AN:
The next installment, revived and revamped.
"I am alone, now," she muttered, and realised that truly, she always had been. For she was not normal; she had always kept above her peers, literally and figuratively, aloof and powerful, ruling over them. She had always been a Sovereign at heart; commanding with power and force of will, and she realized she would always be alone and with that thought… The first indication of what was happening was when the birds suddenly flocked away all as one, hundreds of them, and then a groaning as the earth resisted and tore, before a resounding crack as the earth finally gave way, clods of dirt and grass flying every which way, and the temple rose above the ground on a Dark blanket. It flew as she did, slowly and with great menace, over the winding path which took her here ten years ago, and back to her village. It took an hour to get there, for Syndra did not want them to be alarmed or threatened, even though the only way they could have missed the ascension was if they were blind and deaf. The ponderous chunk of earth stopped a mile from the village, uphill, so as to make it harder to reach quickly though still well within distance for Syndra, the great shadow stopping halfway to the cluster of buildings. She swept down to the forest floor, was unsurprised to see guests waiting for her. The village Elder, now so old as to look like he might keel over at any moment, was there, along with three warriors; no doubt from the castle of Lord Rikmar. He was a Noxian turncoat, and had been described as both the runt of the litter and the alpha of the Noxian breed, depending on who was talking and who was listening. The Tyrant would have named him weak, the Justicar strong, but Syndra withheld her own judgement for now.
As she came lower the warriors became wary, to her sensitive eyes obviously drawing their magic ready for a fight, but the Elder simply smiled as if a wayward sheep had come home to the flock. She landed - as much as one who did not touch the floor could land, really- and smiled sweetly, with innocence only a young girl could muster, though the effect was mostly ruined by the Dark magic swirling around her in a vortex of restrained power. The fighters were yet more tense, and she simply shook her head. The three together would be unlikely to defeat her, though she was admittedly both out of practice and unsure of her real limits against actual, trained soldiers. She shrugged, slightly, and the warriors flinched. The Elder quickly stepped forwards and bowed deeply. Syndra hesitated for a moment, and then, overcome with memories of her childhood and emotion, truly dropped to the floor and bowed just as deeply. The Elder laughed, stopping as his spine cracked when he straightened. Syndra giggled, and immediately smothered it. She was not a child, not anymore, and Sovereigns did not giggle like children. The Elder spoke, and she took the time to examine the warriors. The leftmost was clearly Earth; broad and stout in both stance and build. The middle man was just as obviously Fire, thin and wispy and never still, shifting his weight side to side and twitching. Syndra could not at first tell what the rightmost was, but they were a woman with blonde hair peeking out from her hood.
She reached out and touched at her with tendrils of power, as gentle as possible, and recoiled as the Light inside of them lashed out and burned her soul. She flew back and up, interrupting the Elder, and could have sworn the small Light mage was shaking with restrained laughter. Syndra and the other two warriors were coiled, but the Light mage was relaxed now, and the Elder spoke up to her, telling her to come back down. She reigned in her power and noticed the other two mages looked to the woman for guidance. This time when she landed, it was in front of Earth. She bowed, and he warily bowed back. Before she could bow to Fire, he held out his hand in the Western form of greeting, and she took it. His handshake was rapid, over before she could tell it, as twitchy as the rest of him. She took her time sweeping over to the Light mage, examining her, and couldn't help but feel she had seen her before. When the woman pulled back her hood and revealed her face, Syndra knew why. She was the woman she had seen in her vision; the one who saved her, pulled her from despair, had stolen her heart. She was stunned in that moment, until she heard her speak, and to her it was as if the words were honey, and she missed them for the feelings they incited in her. She shook her head as the voice stopped, and politely inquired:
"Pardon?" The woman in front of her once again stifled laughter, and nodded her head in belayed greeting. Syndra was too distracted to feel insulted by the lack of respect, and simply nodded back, this time paying rapt attention as they spoke again.
"It is a pleasure to finally meet you. I have heard much, and seen more," pointedly glancing up at the floating island whose shade in which they were conversing, "and it is nice to put a face to the legend." Syndra did not miss the choice of words, and had to resist saying it is nice to put a face to the love of my dreams, and instead replied:
"You have me at a disadvantage, for I have no idea who you are. Or, for that matter, your gentlemen companions." The Light mage smiled and nodded again, sweeping her hand wide to gesture at Earth.
