So, you know when you have an idea that you can't quite put together because of one missing link? Well I've been having one of those, for MONTHS, i'd think about it most nights before I slept running the same scene in my head over and over, thinking 'i have to write about this, i have to' but I could never find the little bit i needed to put it all together with a nice cherry on the top of it. Until last night, watching my partner play league, it was the champion he was playing that made it dawn on me. Holy shit, was it really that simple?
Edit -
I've updated this chapter on 29/6/16 as I felt it was really lackluster when I read over it. It doesn't have the detail or the length I really wanted it too. Saphera wasn't alive on the page like she was in my head. Not every reader is going to read the bio about her. Characters need true introductions to a story, stories need good introductions. I haven't changed much, just more detail, grammar, spelling etc. Enjoy ^-^

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1 week before the Blossom Festival.

"Quick Saphera, hurry up! You know I have to have the perfect colours for my show."
"Zyra, you're literally a plant, can't you just make your own flowers?"' The grey eyes of a pale faced redhead looked over at the woman with a cocky smirk. Her eyes lighting up with amusement at her own thoughts. Even though she was sat down at an old wooden desk, it was easy to tell she was a short girl. Her body seemed frail, almost weak due to her petite size, but this shouldn't be mistaken. Zyra studied Saphera's body language as the summoner stood up from her chair at the desk and turned to face her. Saph was indeed a short girl, but had well rounded hips, and her figure formed an hourglass when she stood directly upright. She was well proportioned, attractive and physically fit in appearance. Placing her hand onto her hip she continued her cheeky smile at Zyra, the human-plant hybrid. Causing her to speak up once more.
"Hrmph." Zyra began, huffing, "If you pay any attention instead of looking at your books all the time then you'd understand I only spawn certain plants." She replied, teasingly leaning her head over the back of the sofa and letting her bright rose coloured hair spread onto the cold tiles, there was no human qualities to her hair, something about it was... fake to say the least. It had a leafy like texture and appearance.
"Ugh, fine…" Saphera began to shut her book, her head tilting as she tried to read the tantalising last words before they would be hidden from her sight."Where should we go first? I know there is a lovely area on the west side of town that does the most amazing lilies." The summoner explained, and caused the plant to jump up from her seat with glee and excitement.
"Yes! I know that place, I've always wanted to go!" She almost yelled over to Saphera, who had her eyebrows raised in shock at such a sudden reaction of happyness. Saph turned and placed her book into the desk draw, letting her fingertips run off the warm leather cover as she slipped it inside and closed drawer.
"Let me go and get my robe, then we'll head off, it's only a short walk from here. It's a nice day too."

Zyra and Saphera quietly walked into the shop, beautiful smells filling their senses, Zyra's face lit up with pure glee. There were so many flowers, bushes, trees and other plants that she had not seen in years. The scents were sweet, soft, warm and filled your stomach with butterflies. She could not help but quickly rush over to the first flower she saw and inspect it, inhaling it's perfume and running her fingers over the silky petals.

