"Beautiful."

Flynt woke from his slumber under the stars. He must have fallen asleep while he and Samantha were in the field.

"What do you mean?" He responded.

"Oh, you're awake." She turned to face him. "I was talking about the stars. They're beautiful tonight." Samantha sat beside him, propping herself on her arms to allow her gaze to drift among the stars.

"You say that as if they change from day to day." He closed his eyes again.

"Maybe they do, how could you tell?"

"I… Well sometimes I don't have access to a map, so I can use the stars to at least get a direction at night instead of waiting for the sun to rise. They have to stay the same or else I would've gotten lost many times. It's a merchant thing."

"So you could use them like a map?"

"Uhh, sort of. It depends on your knowledge of your area."

"So… how do you do it?"

"Hmm?" He opened his eyes again and glanced over.

"How do you use the stars?"

"What, are you planning to go somewhere?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

Flynt smiled a little. "The red star, you see it?" Flynt pointed to the sky in the direction of a star that burned bright red against the sea of black and specks of white.

Samantha nodded.

He pointed to a nearby tree. "Walk over there and you'll see how it still points in the same direction. This direction is south."

"What about during the day?"

"You'll have the sun."

"What if it's the middle of the day?"

"That's a good question." Flynt returned to a resting position.

"... Where were you really headed?"

Flynt sighed. "What are you talking about?"

"I mean, you came here because you were attacked right? Then you sold all your stuff, stayed at the inn, and then we met. You weren't planning on coming here were you?"

"Not exactly."

"Well..."

"I'm not really at liberty to say."

"Well… when are you leaving?"

"I just got here, I was thinking of staying for a while. At least until I gather enough interesting things from here to take to my actual destination."

"Which you refuse to tell me?"

Flynt nodded.

"You seem a bit young to be a traveling merchant."

"I'll be 21 soon."

"When?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

"How else am I supposed to get to know you?"

"..."

"So?"

"November fifth."

"That sucks."

"How so?"

"I mean… nevermind. It's just a silly myth."

He knew exactly what she was talking about. "No, tell me… I mean, you know… I carry stories as well as goods across the lands. People pay for good entertainment, sometimes by buying stuff from me."

Samantha gave him a suspicious look, as if she was doubting his logic. "Well, I don't suppose you've heard of the Shadow's Thrall?"

"I've heard some fragments of the story, but never the entire thing."

"Well… this place is the origin of that story."

"I'd love to hear it."

"What does it matter?" Samantha frowned, and stared past him. "You die in the end."

"... Wait… what?"

"After all this… after everything you'll go through… after you leave, come back twice, find happiness without me..." She paused.

"..."

"It won't matter. Because you'll die in the end. You can keep running, but there will always be someone waiting to grant your death wish, and one day someone's going to succeed."

Sam began to fade from existence. "I'm already gone Flynt..." She sighed. "Just waiting for you to join me." She faded completely, leaving Flynt alone in the field.

Flynt was staring at the floor of Karma's office. He was certain that he left a few important points out. Recapping the dream wasn't nearly as bad as having it the first time, but it still wasn't exactly a fun experience. He'd been having increasingly terrible dreams since he returned. He was losing enough sleep to get people worried until he was eventually forced to see Karma.

He would probably sit there for hours and not remember anything more. "I think that's it."

Karma nodded. "huh… you're sure?"

Flynt nodded.

"That doesn't give me much to work with… I'm looking here at some stuff I jotted down and all I've got is that your friend, Samantha was with you, and you two were talking, and then something went wrong."

"That's all I can remember; I haven't gotten much sleep lately."

"I can see that."

"Here's the thing: I can remember just fine in the morning, so if I just swing by really early I can paint the entire picture for you."

Karma shook her head. "I have a better idea." She stood from her chair and walked across the room to the cabinets behind her desk. "I've got… this." She tossed a black and white composition book in Flynt's direction.

He caught it, and raised an eyebrow. "What's this for?"

"I want you to record your dreams in there. As soon as you wake up, either naturally or from the nightmares, I want you to write down everything you can remember in there."

Flynt stared at her. "You want me to keep a… Dream Diary?"

"You don't have to call it that, but essentially yes. Feel free to scribble down some thoughts as you do this, maybe some theories about the cause of the dreams."

"Is this really necessary?"

"Yes, in fact I don't want you to come back to see me until you have at least five entries in that book. Maybe then we can talk and get to the bottom of this."

"…"

"You do want to get rid of these nightmares right?"

"Fine."

"Good, see you soon?"

"I hope." Flynt stood and exited the office with a wave.

It was summertime, and apparently that meant spending time at the beach for hours on end. Flynt had no problem with this, since the sun on his skin was much more welcoming and relaxing than sitting in his room doing a lot of nothing, or fighting for nothing in the League. (He decided against representing Ionia for now, since he knew little about the place.) The sound of waves and the occasional ocean spray did much to calm him down.

The Institute of War owned a small island to the east of Valoran, a little bit north of Bilgewater. It was here that most summer events that weren't held at the pool took place. It was also the vacation spot of choice for most champions since transportation was a simple tele-pad away, and it was a private island that completely managed by the institute. This meant that all services, including stay at the hotel, food, and any other commodities found on the island were absolutely free for champions. Everyone liked free stuff, and this is the most likely reason why the beach was usually packed when Flynt was there.

He'd brought the Dreamlog with him because he thought that the relaxing aura of the beach itself would help him remember more of his previous dream.

