We're going back to the darkest hours
Where our kind has confirmed

We are the masters of sin and slaughter

Six

Riven had not enjoyed a bath as much as she did then in quite a long time. After taking her time to relax in it, she sighed and pulled herself out of the water. A towel had been set just inside the door for her, and she smiled softly as she took it to dry herself, avoiding her small wound. Becoming slightly impatient, Riven threw the towel over the top of her head and roughly dried her hair. When she removed it, it was definitely dry. And all over the place. She threw on the extra set of clothing she brought (which was similar the one she usually wore), and walked back into the house in search of her hostess without bothering to tie her hair up again. She had told the Ionian that she would try to get what she came for and leave, troubling her as little as possible, and that she intended to do.

She bumped into the Ionian in one of the halls connected to the main rooms. She had been coming back from her own bath, and her long, black hair was still slightly damp. After grinning in an amused sort of way at the Exile's hair, Irelia quickly sobered and said "We should get that wound of yours bandaged again. You really should have said something earlier."

Riven silently followed Irelia to a well-furnished room and sat on one of the couches at her bidding. The Ionian woman disappeared for a few moments only to return with a roll of clean bandages and a bottle of alcohol with a small folded cloth. She took a seat beside her, grabbing the bottle and cloth.

"Lift your shirt, please." She asked.

Riven blinked, unusually hesitant. "I...could do this myself-"

"You are in my house. It is easier for me to reach it as high as it is on your side. I am doing this for you, Riven." The look in Irelia's eyes brooked no argument. The Exile looked into each of them for a moment, then replied with a nod and pulled off her shirt. The Ionian immediately set to cleaning the wound, although it had just been in the bath with Riven. Then she set down the bottle and cloth to start unraveling the bandages.

As the Ionian busied herself with Riven's wound, the Noxian's thoughts went back to her original purpose. 'I will need to ask her to take me...there. To Shon-Xan Province.' She shivered. The Ionian woman looked up at her face questioningly, and Riven decided to explain sooner rather than later.

"I need you to take me to Couer Valley."

Irelia froze, then her expression transformed to one of shock and concern.

"You...traveled all the way here to go back there? For what? To torture yourself?" She looked absolutely astounded.

Cringing ever so slightly at the latter question, the Noxian explained, "That is not my intent...I have come to the conclusion that I need to return and make peace in a sense, with what happened there. To make peace with it, and..." She shifted, her eyes seeming to burn brighter, "To fully grasp the event, understand why it happened, and how I feel about it completely. What I will do about it. There has been enough time." She turned her head to gaze out the window nearby. Seconds passed, then she continued, voice strong and clear. "I...want to find the shards to my sword, as well. I need them back. My blade doesn't belong in this state any longer."

When she returned her gaze to the Ionian woman, Irelia jumped slightly and dropped her gaze to the unfinished bandaging. As she finished that, she replied, "Well, Riven...I can take you there as soon as you're ready." She stood, looking anywhere but at the Exile. She picked up the unused medical supplies and returned them, when she came back she spoke up once more.

"Um...you..." She took a breath. "Never mind. You may take as much time as you need before we go."

Riven stood. "I am ready now. Three years is enough time." She would not cower away from this chance. This was something she had wanted for a long enough time, and she was too close now to sit idle any longer. Her sword ached for completion.

Irelia turned to look at the Noxian once more. Her eyes searched Riven's expression, perhaps looking for any signs of fear or doubt. When she found something else entirely, she breathed in deeply through her nose, nodded and led her companion to the stables.

"I'm not sure if you are aware, but the Shon-Xan Province is not far East. This ride should really not be more than a few hours."

Several hours after Irelia had said that, the pair arrived. They were now in the province, but Couer was another hour's ride. They stopped in a small town to feed and water the horses as well as themselves.

Their meal was interrupted by a friend of Irelia's whom she hadn't seen in a long time. They seemed somewhat close. Riven raised a brow and squinted slightly at the pair. It turned out the young girl wanted to catch up a bit, and so they went off to speak in private. "I will be back in about ten minutes, Riven." She said with an apologetic expression. She nodded in return.

Sitting in the shade of a small tree, the Exile ate slowly and stared into the distance beyond the Ionian village. Something...familiar, softly poked at the back of her mind. After freezing for a split second, she pulled her broken blade out of the leather scabbard Irelia had kindly provided before they left. Crossing her legs and laying it out on her lap, Riven stared contemplatively at the mass of heavy black and silver stone. The sickly green glow pulsed as if in greeting. 'Perhaps there is more magic in you than I'd ever believed...' The glow grew slightly brighter, then died down into a calm, melancholic state. 'A sword mirrors it's owner...I'd always believed. You do not, anymore...I promise I will mend you, as I have mended myself.'

The Exile ran calloused fingers over the remaining, glowing rune. "Forgive me."

A dark projectile sped towards her in the moment that followed and she would not have noticed it until it was too late if not for that prickling again, more urgent this time, in the back of her head.

She shifted ever so slightly and the arrow deflected off of her steel pauldron. Originally she'd thought to leave it behind at the Lito home, but it was one of the only remaining items she had kept from the fateful day of her country's betrayal. If there were a time to wear it, it would be on the return to Couer Valley.

She lifted her gaze to the hill from which the arrow flew trying to spot the perpetrator, but was met with thick green plant life. She gripped her sword and stood, muscles coiled and ready. A larger arrow followed, bright red and faster and more deadly. Riven quickly dived out of harm's way and rolled to her feet. She saw exactly where that one had originated.