"It's so amazing here, how did you find this place, Saph?" Zyra's golden eyes focused on the summoner, who was running her index across the petals of a white rose nearby. Mesmerized by it's beauty.
"It's a long story, friend of a friend kind of thing." Saphera politely retorted, seeming uncomfortable at the thought of it, yet leaning forward and planting her nose on the rose, taking in a deep breath. "Mhmn.." Her eyes closed at the blissful scent and her slips spread to a smile.
"Was it Elise's..?"
"No." Saphera snapped back, rather suddenly. "Well yes, alright, I'll explain it." The two began to slowly pace around the shop as Saphera explained her friendship with the fox, Ahri, and how she was protective of the elderly lady that grew flowers in this very shop. "Then one day, she ordered me to kill the elderly woman, by this point I had grown too fond of her and I simply could not bring myself to it. She always loved to braid little flowers into Ahri's tails, how could I go through with such an horrid task? Me and Ahri where close at this point to, I couldn't do that to a friend."
"Did you though?" Zyra asked, an expression of concern on her face, as she also looked with sympathy down at the summoner. Saphera didn't reply as they turned the corner, the rich purple of her rope that gently dragged on the floor just behind her feet, it's colours reflecting on the water droplets on the leaves of the plants.
"Oh Saphera!... How is my sweetheart today?!" A gentle, soft voice called out. Zyra smiled as her eyes found a small, old woman sat down on a rusted bench, her hair short and sliver. Green eyes that seemed so full of life and wisdom gazed back at the two as she continued to talk. "My! It's been so long, why didn't you visit sooner! I was just taking a little rest, I don't have much energy these days.." The woman stood up and rested on her cane, she must of only come to around 4 foot. Her fringe just fell short of her piercing eyes, which was in contrast to her rich dark skin, that seemed to be perfectly symmetrical with wrinkles. Saphera skipped over and softly wrapped her arms around the elderly woman.
"I've been fantastic, I hope you have been the same!" The lady patted Saph on the back, before looking over to Zyra with a soft, yet worried expression. "Have you brought me a bad case of haunted ragwort?"
Zyra blushed deeply, and looked away, letting her eyes fall on a petunia, partly hoping it would swallow her whole and take her away from the embarrassment that was being compared to ragwort.
"No! This is my friend Zyra, she is a champion at the institute of war, she's mentoring me this year and living with me. She's from a mage background, this is her humanoid form." Saphera giggled, looking over at the still embarrassed Zyra, who now had stepped over at this point and kindly held her hand out to the woman.
"Oh, do forgive me, you have such a pretty name, do call me Eve." They shook hands and Zyra smiled, a weight of shyness being lifted from her clapped her hands together and took a deep breath, looking over at Zyra and Eve with an excited face.
"Right! Now that's over with, let me explain why we are visiting today! As you know, it's the Blossom festival next week in Zhyun, and me and Zyra had an idea to do with some flowers, and we needed some of your beautiful lilies to help us show off. Do you have any?" Saphera's grey eyes looked over with promise to Eve, she was hoping that she had just the right thing to help with their presentation a week from now.
"You're in luck, Saphera, Ahri just brought in my weekly supply, along with her weekly visit. You just missed her!" Eve gestured for the two to follow and she took them to a small outside nursery that was full a wide range of flowers and their colours.

The sun beamed down on the three and they seemed to glow. Each flower was set a pot individually, but kept together in rows of tables were laid out in columns, that stretched for a few meters before stopping. They were all lined with beauty, vivid colours and wonderful smells. Zyra looked like she was in heaven as she ran over to the first table to look at baby red, pink and white roses. They had small thorns and only had one flower just emerging from their stem. Zyra began smelling each one before weaving down and looking at all the other unique flowers that Eve had in her collection.
"Down this side." Eve waved for Saphera to follow as she took her to the second row of tables and picked up a small bush of orange and blue lilies. "I think these were the best."
"You couldn't be more right!" Saphera said with a giggle as she inspected the leaves, petals and smell of the lilies. They had to be perfect for Zyra's presentation, and these would certainly catch everyone's attention. "Eve, these are absolutely fantastic." Saph looked over at Eve with a bright smile and joyful face.

Saphera placed the gold on the desk in the back of the shop as Eve wrapped the lilies in tissue paper, before handing them to Zyra to carry. Who gave them a deep sniff before cradling them like a baby. "I'll thank Ahri when I next see her, and let her know I visited!" Saph smiled, leaning over and planting a small kiss on Eve's cheek.
"Anytime dear, visit again soon!" She waved at the two as they walked away.

