Recap from Chapter 4
Irelia was momentarily confused by what had happened, but quickly snapped back into reality. Irelia ran up and quickly dispatched three mercenaries that were close by while they stood there stunned. With all of the mercenaries around Irelia gone, she looked around for Iroh and Arvile. As she looked over towards Iroh, she saw him defending himself against four attackers and when she glanced over towards Arvile he was dealing with the same amount. Irelia looked back and forth between the two, unsure what to do.
Irelia cursed to herself internally, I'm sorry,she thought as she rushed towards the battle closest to her.
Irelia charged her way over to the closest battle. She stabbed the nearest mercenary in the back as she ran up behind them. She could hear the air escaping his lungs as she put her weight into the attack. As she heard the noise a chill shot up her spine. Irelia took her blade out, the body of the soldier collapsing in front of her as she did so. While this happened she continued with her momentum as she turned and stabbed the mercenary next to her in the stomach as he turned to look at his ally. While this was happening the mercenary next to Irelia turned towards her with a look of shock on his face as his ally fell only a few feet away from him. The other one turning his head, momentarily taking his focus off of the Iroh in front of him.
Got you, Irelia thought.
Irelia watched while Iroh used his sword to disarm the mercenary in front of him, and then followed up by stabbing the sword deep into his stomach. Irelia saw the mercenary's expression change from one of shock to pure horror. She didn't even have a chance to try and engage the last mercenary as she saw him make a break for the forest as fast as he could. Irelia debated whether she should try and catch him or not, but decided against it, figuring that tending to her allies was more important.
Irelia walked over to Iroh and asked, "Are you alright?"
"I've been better, lass, but I'll live."
Irelia let out a sigh of relief that she didn't even realize she was holding.
After learning that Iroh was alright, she turned to go help Arvile. However, she saw that the mysterious warrior who had helped her earlier was aiding Arvile with the mercenaries around him. Irelia only caught a glimpse of the end of the fight. A mercenary had tried to block an attack from the hooded warrior, but with all of the momentum and strength the hooded warrior put behind her attack she broke through his defenses and slashed him deeply across the chest.
As Irelia surveyed the area all she saw among the darkness was a mess of death and destruction. There wasn't much left of the little campsite they had set up, but as the four of them walked towards the fire in the center it didn't appear that anyone was wounded. Once everyone had got into the light of the campfire Irelia could see that exhaustion was clearly etched onto Iroh's and Arvile's faces, and with how tired Irelia felt she was sure that her face probably wasn't any different.
"Are you both alright?" Irelia asked
"Of course, it'll take more than a few mercenaries to take me out!" Arvile's normally confident voice was laced with exhaustion.
"And what about you lass, what's your name?" Iroh asked the hooded stranger.
The hooded stranger ignored the question, instead asking "Who are you? Were you the soldiers sent by Karma?"
Irelia winced at the stranger's rudeness. Iroh's not going to stand for that.
"I appreciate the help that you gave us lass, but the least you could do is tell us your name. As you can see we're not exactly having the greatest night tonight, so a little faith on your part would be appreciated!"
The stranger huffed, "Fine. My name is Riven, now are you the ones that were sent by Karma?"
"If you are the ex-Noxian commander Riven, then yes we are; and judging by that sword of yours," Iroh assumed as he motioned towards Riven's broken great sword, "I'd say that is a pretty safe bet."
"So Riven, how did you know where to find us?" Irelia asked curtly.
A tinge of annoyance crossed Riven's face at Irelia's tone, but she otherwise responded normally. "I saw the campfire while I was in town, and by the looks of it so did every single mercenary in this area. I thought we were supposed to meet in town? You guys should have known that this area was too dangerous to camp out in."
"We sent our scout ahead to go meet you. Didn't you see her on the way here?" Irelia questioned.
A bit of surprise showed up on Riven's face, "No. I didn't see anyone on the way here."
Worry crossed everyone's face. Arvile was the first one to question Sumona's disappearance. "Wait, so then where is Sum-"
Arvile stopped mid-sentence. As Irelia looked over to see why, horror crossed her face as she noticed an arrow protruding from his chest.
Iroh ran up to him, catching him before he fell and gently laid him on the ground as he inspected the wound.
Irelia and Riven both drew their swords out of habit and positioned themselves defensively around Iroh. Waiting for some sort of answer to come as to what had just happened, but they were only met with silence.
The next few minutes were a blur to Irelia as Iroh barked orders at both her and Riven to fetch him various supplies.
After a while Iroh stopped asking for supplies, Irelia wasn't sure if she should be relieved or worried at this.
