'He lies', Asa said. To her surprise, Irelia wanted to believe him.

She rode beside Asa's cart as they travelled south, following the road to the treeline, where the man called Nobu had told them the path left by the war beast would be easy to find. She faced Asa, and he squinted back at her; the sun was high in the West and over her shoulder, it scrutinized the small man as surely as she did. Yu and Eiji rode nearby, and they looked to Asa as well. Yet the man was unwavering. She imagined that he would stare down the sun itself if it suggested the Noxian woman's guilt.

'His story sounded reasonable enough', she replied carefully. Master Nobu's story had been just that, reasonable, and no more. He and his friends had been pursued and left the road. They had been caught and attacked. They had wounded one of the Noxians and escaped.

The man had not painted them a picture so much as drawn them a line. His story had come in a shape too simple to have any holes in it. 'What did he say that was a lie?' She was challenging Asa to find the hole, a clue to a path that led somewhere other than bloodshed. Not for the Noxian's sake, but because she liked Asa and wanted him to be happy.

'Do not interpret my words uncharitably, but that master Nobu yet lives is evidence that my daughter did not mean him harm.' Irelia frowned, it wasn't what she was hoping for.

'Then, you don't doubt that they met?' Asa shook his head.

'I don't think it's likely that two pairs of Noxians with war beasts passed through on the same day', he admitted.

'And you don't doubt that there was a fight?', Irelia insisted, trying to find where it was that Asa could see the break in the man's story. He shook his head again.

'No, there certainly was, and it's clear who lost.'

'Three men died', Irelia reminded him seriously.

'Riven did not kill them.' He said it just as seriously. Irelia closed her eyes and her blades folded behind her like a fan.

'How do you know?'

'Because my Riven is not a murderer.' Irelia bit her tongue. Even if the man was right and she had not killed those men, Riven had been a murderer long before she'd come to the village. She swallowed those words. Yu did not.

'Yes, she is.'

'Nomura Yu!', Irelia shouted. Her student slowed her horse and allowed herself to fall behind the others a few paces, silence overtaking her. For his part, Asa just lifted a hand and let it fall.

'There's no need to yell, I have heard worse', Asa said, and faced ahead. 'But, thank you', he added. His jaw was clenched and his face tightened, deepening his wrinkles such that they cast shadows. He was old, certainly, but to Irelia he seemed ancient in his joylessness.

'I will try to accept what you say, maybe she is not a murderer', Irelia said as she rested her gaze on him. She waited until he was looking back at her before she continued, 'but, she is a killer, is she not?'

'That's a cruel question, blade dancer', Asa said as they reached the treeline. Even so, he nodded. 'Yes.' The pain the admission caused him was visible in every crease of his face and the way his shoulders fell as he spoke the word. Irelia nodded as she dismounted from her elk. She hadn't wanted to hurt the man, but she needed to know he could see some truth about the Noxian. She tried to smile at him, to show her appreciation for his honesty. 'It is a sad truth, but the world needs killers', the old man said, and stole her smile.

'I don't see- What do you mean by that?', Irelia asked. Asa descended from his cart and ran a calloused hand along the flank of his ox as he approached her. When he spoke his voice was gentle.

'How many lives did you end to free us from Noxus?', he asked, and even Irelia's blades winced from the verbal impact. Each polished knife trembled once in the air before floating to her shoulders as if to hide behind her for protection.

'It is not the same!' Even if she had wanted to answer him, she didn't know. She didn't know, and not knowing something so important brought her great shame. Asa regarded her quietly, allowing her time to recompose herself or say whatever she might, but nothing came to her, and she felt small before the old man. He had begun to remind her of her grandmother.

'You see?', he said and leaned on his cane in her shadow. 'It is a cruel subject- But also a necessary truth. You and my Riven have both taken lives, and will likely take more. I will not say that it's right, but...', he paused and took a step closer to her, extending his hand to her with his palm up, 'may I see your hand?' Irelia found she had to still a tremble before answering.

'Go ahead.' She allowed the old man to take her smooth and cold hand in his gnarled and bony one.

