Well, this one took some time to come up with. Sorry to those I kept waiting and I hope everyone enjoys.
Chapter Four: Practice, Acquaintances, Childish Fun, and Plotting
"How was that?" Asked a slightly annoyed Syndra.
Xerath looked up from what he was reading and looked at what remained of the target. "Too much force." His eyes turned to something else. "You are improving, however." He added.
She smiled, some of the annoyance fading from her features. It was soon replaced by a frown when she looked at their guest. "Will you be stopping that sometime soon? It's difficult to restrain myself with all that insentient writing." She growled, glaring at him.
The figure, wearing the traditional robe of a high-ranking summoner of the League of Legends, looked up from his notepad at her before pausing from his righting. "As I have said before, I was sent to ensure you and Champion Xerath do not cause anymore harm to the Institution's grounds." He said, a warning in his eyes.
Syndra huffed at him, then turned her attention to her teacher. "And what do those reports say, anyway?" She asked.
The magus, placed the stack of papers down, stapled together into small packet, and placed his head in his hand. "I did not know at the time, but it seemed your lesson caused a bit of harm to the Rift." He said.
The summoner turned an angry glare on the champion. "A bit!? The Baron's been on a rampage, the dragon's been hiding somewhere, the jungle creatures have been fighting one another, and a fourth of the Rift was on fire until we manged to get the other champions to help us contain and put it out!" He let out, his face red with rage.
Xerath and Syndra looked to one another. A smile sat on her face and, she imaged, he was as well. "Baron? Wasn't that the large, purple worm?" She asked.
He nodded, then went back to reading the small packet. "I told you about the Baron and its blessing, but we did not see it. I made sure it, and the dragon, would not appear. There must have been some magical residue left there." He said, causally and calmly.
The summoner still appeared mad, but finally cooled. "The Institution has ordered I make sure the two of you do not cause harm to anything else." He said, then sat down, letting out an angry sigh.
Syndra turned her head to a small group near them. "Could I have another giant bug?" She asked.
"Voidling. They are called voidlings." Came the voice of Malzahar. Reluctantly, he did summon another voidling and ordered it to crawl onto a small platform in front of Syndra. "You do realize that this is a blatant misuse of my powers." He said.
Xerath shrugged his shoulders. "When the Void rips its way into the world, and we are overrun, then it will be a misuse. Until then, they are free moving targets." He said. His gaze turned to a second member. "How would you say she did in terms of accuracy?" He asked.
Ashe, the Frost Archer, had already made her judgement. "Her aim is nearly perfect, but I cannot tell for certain." She said. It would be strange if she said otherwise, considering the archer specialized in arrows, not orbs.
Truth be told, he had been eager to find Caitlyn for her expertise in hitting moving targets, rather than the patient Ashe who relied on still targets or predictable ones. The sheriff was busy with her duty of keeping Piltover under control, and could not be bothered to help him in this. Ahri would have been a better choice, as she too used an orb as her weapon, but was able to get her either. Though he was able to speak with her, it was during one of her mating rituals with another of the champions. Needless to say, both were not pleased with his intrusion. Was he like that when he was mortal? It was such a long time ago...
Shaking his head, he returned to the present. The voidling was already moving, jumping and climbing over the multi-layered platform. Syndra's control had improved, before she was destroying the platform, but now she was smashing the voidlings rather than doing what he asked. "Once more: stun it with one of your orbs without killing it. Hit it, knock it out, but do not apply too much force. It must be alive." He reminded her.
After rolling her eyes, pleased with her last performance, conjured an orb and sent it at the moving bug. She pulled back a second later, withdrawing the orb. The voidling stood stone still, looking frightened. Her smile turned wicked. "Don't count yourself lucky." She warned, letting her orb spin above her index finger.
Xerath glanced over. "Ashe?" He asked.
"She pulled back her orb just as it touched the voidling..." She said, her eyes wide in surprise. She had never seen anything like it.
"Stunned with fear does not count. It has to be knocked out or dazed." He said, turning the packet to the next page. "Summoner. Are we allowed to borrow one of the Fields of Justice?" He asked.
The summoner shook his head. "No. The Fields are off limits until the two of you can control yourselves!" He nearly yelled.