Just as they reached the door, someone else was about to enter. He stood to the left and raised his arm out to let the ladies pass first. Zyra said thank you without even looking and continued to walk along. But Saphera, she looked up to repeat thanks and found herself being gazed at almost hypnotizing blue eyes that seemed to stare into her soul. His hair short, black and fashioned roughly with some form of gel. He looked at her blankly, before his entire expression quickly changed to that of kindness. Saphera was in awe she looked at him, her breath held as something cold slithered all down her spine, she even felt the hair raise on her arms and neck. Her eyes traced his body, he was medium build, olive toned in the skin and really quite one arm appeared to be prothstetic, made from a type of coppery metal. The man looked down at her and smiled. Something about his eyes, Saphera was fixated on them and saw horror, death everything twisted, but the rest of him seemed perfectly human. Her heart began to race as she tried to find words to speak.
"A..ah..thank...you" Saph's voice stuttered for the first time in years. The man chuckled sweetly, as his faced turned to worry, with his human arm he placed it onto her shoulder in a gentle manner.
"My dear, are you alright?" He asked, with a formal, and well pronounced voice.
"Saph! Hurry up!" Zyra called out from the distance, who didn't realise Saphera had fallen behind until now.
"Yeah, I'm uh.. fine...thank you for letting us pass." Saphera quietly muttered, her skin paler than usual, almost as if she had seen a ghost. Her legs began to take her towards Zyra yet everything else in her mind was completely frozen. As she walked away, the man walked inside,
"Do you have any lotus flowers?" She heard him speak as she got away at a now rushed pace and caught up with her friend, her body returning back to her normal temperature.
"What was that all about? Who was that guy?" Her friend as with a concerned tone.
"I… I don't know, but he gave me the strangest feeling I knew him from somewhere..."
"Do you know him? From what I could see, he was quite attractive…" Zyra giggled like a small girl, turning to face forward and clutching her flowers with pride. "Anyway, these will be great for next week, would it be okay if I kept them downstairs? They'll make the house smell lovely."
Saphera shook her head of all thoughts, and focused on what is actually important.
"Yes, that's fine, I can't wait until next week!" Saphera smiled as she replied, finding herself back in a normal mindset.

The two didn't talk much on the way back from the shop, Saphera seemed shell shocked for some strange reason, where did she know him from? Who was he? The summoner's mind could not think correct for the rest of the evening. Everything seemed suddenly clouded, hazy even. Zyra found a lovely place for the plants in the living room, by the window, so anyone walking by would see the wonderful sight.

-

That night.

Saphera was up early, her face deep into that book once again. The living room was cold, and Saphera was hunched at the sofa with a thin blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Saph's hands could just be seen clutching the leather of her book. Zyra had been called to the Rift that night so wouldn't be back until morning. She had the house to summoner began to daydream and looked up from her book. It's been awhile since I've seen nocturne, surely he was going to do a classic midnight 'surprise' visit. She thought, and she wasn't wrong. Moments later a voice echoed into her thoughts.
"Saphera… why are you reading so much?" The dark's voice asked within her mind at first. Nocturne was looking down at her from the ceiling. The shadowy figure floated down and brought his face in line with Saphera's. Saph's pale features seemed even worse when fatigued, her hair was messy, her expression; dull. The night demon ran his hollow fingers down her cheek and under her chin, lifting her head up to face him correctly. His glowing eyes not seeming to help with his haunting appearance.
"Because I'm bored, I've got nothing to do and I'm still suspended." She spoke tirelessly.
"Have you even slept?"
"No.."
"Why not?" Nocturne now seemed to glow with slight anger, disappointed that the summoner was not taking care of herself. Normally, he would feast upon this, but Saphera was dear to him, in his heart of nothingness there was a small space for Saphera. He tolerated her, over the last year he became less of an abusive spirit to that of a caring one. Only a handful of people know of their relationship, if they even called it that. The demon tried to ignore his feelings for the human, they showed through regardless.
"For once, I had a nightmare." Nocturne seemed shocked, and closed Saphera's book and carried her near lifeless self to the sofa. Letting her lay down.
"Sleep human, I'll guard you this time." He ran his cold hand down her cheek again,
"No, you don't understand, I think something bad is going to happen."
"Wait, and I'm not causing it?" Nocturne laughed, "Are you sure, you haven't slept and we both know you summoners are great at making things up."
"Noct, I need to you bring Shen to me, or me to him. We need to talk about some stuff."
"Why him!? I hate that guy, everything must be in balance and perf-" Saphera snapped back at the shadow, interrupting him rather rudely, causing Nocturne to glare with displeasure.
"Look at the title of my book. Please, Shen needs to hear what I have to say!"
Nocturne glanced over to the book within Saphera's grasp, reading the title 'The Golden Demon'. It was written by The Twilight Eye himself.
"What are you saying Saphera?" He looked back with worry, everything that nocturne was, The golden demon was up on his level when it came to terrifying. It was legend to him, killing in a form of art. Nocturne looked into Saphera's eyes. "I liked that guy, you should've seen what he did to Shen's father's mind, it was fantastic, I honor him if anything."
"At least you can be controlled. I saw him today. He's back, and I think I know why."