"Roland, foremost Sensei of Earth." His chiselled face twisted into a smile that at once looked grandfatherly and entirely absurd. Her hand circled round to point at Fire, who jumped just at the small gesture. She did not hide her laugh this time, tinkling and pleasantly shrill.
"Lem. Part of Rikmar's personal retinue." Syndra knew that the way she omitted the Lord's title meant that she enjoyed his favour, or was family. The strange thing was that her blonde hair was rare amongst both Noxians and Ionians, but was abundant in the Demacian territories. This intrigued her, but a sadness rose in her as she realised that she would likely never get her answers, nor even meet her again… At least, not without having to fight her. The woman turned sharply to her, as if sensing her sadness, and she could feel the Light within them swelling to suppress the emotion. The Dark inside of her hissed and lashed out, but Syndra grasped it by the tail and leashed it. The Light magic could not sink into her, could not help her, but it made Syndra feel better anyway. Then she narrowed her eyes and backed off, floating into the air once more. She was surprised to see the sadness in the mage's eyes, and turned to the Elder.
"Thank you for your time. I will come down to the castle in a week's time, to meet Rikmar, but until then you are dismissed." She and the Elder exchanged bows once again, and then he tottered off. Earth and Fire backed off, following some hidden cue from the Light mage, and only then did Syndra realize she hadn't gotten her name.
"If you are to be so insolent, might you tell me your name?" The Light mage giggled as if she had made a joke, and whereas Syndra felt it was childish to giggle, it fit perfectly for the bubbly woman.
"Luxanna. Charmed, I'm sure." Syndra had to resist saying you have no idea and raised an eyebrow.
"And your purpose here, after I have allowed you to leave?" The un-spoken words were obvious; who was she and how important was what she had to say that she would dare defy her order?
"Lord Rikmar was concerned about you and your wishes for the land, and sent me to parley. Seeing as how you are to go to the castle in a week and the journey there takes almost a full day by foot, I was hoping you would see fit to lend me a room?" Syndra had to concentrate hard to read her hidden meanings; the emphasis of Lord referred to her omission of it, the parley further reinforcing that she had the ear of Rikmar, and the fact that the soldiers had gotten here within the time it took her castle to despite the trip being a day long represented that they had great magic at their whim. She allowed herself to laugh then, for she felt that these veiled threats and underhanded comments meant nothing to her.
"Of course, though you could not ask me to house your companions. There would surely be a scandal!" Luxanna laughed along with her as if the joke she had made was the funniest thing she'd heard, and even though she knew it was fake Syndra devoured it and remembered it, held it dear.
"Why I would never have suggested such a thing. Sorry boys, but you'll have to go the long way home." The men nodded as if this was something they had discussed, and Syndra realized how out of her depth she was in these courtly affairs, that this woman was probably a trained diplomat, and that she could not just dominate her and get her to leave. As the two men trudged off, Syndra looked up at the island, glanced at Luxanna, and frowned.
"I rather fear there are no stairs… And I cannot lift you up there. I suppose it will have to come down to us." Luxanna was going to say something, probably that she could make her way up there herself, but by then the floating temple was already descending. Syndra sank her magic into the forest, exerting herself greatly to melt the trees it would have collapsed onto but avoiding the decay of any other living things. The island stopped as it started to grind into the earth, but then there was still a few dozen metres up to the lip. Syndra looked over to the Light mage, gesturing at the crust of dirt above them.
"Any ideas?" Luxanna did not reply, and suddenly produced a staff - tipped with gold, jarringly bright in the dark of the forest - from somewhere, flicking it at the rock face. A whip of Light lashed out and impacted about halfway up, dragging her to it like a winch. When she reached the spot, holding onto the wand like a rope, she did another gesture and shot back from the cliff face, then did the same grapple trick again to reach the top. Syndra met her there, clapping excitedly.
"My, how impressive! Though I imagine it required a significant effort, no?" Luxanna looked over as the implication sank in; Dark magic was easier, more useful, and of course by extension Syndra was far superior. The small woman simply smirked, as if that was enough to win the argument. And for Syndra, it just might have been, coming from her; that smile almost had her falling again as she felt dizzy. She was forcefully pulled back into reality when the soldier knocked on the door to the temple, long repaired from her arrival.
"Hello? Anyone home?" Once more, the hidden meaning filtered through to Syndra, that Luxanna had noticed Syndra's stunned expression and was mocking her. The doors unlocked and slammed open with a howl of wind, and magic carried her words across the distance between them.