"I-is he going to be alright?" Irelia asked.
Iroh's only response was a slow shake of his as he got up to wash his hands off with some leftover water from their canteens.
"No lass, he's gone." Iroh spoke solemnly.
As Irelia gazed blankly into the distance, she felt a hand on her shoulder. When she looked up to see who it was, she was surprised to see that it was Riven.
"I'm sorry for your loss." Riven expressed, her eye's never quite meeting Irelia's.
"We didn't even know each other that well, this was our first mission together." Irelia voiced as a tear fell down her face, "he was always acting so unprofessional. Kind of like a child playing soldier."
"You tried your best, no one could have foreseen that arrow coming. We thought we got all of the mercenaries." Riven declared, trying to sound comforting.
"No, that isn't true. One got away earlier, I didn't think anything of it at the time." Irelia whispered, admonishing herself.
"Still, we were in the middle of battle. You couldn't abandon your allies just to chase after one mercenary."
"I should have chased after him to make sure!"
"You were more concerned with the random Noxian soldier among your comrades. Besides, it isn't like we saw any of them with bows."
"Riven's right lass, we're all soldiers. We knew the risks going into this." At this Iroh started to pack up their remaining supplies. "Now lassies, I'm not about to stand around here waiting to get ambushed again, nor am I going to leave a fallen soldier out here. We need to get his body to town so he can be returned to his family, and report what has happened to the council."
"What should we do about the rest of the mercenaries?"
"One soldier is dead, and another is missing. We're talented, but there's only three of us. We need to regroup and figure out our next course of action." As Iroh proclaimed this he started to use some sticks and cloth to create a makeshift stretcher for Arvile's body.
Iroh continued, "I need one of you to help me carry Arvile's body into town, and the other has to carry the rest of our supplies."
Riven was the first to speak up, "I'll carry the supplies for you, you should be the one to help carry your comrade's body into town."
"Thank you."
Later that night
Irelia, Iroh, and Riven had given Arvile's body over to the proper authorities to have him taken back to his family. Right now they were in the local inn figuring out what their next course of action should be.
"We should keep going with the operation." Irelia asserted.
"I would love to lass, but we just don't have the forces to do it right now."
"If we give up now then the losses that we have had would have been for nothing! We can't just leave these people to be terrorized by the mercenaries, we have to do something."
"Like what lass? We don't even know where all of the camps are. If we just go wandering around the mountains aimlessly looking for them we are going to get ourselves killed."
Irelia sat back, brooding on what they should do next.
"What about Sumona? We still don't even know where she is." Iroh continued.
Riven sighed before speaking up, "I could help you search for her, I know the surrounding area pretty well."
"You two go ahead and do that lassies. I'm going to arrange our transportation home." As Iroh conveyed this he got up and made his way towards the inn's exit.
"We need to spread out and search as much of the area as we can." Riven explained.
"We already covered half of this area when we traveled towards the town." Irelia responded.
"True, which is why we need to spread out more so we can cover more ground. We know that she probably wasn't along the road, otherwise we would have seen something already."
"Alright, you search the eastern path and I'll search the western path. Make sure to stay close by, I would prefer to not get ambushed again tonight."
With that Riven and Irelia started searching their respective paths for any clue as to what could have happened to Sumona. After a half hour of searching without any success, Irelia finally found a clue when she saw some disturbed foliage away from the path.
Irelia called out to Riven as she walked over to investigate, "Riven! I think I fou—"
Irelia's voice cut out as she saw tattered clothing on the ground and among the foliage and a large pool of blood.
No….not again Irelia thought to herself as she searched the surrounding area for signs of a body. The scene eerily reminded her of when her brother Zelos had went missing, as images of the past flashed through her mind.
A few years earlier
Irelia was lying in the infirmary. Even though she insisted that she was alright, the doctors made her stay just to make sure that she was uninjured after the battle at the Placidium.
"Lass, do you have a moment?" Iroh asked, as he entered the room in full military uniform. He was an old friend of Irelia's father, and had helped convince the Ionian military to let her and Zelos fight against Noxus when they had invaded a few weeks prior.
"Of course, what do I owe for the pleasure of this visit General Iroh?" Irelia responded.
Iroh took his hat off and held it over his chest, twisting it in his hands.
Irelia noted his unusual behavior, "is something wrong? It isn't like you to be nervous."
"Lass, it is about Zelos. I'm afraid that he's missing. There are search parties out looking for him as we speak."
