we may have more difficulty working together if you are not willing to get along with me," he replied.

"I haven't rejected you," she replied flatly as if that was enough to get along with him.

"Even so, if one of us gets frustrated with the other, then we will have a problem in the match. I am not one who takes kindly to being attacked. Physically or verbally," he replied in a serious tone. Morgana hadn't heard a summoner use a tone like that with her before, save the grand summoners, and she was half tempted to put him in his place, until she noticed his expression was as grim and dark as Mordekaiser's presence.

Morgana gave Avis a double take. His body language didn't speak threateningly, nor did it speak of cowardice. She looked his aura over once more and saw that the bright green flame that had been flickering contently now had darkened and enveloped him in a calm manner that spoke to her of a fact. If she were to do anything that would cause a problem. She would regret it dearly.

Avis watched Morgana's eyes dim once more from her bright purple glow before she looked him in the eye, this time as a person looking to speak reasonably, rather than as an investigator looking to evaluate his capabilities. Avis relaxed and smiled slightly in an appreciating manner, "Thank you for not pushing me to a regrettable decision," he said as she held out her hand for him to shake. Her face, Avis noticed, had changed from grim indifference to that of a more neutral indifference which Avis felt was a small victory as he shook her hand.

Avis and Morgana talked for a few more minutes before the door opened one last time to show a tall ghostly figure that was followed by the feeling of dread. Avis knew this figure. In fact everyone in the room born of Valoran knew this figure. One didn't have to know what he looked like to know who he was. His story was known all across Valoran to scare children to stay inside at night. The old nursery rhyme began to play in the heads of all those who knew it at his sight.

Thresh the Chain Warden walked into the room, his chains scraping across the stone floor while his lantern floated beside him close to his flaming spectral head and his sickle held in his right hand.

"Finally, the final champion has arrived. Let us begin with the match up," called Lavon.