Xerath, unconcerned as he had been, looked up. "Power has a limit. Find it, and one can manipulate it. Failure to control the limit, the power, results can vary from harmless to cataclysmic." His blue and white eyes stared into the summoner's green eyes. "Cataclysmic events are what I am trying to prevent." He reminded, his tone deep and full of authority.
The summoner opened his mouth to speak, but the magus' stare left him speechless. He swallowed past a lump in his throat, mouth agape, and sat down. The matter settled, he went back to reading.
"I think I killed it again..." Syndra said, looking at the alien bug. "If it's legs are twitching, does that mean it's dying?" She asked, poking at the bug.
Ashe and Malzahar, watching, did not speak as Xerath looked over. The bug's legs twitched, but it was still alive. "It's alive. Take it from me." Tryndamere proclaimed. The barbarian king had insisted on coming along with Ashe, the two of them talking now and again about some political matters. None of them minded, but the group had grown to an impressive side. Hopefully no one else would join.
After a few seconds, the voidling began moving again, only it ran to Malzahar and hid behind the prophet. Xerath handed the summoner the packet. "I suppose that's all we'll be able to do on that. Remember that control, it will prove invaluable in a few days." He said, reminding her of the reason he was helping her.
Syndra nodded, glad to finally be done. As fun as it was to kill the insects, every time she killed one Xerath would zap her. She had been asked to wear something without sleeves and a short skirt. She wore such an outfit now, the colors a dark purple and blue. It was not until they started she realized why. The burns on her arms and legs were equivalent of swats from a ruler. He was her teacher, with his own teaching methods, but his method of punishments left her unwilling to indulge her masochistic desire to squash the large bugs.
The summoner had caught them with an escort of guards as they met in the Institution to begin the day's lesson. After their "arrest", and one of the guards was gotten out of the wall, the two had been informed of the damage done to the Summoner's Rift. Xerath was impressed, Syndra was annoyed, and the summoner, after failing to demonstrate threaten them, began following the two. The magus was not impressed with the damage, but the way the mage had tried to subdue them. Syndra's annoyance lay with her teacher taking all the fun out of the arrest by stopping her from throwing more guards, and the mage, through the walls. She did admit, however, that the "summoner spells" were interesting.
The first stop had been Malzahar's room, asking the prophet to provide the use of his voidlings are target practice. At first, he had been unwilling, but, after some private talk, he became willing, even pleased. After failing to find Caitlyn and walking in on Ahri, the four had run into Ashe and Tryndamere, both of whom agreed to help them without a cost.
Syndra, pleased with herself, lunged for Xerath, hugging his energy body to her physical body. Ashe blushed and looked away, Tryndamere scratched his head in confusion, Malzahar was busy trying to calm the voidling, and the summoner merely stared. Her head close to his, she whispered. "Can we go back to private training now? Just the two of us?" She asked.
Since yesterday, he had found that his body let out waves of energy that she found enjoyable. By the way her hair stood out, most would thing it similar to static, it was the power emanating from him. She could feel it in a way no one else could, almost draw it out. "In time. For now, this vulture is circling over our heads." He said, not even attempting to keep his voice down, unlike her.
The summoner coughed into his hand, clearly annoyed. "I can hear you, and I will have you know I am a high-ranking member of the Inst-"
"Institution of War sent to ensure we do not cause anymore harm and to keep tabs on us until the day of Syndra's final evaluation." Xerath and Syndra, both, spoke along with the summoner. "We know." He said, clearly annoyed after hearing the same speech for, what seemed to him, many times today. He turned to the three fellow champions. "Thank you for your times." He said.
The other three informed they were happy to help, rose, and began to leave.
Once they were gone, Syndra removed herself from her teacher, her hair settling down and she smoothed it out. "Do you think that will spread any rumors?" She asked, ignoring the summoner as she had for most of the day.
Xerath, rising to his full height minus the floating, turned his head in the direction of the Institution. "Not likely. Those three are not the types to spread rumors, true or false." He informed. His eyes then turned back to the tree and the platform that had been used for target practice. "Now is the time to clean up. After, I will show you to the League's dining hall." He added.
"Alright." She said, then turned to the tree. She enclosed the platform and the remains of dead voidlings, about twenty or so, in a large, dark orb. Slowly, she brought her arms together in a practiced motion, her hands making a circle at her stomach. As she brought her hands closer, closing the circle, the orb began to shrink, its round edges causing the platform to be crushed. Finally, it began as small as a soccer ball. Her head came up, followed by her arms spreading outward from one another, and the orb became a flat disk for just a moment before vanishing, a sharp crushing and alien sound echoing in the silence.