'These hands know the weight of a life,' he said. 'I would trust my own life in them far better than I would trust well-intentioned hands that did not know better.'

'I see', Irelia said, her throat swelling uncomfortably as she formed the words.

'Riven's hands are much the same.'

Irelia led the way into the forest ahead of Asa and Eiji; Yu was left behind to guard the cart and animals. She had wanted a moment away from Asa and his strange insights, and the path the Noxians had left into the ravine was the perfect opportunity.

The trail left by the war beast was not hard to follow, the animal had been huge. Small trees had been entirely bowled over, bushes crushed, and the prints left by its massive feet were deep enough to collect water without losing their shape. Anger simmered in Irelia's stomach as she wondered what purpose Noxians could have for bringing such a beast to her homeland.

Behind her, Eiji and Asa were plodding at what was a reasonable pace for a man with a cane and a penchant for small talk. She slowed her pace so that they could catch up to her without having to hurry, and in doing so, came within earshot of their conversation. Eiji was speaking easily about music while Asa occasionally prodded him on with more questions. Where did he get his instrument? Who taught him to play? What had made him want to learn? And at every gentle prying, Eiji opened up further, happy to speak about his passion to anyone who would listen, and Asa was turning out to be a very good listener.

Irelia sighed, she was not angry with Asa, but she wished he would be so gentle with her as he was with Eiji. She knew that so long as she was a threat to the Noxian woman, 'his Riven', their conversations could not be so light. Even so, Asa tended to be warm with her, and she found herself admiring his gentle spirit.

Asa was not a killer. In fact, he had not one violent bone in his body, she could feel it. And yet, Asa could consort with killers like the Noxian and, though she was loath to admit it, herself. Asa was not at all like them, he radiated a timeless peace that she had only ever known on one other person. He was root, and earth, and wood, as surely as she was a knife. Asa could see past her actions as easily as he looked past the Noxian's. Irelia wondered if her grandmother could have ever felt the same as he did. She frowned.

Crimes do not go away because we're forgiven, she told herself. It had been years, what was done was done. Asa possessed an unimaginable power of forgiveness, but that only made Asa good, not her, and certainly not 'Riven'.

Her foot missed the ground, finding a watery hole instead. She reclaimed her balance before she finished falling, but found herself looking down into a misshapen footprint. It belonged to the war beast, she was sure, but it wasn't shaped like the others. There seemed to be an extra toe, but with a wide, rounded tip. She stood when she heard Eiji's voice.

'Find something, Relly-', he paused, and then hurriedly spoke again an entire octave higher, 'find something, Captain?' Irelia stood quickly and turned to face Eiji, meaning to reprimand him. She saw Asa beside him, quietly watching her reaction, and settled for merely raising her eyebrows at Eiji in silence. It was enough, and there were more important things to talk about than formality.

She waved Asa and Eiji over to the footprint, telling them, 'be careful, I tripped', as they went. The admission made Eiji raise his eyebrows in turn, but she did not acknowledge the questioning look he gave. The two came to her and together the three inspected the print. 'What do you see?', she asked them. It didn't take long for her to see a light of realization come over Asa's features. He traced the outline of the print for Eiji's benefit.

'This is not one, but two footprints', he said and stroked his chin sagely. He locked eyes with Irelia across the mudhole they were inspecting, and she nodded in agreement.

'Ah', said Eiji. 'I don't get it.' Irelia's head lolled on her neck, and she looked to the skies, asking the spirits for patience, before speaking.

'The beast's print was here first', she said flatly. Finally, understanding sparked in Eiji's eyes.

'The beast was followed', Eiji said. Asa looked elated.

'Or', Irelia offered with a frown, 'we're not the only ones tracking them.' Asa's expression soured. 'Noxians wandering the heart of the first lands would not go long unnoticed by the Brotherhood', she said. Asa humphed and spat into the footprint. Irelia smiled knowing that, at least, she would see eye to eye with Asa on that topic.

'It could also be the Shadow', he said, looking like he might spit again. Irelia did not miss the concern in his voice.

