"The golden demon…has returned."
And the man drew his last breath, his eyes wide open, permanently, yet Vayne's expression remained indifferent towards the fresh body that lay in front of her. Perhaps she could have saved him if she were slightly quicker, but even preserving his life would not have been her priority.
She activated her nightseeker goggles, yet found no heat signatures lurking on the sides of the building. Only the servants of the mansion, fast asleep in their beds, unaware of the death of their master.
She sighed and turned her attention to the body behind her. She'd have to use whatever she had now.
She bent down for a closer look while changing the function on her goggles to "zoom".
Knife wound from behind, she observed, though it was thin as paper, most likely drenched with Xen Mo poison, considering the lack of blood all over the floor. The killer was quite clever to utilise a paralysing agent to stem blood flow - many never once thought about how a concentrated dose had far more dangerous uses than a simple anaesthetic. Most investigators would assume the victim had been pierced by a bullet, and it had been embedded inside the target. All in all, the murder was well executed and deceptive. Vayne felt a brief glow of admiration for the assassin, before it faded, thinking of the victim's last words.
If the golden demon had really returned, right when Ionia was at its worst in five hundred years, she couldn't help but feel a sense of pity for the tranquil nation.
Peace invites chaos. She shook her head.
She had only heard stories about the Demon. Rumour said it had cut a swath of death throughout the Zhyun province for four years before the Great Master Kusho apprehended and supposedly sent it back into the realm from whence it came from.
When she had first heard of it, her curiosity was piqued. She didn't believe the story entirely, given that it was from the word of a man who had taken at least ten shots of Rueflower wine that night - she chalked it up to a Void beast that was too tough to handle. The assumption that it was a man who could have done all this never crossed her mind.
Up until now.
It would have required an accuracy and precision of an expert assassin to be able to pierce the man's heart at this exact angle for the entire heart to be attacked by the poison, as well as a surgeon's expertise to apply the exact amount of poison such that the entire body would not immediately freeze and leave obvious clues. Unless Void beasts had grown in intelligence since Vayne last encountered them, no monster from that hellhole could have done this.
Others also said it could have been the work of an evil spirit, but Vayne figured those were their religious beliefs talking. She didn't believe in those in the slightest. Though Demacia was a place for freedom of worship, she never found any use in faith. She'd lost hers when…
Her hands shook slightly. Don't think about it, she warned herself.
She shut off the thought as soon as it came, finding it easier to do so after years of practice. Emotion could never take over in her line of work.
She stood up and brushed off the dust, frowning at the moonlight which stained her cloak. She didn't like light giving her position away. Darkness was her element, and she embraced it as much as she rejected its other. Some would think she was a vampire, but she didn't mind. If that was what it took for crowds to edge away from her, or even fear her, she was fine with it.
It was nearing day - that was her cue to leave, but before she could, the two doors at both ends of the room swung open, and from them poured soldiers wielding mechanised crossbows and guns.
She dropped to the ground the second she heard the doors open, scolding herself for not hearing them earlier. But there was no time for self-reprimanding. That was for later.
The window, her mind told her helpfully. The glass panels a sprint away were her best option of getting out of here.
"Halt!" A soldier at the front of the left door commanded, but Vayne was already halfway to her freedom when a new voice spoke smoothly, "Shauna Vayne."
She froze, and turned around. She knew that voice.
A man from the other door - not a soldier - stood proudly with both hands behind his back. His robes were emblazoned with gold linings and stitched from the finest silk - or so he'd told her. He still had his beard, and his black hair was still neatly combed back, even in a situation like this. Vayne had found it equally endearing and revolting.
"Marcus." She greeted, her heart rate not slowing down.
"Again, finding you with arrows aimed at your heart. We have to stop meeting like this."
Vayne ignored the comment. "What do you want?"
His smile faded. "You tell me. What are you doing in Lishon's palace?"
"Wondering why he's suddenly lying on the floor unmoving with a hole through his heart." She answered dryly.
Marcus laughed briefly, but that didn't ease the tension in the room, and neither did it retract the crossbows.
At this point, Vayne should have taken at least ten shots, one for every other person in the room, but her arms felt heavy with nostalgia
"Will you come with - me." he corrected himself from saying 'us', Vayne didn't miss that detail. "I'll explain everything."
She contemplated it. Her escape path was still an option. Those guards hadn't thought to block it. But if she took it, she might miss out on any valuable information she could wring out of him. She shrugged. "Fine."
Marcus spoke a order in Ionian, which Vayne roughly translated to "Lower your weapons". Then he stepped aside smartly and showed her the door. "Milady."
Vayne shouldered her crossbow and took his hand, and he led her out of the room. Part of her wanted to think the night could brighten up just slightly, meeting her old...friend, but there was a stirring feeling inside her that was alert and poised, like a coiled viper. And that feeling was called logic.
"Lishon was discovered to be corrupt," Marcus explained. They were seated in a carriage, with Marcus sitting across her. Vayne found it strange that he would arrive to a scene of a murder in a carriage, but figured she had more important information to glean than reasons for arriving in style.
