"You arrived in Yun Tal… Without knowing you were going to arrive here?" The guard asks. His spear creeps closer to my throat. Starshadow wriggles in my scarf. The spear instantly points at it.
"If you could kindly put that away, I'd be grateful. I don't have a single weapon on me." I yelp. He doesn't lower his weapon.
"What is your name, child?" The Empress stands up, grabbing a ring with three prongs around it's outside. It glows an orange color when she touches it. She starts to casually spin it.
"It's Leilah." I gulp.
"Leilah who?" The guard next to me demands.
"What do you mean who? It's just Leilah." I try to back away. A sharp prick in my skin makes me stand still. Starshadow's scales rise against my neck.
"Everyone has a last name, Miss Leilah." The Empress starts to spin the ring faster. The very air around us feels heavy..
"I come from a small village in Targon where everyone knows who the other's families are. We don't have last names there." I explain quickly. The Empress raises an eyebrow. She starts to spin her ring even faster, using two hands. The ground responds to the spinning, making everything turn shaky. I fall onto my butt as the guards appear to look unbothered. The Empress starts to advance towards me. I start to crawl backwards when Starshadow leaps out of my scarf and raises his small head in my defence.
"She's telling the truth!" Starshadow's voice makes the world still. None of the guards look like they know what to do with a talking snake. The Empress's swinging slows down a little bit before picking up. My wrists are suddenly bound in earth. Starshadow's body becomes buried. He doesn't seem concerned, so I try to relax.
"Why should I believe the word of a familiar?" The Empress demands.
"I'm not a familiar. Have you ever heard a familiar being able to talk so clearly?" Starshadow continues to speak, but not in a language I know. The Empress clearly does, as she looks up at me sharply. The other Guards seem just as surprised.
Starshadow, what did you say?
I'll tell you after. Right now, I need to concentrate. Starshadow continues to speak in their language. It's quick, musical and rough at the same time. The Empress raises an eyebrow. She says something back. I sit helpless, hoping that Starshadow will be able to handle what is being said right now. She's curious about your appearance, especially since I told her that you didn't always have these colors. I think it's been two and half years since you had brown hair?
What does that have to do with anything?
Apparently everything. It's never been heard of in Ixtal, being born without magic and gaining it later. You're going to be a celebrity!
Starshadow…
Yeah, yeah. More accurately they're going to put you somewhere close by so people can experiment on us. I'm arguing for better accommodations and social interactions.
"You say your name is Leilah. Where did you get your magic?" The Empress switches back to the language I know.
"I climbed a mountain. Mount Targon. I was gifted magic from one of the Aspects."
"Which pretender would gift a normal human magic?" One of the guards asks.
"Pretender?" I can't stop my mouth from talking. The Empress says something sharply to the guard. Starshadow flinches and joins in their conversation.
Well, that was incredibly rude.
What are you talking about?
She just said to not insult other cultures to their faces, even if they are wrong. I told her that if you had false magic, I wouldn't exist. Besides, who are they to judge how people gain their magics? Starshadow translates. I feel very uncomfortable not knowing what is being said.
"Can we just speak in a language we all know?" I plead quietly. The Empress raises her eyebrow.
"You hold much magic to have a familiar, yet you speak and act like one of my middle children. How old are you?" She asks me.
"I think I turned eighteen a season ago? Starshadow?" I turn to Starshadow for help.
"It's been a while. I only know of the time because of how old our friends in Ionia are."
"And we saw them a few days ago, so eighteen and two seasons?"
"Sounds about right." He turns his attention back to the Empress and continues to speak in their tongue. She's more curious as to how a child managed to get magic from the top of the mountain that… Oh?
Star-
Apparently, according to Ixtal history, Ixtal helped found Shurima and the Targon region. Cute. In reality, Mount Targon was always there. Ixtal 'found' it. They did help found the religion in Targon, I will give them that. That's it though. Cocky people, aren't they?
So, what are they going to do with us?
"Leilah, was it? You'll be a guest in my home for a while. We will find a task for you to do. In the meantime, do not attempt to escape your room. It will not end well for you. Hernando!" The Empress barks. The guards all put their spears down. The one that was entirely focused on Starshadow comes over to us. He yanks my hands from their earthy prison and pulls me to my feet. Starshadow just slithers out from his.
