Chapter Thirteen: Rising Light

While Vladimir was relaxing somewhere, the Poro had much fun testing out its new powers. Dracula had learned from his earlier mistake and evaded the magic artifacts that were given Renekton by the institute skillfully. The giant crocodile looked as if it was about to explode when it announced the reward. From that moment on the situation became more and more ridiculous the more champions participated in the hunt. If they had actually worked together they would have captured him within minutes, but now the pool party had turned into a battle royal of poro-hunters. Some were not even interested in the reward and used the chance to settle some old scores.

The Poro used his Sanguine Pool to escape the champions again and again. But they were not fooled for long: a short time later they tried to catch the Poro with magic. A crossfire of magic seals and binding spells hailed down around Dracula, who dodged them all for at least an hour. But there was one thing he could not dodge: Syndra had enough from the commotion around her and grabbed the Poro with her magic. Several champions tried to snatch the Poro away from her, but she simply buried them heads first into the sand. Not caring about the reward for catching the Poro she floated away to find Vladimir.

She found him at a hidden spot on the beach where he had some trouble calming down a rather embarrassed Ezreal, talking about something like "Side Effects". Syndra could not really hear them, but she had a vague idea what had happened here when she saw the barely visible bite-marks on Ezreal's neck. She also felt a subtle magical energy surrounding the boy. This magic would indeed cause certain side effects.

They were the only two champions she actually knew (apart from Lux, who was her favorite plaything for now). She knew that both had feelings for the other, but both of them were to stupid to actually show or react on these feelings.

Much to her disappointment Vladimir was no longer acting like a flustered maiden. At least not that much as he had back when they were at the tropical beach. Not that Syndra knew much about feelings either – but she had read a lot of books. If you live alone in a giant floating castle there was not much one could do apart from training ones magical power and reading. Especially stories about adventure and romance kept her interest. In the past Syndra had thought that, one day, some kind of perfect prince would come for her, just like in the books. But as she grew older she came to realize that such persons only existed in fiction. The knight in shining armor was nothing more than a weak fool wrapped in a tin can. So Syndra had given up on most humans and spend her time in fictional works and stories. But the two in front of her were different: Vladimir was equal to her in strength, but he had his own burden to carry – something the Dark Sovereign deeply respected. The boy on the other hand... after spending time together with them she found his presence rather refreshing. To her he was like a little brother she could tease whenever she wanted.

And much to her amusement both acted like the fools in her romance novels. There was one thing that was certain in every story: the more they were in love, the more stupid and irrational were their actions. Some stories would not even happen if the people in love would not act completely brainless while not even understanding their own feelings.

Judging from what she had seen until now, she came to a conclusion: both had no idea how to actually express their feelings. One was a young and full of shame while the other had no idea how love worked at all. If this was an average novel these two would take about 500 pages of confusion and multiple misunderstandings to actually get together.

She floated towards the pair and dropped the Poro on Vladimir's head. Then she used her magic and knocked Ezreal over so that his head laid on Vladimir's lap.

"Pff, you two take forever", she said with a mysterious smile on her face as she floated away, leaving two confused men and a happy Poro behind.

Now she only had to find Lux.

Syndra didn't know why, but somehow she had taken a liking on the blond girl. Teasing her just felt so wonderful! She was so innocent deep down that Syndra felt almost guilty for what she had done with her back then at the clothing store, but somehow that side of Lux had charmed her. Syndra was not really aware of her own feelings and she did not really care. The result was that she loved to bother the people she actually liked – maybe because she knew of no other way of how to interact with people.

Also the Lady of Luminosity had some amazing powers and an even bigger potential, but she was wasting her life working for like a fool for Demacia. Syndra could not stand the sight of so much talent being wasted. Lux could be free, yet she chose to remain shackled at the place where she was born. That's something the dark sovereign could not understand. Wasn't freedom the most important thing for one's self? Deep inside her she had the determination to free the girl from these chains that bound her, but Syndra did not know that herself. Currently she just wanted to bother and tease the girl.

Lux was relaxing in a whirlpool when she felt the magic around her. Syndra just lifted her up and floated towards the lake while rising into the air.

"Hey! Let me down!", she tried to protest, but Syndra did not take her seriously.

"Well, if that is what you wish", she answered with an evil smile and dropped the girl about twenty meters over the lake's surface. She let her fall screaming about half of the way, then she caught her again and brought her back to her side. Lux was shivering all over. In panic she hugged the dark sovereign, her eyes closed and her face buried in Syndra's side, who realized what she had done.

"Wait, you are afraid of heights?"

Still shaking the shaking girl gave a small nod. Now Syndra feel incredibly bad for what she had done. It was one thing to tease someone, but another to make them almost freak out in panic. Feeling guilty she laid her hands around the Lux and caressed her head with one hand. That seemed to work, because Syndra could feel the shaking slowly decreasing

"There. There. Calm down. You won't fall, I promise."

Lux finally stopped shivering and looked up to Syndra's face with tears in her eyes. Oh my god, she is so cute!, thought Syndra, Maybe I should drop her again? But she shoved that thought aside instantly.

