A/N This is a piece I am considering making a longer thing, but what do you guys think? Think the idea is worth exploring?
They had found out.
Lissandra did not have the slightest idea as to how they discovered her.
Not yet! She fumed inwardly. Not until one has destroyed the other!
But now, the tribes that were her dead sisters' legacies were in front of her fortress now, demanding her to come and face justice.
On one side Ashe, Queen of the Avarosa stood, calmly defiant as usual against the Frostguard soldiers. Next to her was her consort, Tryndamere. Unlike his wife, the man seemed eager for the fight that clearly would lay ahead. He stank of bloodlust.
Lissandra's lip curled in derision. Even though she was effectively blind, she didn't need her eyes to see him. What she saw disgusted him. There was a darkness in him, the darkness in itself didn't bother her. The source was what bothered her. She had recalled that presence before.
Did she know? She thought as she sat in her throne room, invisible to her enemies inside the walls of her citadel but able to stretch her senses outwards through the ice that coated the area.
On the other side of the Avarosan duo, close enough to seem like an alliance but clearly divided along an invisible line, was the Winter's Claw. At its forefront sat their powerful leader, Sejuani. Her mount was as ready for war as always. Lissandra personally doubted it would come to that.
While she didn't feel the need to legitimatize her rule with a consort, she still had friends. The berserker from the Lokfar, Olaf, was one of them. His readiness for the fight and wild bloodlust matched that of Sejuani's mount Bristle, and Lissandra had no doubt that their bodies could be swapped without anyone noticing the difference.
Another powerful warrior in Sejuani's camp was Volibear. From what Lissandra could remember he was the Ursines' new leader, after a fiasco on his tribe's sacred mountain. She doubted he would be much challenge. The brute was strong, but painfully slow. Only time would tell.
As she stood and left her throne room, she wondered where her plan went wrong.
It was a simple plan really; let the Avarosa and the Winter's Claw fight each other over overly simplistic ideals, and destroy the remaining tribe herself.
But somehow they knew now. Somehow they realized her plan to push them against each other and have allied, at least for this one moment.
She pushed open the massive doors and strode out into the frigid winter night. Snowflakes floated softly among her, yet blackened once they drew too close.
She had no interest in hiding her face now; they would face her like they wanted, and beg for mercy.
A trail of blackened snow followed in her wake, and she stopped in front of her great grand-nieces. She very much wanted them to join Serylda and Avarosa in death. She could see Avarosa in Ashe's features, and she hated her for it. The betrayer, the rebel, the one who ruined everything. She just had to have choice, didn't she? Why fuss over it when you had power over all beneath you?
She despised Sejuani as well, but in a different manner. Serylda's face was in Sejuani's for certain, but Serylda wasn't a traitor at heart. No, Avarosa sowed the seeds of betrayal in her heart and turned her against Lissandra and their rightful masters. Serylda was a fool, easily tricked, and Sejuani was little different in Lissandra's view.
"You wanted to see me?" Lissandra asked in a dry manner. "How can the Frostguard be of service Queen Avarosa?"
Ashe's voice was steady. "We know your secret Ice Witch. We will not allow you to bury the world in ice."
Lissandra smirked. "You say that as if you had the power to stop me."
Ashe raised her-No, Avarosa's bow-and answered. "All I need is an arrow, Lissandra. The arrow of justice will pierce the blackened heart of tyranny. What you have done to the Frostguard will not spread beyond this point. It is over."
Sejuani made an impatient growl during Ashe's speech. "Enough talk." She said. With a command Bristle charged.
A wall of ice materialized in her path, but Bristle smashed through it. Sejuani leaped off her mount and brought down her flail in an attack meant to shatter Lissandra's skull.
Lissandra blocked it with another barrier of ice, but Sejuani's mighty swing smashed through it. However it was slowed enough for Lissandra to get out of reach.
She then raised a hand and created more ice to block the flurry of arrows from Ashe that came without delay. Tryndamere and Olaf charged Lissandra as one while Sejuani was recovering her mount.
Lissandra snarled in hatred and exerted her will through the ice beneath them. Tryndamere was thrown off his feet by a massive ice claw while Olaf slammed face first into the ground due to his feet, nearly breaking his ankles, as a result of suddenly being fastened to the ground.
The claw threw Tryndamere into the air and batted him into an icy outcropping, dazing the warrior. While Ashe ran to her husband while still providing cover fire, Olaf got back to his feet and resumed the charge. Lissandra threw icy spears at the barbarian, but Olaf smashed through the with his axes, never slowing. He threw one of his axes at Lissandra's face, and even though she coated her arm in ice to bat away the weapon, the blade still bit into her arm enough to feel it.