The Noxian woman sprinted towards her attacker's sniper perch, keeping her eyes locked to it. Surprisingly not another shot was fired, and she made her way suspiciously to the top of the hill and through layers of greenery. Wading through thick bushes and tall weeds with molten amber eyes searching, Riven was completely and entirely calm. Though the sword in her grip ached for completion and her heart with it, she felt like an essential communication had passed between them. As though it was more a part of her than it had ever been...as if it were something living.

A dreadful shiver crept up Riven's spine and she spun just in time for a black coil to spring at her and wrap around her left arm. She growled as the thing attempted to crawl up her shoulder and around her torso, slipping the tip of her blade between it and her arm. She turned her sword and tore outward in one swift movement, severing the black thing and watching it drop to the forest floor. She heard violent muttered curses from the tree before her and merely responded frostily with: "Coward."

Varus screamed in a rage and dove at Riven from his perch in the tree. No sooner had his feet hit the ground than he swung his blackened right fist at her hard, and it met the flat of her sword. He followed up with a left uppercut, which she expertly dodged. Swinging his left fist down once more in a backfist of a sort, the corrupted Ionian archer grunted and growled with the immeasurable anger he harbored specially for Noxians. His opponent remained seemingly unaffected by it. Everything he threw at her she would block, dodge or it would glance harmlessly off of her form as she redirected his attacks with her body.

Regardless, she had yet to strike back. This seemed to further infuriate Varus, whose face twisted with violent emotion and desperation to kill his enemy. A large red arrow materialized in each of his hands, and without staunching the (somewhat unrefined) flow of his strikes he began to use them as if they were daggers. One lunge left a deep cut on Riven's shoulder and tore away the top of her white sleeve. Then, finally, the look in her eyes hardened.

The Exile timed her horizontal swing just as Varus brought his arm up and begun to drive the arrow in it toward her. He brought his other blackened forearm up just in time to take the brunt of her strike, but he was blown back into the tree he'd originally begun his attack from. His skull made a small cracking noise as it collided with the wood. Varus grimaced painfully and pulled himself up once again. He'd been fighting like a fool, he realized. This realization didn't calm his wrath one bit, however.

"Bloodshed carries a price, Exile." His tone was venom and fire, and it showed in his eyes as well, "Only cowards flee their fate."

The archer's bow returned to his hand, twisting out of the corruption and forming perfectly to his grip.

"Pain is my gift to you!"

He released a volley of small red projectiles before Riven could make any move other than to block a few with the flat of her blade. Pain (and small amounts of blood) sprang from the numerous punctures on her body, but she braced herself and charged the archer. He gritted his teeth and climbed a tree to his right with near the same speed he could run. Reaching a branch, he drew and loosed another glowing red arrow at the Noxian warrior which she dodged lightly. Not watching to see if he hit his mark, he jumped from his perch and put distance between himself and the Exile.

He loosed three more at her as she came at him, blocking each one, and he stopped. Suspicious but not slowing her pace, Riven watched her attacker carefully.

Just out of reach, she readied herself to dive forward and slice horizontally. In the midst of doing so, she found herself rooted to the spot with yet another purple-black coil. Growling, she hacked it off only to have another crawling up her leg. She wasn't stupid enough to keep her attention from Varus for so long however, and just as he loosed another arrow she gripped her blade with both hands, and a thin barrier of runes and green energy surrounded her. Varus shouted angrily and began firing like a madman. He really needed to get that temper under control.

The remaining coil worked it's way halfway up Riven's torso, and there was no way she could move from that spot. She gritted her teeth as it constricted and she stuck her blade between it and herself as she had earlier. The thing loosened and moved away from her sword with surprising swiftness, and she found herself almost gaping at it. It was as if it learned from the first coil. This was a bad situation to be in. Her barrier finally fell and Varus grinned broadly.

Willing herself to focus, Riven hacked at the coil, which did not fall immediately and gave Varus' arrow the time to fly while it rooted her to the spot.

Pain burst from the Exile's side, his arrow had made it. Riven had been able to twist her more vital areas out of the projectile's path, but the thing made a hole in her side regardless. Her brow creased deeply, and she gave a very different look to her opponent. Varus snarled at her and aimed his dark bow at her once more. As it flew, Riven dove suddenly towards the Ionian man with a speed he had not yet witnessed and the green, runic barrier rose once again. It took the arrow and fell, and Riven leapt to an impressive height, using a lower branch for greater reach amd brought her sword down heavily as she fell back to the earth.

She landed, drew herself to her full height and looked at Varus. The blade had passed through a good portion of his thigh and cut the branch that was his perch from the tree, his breathing was heavy and labored. He glared at her murderously, and she felt her own anger subside. It was replaced by a cold, empty sorrow.

"Don't look at me like that, Noxian bitch!" Varus spat, his chest heaving with anger and the consequences of his injury.

Riven approached him and crouched. Her burning eyes took in the detail of his expression. Varus's clouded eyes widened and he seemed to try to figure out why she was doing so. Soon, he came to a conclusion.

"Go ahead and revel in my pain, Exile. Just as you did in the pain of all the people you slaughtered here, MY people. All you and your country did was bring death and misery to Ionia and there is nothing at all you can ever do to undo it." He seemed faint.

Riven's gaze burned into Varus's clouded one. "The only one whose pain I wish to revel in is the Mad Chemist's." Her jaw clenched momentarily, then her neutral expression returned. "Your face is that of Ionia's agony and wrath and everything...everything I won't see from the forgiving. I want to see it. I need to see it as purely as it is in you, only then will I be able to accept completely what happened here...and what I must do."

Varus stared at the Exile with incredulity and a sort of new respect. But his anger would never die out. He finally responded, "Do what you will. Ionia's vengeance will find you one day."

AN: I took a small liberty with Varus' bow, I don't remember if that's actually how it works but...that's how it works in my story.

Lyrics are from "Hush Yael". Hope you enjoyed.