My scales! They're filthy!
"Drama queen." I mutter in my mother's tongue. Interestingly enough, Starshadow doesn't react. It doesn't seem like he knows all ancient languages. The guard looks interested in what I said. I just shrug my shoulders and gesture to my bonded. "He's whining over his scales. Do you happen to have a bath to where you're taking us?" I switch back to the common language of my village.
"You are a guest of the Empress." He answers like that means something. I must look very confused as he sighs and raises a hand for a passing person. He says something. She nods and quickly leaves.
Thank you, Leilah. You are my favorite. Starshadow rubs his head happily against my face. Any dirt that he still had on his scales at the base of his head rubs off on me. I quickly pick him up and hold him at arm's length.
"That was mean, Starshadow." I scold him. He snickers before he nods his head. He carefully slithers to my shoulder and sits there. We walk for a while. I lose count of how many doors and corridors we walk by. He starts to walk to a door when a little girl with curly white hair charges head first into Hernando. Hernando smiles at the girl fondly, ruffling her hair and kneeling in front of her. They eagerly speak to each other in hushed tones. She glances at me and immediately ducks behind the guard. Hernando laughs.
Starshadow speaks up in their tongue. She squeaks before speaking with him. She looks at me curiously. I wave my hand, very uncomfortable without being able to communicate with people. She says something to Starshadow. He responds before flicking his head to me.
Say your name. Starshadow instructs me.
"Leilah." What do I do?
You can hold out your hand in greeting. Starshadow deadpans. I offer my hand to her. She looks at it before shaking it.
"Qiyana." She says clearly.
How do you say nice to meet you?
Repeat after me. Starshadow orders. I carefully repeat his words. Her eyes light up and she quickly spouts off a long phrase. The guard snorts before sounding like Father when I did something wrong. Oh my.
What?
She just called you beautiful and she's demanding to have you as a personal servant to serve her so that way she'd have the prettiest servant by her side at all times. Hernando is scolding her, saying you are a person, not an object.
What?
Hey, I'm just translating. She wants you to go with her to her tutoring lesson. Maybe you'll learn something. Starshadow translates before he speaks to her. She pouts but nods.
"Qiyana!" A male voice calls out to her. She sighs before running away. The guard opens the door to my so-called room while I'm here.
"A bath for your snake is here. You can also wipe your face while you're at it." The guard gently ushers me into a bare room. If it wasn't for a steaming bucket on the ground, there would only be an emerald bed in the space. There's a little room off to the side. I look in to see some sort of bathroom. I reach up to a pulley system and pull it. Water splashes in front of me. I jump a little bit.
Leilah, wash me! Starshadow jumps into a bucket of warm water. He sighs, moaning in my head about how good it feels. I roll my eyes and start to work diligently on his scales. I don't have anything else to do anyway. The entire time I'm cleaning his scales, he groans his appreciation.
"I hope you know that you're a spoiled, vain snake." My mouth runs on its own.
Hey, You are incredibly hard to keep alive. I need a little pampering. And while you're here get out the dead skin too while you're at it. Starshadow rubs his nose against the rim of the bucket and manages to pull off the top layer. I roll my eyes and help get them off. Once I'm done with his royal highness' skin, he sinks into the bucket, his nose barely out of the water.
"You're going to drown, and I'm not that hard to keep alive." I protest. His head rises out of the water with a glare.
Which time did I not have to look out for your safety? Let's start at the beginning. Helping Yasuo into the temple, nearly died at least twice from the cold you got. Then you tried to call Daamien, had to help keep your mind sane then. Then Bildgewater. You were tortured. I used our magic to keep us alive. You did die in Navori. I used almost all my magic bringing you back. We only reached about a year now. There's still another year and a half to go. Need I go on? Starshadow deadpans. I play with my hair a little bit.
"Ok, ok, I'm not the easiest person to keep alive. Are you happy now?" I sit down on the bed and hold my head in my hands. I hear him slither out of his spa. His wet body slithers up my leg and coils up in my lap. I look up into his eyes.
You're not the easiest, but don't think for one second that I hate it. I'm glad for the change in my life. I've genuinely enjoyed being around you, even if I think you are suicidal at some points.