"Really?", asked Lux with a weak voice. It seemed that heights and falling were the lightmage's biggest fears. Syndra summoned a dark sphere and placed it below the blond girl, so she could stand on it. Not that she had any trouble keeping the girl floating, but maybe she would feel safer if she had the illusion of standing somewhere instead of just hanging in the air.

"You are safe now", said the dark magician as she pulled Lux closer to her. They remained like this for a while, then Lux started to recognize the view. With the dark sphere below her feet she felt a lot safer, so she was not struck by fear when she gazed at the scenery before her. The evening sun's rays looked like a sea of gold had washed over the world. In her eyes Syndra could see many things: excitement, fascination, longing... she remembered when she had first seen a scenery like this.

"You like it?", she asked the blonde girl

"It's so pretty...", Lux answered, her eyes lost somewhere on the horizon. Syndra laid her hands around her and let them rise even higher. The blond girl started to get afraid again, but Syndra's touch calmed her down. They rose higher and higher until they surpassed the few clouds that started to cover the evening sky. Up here they could only hear the wind and their own hearts beating. A white sea of clouds surrounded them and above them was nothing but the endless sky.

"But why are you showing me this?", wondered Lux confused as she turned around to the Dark Sovereign.

"Because I can", said Syndra. She still had her arms put around the blond girl as she pulled her closer with a gentle touch. "I just do whatever I want", whispered Syndra while she lowered her face towards Lux' lips. The young girl did not resist as their lips met in the last rays of the setting sun.

When Syndra and Lux returned the Pool Party had already ended. But Braum had made a campfire in front of his hut where most of the mansions inhabitants were gathered, so Syndra let them float down there. Diana was sleeping, leaning against Leona's side. Rengar and Pantheon helped Braum to roast some unidentified meat over the fire and Mundo was just sitting there buried in Poros. Maybe they recognized him as one of their own because of his tongue, who knows?

Even Draven was there, but he seemed tired from the day, so he kept his mouth shut – much to the relief of everyone else. Vladimir and Ezreal were also sitting here, Gnar sleeping between them. Someone had given the little yordle an extremely adorable dino-costume. Silently they sat down next to them. Neither of them talked much when Braum gave them the food. It was a comforting silence that everyone enjoyed after the rather tumultuous day.

After some time Vel'Koz approached them. No one knew what he had done all day, but he came from the direction of the institute. Strangely he directly approached Ezreal "May I analyze you again? It seems like you have acquired the ability to duplicate. That is something I'd like to investigate."

"Duplicate?", echoed Ezreal with a tired voice. The others looked confused at Ezreal and then at Vel'Koz, who continued to speak: " I just had visual evidence when I transversed the halls of the Institute before. Also... performing analysis... did you change your gender?"

At first everyone had thought that the voidborn might have lost his mind, but as their eyes wandered to Ezreal they saw that something was not right. The boy's form was... unstable. As if someone had thrown a pebble into a lake and the reflection was distorted by the waves. "Tch, I knew I could not fool you", said Ezreal, but his voice was changing with every second. The image of the boy fractured like broken mirror. Only moments later Ezreal had vanished and in his place was a woman Vladimir knew too well.

"Surprised to see me?", said LeBlanc to the confused champions before vanishing in a cloud of blue smoke. Only a black rose was left behind, falling into Vladimir's hands. A little piece of paper was tied to it. Someone had written a few words on it with a beautiful handwriting: "Grand library - Come Alone – J. Swain"

The hemomancer jumped up. Before anyone could stop him he was running towards the institute. He knew that he would have to face Swain sooner or later – but he would have never expected the Grand General to use the boy as a way to pressure him. He had expected that the general would come to talk to him in a rather normal setting, not to capture one of the few friends he head. Just why would he do that? Did he think that he was about to betray Noxus? Inside his head there were plans on becoming a semi-independent champion like the Exile, but he had not acted upon this plans until now.

Vladimir concentrated on the link he had with the Poro and gave Dracula several instructions. He had some trouble explaining the Poro what was going on, but when he was finished the little creature patted his forehead with its paws, as if it wanted to tell him to run faster.

He had no idea of what the Grand General was scheming, but there had to be some way for him to free Ezreal, keep a somewhat labile loyalty to Noxus and keep his sanity at the same time.

Chances were high that Swain would force him to undo the seal on the Poro, causing his masters to come back and turn him back to like he was before his change. Maybe he could restrain the old man with his magic? No, that would be impossible. Swain was the mightiest man in Noxus for a reason. Also, if Vladimir was to kill him they would hunt him down as traitor, so going direct confrontation was a bad idea. But how should he talk his way out of this?

Still with no plan in mind Vladimir reached the giant door leading into the main library of the institute. Without hesitation he stepped into the dark hall. There was barely no light, but Vladimir could see a six eyed raven waiting for him. As soon as the bird saw him it flew into the darkness of the library. He followed Beatrice until he could see some light. Magical torches surrounded a desk overloaded with paperwork and reports hidden in the forest of bookshelves. Swain waited for him sitting in an armchair. He looked really old, as if Vladimir could overpower him easily. But he was not fooled by that as he looked into the cold calculating eyes of the Grand General.

"Ah, Crimson Reaper, be my guest. Please take a seat, we have important things to discuss."