The trio collectively nodded and moved on. It didn't take them long to reach a shallow point in the river. The bank nearest them had clearly been disturbed. Across from them, two bodies lay in a clearing. Irelia set her jaw. The men really were dead, then. She looked over the scene.

The ground that had clearly been trod across more than once. She crossed the shallow river. Behind her, she heard Eiji offer to carry Asa across on his back. She wasn't surprised when the small man accepted.

The bank was a mess of faded prints in the mud and clay, but it was impossible to tell much from them. People had come, and gone, from multiple angles, and there had been enough commotion that nothing grew in a large, rough, grey circle. She swallowed hard as she walked past the mess left in the dirt, careful to disturb it as little as possible, to the two bodies that lay side by side.

The men had clearly been moved, but respectfully so. They were face up, with their eyes closed, and their arms laid across their chests. In their arms they held the broken remains of their weapons; a spear and an axe, respectively. She knelt between them as Eiji and Asa reached the bank and walked over to her. She hummed to steady her thoughts while she inspected the bodies; familiar images came to her of tired faces as they paid reverence to their enemies. Those thoughts were unwelcome, so she hummed them away and inspected the bodies.

The dead men still had their purses, personal effects, and their boots. Nothing seemed to be missing from them, except the spark of life. The surprise she felt at the propriety their corpses had been treated with mingled with rage. They should not have been corpses.

'Where is the third?' She didn't really expect an answer. Nonetheless, Eiji took to searching the area. Irelia stayed where she was and gestured a sign to the spirits as she bowed her head. Behind her eyelids came flashes of her own family in shallow graves. These men had not even been buried. Her heart began to pound in her ears. It sounded like war drums.

'It is loathsome to see lives ended by violence', Asa said in a low voice. He knelt beside her, though it took some effort and he groaned as his joints protested. He placed his cane across his thighs with his palms flat against his lap and bowed his head as well. The sigh that followed seemed to deflate him, and his pale eyes fell closed.

'This loathsomeness is all that Noxians ever create,' she replied.

The river water streaked black as it washed over Riven's hands, sending a darkened wake of filthy water downstream. It wasn't enough, she continued to scrub at her hands, first skin to skin, then grabbing a stone from the riverbed and using that to try and scour away the stain with the rough surface. That didn't work, either. Pressure built in her head, she scrubbed harder.

'Riven?' The black that poured off of her hands would not diminish in either darkness or volume. She continued to work the rock against her hands, hissing through her teeth as she scraped away her skin, but the stain would not lift.

'Riven, stop', a hand landed on Riven's shoulder. She seized her attacker by the wrist and spun, ready to- Teneff. It was just Teneff, she exhaled. Once, twice. Teneff swallowed, Riven dropped the rock. Teneff was looking back at her with eyes that were both wide and unmoving. She released her grip on her sister's wrist, and the contact came away sticky, leaving a dark stain in the shape of Riven's fingers over Teneff's skin. Her blood, she was bleeding. Riven blinked once with intent, and tried breathing again. She flexed her hand, it hurt. She focused on it, and the reality of the pain in her hand seemed to bring Teneff more into focus.

Only then could she see Teneff's concern, and not just the expression meant to convey it. Teneff was worried, scared even. Clarity pooled in her stomach like acid. She had nearly killed Teneff. She covered her mouth with her bloodied hand. She could smell the blood, feel it on her lips, and when her tongue searched there for words not found in her mouth, she tasted it. It was hers, but that didn't matter. It could have been Teneff's.

'Riven?', Teneff repeated. She slowly, cautiously, placed her hands on Riven's shoulders. Riven tensed under the touch, but did not push her away. Instead she stepped backward into the river, soaking herself to the knee. She didn't like to be touched at the best of times. 'What happened?', Teneff insisted.

'I- I don't know', Riven said. She walked past Teneff, keeping her out of arm's reach, to the tree where she had hung the wrapping for her scarred arm. 'I was thinking, and then I was gone. I could have killed you.'

Teneff nodded as Riven began wrapping her raw hand in the dirty white fabric. 'But, you didn't.' Riven could only stare at her.