"Please, Lux, make yourself at home. There are a plethora of uninhabited rooms, and I will be back shortly." Luxanna did not enter until Syndra had disappeared back over the lip as it rose back into the sky with a muffled rumbling of dirt. She looked up at the temple. Abandoned, but pristine. She did a lap around the building, and found Sensei's corpse. It was where she had last seen it, but the blood was dark and dry by now, and raised many questions in the Light mage, added another point to her report. It did not however change her options, so she entered and started to explore.
Syndra visited the nearby village, flying over the Elder on the way. The townsfolk were not sure whether to be scared or welcoming or angry, and many of those children over whom she had enjoyed dominion were now adults in their own right. She realized that much had changed, but it didn't affect her mission. She went to the general store, who sold those things that were imported from other towns and countries. Lamp oil, Western goods, and rope. She had to swoop down under the door to enter, and the man inside was very startled by the girl floating in horizontally, coming over and down to land in front of him. He froze as Syndra smiled. She was trying to seem confident and exude power, but it just made her seem shy and unsure when she smiled; she didn't have the malice to make him scared. She simply smiled for a long time, unsure as to how to broach the subject of purchase considering she had never bought anything in her life before… In fact, she didn't have any money, so how was she-
"Yes, miss? Looking to buy something?" ohgodwhatdoIdomaybe-
"Um yes, I need some rope. Rope ladder, actually." He raised an eyebrow, probably thinking this was some sort of prank. To be honest, she would have in his place, though she did also really need s-
"Well, I do stock some for people looking to go mining and logging and such. How much would you be looking to buy?" Syndra realized at this point she was mentally rambling and he had asked how much how tall was the crest of the island? She did some quick mental measurements and considered the easiest way to say 'really really really tall.'
"Tell me, did you have a hand in the construction of the Elder's Hall?" The man gave her a queer look, but nodded slowly.
"Built it with me son. A good man, him, married some nice las-"
"About eight of those.
He stuttered to a stop and absorbed the information she had given him.
"Eight… Eight what? Elder's Halls? Tall?" Syndra nodded once, simply, and his eyebrows would have shot off his head had they not been attached. Then he crossed his arms and snorted, waving at the door.
"Don't waste me time, girl, with your silly jokes. I have a business to run." A sudden flare of anger made her magic jump, and she stood in silence, staring, as she kept it tame. The man was starting to wonder who this strange girl was, coming in from nowhere, demanding such a strange- not to mention practically unfillable -order, and now was just staring at him, looking rather quite intimidating actually and he could swear he had seen her before…
"And don't you waste my time with prejudice and bleating. Do you have what I need or not?" The storekeep almost ran from her then. Her voice, he could have sworn it had echoed and multiplied, booming through his store and in his head and then he remembered her, this woman who stood in front of him, as the girl whom his son had been so terrified of when he was young and who had been escorted from the town when-
"O-Oh, yes, of course, my lady, um please just givemea-" And then he did flee into the back of the store, checking how much rope he had and whether he could order more because there was no way he had that much. Syndra, for her part, felt a little bad because she hadn't meant to scare him like that, for he did have a perfectly justified reason for his reply, but it had felt right, and the way he had fled was incredibly satisfying. In the meantime she needed to figure out how to make some money appear out of thin air-
Got it. Sensei had once shown her a teleportation cant, though many frowned down on it; not least because it was Dark magic, but also because it was incredibly easy and simple to perform and, the most damning thing, it required shadows. She raised her hand above the counter so that it cast a shadow there and focused hard on Sensei's office in her mind. The light was shining through the window so she closed the blind with a gesture, then remembered where he had placed his purse after giving them some to spend during a rare lunar festival celebrated in the village. He had placed it in a small wooden chest that he kept on his desk. She wasn't sure it would work, since she had only done it across a room before, but she believed her power was strong enough. She hoped it was too; if it wasn't it would teleport to somewhere in the forest between the temple and here, and then she would never find it again.
