Chapter 1

My heels click on the ground, echoing in the almost empty corridor. I move quickly, outpacing the attendant that runs in an attempt to keep up with me. Hmph. Foolish. He nervously fidgets and glances about. I had just finished a hunt with a particularly nasty void beast. I still stunk of its acid and blood, though I had quickly wiped most of it off. He is intimidated by what he sees. A pale woman dressed all in black, a giant crossbow slung across her shoulders, a smaller one on her wrist, drenched in purple voidling ichor.

"Mistress Vayne?" He asks tentatively, slightly out of breath. "Perhaps you should slow down? This is a very rash, informal decision. Perhaps you should go home and rest. I know you just only got the message. And, well, there are plans for a ceremony and-"

"Cut your blabbering fool." I snap. I am tired. Tired of his buffoonery. "I've made my decision and I shall stick to it."

He promptly closes his mouth and rushes ahead of me to open the door to the Head Chancellor's chamber. His head is bowed as I pass by.

Head Chancellor Suse sits behind her huge oval desk, still doing paperwork at this late hour. She is a middle-aged, stately woman with long graying hair tied back in a bun. She is short but not stout. Her face is hawkish with eyes that sparkle with intelligence.

She sniffs the air disdainfully before glancing up at me. "Ms. Shauna Vayne." Her voice is plain, level, orderly. "I sent you the message assuming you would get it in the morning. Perhaps I should have simply waited. I wasn't aware you were so prompt." She eyes my disheveled appearance. "Perhaps it would be best to do this in the morning. Your stink fills my office and I am terribly busy."

Straightforward. I can respect that. "No. You said it was urgent and so I came. I would have you mind that I am also a very busy woman, Head Chancellor."

She just sighs, putting her pen down and lacing her fingers before her. "Alright. I don't intend this to take long. I also don't expect any objections since I will inevitably threaten to evoke your champion status if you do." I raise an eyebrow. Now she's got my interest. "The League has existed for some time now, putting a halt to war and permanent bloodshed. Yet there is still much strife and turmoil between the states. We want to slowly get rid of that.

"We're implementing an apprenticeship program where champions on opposing sides must tutor champions-to-be. For example, I've decided to give Garen a nice, destructive Noxian to train. I have… different plans for you though. Something much more… difficult.

"There is no feud older and more bitter than that between humans and those who have fallen to darkness in the afterlife." She pauses as I take an involuntary step forward. I stop myself and glare at her.

"No."

She sighs. "We've already been over this, Ms. Vayne. I will evoke your champion status if you refuse. I know there are several champions that have quite the bone to pick with you. Especially Evelynn, if I recall right. And if you're no longer a champion there will be relatively minimal punishment for killing you. So I believe it would be wise to reconsider your standing."

I choke back a violent remark. I give her a curt nod. She nods back.

"Lilith!"

There is silence. Then, the wall behind the Head Chancellor seems to warp and twist. No, not the wall. The shadow. It darkens to a pitch black and then a girl emerges from it. It is a quick silent process. As she comes out of the shadows, they release her almost slowly, as if reluctant to let go. She stands for a moment before kneeling on one knee. In that moment though, I examine her. She looks barely older that Annie, with somewhat pudgy cheeks. She's all muscle though everywhere else. Her hair is as pitch black as her eyes and hangs down to her waist. She's all stiffness, silence, obedience. She seems so childish, so innocent.

I immediately know she can't be trusted.

The Head Chancellor reaches into her desk and hands me a paper. "This is a list of all her powers, skills, strengths, and weaknesses. Examine and proceed with her training accordingly. The right wing of the Institute has been converted into a training ground where you will both spend the next three months together. Twenty houses have been put in a ring, each a mile from each other, with a small courtyard in their centers. There is also a large courtyard in the center of the houses for the apprentices to go and train with one another, but that won't be open for another two weeks." She stops and goes back to her paperwork. There is a vague sense of dismissal.