"He was part of a greater sect of politicians under the name Xi. They've been gaining the support of the villages throughout Zhyun and Galrin using...unethical means."
"See? What do they do? Kill blind people?"
He looked amused at the remark. "X-I, not S-E-E, but I think the latter is fitting of their actions. The word means "to cleanse"."
Vayne stifled a sigh. Always the same sort of cult. The misled lunatics who believed the world, or whatever domain they held control in, was impure and should be cleaned from said 'impurities', usually - no, always, their opponents. She was growing tired of meeting demons, or cultists worshipping these demons, who had this mentality.
"At any rate," he continued, "they formed when Noxus took over the western villages. The Elders of those villages refused to take arms against them, instead settling for attempts to negotiate. The envoys they sent never made it back. The villagers secretly implored the help of the Elders from other places, and they made their choices well. The select group they asked for help were passive opponents of the Wuju and the Kinkou. In an act of desperation to rise to the top of the underground politics, they deployed mercenaries to break...him, out of Tuula Prison."
"Him? You mean…" Vayne looked at the manor that was slowly disappearing in the distance among the scattered dust by the horses. She didn't see anyone else but themselves. Was the county of Liri this empty? She recalled seeing many Ionian villagers running away from where she was going, even in the hours of dawn like now.
"Yes." Marcus replied darkly. "Since then, he's been taking out any opposition to Xi. The half of Ionia who know he's escaped are either running or joining Xi. The other half…" he paused. "Well, they'll learn soon enough, won't they?"
"So why was Lishon killed if they were on the same side?"
"He got out of control, turned against Xi and the people. Couldn't stand hiding in the shadows with all the assassinations he was executing for his employers , so about - what was it, three months ago? He started killing off some low levels. Lishon was the first Exemplar targeted."
Vayne sat in silence, storing all the new information, albeit some of it she was already aware of. "He's getting bolder, is he?"
Marcus gave only a slight nod. "It's a bittersweet time for the rest of us. We're still trying to track him down though, even if he is helping us dispose of Xi's men."
"So how'd you know he would be here?"
"He...gave a ticket to his show." From the folds of his robe, he produced a red bulbous object. Vayne then realised it was a rose, without the stalk or leaves. He held it gingerly in his hand, as though it were a wired Hexplosive. With his other hand's index, he tapped the stigma. The rose illuminated with a bloody glow and blossomed, revealing two characters in Ionian violently slashed into the centre.
"LI - SHON?" Vayne vaguely recognised the characters and their pronunciation. "That isn't how his name is written."
"It's not. He's funny that way." He touched the stigma again, folding up the rose, and kept it.
"So now that I told you my reasons for being here, why don't you tell me yours?" He sounded nonchalant, but Vayne sensed an undertone of danger, equivalent to how a Sercrox Demon spoke, with silvery tongues that hid the blood that lined their teeth.
Vayne opened her mouth to speak, but the carriage slowed down to a halt, and the wooden doors swung open, revealing a new figure draped in the same robes that adorned Marcus, yet seemed even more prestigious. He looked older, with greying hair and the beginnings of a beard. The outlines on his clothes were shimmering silver, far more illuminating. He had five rings stitched onto his right sleeve, a detail Vayne had never noticed. A quick glance to Marcus told her he had three, yet memory work could not produce the number that Lishon had.
Marcus stood up, as did Vayne. The man led her out of the carriage.
Vayne did a sweep of the area. She seemed to be at an entrance of a temple, which lay behind a courtyard of empty stone pathways and exotic foliage which gave some colour to the desaturated landscape, yet even the plants were in a depressed state. Their limply hanging leaves, like the arms of slaves, and wilting flowers gave sign to an unkempt garden. The morning sky was no better in providing any sort of warmth. The clouds gathering reminded Vayne more of smoke, if anything.
"Greetings, Shauna Vayne." He said, but not kindly. Vayne returned the salutation with mustered civility. Marcus gave a courteous bow. "Master Yuku."
"Ma'Kun." Yuku said shortly. "I will speak to her. You may leave."
"But-" Marcus began to say, but was cut short by his senior's piercing gaze. He seemed to relent - and to Vayne's surprise, unwillingly. He gave Vayne one last look of an emotion she couldn't decipher, and took his leave, trailed by two soldiers that had arrived with Yuku.
"I never knew security was this tight in Ionia." Vayne toned down the spite in her voice, but apparently not enough to level Yuku's raised eyebrows at the implication.
"I'm sure you can understand that our country is currently in a dire situation. These increases in security measures are only natural." He responded coolly, as he walked past the courtyard into the temple, which Vayne followed at an equal pace. She also noted that they were too flanked by two soldiers.
"In here." Yuku was standing at a door. One of the soldiers hurried forward and slid it open. Vayne, Yuku and the other soldier entered, while the first one stood guard, his silhouette visible on the translucent paper walls.
The room was simple. There was one short table with cushions on the floor for kneeling - Vayne remembered the Ionian traditions - and a lamp hanging in the centre of the ceiling.