"I'm really not." I mutter under my breath. Starshadow's close enough to hear it.
Sylas?
"He needed help. What else am I supposed to do?"
I don't know, maybe be SUBTLE and help him that way?
"Explain how I would be able to subtly help him when it's pretty clear he can see my magic."
...Fair enough.
"Leilah!" A knock at my door interrupts our conversation. I quickly splash some water onto my face to wipe off dirt and open my door. Qiyana stands in front of me, carrying a book. She passes it to me and looks at me expectantly. I open it. There's words I see are targonian and then there's words I don't know. Starshadow looks over my shoulder and makes a soft grunt.
She means well, but handing you a dictionary won't help. Starshadow scoffs. He talks to Qiyana. She pouts and sighs before grabbing my hand. She pulls me out of my room. I freeze a little bit. The Empress was very clear that I was to stay in my room.
"Qiyana, I can't leave this room." I panic a little bit. The girl tilts her head and says something in Ixtali. Starshadow speaks up, translating what I said. She rolls her eyes and pulls me anyway.
She doesn't care. She says that you would be fine as you aren't actively escaping. Besides, you need to learn Ixtali. Everyone in Ixtal knows it.
"Is that you saying I need to learn it or her?"
Uh, both. You really should learn different languages. We are going to be teleporting a lot, and I doubt everyone knows Demacian.
"...Fine. Isn't there some sort of illusion that let's me understand?"
Well… Maybe you can hear what I hear. It's just you can't speak it that's the problem. What happens if we encounter another place that is intolerant to magic?
"You can just stay in my scarf and listen."
And what happens if they pik up on the fact that you speak too slowly or just stop talking because you don't agree what I'm saying?"
"...Fine, but can't you teach me languages?"
...Well, now that I think about it, I can, but I don't know every single language on Runeterra.
"Hey!" Qiyana yells in our faces. I jump, not realizing that I was so focused on our discussion that we ignored Qiyana.
"Sorry!" I yelp. Starshadow rolls his eyes and says 'sorry' in Ixtali. She frowns before repeating what I said then saying something else, sounding like a question. Starshadow nods. She turns back to me and says something quickly. Starshadow nods before turning to me.
"She's intrigued by the thought of someone else knowing a different language. In exchange for teaching you Ixtali, she wants to learn Demacian. Hernando will be watching over you while you're out and about. The Empress will understand as Qiyana is her daughter and she wants to get to know you." Starshadow translates. I nod and kneel in front of her. I wave my hand.
"Hello." I state clearly. She claps her hands before waving her own hand. She repeats after me before repeating the action and saying her version of hello. I repeat it a few times before I'm sure I have it. She squeals happily and grabs my hand, pulling me with her.
Hey, how do you know Ixtali?
It's an old civilization. Couple of Ixtali climbed the mountain in the younger days of Runeterra. It was much easier for me to pick up their languages as this was before Aurelion Sol was locked up and the Aspects just ignored me.
Oh. Wait, How do you understand my words? I'm pretty sure I use modern day Demacian.
It's similar to old Demacian. You just sound like you have an accent to me.
Uh, you have the accent with your weird lilts. I let myself get dragged by this little girl to a library. Hernando looks up at Qiyana. He stands up when he sees me. He says something urgently to the little girl. She rolls her eyes and says something back. They get into a bit of a heated argument before an older man barks out something. They both quiet as the man walks up to me. He asks me something, but I can't understand it.
"I'm sorry?"
"Ah. Demacian. Princess Qiyana says that you did not know Ixtali and asked you to teach her Demacian. Hernando was telling me that you were not to leave your room. They are currently arguing as to what you should do. Is this true?" The teacher asks. I nod.
"Yeah, it's true. I have a bonded that can understand Ixtali and speak it, but I don't have any understanding." I shrink a bit, uncomfortable with the attention. He raises an eyebrow.
"Bonded? What does that term mean?"
"I'm her bonded. Before you say anything, I'm not a familiar. If I was, I wouldn't be able to speak to anyone else." Starshadow waves his head. The man raises his eyebrow. Starshadow switches to Ixtali. The man asks questions, sounding faster and faster. Starshadow responds just as quickly before his mouth seems to get tongue-tied. The man laughs softly before looking at me.
