Janna uttered a single, wistful sigh as the distance between herself and Demacia grew. A small distance, but a distance nonetheless. The wind mage was both saddened and thrilled by the prospect of travelling again. It was always hard to leave Demacia, but Janna had overstayed her welcome. Caught up in the politics and excitements of Demacia, an entire two weeks had passed. It was time to leave.
Janna looked back only once.
Two armor-clad gatekeepers were waving at her. When the pair realized she had turned back, their gesticulations grew more vigorous, obviously enthused. They stood on either side of Demacia's grand city entrance. One on the left, the other on the right. Usually, both would be carefully inspecting the carts and carriages that came through by the minute. Right now, however, they spared the time to watch her leave.
Their grins were visible and bright from within golden helms and their gold and blue plate shimmered in the sunlight. Proud of their duty as gatekeepers, these two were always very kind to her whenever she visited. With tension rising between Noxus and Demacia, more so than usual, Janna worried for their lives.
"Goodbye Lady Janna," one of the two guards cried out.
"Return soon!" Yelled the other.
"Farewell!" She answered.
Her voice was naturally soft, so she gathered the wind with a lazy sweep of her hand and sent her good-bye on a gentle gust. The guards nodded when the words reached them, and continued to wave. They were unsurprised at her use of wind magic. Afterall, Lux and Janna were fairly competitive when it came to their magical ability. They often dueled and made small, fun little competitions, so these two were somewhat aware of Janna's great magical talent. Most of Demacia probably was with the way news travelled around in the grand city. And a mage whose power was equal to that of the young Crownguard's was big news, indeed.
A sad smile touched Janna's lips as she thought of Lux's farewells. Saying goodbye was always hard. Entire month's usually passed before she and Lux saw one another again. However, both of them had unavoidable duties they couldn't afford to keep ignoring. Janna's duty, first and foremost, was cleaning up Zaun.
She sighed wistfully, thoughts roaming back to Demacia. It was the most beautiful, clean city she'd ever seen. Compared to it, Zaun was revolting: rotting with pollution and foul criminals. Janna would miss Lux, and her city, so much. It's citizens too. All Demacian's seemed to be law-abiding folk, brave and kind. One day, she hoped she could say the same of Zaun's citizens but she doubted it.
Guilt washed over her like cold water. This negativity regarding Zaun was peculiar, but uncontrollable. Janna just couldn't cheer herself up, couldn't lose herself in blind faith anymore. The thought of Zaun made Janna sick. How could it not after years of nothing changing? It left a bad taste in her mouth.
Jayce and Caitlyn claimed they supported her yet when it came down to it, Zaun was the same as it was at the beginning of her campaign. Jayce was hardly generous with his immense fortune, and Caitlyn was too focused on catching criminals than the actual well-being of the city. Sadness poured into Janna as she once again thought about the citizens of Zaun.
Some of them were evil. They deserved the conditions they lived in, for they thrived in the filth and corruption and continued to pollute Zaun themselves, but the rest? The children and teens who would never get a chance to be something or accomplish anything? They didn't deserve to grow up like that. Janna certainly hadn't.
Janna shook her head, scattering her thoughts. She forced a bright smile and swept her vivid blue gaze out towards the cobblestone road, stuffed full of noble's carriages and merchant's caravans. A handsome young coachman was apart from all the others, travelling the opposite way of the other vehicles. He was departing Demacia. Janna smiled. A little flirting and she would easily avoid sore feet.
Janna waved to the carriage driver, pulling a few gold bits from her coin purse and gave him a flirtatious look. He noticed her, and smiled cutely, dimpling adorably.
It was time to go home.
The first few days of the journey were relatively peaceful.
Janna and the very kind coachman, who introduced himself as Mikel Silverwheels, came across various little hamlets and villages in their travel, where many happy people resided. They offered their homes, meals, and kind words whenever the pair stopped to buy food or to take a break from travelling. Truth be told, Janna was avoiding home but what were a few days when she'd already been gone for weeks?
Janna didn't take any of the villagers up on their offers of respite, but the Demacian's kindness forced her thoughts to once again wander to Zaun and the stark differences between Demacia and that filthy place. Was it even possible for Zaun to become like this? A thriving community full of unselfish, hardworking people? It made her feel guilty but…Janna doubted it.