There was grass. I was with Samantha, and we were talking. Maybe it was about my birthday? Then something went wrong. I remember she kept telling me I was going to die, like she knew who I was at that point, even though she never exactly found out until everyone else did. She's waiting for me.

He stared at what he wrote down, trying to come up with some other detail. At least he had more than he did at Karma's office, so maybe the beach thing was working after all. Frustrated, he added a final sentence to the first few lines of text.

I don't want to do this.

He closed the book again, and placed it in the sand beside his beach towel. He closed his eyes. Maybe some sleep would do him good; at least it would give him something to write in the damn book. Before he could doze off, he noticed a shadow pass over him. He opened one eye to find a blue fish-like creature staring down at him.

"What's with the book?" Fizz asked him.

"I'm supposed to write things down in it. It's so that I won't forget dreams that I have."

"Well... are you done with it?"

"For now."

"Good, that means you can play volleyball with us."

"Really?"

Fizz nodded. "We need one more person. You'll be on my team."

Flynt shrugged. "Why not?" He wasn't doing anything anyways, and this could easily take his mind out of stress mode.

Not only did Flynt win the game, he'd also won a clear head for the rest of the day. That night, he made sure to keep the dreamlog close by his bed so that he could get to it as soon as he woke up.

Upon waking up in the middle of that night, Flynt immediately went to his log.

There were more. More of me. More of my kind. Or at least more of my father's. I saw them. They were tall, had a smoky appearance, and all of them wore hoods. I was on my knees before a group of at least five of them with my hands tied. I don't remember everything they said, but it had something to do with him, and I remember they didn't speak too highly of my mother. I remember they kept talking about potential without purpose, and freeing me from this mortal prison, as if they were any less mortal than anyone else. I was dragged into a room that was dark at first, but as soon as I heard the doors closed I was flooded with light from all sides. It made me tired, very tired.

That's the last thing I remember. I don't know what this means. It's just a dream, but somehow I know that there's a part of this that's real, maybe something that hasn't happened yet. Or maybe I'm looking too deep into this. That's Karma's job. My job is to give her things to look into.

I kind of miss my dreamless nights.

I couldn't control myself. I was angry, I don't really remember why, but I do remember being surrounded by people trying to hurt me further. The whole time I was aching from my chest more than anywhere else. Somehow I knew that these people were responsible for it, and I killed them all. They fought with swords, magic, and I think I saw another Shade try and stop me. It was no use, their spells blew past me and their weapons never touched me. I remember leaving shadows behind me and blinking back to their locations, like I traveled back in time while everything else remained constant. Only after it was done did I even bother to find out where I was. The ground around me was littered with bodies; my blade soaked in a fresh coat of crimson. What didn't make it onto my sword instead hit the walls, floor, some of it got on me. Only one body remained living, and I turned back to see myself lying on the floor with shallow breaths. By now the amount of blood he'd lost seemed small and was mixed with the rest of it. Even so, I took great care in picking up the body and carrying it out with me.

It was the same room. I think this was part of the same dream. I hope so at least. I don't know who I was. It felt like I was myself, yet I carried myself out the room at the end. I even used the same weapon with the same efficiency, but there's no way I could have done the shit that I just did. My movements were so fluid, and the shadow stuff was something I didn't even know I could do.

I'm just confused now.

Flynt closed the book and sighed. He was hoping that these dreams weren't prophetic, and that perhaps his imagination was being overactive. Only time would tell.

Disdun (x2 combo) - Here's the thing, the advantures of Jayce and Flynt are not over, but at the moment the worst Jayce is getting is a bunch of dirty looks from all of Flynt's "crew." I promise that soon something's gonna go down, and an adequate amount of shit will hit the biggest fan you've ever seen.

sosorry83 - I could have made the Ahri/Jayce thing last a little longer, but I feel like eventually I'd get tired of writing about it. Their ship needed to end for the part I actually want to write about, which is comming soon. Keep in mind, Flynt's still single at this point, and things are a little bit awkward between him and Ahri in the romance department.

Foxmarco - I could have added a lot more instead of falling back on the lazy strategy of using a timelapse paragraph. I don't know, sometimes I feel like the story is really slow, and stuff like that kinda drags it a bit. On the topic of more subjects, Syndra/Zed should be making an apperance again soon, and I've got some stuff planned for at least two other pairs.

Guest - I'm sure she feels bad, but she's also very confused. I can imagine she'll make it up to him somehow.

Kerbal - Personally, I would love a sandbox mode especally if they could find a way to make this mode multiplayer, like a custom game without bounds. I'm not a very competitave player, I've played maybe 20 ranked games the entire season, and 13 last season, but I'd like it to just mess around with cool wombos and stuff because being able to pull off insane teamwork in premade normals is the best feeling. On the whole "expected grind" thing, people say that stuff already. Missing a Thresh hook could cause a "go back to normals/bot games kid" in the chat. I feel like if sandbox was created, with multiplayer, casuals like me would use it to just play URF in the off-season or something like that. On the pro strats standpoint, ultimately it's a choice to practice flashes and skillshots and such, but I feel like we should at least get that choice to be able to do that without needing to resort to an actual game.

Also, I know a few people who would actually come back to League if there was a sandbox to just fuck around.

In conclusion: Rito's reasons for not doing this are a bit sketch, but what can we do besides take to the Reddit boards and wait for them to change their minds?

Sciion23 - Thank you very very much.