"Is that it?" I inquire more fiercely that I intended to, but unable to care.

Suse sighs, melodramatically setting her pen back on her desk and looking back up at me. "I wasn't aware there should be more."

It takes all my willpower not to put a bolt through both the Chancellor's head for condoning the existence of the Shadow Isle filth and the Shadow Isle filth in question. Eventually, I grit out through clenched teeth, "What do I do with it now?"

We both look over to the little demon who still is kneeling on the ground, waiting with its head bowed. "Pick whichever house you like the most since you'll be spending the next three months there with you apprentice. I'll have your effects moved there in the morning. Have my attendant show you the way to them and give you a tour of each."

I still do not move.

Head Chancellor Suse gives me a very flat look and takes a deep breath. "Look Ms. Vayne, I know you're not happy about all of this-"

I lunge forward, slamming my hands on the desk. The Head Chancellor jumps back in alarm, her eyes wide in fright as if seeing me for the first time. Smelling and looking like hell itself, fully armed with a short temper and violent tendencies toward the black arts. "Damn right." I growl out. "Everything from the Shadow Isle is violent, cruel, and a menace to humanity. They will never change. If you do or don't give them a chance is irrelevant. All they do is inflict pain unto others and I will not stand for it. This apprentice will be no different. If it makes any threatening moves, I will not hesitate to end its life. Do we understand each other?"

Suse is speechless, wide-eyed as a poro in an arrow storm. Finally she seems to compose herself somewhat, straightening herself. She is not the kind of woman to back down. She holds my fierce glare. Her voice becomes quiet and low-pitched, as if that's menacing. "You will not kill her injusticely Vayne. We will be watching everything you two do, together and separately. And I will tell you right now after engaging in antagonizing psychosis studies on this girl that she is not what you think she is. Give her a chance before you cut off her head. Lilith," Suse snaps. The devil flinches and looks up at the two of us. "Come now, no need to be so formal. This is your new teacher, Shauna Vayne. You've already been briefed about everything that's happening I hope. Your teacher is very much against the Shadow Isles because she thinks it is all evil. I hope the two of you will be able to amend some of the animosity between humans and Shadow Isle creatures."

Lilith sheepishly stands and slips over silently next the desk. Its eyes glint like cruel pieces of obsidian in the darkness, but just appear like pools of black as it enters the light. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mistress Vayne. I hope we grow to become friends..." I think it trails off, or it might have been its voice, all whisper and air, seemingly lacking a definitive end.

I have trouble interpreting my emotion as I leave the room, new demon-student in tow. Suse's attendant, the same one from before, guides me to the houses and gives me a tour of each. I choose a house that has my apprentice's room on the opposite side of the house. I dismiss the attendant after I've chosen my house. He all but runs away.

The moon hang low in the sky, reminding me of how late it is and my own weariness. I stand in the courtyard, looking at the sky, trying to pretend my apprentice isn't lurking behind me. I move to go to my new room, empty of everything save for a bed and wardrobe.

"Shauna Vayne." Its voice is steady and sure, unlike the airy voice earlier. I realize then that its voice wasn't like that all the time; no, it was just distracted. It was thinking. I tense up, preparing myself for the worst as I turn around. She stands there, fists clenched, obsidian eyes holding mine.

"When you were eight, you watched a Shadow Isle witch torture and kill your family." She pauses. My breath is caught in my throat. It's not uncommon knowledge. I am relatively famous. But why would she bring it up?

"I would like to make amends for what happened that night." She continues. She steps back and raises her hands. A blanket of black rises to the side of her and spits out a ghoul in the same fashion it Lilith came out in the Chancellor's room. The ghoul has the appearance of a very short elderly lady, with gray skin lined by wrinkles and gnarls. Its hair are black wisps on a spotting head. It cackles maniacally as it slip out of the wall of darkness, presumably summoned by Lilith. I tense taking several steps back.