Even if she did succeed in helping Zaun with the aid of her friends from Piltover, nothing would truly change. The elites of Piltover would no doubt find a way to take over and "properly industrialize" the city, corrupting it in their own way and Janna would be helpless to stop it…
Mikel was charmed by her, and travelled at her side through these little villages. He was a chivalrous enough man, just out of boyhood and desperate to prove his masculinity, but she enjoyed his company well enough. Though his constant chatter was rather hard on the ears.
On their fourth night together, she decided they should stop for the night in one of the village's inns. Truth be told, Mikel's frequently roaming eyes were beginning to bother Janna in all the right ways, and she thought it time to do something about it. The handsome man was doing her a huge favor taking her all the way back to Zaun, and it had been far too long since she'd taken a man into her bed. A win-win situation all around. However, she was a high class woman; she wasn't the type to enjoy lovemaking in carriages or on the road, period. It wasn't her first choice, but a little Demacian inn would have to do.
Mikel realized her intent the moment she leaned into his arm, easing her scantily clad chest into the supple muscle as they descended from his carriage. "Are you sure this is ok?" He asked nervously, scratched the bottom of his naked jaw. Janna just smiled. He grinned sheepishly, all white teeth and dimples. "Sorry, I just don't…u-usually do this."
The smile dropped from Mikel's face when someone shouldered him as they passed. Multiple someone's. Three men shoved past them, dressed in similar Ionian styled outfits. All of them were well-dressed and cleanly shaven, and carried a variety of visible weapons on their body. Janna had no doubt they had more hidden in the folds of their clothing. They were very out of place in a Demacian hamlet.
Janna's interest was piqued. She ignored Mikel's angry cursing, and watched as they surrounded someone she couldn't see yet. Mikel's ranting trailed off as she drifted closer for a better look.
"I'm sure you have me mistaken for someone else," a husky, rather unattractive voice drawled. It was spoken lazily, as if the man speaking didn't care one way or another who they thought he was.
She gazed past the three men, and directly at the speaker. Her heart pounded strangely in her chest. The three other men were out of place here, but this fourth made them seem almost normal in comparison. He was the strangest man she'd ever seen. Strange in a way she couldn't quite describe properly. It wasn't just his clothes, which were not in the best condition, it was the way he carried himself. He looked like a man used to being by himself. Janna could relate.
His body wasn't even fully covered. A strap travelled down his naked chest, his upper body only covered by a high collared blue shawl. His lean muscles were on display, and she couldn't help but appreciate them, but her interest was soon stolen by the rest of him.
His hair was thick and dark, unruly, even tied up as it was. It looked wild, and she wondered instantly what it would feel like to run her fingers through it. Its windswept look was similar to her own light golden locks. His skin was a dark tan, a trait she'd noticed in most Ionians, but his eyes were even darker. Cold like stone, unfeeling and shutting everything out. Yet a glint of mischief lay within their dark depths.
Janna suspected that when he was a boy, his eyes had been warm and full of life. She wondered why they weren't anymore. Her attention shifted when he stepped into a more aggressive stance. His hand rested his on the hilt of a sheathed katana, hanging from his hip. His dark eyes and teeth glinted as he smiled dangerously.
It was about to get messy. The three Ionian's aggressive stances, and his, meant only one thing. People were going to die. Janna didn't want him to be one of them…. She had to help. Janna knew in her heart that she should turn away. She was not in the habit of interfering with stranger's business, especially not ones so dangerous looking or Ionians but she also couldn't let these three men attack someone without at least trying to stop it.
She glanced at Mikel. "Rent us a room please." She handed the young man a few gold pieces and watched him walk away reluctantly, before turning back to the strange wild-haired man and his three aggressors.
All four men glared at her as she approached.
"Stay back, please," one of the well-groomed Ionians warned, holding a dagger out towards her.
Janna smiled flirtatiously and they softened visibly. She was harmless in their eyes. Just a woman, and a scantily clad, pretty woman at that. As she drifted closer, the pungent and filthy scent of too much booze filled her nose. She wondered at the source and realized it was him. The wild haired swordsman. Disappointment filled her. He was a drunk? No doubt this fight was over some stolen drink. The booze smell wafting from the stranger was an even bigger hint that she should back away and let them handle this among themselves…Even so, she couldn't just turn her eyes and let three men harass a drunk.
