Warm water washed away the tension in her muscles from the long journey back to the institute. She had been out in the fields for two days just for one petty case of black magic abuse. Vayne punched the shower walls frustrated at the restrictions set by the High Councilors.
Once out of the shower, Vayne put on a plain black shirt, matching pants and her usual dark blue leather boots. She walked over to the window in her bedroom and gave it a gentle push to open it. Darkness had, once again, fallen over Valoran. A light breeze blew in as the night hunter lifted herself onto the edge of the window sill. In one swift motion she flips onto the outstretched ledge that jutted out just above her room. There she sat listening to the sounds of the night in the cool night air. She hated to admit it, but down times like these at the Institute of War gave her an opportunity to relax and enjoy the night that she was so in tune with.
The faint sound of singing drifted out of the forest in front of her, peaking her interest. The song was soothing, but Vayne sensed a twinge of sadness in the singer's voice. Captivated, the night hunter gracefully lept off the ledge and silently landed on the soft grass below.
'Who would be singing at this time of night?'
Vayne snuck between the trees with ease, following the sound of the mysterious voice. As the song grew louder the forest grew brighter.
'There must be a clearing up ahead' thought Vayne. Careful not to alert the singer she darted back and forth amongst the shadows of the trees until she reached the edge of the clearing. She peered across what seemed like a small lake flooded with pale white moonlight.
In the center she noticed an angelic figure floating above the water. As her eyes adjusted to the light she saw that the singer wore a delicately embroidered white dress that waved around as if on a cushion of air. Enraptured, Vayne stared at the figure in awe. Ghostly white skin, white laced bra, jagged black wings darker than the night sky, silky purple hair… she paused
'Black wings?' snapping out of her trance Vayne's face blanched with horror. All this while she had been bewitched by the angel of darkness herself, Morgana! Out of shock Vayne carelessly took a step back. A fallen branch snapped under her weight. The crack echoes throughout the forest. Vayne and Morgana both froze. Images of the night a twisted witch tortured and slaughtered her family flies through Vayne's mind as Morgana slowly turns her head toward the night hunter, but instead of the maniacal smile of the malevolent witch she sees eyes of sorrow and tear streaks running down the fallen angel's face.
As Morgana came across Vayne her eyes widened with panic. Before Vayne could regain her senses Morgana dashed across the lake and disappears into the woods.
With the angel gone, Vayne's knees gave out from underneath her. Her heart still pounding from the close encounter and shock of her bewitching...or was it something else? something deeper?
This wasn't like her to dwell on such issues. Pushing the thought to the back of her mind, she tried to focus on moving her hands. Feeling her strength slowly returning to her, Vayne gripped onto a nearby tree and pulled herself up and slowly began to walk back.
'What was Morgana there for? That was so much out of her character.' thought Vayne. 'I probably saw something I should not have seen...'
The night hunter made her way back to her room, exhausted from the day's shock
'How had I not sensed her black magic?!' Vayne clenched her fists in frustration and with a furious grunt, punched her bedroom wall. A loud thud resonates through the room. Vayne flopped onto her bed, too tired to change and too tired to care about the pain pulsating from her hand. She needed sleep and time to collect her thoughts.
She was still too weak…
The thought lingered in her mind as she drifted into a deep sleep.
Her breath was short and quivering as the stench of blood seeped through the crack in the cupboard door that a young Vayne was hiding behind. A cackling laughter flooded in from the other side of the door. Peering through the crack, Vayne saw the mangled and headless corpse of the man she used to call "dad" laying in a puddle of his own blood, soaking the brilliant white carpet with a dark crimson.
A shill scream turned the young child's attention to the dark figure standing above the body. A woman dressed in a flowing black hooded robe had gripped a hand on her mother's head, picking her up off the ground. Blood trickled down the mother's face and neck as the witch's long black nails dug deeper into her flesh. A hallowed voice echoed sadistically above the muffled sound of her mother's painful protests.
"Come out little child."
Vayne, frozen with fear could only shiver in her cramped hideout staring out of the gap at the gruesome scene on the other side.
"You have to the count of 10 to come out, or I will do to mummy what I have already done to daddy!" the voice echoed again with a humorous tone.
"10" the countdown began.
"9" Vayne's little heart pounded loudly in her head as if urging her body to move.
"8" blood began trickling out of her mother's ears.
