The worn steps leading up to temple were covered in fog. Birds and monkeys flitted around in the trees, making a racket in the otherwise quiet morning.
Shadow had always liked Ionia; there was a sort of peace that the country gave off. He had explored almost every country in Runeterra (some legally, others a little more questionably), but this one still remained his favorite.
Shadow was a mercenary, a warrior for hire. He was Demacian by lineage but had grown up an orphan in Ionia, raised by an old monk. At a solid 6'3, Shadow was considered very tall in Ionia: this combined with his lean body gave him the build of a pond reed.
He was wearing his customary leather vest and cloth pants, with a chain wrapped around his left shoulder, near the collarbone. The pommel of a double-edged knife stuck out of his oversized boots.
Shadow hadn't visited his master's temple since the funeral ten years ago. He had only been fourteen then. Just a child. He wondered how his home had changed.
"What are you crying for, young one?" his master had asked when Shadow first arrived at the temple as a weeping five year old.
"My mommy and daddy are dead and there's nothing that'll bring 'em back."
"Oh, who said they need bringing back?"
"I told you, they are dead. Gone." Shadow had said this a little more petulantly than he meant it. Remembering that annoying child made him cringe.
"You did say something about them dying. That doesn't mean they are gone though." His master's old, withered hand had patted Shadow's head then, and a crying child had looked up tearfully at a man he would love more than anyone in the whole world.
A monkey scrambled across the cracked stones steps, jarring Shadow from his reverie. At the top of the long staircase, he saw the small temple. His home. The red arch had been repainted, but everything else was the same: rustic and ordinary.
A man sat at a koi pond off to the left. Shadow had seen the face before: Ionian fan favorite of the League of Legends, Lee Sin.
Lee's trademark red cloth covered his face, but Shadow knew his presence had been noticed. He waited.
Shadow thought about the League of Legends, over at the Institute of War. All sorts of people frequented the Institute of War, including mercenaries like him. Becoming a League champion was a one-way ticket to stardom in Runeterra, at the cost of constant matches.
"Stardom, huh?" Shadow pondered as he waited. "Nah, that is one thing to avoid. Just makes jobs like mine harder."
After a while, Lee Sin got up from his spot at the pond and moved to where Shadow was waiting.
"Hello, old friend, have not seen you in many a year."
"I've been busy."
"Oh, hiring yourself out?"
"Well, yah. I do a guard duty here, an assassination there. You know, nothing much." Lee sighed at Shadow's brevity. Lee had never approved of killing, much like their old master.
"Let me welcome you inside." Shadow followed Lee Sin as he headed towards the temple building.
"I saw one of your League matches the other day, Lee."
"Oh, and what did you think?"
"You did alright. You guys lost though, Nasus snuck around and destroyed your nexus."
"Ah, that one. Yes, we could have done better. Ezreal, for one example, tends to treat matches like games." Shadow sensed some uncharacteristic ill will in Lee's voice.
"I take it you and Ezreal aren't on the best terms."
"We are fine, I just wish he would spend less time attempting to flirt with his partner and more time paying attention to the match."
"Why don't you put him with Taric or Braum?"
"Trust me, that wouldn't work." Shadow laughed at that one. Ezreal's adventurous side was well known.
As they entered the temple, Shadow tried to suppress the nostalgia welling up. Every thing was so similar. Every vase, statue, and icon was the same: even his master's empty flowerpots on one of the windowsills.
"Hard to return, isn't it?"
Shadow turned his head away from Lee without thinking. Of course Lee wouldn't see the tears welling up in Shadow's eyes. He just knew. If the master had been Shadow's surrogate father, Lee Sin was his annoyingly wise older brother.
"I'm fine," Shadow said, blinking until the annoying tears went away. "Now, what have you got for me? Your message said something about a job?"
"Keeping your mind on business, as always, I see."
"Well, a man's gotta' eat."
"Yes, but I don't have a cent in this world, and I eat just fine."
