The first thing that suggested something was wrong was when nobody smiled at her presence in her home tribe. Not her parents, not her surviving friends, and certainly not Pantheon. Instead, their typically smiling faces were grave. And only Pantheon would even look at her. The second thing that hit her was that there were acolytes here. Too many, in fact. Twenty-two acolytes in total found her when she arrived. They were afraid.
"Leona!" One of them said in a broken voice. The girl rushed to her and grabbed her shield arm around the elbow. "You're alive!"
The Radiant Dawn turned her shield so as not to block the girl away from her. Confusion marked her own face, though. "Of course I'm alive…" she said in response. "Why? What happened?"
"The- The-" The girl stuttered out, her eyes growing in size as she looked at something beyond the Radiant Dawn. She never finished her words. Instead, she gripped her arm tighter and pressed her face into the bend of her arm. Others who had begun gathering around her glanced amongst themselves worriedly.
"What happened?" Leona urged them. Her traveling party had begun easing the acolyte off her arm. Leona could hear her personal guards whispering to each other.
"The temple…" One of the other acolytes muttered to her. For whatever reason, this silenced them all.
Leona's face set into a determined glare as she started moving away from the group. Her entourage followed her closely, but only three of the acolytes from the temple made it beyond the edge of the village. The Radiant Dawn quickly climbed the path to the temple, a good deal ahead of everyone else.
The next thing she realized was that the sun wasn't glinting off the temple in the same way it used to. Half the radiance was gone. And as she drew closer, it became apparent why. Large portions of the brickwork was gone, with parts of the main hall having collapsed into itself. Leona's eyes widened and she started running for the doors. But they're already open.
She barely choked back a scream.
The inside of the main hall was a mess of bodies. Her hands gripped her sword and shield tight as tears formed in her eyes. But they didn't fall. She wanted to look away but she couldn't. All she could make herself look at was blood and bone and heaven knows what else. Her feet moved her forward, taking her inside the ruined structure. This wasn't something she'd truly seen before. She'd seen death, but she hadn't seen a massacre. Hadn't seen bodies days old and rotting away.
Some of the bodies were pinned beneath enormous pieces of wall or ceiling. Others were laying along the sides of the walls. Cut open from the back, burned, cleaved in two. Even one of the shields from the guards was sliced right open.
Then her arms lowered. As she reached the other end of the hall, she saw them. Each one of the Elders lay scattered. She recognized them all, though. Ennius was pressed against the base of what was once the huge Solari symbol that stood against the back wall. A huge gash stretched across his torso from shoulder to hip beneath the deep cut that nearly severed his head.
Leona looked away. Turned away. Her feet carried her back the way she came, past her entourage that made it only a fraction of the way inside. Her hands shook. She felt sick. When she reached the steps outside the door, her weapons slipped from her fingers, clattered against the stone. At the bottom of the steps, her knees gave out and she put her hands out to brace herself against the dirt. Her body quivered and the tears were blinding her now. All she could do was shake her head and hold back her sobs.
"Leona?" A voice spoke from behind her. One of the acolytes.
"Who?" She demanded, her voice dark and on the brink of cracking. "Who did this?"
There was a pause before she received an answer. "Diana..."
Edit: I realize now the switches between some of the chapters is really jarring and I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner. I think I'll try to go back in and smooth it out more, but for now, I hope you can bear with me on it.
Hope you don't mind me taking a moment to say something. I've really enjoyed the story surrounding Diana and Leona and have always wanted more. Since Riot is probably far from expanding the lore around these two, I decided to take it upon myself to write out what I've found to be the best way their story can play out. I've thought about this for a long time and most of this was actually written out of order. I am open to discussion on character voices. I'm pretty confident with Diana, but not as much the other characters that will appear in the story, such as my chosen perspective character, Leona. I also very much like getting constructive criticism or even just hearing that you enjoy what I've written. Also, if you do like it, it'd make me really happy if you it linked to others who might also enjoy it.