"Wh-what do you mean? Wasn't he sent to get aid from Demacia?" Irelia stammered.
"Aye, and we contacted Demacia and no one has reported him showing up."
"B-but maybe he just hasn't arrived yet. Demacia's a whole ocean and continent away, it would take him awhile to get there!"
"We questioned people at every dock, no one fitting his description was reported leaving the island."
Six weeks later
Irelia's work was disturbed when she heard a knock on her front door. As she opened the door, she was greeted by Iroh and an Ionian soldier dressed in full military uniform carrying a folded Ionian flag with a military hat on top of it. As soon as Irelia saw it her eye's filled up with tears. She knew what the soldiers were going to say before they even spoke.
"I'm sorry Ms. Lito, but the search for Zelos has been called off. After searching for him for weeks and after contacting Demacia, the state has decided to declare him KIA. I'm sorry for your loss." The soldier stated.
Iroh walked up to Irelia and supported her as she began to crumble to the ground, trying his best to comfort her as much as possible.
Riven ran over to Irelia when she heard her call out. Irelia's voice cutting out so suddenly gave her a sinking feeling. Things were already going badly for the mission, Riven wasn't sure if the Ionian government would still honor their agreement after the loss of at least two of the soldiers sent to escort her.
"Are you alright!? I thought you were attacked when your voice cut out like that. Did you find any…" Riven's voice trailed off as she got next Irelia and saw the cloth and pool of blood gleaming in the moonlight.
That's a lot of blood, no one could survive that much blood loss, Riven thought to herself.
Riven finally looked away from the blood and up at Irelia. She was planning on having her help search for a body to confirm who it was. When she saw the distant look on Irelia's face that plan quickly melted away.
She's completely out of it, Riven thought to herself.
Riven recognized the look from personal experience. She decided that she didn't know how Irelia would react if she tried to snap her out of it. Instead, Riven led her over to boulder near the road and sat her down upon it. Afterwards, she went back over to the torn up foliage and looked around for any signs to confirm the source of the blood. After searching the entire surrounding area for what felt like forever and finding nothing, she decided to gather up the cloth and return to Irelia so they could go back to the village.
A lone figure walks into a pitch black cave carrying a torch. The torch does little to illuminate the cave, but instead casts an eerie shadow. Suddenly the shadow jumps off the wall and manifests itself into a human form in front of the lone figure.
"How was the road trip?" The shadow asked.
"Almost everything went according to the plan, my liege. They fought off the first band, but unfortunately I was only able to take out one of the marks."
"Tell me that you at least got the Noxian or the Will of the Blades? Or did you just go for the easiest kill?" The shadow questioned, his voice tinged with annoyance.
"B-But my liege, I went with the only one that I could. The others were too on guard."
At this the shadow moved forward towards the figure and stood over them menacingly.
"I see how it is, I give you a job, it gets a little hard, and so you do the bare minimum regardless of what I ACTUALLY NEED YOU TO DO!"
The figure stumbles back in terror at the shadow's rage.
"You need to make this up to me Sumona, I don't tolerate failures. My plan is going to be more difficult to unfold with the Noxian and Will of the Blades still alive."
The shadow then walked up to Sumona and placed its hand on her throat. Suddenly Sumona couldn't breathe as a chill overtook her throat, it felt like all the muscles in her throat had frozen in place.
In a whispered voice Sumona choked out, "L-l-lo-rd Z-ed….p-p-ple-as-e (gasp) F-f-f-or-g-g-ive M-m-m-e!"
The shadow released her throat, and she dropped to the ground gasping for air.
"You better not fail me again Sumona, otherwise we will be having words." The shadow chuckled to itself, "Well, at least I will have words."
With that the shadow walked away from Sumona. As she looked up, she saw the shadow give a sarcastic wave without even looking back at her as it disappeared into the darkness.
What have I gotten myself into? Sumona thought to herself. Pulling herself upright she continued, Oh well, no turning back now. Better to be the winning side, then to go down with the ship.
A/N: Geez this was a long and hard chapter to write, I hope that it contained a surprise or two for everyone. Now that we have Riven, we are only a chapter or two away from the Harrowing! Aka Irelia and Syndra FINALLY meet.
Make sure to leave a review to tell me how you liked it, what I can improve upon, etc. If you have any questions you can ask in a review or send me a message, I will answer them if I can! If not, expect ambiguous answers, because most likely it is pivotal to the plot.
Also school starts back up in two weeks, I'm going to try and keep uploading on a weekly basis. If you don't see an update on Sunday, then don't freak out, I will try to have it up in a day or two.