By the time she had finished that train of thought the chest was on the counter and the now-even-more-terrified shopkeeper had returned with a bound roll of rope ladders. He was staring at the lockbox under her hand, which had formed after shadows had crept along the floor and flocked to it like a magnet, while she chanted in some demonic language and her eyes glowed purple, floating just above the ground like she was possessed. She looked at him and smiled again, the shadows fleeing back across to the corners of the room and the purple in her eyes fading. She looked just like a girl again, he realised, and maybe that was the most dangerous thing about her. He set the rope atop the counter and unwound the twine holding it together, revealing it to be woven into a rope with slats of wood at regular intervals. He made sure not to touch the box whilst doing so.
"This is all I have, my lady. Maybe… Two Halls…? Sorry, but I don't have more." She frowned, and considered her options, during which the man hoped he wouldn't die suddenly.
"How quickly could you get the rest?" He wrinkled his nose, did a quick count on his fingers, and nodded.
"Well my lady, the ongoing civil war is making getting these sort of non-essential supplies very hard; these are left over from before the start, since, frankly, no one buys rope ladders." He chuckled in a way that showed he was scared, and Syndra wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad that he was, and then she realized that he'd said 'civil war' and filed that information away for later, for that could be a problem very quickly.
"It would take a very large sum of gold and a, uh, less... Reputable purveyor of goods to secure that much at this time. It would probably take about a week to arrange; a day for the message itself and about five for the delivery, since it'll be coming all the way from the coast. In fact, a day longer because they'd have to get through all the new checkpoints. So overall seven days… A week, my lady, and at no small cost." Syndra was largely ignorant to most of what he had said, but he had helpfully summarised his rambling and so she nodded simply, smiled slightly, and asked for an estimate of coin.
"This length of ladder here I wove myself so it didn't cost anything, but if I was to buy a properly crafted one, maybe a silver piece per couple metres, marked up thrice and twice again for acquisition and travel and-"
"Short answer, please." He nodded quickly, not really hearing her, his mouth still moving to make words and hands still counting figures and then he announced the answer.
"Roughly four golden lotus, my lady, to be on the safe side and make sure there is no funny business on the other end." He spoke with the matter-of-fact attitude of someone who was used to working with the seedier side of life, and she felt that if he was ripping her off it was only par for the course. She nodded and gestured a hand. The box flung open and a stream of silver flowed out, carried by shadowy ethereal hands, and stacked themselves perfectly onto the tabletop in equal towers. The man was agape; not only at such a simple and off-handed use of magic, but with the simple and off-handed use of such a massive quantity of money. It was more than he had earned in the last year! He reached out a hand slowly before a warning fired in his mind. This wealth came from someone who clearly used Dark magic, had directly been handled with the evil stuff… What if it was corrupted or cursed or tainted? He looked at her warily, considering voicing his concerns; greed warring with caution warring with fear, and then she smiled sweetly and it struck him that she hadn't really threatened him, his memory of her younger self lending him prejudice. He smiled back for the first time, and winced as hands grasped the ropes and sunk them into the shadows. She turned and floated back through his door and he reverently counted the coins, just so he could, and prised up a floorboard and put them there.
Luxanna was caught somewhere between awe and fear. She had at first thought the floating temple was a trick of some sort, maybe a pillar of rock hidden in the shadow beneath, but it was the shadows themselves that kept it aloft. The temple itself was sad and incredibly confusing to look through. Every room looked as if its owner could return any second, some still had candles burning in them, and there was one room in particular that was very clearly Syndra's. When she opened the door she could tell; the shadows inside crept up to the door and coated the doorway, so that light didn't pierce it. Out of interest, she lit a candle and entered. The second the flame crossed the threshold, a hiss swept through the room and spectral hands pinched the flame out. The darkness laughed at her, and then she wove a spell and a blazing star of luminescence was born, the shadows driven back with echoing howls. The corruption would be driven back, the evil of the Dark.
She looked around, and apart from the Dark magic saturating the area, it was a pretty normal teenage girl's room. She wasn't sure what they meant, about Syndra. She left the star there to cleanse the room and went wandering again, found Sensei's room just as the shadows crept forwards and stole the chest in a flurry of darkness, and would have banished them if she wasn't sure Syndra was the one doing it. The room is sparse, but well-loved, and she can understand some facet of Sensei's personality just by examining it. He was a simple man of little pleasures, wise beyond her imagination. She wondered how long he'd been alive, before Syndra murdered her. The thought twinged inside of her, made her heart ache, her shoulder slump. She wanted to believe Syndra was a good person, wanted to think that she wasn't the Dark avatar that others thought she was destined to become. Maybe she could help her along the right path. The thought brings a smile to her face again.