While the guard stood by the side, Vayne and Yuku took their seats. The master looked comfortable with the position, but Vayne wasn't. She had yet to get used to the traditional seating position adopted by this country, and her tight bodysuit wasn't helpful either. She kept a straight face, hoping Yuku wouldn't notice.
"So, let's begin." Yuku placed his hands on the table with utmost calm. "I want to know your reasons for being present at the death of Exemplar Lishon."
Vayne shrugged. "He was dead. I was curious."
"What are your aims?"
"I bring killers to justice."
"In Ionia? Then would you want to single-handedly eliminate the Noxian threat that plagues our country, like hornets to a beehive? If you speak of those killers who stalk the night and murder the innocent, you will not find any here. Aside from the war we are currently in, we Ionians do not require your services."
"Then explain to me why Lishon was killed so suddenly."
"Noxian assassins. Is it not obvious?"
Vayne couldn't hold back a burst of humourless laughter. "With all due respect, Master Yuku. We both know no Noxian brute could execute an assassination like this. It was him, wasn't it?"
Yuku's face froze. "Who?"
"The Golden Demon." At those three words, the temperature of the room seemed to drop slightly, just to feel an unnerving chill that shook Yuku and the soldier. To his credit, the former regained his composure quickly. "Yes, we will admit it. Prisoner Khada Jhin is on the loose, and we are doing our best to capture him again, but efforts are proving to be insufficient."
"Then let me do your job." She answered shortly.
"You're suggesting a partnership?"
Her thoughts drifted to a certain Ionian general, but dismissed it with another laugh. "No, I work alone, so give me my space, and you won't find the bodies of your soldiers cropping up in cellars and houses."
"Then I'm afraid we cannot do that. After all, you are not Ionian; this is our land, and we will enforce our laws upon all who enter."
"You didn't enforce much laws against the Noxians." She retorted. "Last I checked, your Elders got themselves slaughtered trying to negotiate."
Yuku shot up in his seat, eyes blazing with intense fury, but Vayne remained calmly seated, unflinching. "It is not our fault it was those foolish men and not us that -" he abruptly shut himself.
"Us?" Vayne felt the tension in the room screech like an arrow would across the strings of her crossbow. She heard a rough movement of a spear being drawn behind the door.
Some pieces of a puzzle she was forming in her head clicked together. Things had just got a lot more interesting.
"I-" then Yuku made an almost unnoticeable flick of his head. A command.
She barreled to the side just as a five foot javelin tore through the paper door at where she was, impaling itself into the wooden floor. The other guard in the room drew his sword, guarding Yuku as he retreated out of the room in a quick but calm pace.
Vayne growled. With a flick of her wrist, she launched an arrow at Yuku. She heard a clanging of steel as the guard deflected it with apparent ease.
So they're actually trained, Vayne thought.
The second guard stepped into the room and tossed a handful of darts at Vayne. She kicked the table to block them and leapt between the two.
She knocked the first guard off balance with a sweeping kick and threw herself onto his falling body to launch into the air, whilst firing an arrow into the second guard's forehead, who collapsed dead.
Sprinting out the room, she fired another lethal one into the brain of the sprawled guard without looking back.
She heard footsteps, thanks to the hollow, planked floor. She gave chase, finding herself following the same path which had just led her into the room a few minutes ago.
Just as she rounded the corner to the exit, she heard the distinct whistle of arrows and saw a volley of them flying towards her. She threw herself to the side.
Lashing out with her wristbolt launcher loaded, she spun and shot, tearing through the archers - the last of Yuku's vanguard, and her last obstacle. She felt the adrenaline rush, the familiarity of her steps as she twirled around in a hurricane of death and silver bolts. She flawlessly dodged and weaved through the return fire, and every time an arrow flew past, just inches from her face, her grin only increased.
It was only lasting a few seconds, a glorious moment of skillful life-and-death combat. To her disappointment, she heard and saw the men around her crumple to the ground, dead. Still, she left one alive.
The Exemplar's face went pale as Vayne marched up to him. Catching a flash of silver, she used her launcher to trap the incoming dagger aimed at her face, then wrenching it from Yuku's hands and tossing it behind her.
"Tell me, who else is there?" She hissed. "Who else is part of your little group?"
"I'll die before I tell you anything!" Yuku yelped like a wounded dog.
"Let's test that." She launched a bolt into his knee. He screamed and stumbled to the ground.
"Is Marcus in this too?" She asked another question, finding herself wondering why she bothered to specify. "Answer me!" Her voice grew to a shout.
"There-there will only be the deserving, and he was never one of them." Was his strained reply. He edged away from her slowly.
Vayne detected signs of his impending death. A relaxing expression; weakening limbs, the lot. She must have hit one of his major arteries by mistake. Blood was already seeping into the stone bricks. He'd be dead soon, and Vayne doubted she could get anymore answers out of him.
"Farewell, Exemplar." She snarled, aiming her wristbolt at his cowardly face.
Ka-chunk.
Vayne was already walking away before the body hit the ground.