Meanwhile Sejuani had recovered her mount and was attacking from the rear, swinging her flail over her head with a face that showed nothing but grim determination. When Lissandra saw Volibear also charging her, she decided that now it was time for her to decide the rules of engagement. Sejuani threw her flail right at Lissandra, but she deftly shifted her position several meters away to an ice claw she hid in reserve. The flail struck Volibear and Olaf, imprisoning them in ice.
Lissandra smiled wickedly, glad to know that while Serylda was useless when it came to protecting her charges, her spawn was at the very least still useful to her goals. Her smile faded when Olaf somehow shattered the glacial prison with nothing it seemed but his will.
This freed Volibear as well, and he roared loud enough to shatter the sky. Wait, that wasn't it.She thought as mystical lightning struck the Ursine. With lightning now latched to his claws, Volibear resumed his attack.
Meanwhile Lissandra was focused solely on trying to stop or at the very least slow down Olaf. Nothing worked. The ice to his boots that worked moments before did nothing. Attempting to crush him with an ice claw only shattered the ice and left him still charging.
Lissandra soon found herself being surrounded on four sides by Volibear, Olaf, Sejuani, and a recovered Tryndamere.
Dark Ice swirled around her. She felt like ancient power screamed within her, begging to be released. With shards of ice she blocked, deflected, and counterattacked flawlessly. Even the mighty Olaf couldn't touch her, as his blows were redirected by slopes of Dark Ice that would appear to send his axes into the ice beneath, making his attacks fruitless.
The only one of the four that made any progress was Volibear, as his chain lightning attacks spread throughout the icy shards and made them explode on contact. Lissandra created more, but she was starting to feel overextended trying to keep track of so many things at once.
Then, it happened.
Sharp, unbearable pain, then a scream that shook the glaciers.
It took Lissandra a moment to realize that the scream issued from her frigid lips. After one too many ice shards were destroyed, Olaf had buried an ax right into her heart.
The scream made her enemies freeze in their tracks. Even Sejuani stopped her attack, although it was more out of satisfaction than of being startled by the unexpected reaction to a fatal wound. Ashe lowered her bow and looked upon Lissandra with a face that said, "It had to come to this. I am sorry."
Lissandra's last act was to entomb herself. In an instant, Dark Ice enveloped her, and shut her off from the world.
She knew only darkness then. She faintly heard her attackers pound on the tomb from the outside, but she paid them no mind. Volibear's lightning was gone, and without it True Ice was unbreakable. She started to relax as she healed her injuries swiftly. The only thing that could stand a chance of breaking True Ice was...
True Ice.
Weren't Avarosa's Bow and Serylda's Flail made of...
There was a crack in her tomb as Sejuani bashed it with all of her might.
Cold fear crept into her heart, for once in her long life. She would die here, to these lesser beings.
Her memories flashed. When Ashe's face came to mind, Lissandra's fear filled heart took on a new hue. Black hatred. Ashe sickened her. Her ideals, her beliefs, her weak struggle for peace in a brutal world that was the Frelijord, it all sickened her. Her very resemblance to Avarosa made Lissandra hate her.
Avarosa was the one that destroyed her world. She was so close to ultimate power by the Watchers' side. So close. They could have ruled together, her and her sisters.
The seed of the betrayer would not destroy her. Avarosa would not win. She would raise her masters. The world would be entombed in ice. She was all the Watchers had left.
With a resounding roar of anger and raw hatred of Avarosa, and all that she stood for, she shattered the icy tomb. Shards flew everywhere, shredding flesh and reaching bone. The largest target, Volibear, took much more of the shards than any other. Though he was heavily armored, he took enough shards to go down.
Lissandra scooped Olaf up in an ice claw, and threw him over the cliff. Into the Howling Abyss. The warrior howled, but despite his strengths, flight was not one of them.
Tryndamere was the victim of a ravaging ice spear through the chest, but it somehow did not kill him. The man grabbed the spear and broke it with a twist of his body. The sight horrified Ashe, and Lissandra got a sick satisfaction that Avarosa would suffer in the heart before she flash froze it. Tryndamere's eyes boiled over in raw anger, and with a mighty slash he struck Lissandra through her ice armor hard enough to daze her.