"Your friend, Starshadow, claims you are more trouble than you are worth and he wants you to learn our language. It's true that very few places do not use Demacian as a core language. You just so happened to encounter one such place. You are in luck, Qiyana is starting her elemental training today, so I can focus on helping you speak Ixtali." The teacher explains. I shoot a soft glare at him as another man, this one younger than the linguist, walks in bearing a ring that was similar to the Empress'.
"...Qiyana?" The man speaks in Ixtali. I look to the linguist to understand the first part of his words..
"Princess." He translates. I repeat the man's first word. Qiyana turns around when she hears me. It takes her a moment to realize what I'm doing and she immediately bounds up to me. She repeats her new teacher's word.
"Princess." I sound out carefully to her. She sticks out her tongue to the linguist and repeats what I just taught her. The man starts to speak rapidly to her. She sighs and walks away.
Her grasp on language has always been poor as she never had an interest in it. She tried to prove her adeptness at different languages, and he just shut her down.
"Sounds like when I was a child, when my mother tried to teach me how to speak my Mother's tongue. It took Father speaking it constantly with Mother before I finally learned." I reminisce.
"So, shall we begin our lessons in Ixtali?" The man asks. I sigh and nod. We start to go over different objects in the library. Starshadow unhelpfully points out that my accent is too strong to the point where I'm almost swearing when I'm trying to say book. We get into a heated argument when there's a loud bang. I instantly try to locate the source.
"Qiyana!" My new teacher yells. He quickly runs to the injured princess. I scramble to my feet and follow him.
Not even a day. Can we have one day where we arrive in a new country not be filled with so much adventure? Just one day.
Not the time Starshadow! I yell in my head. We round a corner to see Qiyana whimpering as she holds her side. The weapons teacher is yelling at her for something. Starshadow slithers off my body, spitting Ixtali out so fast I can't even try to make out syllables. The ring teacher pales and quiets down. What happened?
Qiyana had learned the basics in seconds. She asked him for more. He said that the advanced techniques were for her sisters as she is the youngest and will probably never need to learn. So Qiyana glared at him and started to mimic what she saw her mother could do. You can guess that it was quite advanced. Even better, she actually managed to get the earth to respond to her before she got hurt. He started to rant about what an idiot child she is. Naturally, I shut that down really fast.
"What's wrong with her?" I tap Starshadow's head in thanks as I kneel next to her and try to help her. She squirms away from me.
The ring was going at incredible speeds, but she didn't have the right stance. As a result, a rock crashed into her side hard. That was why she screamed. Starshadow translates the man's babble. I touch her shoulder and will my magic to make her not feel pain anymore. She stops wiggling and looks down at her side. I carefully help pull her shirt up and wince. Her side looks terrible, dark red and spreading. I don't think her rib is supposed to look like that either...
"You're going to have to hold still, ok?" I ask. The linguist translates what I am saying before Starshadow gets the chance. She nods and lies back down. I lay my hands on her waist and carefully pull on my magic. My hands glow and envelope the area on Qiyana's waist. Both Teachers and Qiyana watch carefully. My forehead and back is completely covered in sweat by the time her rib shifts back into place after half an hour. I can barely see when her bruise is gone an hour later. Starshadow taps my shoulder to let me know that I've finished. When I don't move, he uses his tail to pull my hands away. My head spins a little bit before I can't sit upright anymore. My eyes close against my will and I fall into blissful sleep.
I'll be honest, I was doing my research, and I noticed that most places know Demacian as a language. Makes a bit of sense when you see the regions that can reach Demacia, but Ixtal just so happens to be one place that did not have Demacian as a primary language. It's Ixtali. As such, I'd think that only those in power would learn the language just in case. As Leilah was rather isolated as a child, she wouldn't know Ixtali, only Demacian, some Targonian, and her Mother's tongue. It's certainly a concept that not many of us have thought of, amiright?
Well, that's my rant on languages. We met little eight year old Qiyana. I wonder who else we'll meet while she in Ixtal this time? (We all know she's going to visit countries, even cities multiple times. (cough Noxian invasion cough.) Enjoy your day and be extraordinary!