"We weren't all made to be monks, Lee, now tell me about this job." They stopped outside one of the normally unused guest rooms. There was a light inside.
"As you know, we monks here try our best to help anyone who requests it of us." Shadow nodded, his master had taught him that as well, albeit with less success.
"Well, you see, Shadow, one of my fellow League champions made a request for information from me some time ago, and I have finally been able to help her. However, I am afraid that she now requires your assistance."
"Why mine?" League champions were not clientele Shadow usually got.
"She'll tell more." He knocked on the door. A soft but serious voice answered.
"Come in." The voice was not one you heard often: pretty, yes, high also, but with the seriousness of one who has been through the Shadow Isles and back.
"Shadow Arc," Lee said as he let me into the room, "meet Riven, the Exile."
Shadow had seen Riven in screened matches before, but seeing her in person was different. The change was in her eyes. You couldn't see them very well on a Match Viewing Screen, but here Shadow got a clear look.
He once again found himself thinking of the Shadow Isles (he had always liked thinking of it has "his" isle, though he had thankfully never visited). Her eyes were the color of amber, and would be beautiful but for one fact.
They looked haunted.
Sitting down for tea with two League of Legends champions is not an every day activity for your average Runeterran.
Shadow was slightly uncomfortable. They had been sitting here for ten minutes now, and neither Riven nor Lee Sin had decided to tell him what his job was. Or what he was getting paid.
Never forget the payment. Rule numero uno is Shadow's mind.
"Listen, Riven, not to be rude, but I know your backstory. Most people do, you're sorta' a public figure."
"I am sorry. I did not mean to carry on. I simply believed you should know my reasoning." Her face was serious. Whatever this job was, Shadow was anxious to find out.
"So, what IS the job you are hiring me for, and why are you hiring ME? I mean, after all, League champions can usually take care of themselves."
"You see, Shadow," Lee Sin answered for her, "Riven has been searching some time for redemption for her actions and for those of Noxus."
"And she needs my help whyyyyyyy?" Shadow figured they needed some small hints to get on with the story.
Riven answered for herself this time.
"Because, Shadow Arc, I have found hints of an ancient artifact. Not only could it restore areas that have been destroyed by that horrifying Noxian campaign years ago…" Riven took a deep breath, pushing her white hair back. "It could end war forever."
"But wasn't that the whole point of the League? So its like: League of Legends, in a box!" Lee frowned at Shadow's comment.
"Show some reverence, Shadow. Even you must take some things seriously."
"Alright, alright. Anyways, that's all I really needed to know. Just making sure of the value this job holds, I meant no offense, Riven."
"I will not hold it against you," Riven replied, "but I will get to the point now. This item of interest is in an unknown location. There are various markers, however, that will lead us to it, the first of which Lee Sin found for me."
"So…it's a treasure hunt?"
"Yes, but it could very well venture over all of Runeterra." Riven had almost no expression on her face as she explained this to him. She was impossible for Shadow to read.
"And Lee, you recommended me why?"
"Because she needs a guide. Someone who has ventured all over the world and who would be willing to sacrifice their own time. Also, someone trustworthy."
Shadow argued for the sake of it, but he had already decided to take the job. Whatever this strange woman was searching for, it could very well change the world. His master had brought him up too well to just write this off.
Or perhaps being in his old home was making Shadow sentimental. Either, way he had decided.
"And I am what you think of for "trustworthy," huh?" Lee Sin smiled at this. Despite the huge gap that had grown between the two, they still trusted each other. Well, as much as one can trust one's brother.
"Alright, well I guess that would be me then. I'm the only idiot who has explored that far and still doesn't have the credentials to be a champion."
"You will be my guide, then?" Riven earnestly leaned forward, excited for just a moment. She was almost cute like that.
"Yup, I take the job. Just one matter left." Riven looked quizzically at him, unsure of what they hadn't covered.
"What am I getting paid?"
Lee immediately threw one of his trademark Resonance Strikes into Shadow's face.