'Is that supposed to make this all right?' Riven swallowed hard. 'Maybe taking off the irons was a bad idea.' Teneff rolled her eyes.

'Oh, of course. The chains that you can apparently snap like so much string when it suits you, they're what have kept me safe on our journey.' She stared hard at Riven, slightly inclining her head to send home the point. Riven shrugged. 'It's not quite like that, it was hard.'

'Until I was hurt,' Teneff said. 'I'm not stupid.' Riven's chest tightened, and she felt the skin of her face wrinkling together, though she was unsure what expression she wore.

'I couldn't lose you twice. But just now-'

'If you wanted my life, you would have taken it', Teneff reminded her, reciting the words in the same calm and matter of fact way that Riven had only a couple of nights prior. And then the tightness was gone, Riven released the breath she held and nodded.

'Thank you, sister', she said simply. Teneff waved it off.

'This is not my first brush with The Wolf.'

'You never were in danger of meeting The Lamb', Riven said, and despite herself, she smiled. It was small, but she felt it there as surely as the pain in her hand.

'Noxians never are, and when we meet The Wolf, we fight him, too.' Riven's smile dimmed and she chewed on the inside of her cheek.

'Teneff, I don't want to fight anymore.' The look Teneff returned to her was as sad as it was confused.

A broken chain, the band of each link as thick as a man's finger, lay at the base of a tree. Mostly. Two links of it were embedded into the bark of the tree, suspending the rest so that it hung around the trunk in a loose spiral. Connected to the first two links, and buried deeper into the wood, was what remained of a third. It had been warped, no, shattered by…Something. Asa had his hunch, and he kept it to himself.

'What do you think did this?', Eiji asked, eyes wide with bewilderment as he pointed to the widest part of the gouge in the tree. And yet, no evidence of destruction beyond the point where the chain must have been struck. 'Think it happened during the fight?'

'Yes', Irelia answered from where she knelt, her fingertips inside the hole in the tree. 'The tree is still bleeding sap.' She turned to look at Asa, and he felt himself being studied by her gently narrowed eyes. 'You said she left in chains, but this looks better suited to moor a ship than to tether a prisoner', she said, and ran her fingers along the thick links of dark Noxian steel. He nodded as he watched her. He remembered the feel of her hand and wondered if she was conscious of how similar she was to the metal under her touch. Something sparked in her face then, her eyebrows descending over her eyes to darken them. The subtle flare of her nostrils and the creasing of her skin made her look almost sinister in the shade of the tree. She whispered to herself. He could not hear her, but he could read her lips. She was repeating what he'd told her before.

'...That master Nobu yet lives is evidence that my daughter did not mean him harm', he'd said. He leaned on his cane and firmed his face, willing himself to look neutral and unaffected.

'She was tied here', Irelia breathed. She looked to the dirt directly underneath herself and moved her palm over the dirt, then she gripped the chain just below where it was embedded into the tree and stood. 'She broke it', her eyes were wide with realization when she looked to Asa again, and when she spoke her voice was demanding.

'Who is she?' Irelia stood, and Asa took a step back. Her blades fanned around her, and he had seen them move enough to know this was not a threat, that they mirrored her emotions. The knowledge didn't make the sight any less unnerving to him. Still, he held her gaze, though he had to look up as he did so. 'Master Konte, who is the woman you call your daughter?', she was not shouting. She didn't need to shout.

Eiji's hand landed on his shoulder then, and the younger man stood as if to step between them. He shook his head at Irelia, and spoke in a very careful tone. 'Captain, being in this place has pushed us off balance. Remember, he has lost as much as we. This isn't how we should ask.' Silence hung between the three. Irelia's blades slowly shrank behind her, as if to hide, and she cast her eyes down and sideward before nodding.

'I apologize', she said. 'Sometimes, seeing death makes me forget myself.' Asa nodded.

'I understand', he said, and sighed. 'I will, of course, tell you. But, let's get these men back to their families, first. It's a difficult subject...And it may be made easier with tea.' It was Irelia's turn to nod.