"Whatever this drunkard did to you I will pay you for in turn." She said as a greeting. "My name is Janna, I don't like violence at all and would love to avoid it. So what, did he steal a drink? Destroy something?" The strange swordsman's cold, dark eyes burned into her as she moved closer, her pure white robes flowing around her. She pulled out her coin purse and waved it in front of the three Ionian's.
They didn't show a bit of interest. The windswept samurai glanced at her, expression annoyed. "Stay out of this, lady. This is none of your business," he grumbled. The way he said "lady" annoyed her. She placed a hand on his arm, noticing how warm his skin was.
"Even so, you are obviously outnumbered and very drunk. I can't leave you alone to face this, now can I?"
He stiffened when she lightly touched his arm in a comforting manner, and the hand on his sword's handle tightened. She scrunched her nose as he shifted, appalled by the sour scent streaming from him in almost visible waves. The disgust must have shown on her face because he grinned crookedly. Irritation rose in her chest, like fire. Unbidden. She ripped her hand away, and made a show of wiping nonexistent filth off on her clothes. She found a strange amusement in the aggravated look the swordsman gave her when he saw it.
But it was time to bring this confrontation to an end. She glared at the three Ionians. "Well, how much am I paying you?"
"Our business is with him." The Ionian with the knife in his hand stepped closer. He was obviously the leader, indicated by the strange marks on his clothes. His confident poise also gave it away. "Get in our way, and we'll cut you down too."
Anger flared inside her. "Aren't Ionians supposed to have honor? How is cornering a helpless, drunk man in a village outside of Ionia honorable? Not to mention the woman who came to his aid. You cannot simply kill people because you feel like it. Maybe that's how things work in Ionia, but things are very different here." For a second, the three men were stunned. Then, they glanced at each other, and all of them began to laugh.
"That so called helpless drunk is a monster, a murderer, a traitor. Any honor he deserved disappeared when he killed his brother with the very blade he's holding right now. So if I were you I'd step away, woman. You're on the wrong side." The leader stated matter-of-factly.
Janna gasped at his words and jerked away from the swordsman. His grin remained on his grizzled face, unchanging, but there was a flicker of feeling in his dark gaze. Hurt. Hurt about what had happened to him, hurt about his brother's death, hurt about her abandoning him so easily. Her heart clenched painfully and she closed her eyes and assessed the situation.
This was not her home but it was Lux's. She had to keep it clean, just like Zaun. Janna couldn't allow a man to be murdered in broad daylight and do nothing about it, even if he was what they accused him of. A traitor, a murderer. A kinkiller. She trembled at the possibility. For some reason, she didn't want to believe it… She touched the swordsman's arm. He was startled.
"You are clearly hunting him, so far from Ionia. You've chased him this far. You can wait and kill him outside of Demacia. You need to leave, troublemakers." Her words obviously angered them because the leader's face grew red and he shook his head.
"Don't preach at us," he spat. "We are bounty hunters. We do not live by a code. We just know that this man is a wanted man. A murderer of kin, the worst kind of murderer. So we will be returning to Ionia with his skull."
"I'm afraid I won't allow that," she smiled.
"You were warned," the leader snapped, and rushed towards her.
The wild-haired swordsman shoved her to the side, unsheathing the blade at his hip so fast it blurred. It met the leader's sword with a loud crash. They seriously had tried to kill her? And this strange man had saved her? She stared at his back, at his long, wild waves of hair.
Her blue eyes widened as she watched the stranger fight, her heart pounding in her chest. Even though there were three of them, they were hardly a challenge for the strange "Drunkard." Guilt filled her at the initial disgust and pity she'd had for him. He was not a man to be pitied. He was wild, untamed, like an animal. Like the wind. The sound of swords clashing filled the air, drawing a lot of unwanted attention. Townsfolk began to gather around and watched the battle in wonder. Mikel stood at the entrance of the inn, gazing out at her.
The sight of her friend shook Janna from her reverie. It was time she finished this. She called upon the winds, lifting herself into the air and floating swiftly towards the swordsman. He snarled when he noticed her presence. She shushed him, and placed her hands upon him, closing her eyes for a moment.
"What are you doing," he snarled, trying to shake her grip, "get off me, crazy woman, are you trying to get us both killed?"
Before he could say another word, light surged from Janna's eyes. The winds in the area built up into a mighty storm. She imbued his body with strength, sure that when he struck now it would not be so easy to parry. Janna stepped away now, and raised her hands into the air. The three hunters gazed around themselves in terror, as the winds built into a desperate frenzy.