Syndra turned back to see what reaction the two of them would give her. Xerath appeared more interested than amazed, his hand resting on his chin. The summoner gave her the expression she had expected: one mixed with shock, awe, and a hint of fear. "Do you normally eat at the dining hall Teacher?" She asked, her tone had changed to a more pleasant one as apposed to her usual irritated and suspicious one.
"I do, but not for the same reason as you or others would. The need for physical nourishment has long since become a task rather than a daily habit." He informed. The times he did eat were rare, only in times of festivities or for formal meals. Snowdown and Hallow's End were two such rare occasions, either for people to see him sampling their dishes or so as to not make people feel uneasy. Whenever he did eat, the food was simply absorbed into his body, being broken down into energy within a matter of minutes. He did gain energy, yes, but he lost more through the actual process as he was not use to it. "Will you be coming as well, Summoner?" He asked.
The mage shook his head. "No. I must give a report to my superiors, but I will return within the hour or another will replace me." He said, then rose. He gave them both a hard, warning look. "Until next time." He said, then walked off.
When he was out of hear shot, Syndra wrapped her arms around his. "Finally alone, for a time." She said, her tone taking on a lustful and seductive tone.
Xerath nodded his head, watching the direction the summoners had left. His gaze then turned up, a faint sound going off. He held up the hand she was not clinging to and shook a finger at the sky, then unleashed a bolt of magic laced lightning. A cry of pain echoed in the background, as soft as the wind blowing. "Irritating mage." He muttered.
His attention was draw to his student, who was giggling like a little girl. Their eyes met and she smiled up at him. "You're going to have to stop this..." He said, his tone blank of any emotion.
She released him then. "It will take some time. You're like a drug I've become addicted to." She informed, then leaned her face to his. "I may need help." She added, a hint in her tone.
Xerath stared at her for a long moment. Finally, he spoke. "How long does it take you to travel in that floating home of yours? Say from here to Bilgewater?" He asked, his tone without emotion, even lacking that spark of curiosity and interest he once held.
Syndra frowned and took a few steps away from him. She was silently, carefully calculating whether or not to tell him. She at last did. "Two days, a little less if the weather is right. I could travel there on my own power within a day." She said. Her face turned to one of suspicious. "Why do you ask?" She asked.
He turned his head to look off in the direction of something she could not see, then his body went silence. "I believe a field trip would be best to further your training." He said, still looking out toward his intended destination.
Syndra looked where he did, trying to recall which direction it was. The sky did not tell her, it was noon and the sun was resting in the middle of the sky. "What good would going to Bilgewater do?" She asked. This was sounding very strange to her.
Xerath finally turned his head to her, his eyes regaining that spark that so captivated her. "Power derives itself from study, research, and emotion. You are studying with me, my research will aid you, but your emotions are scattered." He said, his tone back to normal. She began to object, but a raised hand silenced her. "You act like a child; throwing tantrums, responding well to praise, a desire to break things, and attachment to things you like. At Bilgewater, there live two another champions, Sarah Fortune, or Miss Fortune, and Graves. Both grew up without their parents and were forced to survive on their skills and minds alone. There two may be able to help you." He explained.
She was silent, glaring at him. She looked on the verge of throwing a tantrum, but managed to keep herself in check. She took a calming breath before speaking. "Alright. I will mature, something I am quite able to do on my own, from these tutors." She said.
Xerath began moving, gesturing for her to follow him. She did. "First you eat while I speak with the League. After, if they allow it, we will begin traveling tomorrow." He said.
Little did she know that Bilgewater was not their intended destination. Having grown up in a community that encouraged one's magical growth, he had never suffered oppression from those who thought they were too powerful. Syndra had come from the opposite environment. If there was any hope for her to become a champion, or a powerful sorceress, she would need to face the ghosts of her pass. There destination was to the northeast.
Whatever happened, however, happened. If things went well, she would grown and become a better person. If things went as he expected, she would mature. If things went bad or worse, he could lose his student in a fit of rage. Worse case, he'd be forced to kill her. This time, the Fields of Justice would not return her life...
Typical teacher, preparing a test without telling his student.