"Little demon, little demon! Oh how the shadows toil for you!" The witch croons, her voice as nasty and cruel as her appearance. She must be taunting Lilith since Lilith stiffens, looking coldly at whatever it had summoned. "My capturer, my prisoner, why have you summoned me?"

Lilith is silent. Silent for so long that even the ghoul it summoned begins to glance about nervously. I am numb. Beyond this courtyard, beyond this time I hear the screams of loved ones tortured. The click, click of knives against bone. The maddening cackles and taunts. Promises to make it stop if only I stop hiding. Then everything will stop.

I take another step backward. The still functioning, logical part of my brain assesses the situation quickly. Whatever Lilith summoned was held in place by little mounds of shadow around its feet and its hands were bound by a darker, tangible shadow. They stand about two and a half meters away from me, and Lilith is about a meter from the witch. Lilith is playing mind games; unsettling the demon it summoned before possible interrogation.

"Maldova, Banshee of the Shadow Isle, you once told me you were responsible for the murder of the Vayne family." Lilith's voice is a hiss. It is a voice that is spat onto your skin and burns hot, making you shiver. I do not.

"Ah, the Vaynes." The witch says with a reminiscent smile. "Such fun. They had this little girl you know. It was so much fun, watching her squirm and cry as she heard her family suffer. She was such a coward-" It is cut off as I cover the distance between us in the blink of an eye and stab it in the left eye. I am careful to angle my bolt downward so I do not hit the brain. It screams, a horrible, high-pitched sound that makes me believe it could be a banshee. I jerk my bolt free. The creature cannot fall back because Lilith is holding it upright with its shadows. It simply slumps there, upright, whimpering. There is no blood.

That is what separates us. Man bleeds, animals bleed. These demons do no bleed because they are not natural, not right. The only things that bind the living together is the red blood we shed. I think, taking a step back and trying to gauge Lilith's reaction. It remains impassive.

It notices my glance. "If this is your justice, continue." Lilith whispers. "I brought this creature here so that you can decide the fate of the criminal yourself."

I look back to the witch that killed my family, trying desperately to figure out Lilith's game. If I kill this monster, will I play right into her hand? I don't see what killing this thing will accomplish for it. I hesitate before the memories come pouring back. I close my eyes against them and I'm there again. No. No. I became the Night Hunter to kill demons like this. I never want to have another child to experience the same tragedy I had to.

"So you're the famous Night Hunter," Maldova whispers, a cruel smile on its lips. "I always wondered why you held such a grudge against the Shadow Isle. Now I know and I must tell you I'm so very flattered. To think my work gave birth to you of all people..." The hag continues to rant, every now and then giving a short cackle of laughter.

Over Maldova's cruel voice comes Lilith's steady, flowing voice. Like water to ease my burns. "The sentence?"

…

"Death."

The Night Hunter stalks away heading to her room to get some sleep. I look down at Maldova's body. Poor, poor Maldova. Yet this had to be her fate. I still can't save some of them. I dispose of the body, sending it back to the Shadow Isle through my shadows. No matter how cruel or evil she was, she was still a life I snuffed out. I couldn't save her so I condemned her. The weight of another death settles onto my shoulders. I trudge to my new room, aching for a couple hours of sleep before Mistress Vayne expects me up for training.

My room is barren. It is huge and so very empty. A bed, a chest, a small table, a lamp. Concrete building, concrete floor. I absently run my hand along the chest. It's a small thing made to hold only a few garment. Square, wooden, unadorned… Ouch!

I pull my hand back. There was a sharp splinter along the chest. Must have poked me. I examine my finger. A drop of scarlet blood wells on the side.

So, yay, first fanfic! Reviews welcome and all that jazz. I have a tendency when I'm writing to skip over some information you might need to follow the plot, so let me know if the story ever gets confusing or the plot is vague.

Talk about slow beginnings! I didn't want to cram too much in one chapter so I'll probably just write the next one soon. By the way, I'm horrible at titles so if any reader thinks of a better one than the current, just let me know! ;)