The swordsman gazed at her in open wonder, his dark eyes wide.
She just gave him a smug smile. "Well, are you just going to stand there and gape like an idiot? Are you trying to get us both killed?" She mocked.
His face tightened with both annoyance and amusement. Then he simply nodded, and turned back towards the bounty hunters, who were recovering from their initial surprise. They wouldn't recover from what she did next. Janna sent a rush of twisters towards the group, and the trio screamed as they were lifted into the air.
She couldn't suppress her giggle. The swordsman again glanced at her in surprise, and grinned after a moment. Then his dark gaze turned back to the mini storm of her creation. He lifted his katana towards the storm, and the three enemies trapped within. He spoke some form of Ionian, and suddenly, he was one with the storm she had created.
His blade moved so fast she couldn't see it. It was a massacre, yet it was graceful…beautiful. Janna never knew she could consider violence to be anything but disgusting. Janna raised her hands once more and dispersed the storm as the swordsman leapt from the tempest with ease, and rested his blood soaked blade upon his shoulder.
He was wild eyed and a satisfied grin was stretched across his weathered face. Then his eyes found her, and they both simply gazed at each other with immense curiosity.
The sound of three bodies hitting the earth reached her ears. She turned her sharp blue gaze towards the source. Three carcasses. Each with deep, bloody gashes on them. He had killed them with such ease, it was terrifying in a way.
"How did you enter my winds like you did? Are you also a wind mage?" Janna asked, hopeful. She had never met another master of wind. Perhaps he could teach her some things, and vice versa.
He smirked, and pulled a rag from his pocket, cleaning his swords dripping blade with it. "I'm no mage, that's for sure... Let's just say I have a way with the wind, and leave it at that," he said after a pause, his crooked grin still on his striking face.
"Hey, watch out!" Mikel's voice shouted from the entrance of the inn, along with the shocked gasps of the many other onlookers. Janna turned her eyes just in time to see some form of dagger fly through the air. She attempted to catch it with her winds, but it was too late. The blade slammed into the swordsman's abdomen, burying itself deep.
He glanced at it, as if the dagger embedded in his skin was a mere insect.
One of the three corpses, apparently not so corpse-like after-all, coughed horrendously. "Traitor," the Ionian bounty hunter yelled, before hacking up deep red spurts of blood, and going silent. For good this time.
Janna hurried to the swordsman's side, worried. She helped ease the blade from his skin, and he stumbled backwards into the wall of the inn. His eyes were rolling in their sockets and he couldn't stay on his feet. The blade was coated with more than blood, something else slick and slimy. She realized, when he sunk to his knees, that it was poison. And a potent one.
She grabbed Mikel by the shoulder. "Tell the innkeeper to get a bed ready, along with some clothes and a water basin!"
"What about our room," he whined.
"Not now, Mikel. I know how to heal. I have to do this. Now go!"
Mikel glanced suspiciously at the swordsman, who was barely conscious and mumbling nonsense as the poison seeped into his veins. Then the carriage-man turned his back and hurried back into the inn. Janna glanced at some of the other onlookers.
"One of you, please help me carry him?" She asked them kindly. There were some scattered murmurs. The strange, wild man groaned audibly. Pained. The group of onlookers raised their hands and shook their heads, backing away. A few scattered.
Anger surged through her. "None of you will help?" She asked, her disgust evident in her tone. Silence.
There were a few murmurs. Brother killer, and traitor, were just a few of the words she heard whispered.
The swordsman gasped and pressed against her, reaching for her. He lay his sweaty forehead on her, sighing with relief when it touched her cold skin. "Hurts…" he mumbled, gazing up at her with eyes that were not the eyes of a killer, or a traitor, but of an innocent, injured man who had saved her life only moments before. Her heart ached in her chest.
Janna bit the inside of her cheek to force back her anger. She wanted to demand the townspeople help, to accuse them of being cruel cowards…but now was not the time and it was not her place to judge them. Janna raised her hands in the air. Gently, she coaxed the winds towards his slumped body.
"Relax," she whispered gently. His response was a heavy groan, as sweat dripped down his forehead. She raised the little gust of winds, his body along with it, and carried the swordsman into the inn. The villagers, who seemed far less kind to her now, were at least decent enough to get out of the way.
Or perhaps they were just scared of him.