Black hatred spidered through her soul, igniting her insides and burning away her daze. In a wrath-filled snarl she encased the warrior in ice then ruptured the ground beneath him with a concussive shockwave strong enough to send him into the air and away from the battle. She threw several ice spears into the air on his trajectory, calculating that they would kill him upon landing.
The ursine was somehow still alive, getting up after nearly being killed and ready for a second round. Lissandra wasn't interested. Her fight was with Avarosa and Serylda. With an icy blast she muzzled the beast and used another claw to suspend him high in the air before encasing him in a tomb of ice. He would be a nice guard animal for her citadel when she was done. After appropriate training of course.
She turned to Ashe and Sejuani and cackled madly as she trapped all three of them in an icy arena. "You two are next." She said in a tone that was half mad and half enraged. She would kill Avarosa once again, but slowly, painfully. She would learn from this second killing perhaps.
Ashe had dodged the shards unleashed by Lissandra's tomb, but Sejuani didn't. She was cut and bleeding all over just like her mount. But unlike Bristle, Sejuani stood tall.
Both women stood defiant to the last. Just like Avarosa and Serylda.
Lissandra snarled at the thought of them and reached with her magic to corrupt and destroy the last traces her accursed sisters had in this world.
Avarosa's bow turned black and so cold it burned. Lissandra was fully aware part of Ashe bonded to the bow, so when the corruption took place Ashe dropped it like it was made of fire and cried out in agony as her hand was physically burned by contact with it.
Sejuani stepped forward. Her flail turned into Dark Ice, something that it should have never become, and Lissandra could see the woman's mouth tighten as she continued her advance. Unlike Ashe, her weapon was not made completely out of True Ice, so the corruption couldn't touch her.
Lissandra raised a hand to impale the impetuous woman, but nothing happened. Lissandra's mind caught up to her body as she realized that she was very tired. The hate fueled furnace of her heart could only do so much, and surely her last action of creating a massive ring of walls around them drained the last of her mana. She smiled bitterly, without showing teeth, as she realized that she had created her own death arena.
The flail came hard, without mercy. It connected with her face and shattered her crest, sending her into the wall hard enough to break through it. Her pale blue eyes exposed for the first time in over a century, she impulsively opened them to find nothing but darkness. With her power as weak as it was, she could barely sense Sejuani approach and grab her by the hair. She was dragged to the edge of the cliff, unable to resist.
"If you want the Watchers so badly," Sejuani said with a voice colder than the winter winds, "you can go and join them." Lissandra barely felt the harsh kick that sent her over the edge.
Lissandra fell.
She heard the harsh crack her back made when she struck an outcropping rather than felt it. She couldn't hear herself scream.
Unable to move, she lay there, slowly drifting into unconsciousness, with nothing but her hate to comfort her.
She awoke in a warm bed by a fireplace. The heat made her uncomfortable, but she could do nothing to put it out. She was still weak.
Presently she came to terms that somebody had saved her life. Not that it would save them of course. As soon as she got her strength back she would unleash her wrath against the world.
Presently the door to her room opened and a large man came in with a bowl of steaming soup. The man was muscled and although he was wearing thick pants and boots, his chest was bare and painted with blue markings that Lissandra couldn't identify at the moment. A large mustache on his face accented his kind features, and his eyes brightened when he saw that she was awake. "Ah, you're finally awake!" He said in a jovial accented voice. He sat beside her and looked puzzled for a minute. "Hmm, you still seem cold. Blue as can be. Does Braum need to turn up the heat? Hmm?"
Lissandra's reply was harsh. "I am supposed to be blue you big oaf. Now put out that fire, now!" As she couldn't get up, Lissandra put as much force into her words as possible.
Braum laughed. "The fire is here to help, Braum promises. Now eat your soup." He dipped a spoon into the bowl and blew on it gently. He brought it to Lissandra's lips slowly and with exaggerated care. "Here comes glacier!" He said as the spoon swooped in.
Lissandra growled, but took the soup. She had every intention of spitting it into the man's face for insulting her in such a manner. But when the soup entered her mouth, she was floored by how good it tasted. The cold hatred that seemed to be her heart for as long as she could remember nearly melted instantly as she was lost in the rich flavors for a brief moment. Strangely she regretted having to swallow it. She felt the warmth creep down her throat and stop at around her chest.
Oh gods. She thought irritably. Now I have heartburn.
She accepted another spoon from Braum, all the while trying to decipher his intent. Surely he knew how powerful she was, perhaps he thought he was buying her favor.
You will be lucky if I don't kill you first. She vowed silently.
After a moment she added, after you teach me how to make this.