"7" her mother grunted in pain as she flailed around furiously, trying to escape the grasp.
The next few seconds felt like hours as the child could only watch the inevitable death of her mother right in front of her eyes. Her body was gripped with terror, but in her soul a dark flame of hatred now burned incinerating all other emotions from her being; hatred towards the twisted witch, her naïveté, the hemomage's black magic, and most of all her own weakness.
"0" the word seemed to echo forever as time seemed to slow down even further. Her mother gave one final bloodcurdling scream in agony as a crimson red blood streamed out of thousands of tiny cuts that riddled the woman's body.
Her body crumpled to the floor in a disturbing 'squelch' sound as the witch dropped the dried corpse in a puddle of the her mother's own blood.
"Oh! What a cruel child you are Shauna, letting your own mother die like that!" the evil mage sneered with mock horror. Rage seethed through Vayne's body welling up in the form of tears.
"I guess our game of hide and seek is over. Time to come OUT!"
The witch's hand pierced through the cupboard door sending wooden needles flying all over the child's tiny hideout. Before Vayne had time to react the witch grabbed the collar of the child's nightgown and roughly dragged her out, tearing the skirt of the gown to pieces as it catches on the jagged splinters of the broken door.
Lifted in the air, Vayne dangled in the hemomage's clasp, completely at her mercy. Slowly the accursed woman removed her hood revealing not the burn scarred face of the murderous witch, but that of Morgana the fallen angel!
Vayne jolted awake. Golden sunlight flooded the bedroom, while song birds chirpped excitedly at the arrival of a new day. The night hunter lay still in her bed drenched in cold sweat, mulling over the nightmare she just awoke from. Vayne shivered, remembering the images from her memories had shaken her to her core. Suddenly Morgana's face flashed across her mind. Vayne frowns as she remembered the witch reaching through the cupboard to grab her.
'If that actually happened, I wouldn't be alive right now.' she thought as she reached one hand towards the ceiling as if to block some imaginary light from shining on her face.
'and my parents' murderer was a hemomage, not pure black magic.' her eyebrows furrow at the the thought.
'The evil witch is still out there somewhere'
"Mother, Father… I will avenge you, even if it brings the world down with me" She thinks out loud, clenching her raised hand in to a firm fist.
Vayne rolled off the bed and headed toward the shower to escape from her sweat drenched clothes.
As she got out of the shower Vayne hears a light knock on the door. Quickly, she slipped on a gray shirt with crisscrossing silver streaks and a pair of black tights. Vayne peered through the peephole to see the golden armor of the battle Mistress Sivir.
As Vayne opened the door Sivit slams an arm into the door frame and leaned across it with her head relaxing on her hand. She gives Vayne a smirk.
"So I saw you come back pretty worn out last night. Hard assignment?" asked Sivir who started mindlessly twirling her long black hair around her fingers.
"Che! None of your business" Vayne spits in reply walking back toward the bedroom to put on her boots. The Battle Mistress raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"You sure? I'm always open for more assignments, it'll cost you though" Sivir chuckled peering around the room, hungry for clues to last night's event.
"I said NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!" Vayne responds more forcefully as she stormed out the room, pushing Sivir aside.
"Feisty this morning aren't we." mumbled Sivir as Vayne passed.
Vayne grumbled as she headed towards the mess hall. She hated nosy people. What she does was no business of anyone else.
Before she reached the mess hall a blue light began to envelop her, she was being called to the Rift.
"Hmph just what I needed," Vayne smirks "Time to hunt those who have fallen to darkness." The light brightens and in a final blinding flash she lands upon the Summoning platform on Summoner's Rift. Without as much of a glance at her teammates she drops a pile of gold on the shopkeeper's bar and snatch's up a red dagger emblem and some health potions and heads towards the bottom most of the she had passed the second turret outside of her base the Night Hunter slinked into the jungle and tumbled into a triangular patch of tall grass. She crouched down just on the far edge of the patch overlooking a river while she waited for minions to reach her lane. There had been too many things on her mind lately. She shook her head vigorously as if to shake off the burden on her mind.
'c'mon Vayne, it's time for Reckoning.' she thought to herself as she refocused her eyes and stared down into the darkness of the jungle across the river. Before she time to steel herself a voice echoed from behind,
"You forgot your silver bolt."
