Riven walked home in a bit of a stupor. The Kontes had already been home for a few hours, and the celebration that had commenced after the announcement was very fantastical. It almost compared to her welcoming party… Almost. The ex-Noxian walked up the steps to her home, and turned to the sky, allowing, for just a moment, a smile to etch itself onto her face. The motion felt awkward, almost unnatural to her as she thought about how long it had been since such a feeling of joy came to her heart and mind.

Unfortunately, she could find none. As Riven looked to the sky, she crossed her arms in front of her chest, and mumbled to herself
"I… am free."
What did that mean? Was she free of her sentence? Free to return to Noxus? Free of… What?
The still young woman did not know, she had never lived a life 'free' before. She had always been under someone's thumb, someone to do as they were told, a tool for war and conquest, someone to fix Noxus' mistakes, but now what did she have?

Certainly she could not stay with the Kontes forever, after all, her work, while useful, would eventually become un-needed as they passed away. Then what would she do? She had no desire to 'settle down' as most would, start a stable job, she knew it would not suit her. Riven certainly did not want to raise children, feeling that if she decided to do so it would not end very well for them. Perhaps-

"Dyeda?"

Riven turned around, startled a bit, and her muscles tensed a moment before relaxing. She took a breath, and her shoulders slacked a bit,
"O'ma… You snuck up on me, I'm lucky you were not some assassin." Riven made a haphazard attempt at a joke, but humor was not exactly her strongest skill, and Shava frowned a bit.
"You've been out here for a while, I simply came to check to see if you were coming in."
"I see… I'll be in shortly O'ma. My apologies."
Shava nodded, and moved towards the now Ionian woman, smiling softly from her previous frown as she took Riven's cheeks into her hands, and cradled her face gently.
"You will now, and always, be a daughter to me. Wherever your path takes you from here on, you are your own person, not a pet of Noxus. You have redeemed yourself, do not ever let anybody take that from you."
Tears welled up slowly over her dim red eyes, and Riven glanced away for a brief moment from Shava's face. She didn't know if she could stand looking at the old woman for longer then that. Her chest seemed to tie itself into a knot, and she took a breath, slow, deliberate, before her lips parted gently.
"T-thank you, so much, for everything, O'ma."
For the first time in her life, Riven's voice crackled under the weight of her emotions, her throat seemed to constrict, as if a simple thank you was like lead coming from her lips.
Shava nodded, her warm smile seeming to brighten even the darkest nights in Ionia. The elderly woman turned, after gently stroking her would-be daughter's cheeks, and bid Riven goodnight.
The silver haired swordswoman stood in the wavering night light for a bit longer, and looked to the sky.

After a moment of pondering, and gathering herself, she moved to join the pair in slumber in the spare room they had. Entering the small ornate cottage, she observed and examined the wood, beautifully crafted by Asa's wood-weaving skills, and decorated with Shava's beautiful hand crafted trinkets and Ionian drapery, this place had been her unwavering home for the last 6 years. As she felt the magic in the wood, she sensed every nook and cranny of the tree that they shared their lives with. Every spell woven to coax it into the right shape, every bad winter and wonderful summer, Riven could feel it all.

Inside of her though, she questioned if this was truly what she wanted. If this life was her purpose. Especially now, she was free. Never before had she ever felt such a thing in her life, she always followed orders, go here, kill there, conquer this, burn that. Even now, the years she spent repenting her sins, she had followed the orders of her victims to the last letter, and then some.

Inside of her, there grew a seed of discontent.

Riven laid down for the night, gazing up at the night sky, and looked to the stars from her bed as she began to doze off, but even as her red eyes fluttered closed, New visions of something wonderful overtook her mind.

Cold, and unforgiving. A spire of earth reaching to the heavens themselves. Atop it, a brilliantly shimmering light like no other she had seen before, this light twisted down the peak, showing a path She watched as this path wound down like a river, creeping across the cold spire and down to its base, beautiful and green, then further out, a path etched into the earth, winding all along Runeterra, and across the sea, into Ionia. The golden light went all the way through, etching itself deep into the magical land, before finding its way to riven. It shone on her chest, and she looked down, watching the flow of energy pulse inside of her.

It felt warm, not unlike Shava's embrace, or Asa's kind words. It felt hot like the forges from Noxus, and burning like Singed's chemicals on her arms. It wrapped all of these feelings so tightly within her that she felt like she was going to explode. The sensations that swirled within her brought visions of fantastic and horrible things, both past and future. It was like a slideshow of the world, and in the end she saw one thing; The Void.
Horrific creatures sprung from rifts of unknown origin, and at the center of the horror and death that plagued over Runeterra one was at the center. An unknown man cloaked in void energy, with parasitic creatures crawling off of him and joining the horde as it spread across Runeterra.

Then, suddenly as it began, it vanished. Riven shook her head as the visions that raced through it slowly dissipated, she felt so empty once it left, so confused at what she had just seen, and she looked up the path. She could still see the glimmer, and began to run towards it.

"Wait!"

Each step she took seemed to take her further from the calling light. She kept running, determined, but her determination would not bring her what she desired. The light from the mountain disappeared after a flash, and all that was left was emptiness. Darkness, emptiness, and loneliness, as if a dear friend had just died in front of her very eyes. Riven fell to her knees, and dug at the earth under her fingers. She felt so frustrated, the ex-Noxian tried to piece together what it all meant, but she had no time. The dream was fading around her as a gentle voice called to her, and suddenly she was back in the real world, sitting up and reaching for her shattered blade. Her eyes were unfocused, blurry as she tried to quickly wipe the sleep from them.