The three collectively relaxed themselves and set about approaching the bodies. As Eiji turned from him, Asa knocked him gently on the arm with his cane to get his attention. 'Thank you, my boy. Your captain was beginning to remind me of my Shava just then. Not a woman you'd want to cross. She'd have liked you-', Eiji was smiling, Asa shook his head. 'I ramble', he said, and let the lad get back to what he was doing.

Leaning on his cane, he watched Eiji begin to play his flute. It did not particularly surprise Asa when the forest around him reacted to the music. The brush and roots extended themselves into a helpful footbridge, and somewhere in his chest Asa had known that Eiji had the gift, but his thoughts remained on the remarkable storm that he had seen in Irelia's eyes. He would not tell her, but she had reminded him of his daughter, and he dared to think she'd make a fine Noxian.

Then he frowned and began to wonder just how he would explain to her who his daughter had been.

'Spirits help me', he muttered.

Asa led the way back to his cart. He was the only one not carrying someone else, and he made himself useful marking every deepened beast print, fallen log, or raised root that could trip the others. In honesty, his concern was mostly for Eiji, he had no doubt that Irelia's balance and reflexes would keep her upright.

But, even as he walked, and marked, and called out any unhelpful or dangerous thing he saw, he was desperately grasping at ways in which he might, with just the right words, explain Riven to Irelia. When he had first met the blade dancer she'd seemed to flow with calm, like a great body of water. The wind could make waves but never push beneath the surface. He cursed himself for not realizing how alike to Riven she truly was. His daughter's heart, he knew, raged like an unquenchable fire, and yet, outward the woman was stony as the earth. The two were equal and opposite, and he increasingly worried that their paths would cross in violence.

His ears keened, or did their best given his age. Someone was calling from the road, and he was sure it was Yu. He scrambled forward as best her could, wary of how his cane would sink into the soft earth, or his old joints might fail him.

'Yu is calling for us!', he yelled over his shoulder, but it didn't surprise him to see Irelia and Eiji were already rushing forward. He shuffled as best he could to the side of the path to let them pass. Irelia bounded past him with a man on her back, supporting him with his legs astride her waist the way one might carry a child. Even with her weight more than doubled she was graceful, he wondered if one of her parents had been a river. Eiji ran past second, he had the man he carried folded over his shoulder at the middle.

Once they passed, Asa did his best to catch up, but climbing out of the ravine, even with the path cleared, was not something he could easily do at speed. Eventually, he had to temper his concern and admit to himself that he had to take it slow.

By the time he arrived, much of the commotion had settled, but not all. His three companions knelt around a man. He lay on the ground, naked from the waist up and wrapped in dirty white cloth. On one side they were soaked red and stained brown. His torso was slightly misshapen, dented, and at the edge of his arm's reach lay a lamellar breastplate with damage that mirrored his own. Asa did not miss that the armour matched that of the two dead men that lay in his cart. The third man had been located, and although barely, he was alive. Though, for how long, was uncertain.

The man was barely breathing, and his eyes looked nearly vacant. The three had rolled him onto his wounded side, and that had seemed to help, but his coughs came weakly, and when they did, blood splattered from his lips.

'They punctured his lung', Irelia was saying, and patting the man's back forcefully, trying to get what blood she could out of the lung he had that still worked. 'We have to get him to the menders.'

AN:

Hello again! Thanks for reading!

I'm having so much fun writing these characters, and I'm sorry the updates take as long as they do. I spend a lot of time trying to make sure the characters are true to their canon counterparts, and I can be... Nitpicky with my own work. I hope you're all enjoying it!

I left a few tidbits of old lore lying around in this chapter, if anyone spots them!

A few notes I forgot last time!

1. The Ionian characters are not using Ionian words in dialogue because... Well, there are no Noxians around, so they're just speaking to each other in Ionian.
2. Yu and Eiji are not strictly OC's, they're meant to be Blossoming Blade and Field Musicians, respectively. Cards from Legends of Runeterra, but... Heavily adapted to suit my character needs.

Let me know what you think! Criticism is wholly welcome, as well. This story is an exercise for me, I'm getting my writing skills back into shape. As such the style may change a bit from chapter to chapter, and I hope it isn't jarring.

Cheers!