Asa stood above her, hands on her shoulders and breathing a sigh of relief.

"Dyeda, you've been shouting in your dreams all morning… I'm sorry, you looked so pained, I had to wake you."

Riven was trembling slightly, even Asa could feel it, as cold sweat ran down her neck and back, she let go of the now tight grip she had on her sword handle, and shook her head. When she spoke next her words came with much effort, as silver hair veiled exhausted eyes. She had not had a dream like this in many years.

"O'fa… thank you… "

Asa slowly let go of Riven's shoulders, realizing his grip was a bit too tight, and thankful for the fact that she did not seem to notice. The soldier stayed in bed with her hands resting on her lap for some time as she collected herself, as Asa sat in a nearby chair to watch over her. He typically did this when she was having terrible dreams due to one night succumbing to the madness of her mind, she attempted to withdraw her monsterous sword and slay herself with it. With an equally monstrous effort, Asa managed to pry the thing from her fingers, albeit with cuts and bruises along the way dealt to his hands, but the old man was no push over, and he had not saved her life only for her to throw it away like a child.

So he sat with her, as he had hundreds of times before, quietly weaving a trinket for someone he knew, and relaxing in the chair.

Riven felt sore all over, as if her body had been pounded on by Lord Darius's axe all morning. Her head throbbed and felt like someone shoved fruit into her ears. The sensations coming over her were terrible but, she began to remember the dream she had, the mountain, and the terrible things that swallowed Runeterra whole. She leaned back, attempting to relax with the pounding headache and sore body she now had, and her eyes traveled along the wood of the home, delicate, ornate, eventually the weavings lead to Asa, and she watched him for a few moments in silence before posing a question to him.

"O'fa"
"Yes Dyeda?"
"I saw a mountain in my dream, it reached to the heavens like a grasping child… and… other things, terrible things I've never seen in my life before. Do you know of this mountain, O'fa? It whispered things I could not repeat, showed me things that were wonderous… and frightening."

Dreams are a powerful thing in Ionia, and not shied away or kept under lock and key like in other places. They are treated with power and meaning. Riven had sought counsel from Asa many times for her dreams, as the old man knew much she did not, and she felt comfortable doing it again for this.

Asa paused in his wood-weaving, a bit of a paleness coming to his face and he looked to his would-be daughter slowly.

"Targon. What you saw in your dreams, Dyeda, was Mt. Targon. And the Void."

Riven remembered faintly Mt. Targon, the name brought back a brief conversation with Darius, and how they spoke of the potential that lies in, or rather, ON the mountain. He spoke of things such as once they had the magical power they needed from Ionia's conquest, that they would assault and claim the slopes of the mountain. Riven put her hand over her chest, where the light once was in her mind, and it felt cold, empty.

"Has the mountain called to you, Dyeda…?"

She was hesitant to answer, and her eyes met with Asa's, there was a long silence between the two of them as the still young ex-Noxian woman tried to figure out for herself if what he asked was true or not. Riven rolled over in the small bed, gazing out the window as her thoughts swirled within her mind. She was free now, she could go where she liked, do as she pleased. If this mountain called to her for some purpose, perhaps it was best she followed it.

Asa sighed, and walked over to Riven's bed, he sat down on the floor, and she rolled over to look at him. His words were soft, and calm, but also stern like a father would be.

"Go, child. The mountain has spoke to you and I know better then most you cannot stop the call once the fire of the sun has been lit in your heart."

Riven sat up, and her eyes looked deeply into her would-be father's. The air in the room seemed to get tense as red clashed with deep brown, but it was Riven who finally broke the gaze. She looked away as she got up, and down at her sword. The journey would be long, she needed time to consider what it actually would do for her.

"I need time, O'fa. You will know by tomorrow morning if I intend to leave, I might not either way, you and shava are not getting any younger, and you'll need my help-"

"I will not let you use our sorry old bones as an excuse to not follow the path you desire, dyeda."
Shava interrupted, coming in from the fields as she wiped her hands off from the dirt with a cloth. The door shut behind her and she walked up to Riven, a bit of dirt and grime on her cheeks as she leaned in close, whispering softly to her daughter.

"Go. Follow the path this world has in store for you. Your home will always be here, waiting for you."

Riven's red eyes looked into the eyes of the old woman, and her world seemed to constrict. Everything she had never experienced before- a family, a home, peace, here it was staring her in the face, begging her to leave. It broke her heart on the inside, to finally have such a thing, such a place, only to have it dissolved away like the flesh of her company in Singed's poison. Her chest constricted, like someone was coiling their fingers around her heart. Her breath seemed to escape from her lungs like Darius himself had thrust the butt of his axe into her chest, and she laid her hands on Shava's.

"O'ma… No… Mother."
Riven's face hardened, and she retook herself with the utterance of those words.
"Will you have me return, if I do? Will you allow me to tend to your fields and partake in your dinners again?"

Shava shook her head with a sigh, and Asa stood up, looking rather offended.
"Daughter, if you expect anything else other than an open door and a warm bed, then you truly have not come to know us."

Riven bit her lip, and nodded sharply, her red eyes twinkling like rubies as fresh tears threatened to overflow from them. Shava smiled a warm, gentle smile, and Asa reached over to gently grip her arm, squeezing it tightly.

"I will go, then, to the mountain."