Sivir IV

Senpai was a confusing person. When we first met, he was a terrifying sight, a massive figure covered in scars and magic burns, remnants of his eons long battle with Xerath. Pained by his many wounds, exhausted by his eternal battle, nearly driven mad by his long isolation, he still decided to tend to a random young girl he found in the ruins he was trapped in, with all signs pointing to her as a treasure hunter, a looter of the place he guarded for millennia.

It was a sharp contrast to how I've always lived my life, how I've always looked after myself first and screw everyone else.

I knew how to fight before I met him, how to survive in the harsh lands of Shurima, but in the time I spent healing under his care, I learned more than I ever thought possible. Eldritch wisdom from a mind once human, spoken in vague riddles and alien tongues.

Mercy is a luxury afforded only by the strong. He told me when I asked him why he was troubling himself with my recovery. Suddenly, all the confidence I had in my own abilities, the pride I had in my own survival skills, turned to doubt. Could I truly call myself strong when the first thing I always think of to protect myself was to kill those in my way? When here was a godlike being tending to someone who was practically robbing their gravesite?

Shurima had plenty of thieves, bandits, rival treasure hunters, mercenaries and other riffraff. I've been accosted by my fair share of them, and none of them came out of it alive. Most of them were probably deserving, but how many of them only wanted to feed their families in this harsh land? How many children have I orphaned in my self absorption?

It is only when you have someone precious to protect that you truly become strong.

I didn't understand it back then. Now, as I stand amongst the crying children of Kalamanda, my attention turned from the ship shrinking in the horizon towards my companions: Taliyah, engaging the younger three in a group hug; Zaifa, her telescope focused on the far away ship; Kadira, stoic as ever but with a noticeable wetness in her eyes; and Lady Ahri, who was smiling that familiar smile that meant she knew something the rest of us didn't. I think I'm starting to understand, Senpai.

The sound of crying children made me reminisce, the past two months flickering in my mind's eye, two months of making Kalamanda our home.

The sound of crying children reverberated in the plaza as Senpai told them the story of how Simba, the Lion Ascended, was led to believe that he was the one to kill Mufasa, his father.

Two months of preparing us and the people of Kalamanda for the war to come.

The sound of walls being scrubbed clean as the roars of 'wax on, wax off' echoed in the night.

And after all of that, he still made plans to leave us. To leave his home and his family?

I am needed elsewhere. Will you protect our family while I'm gone, Sivir?

Damn it, Senpai.

I shall-

Still, I have faith. He knows that Shurima still needs him, and as long as the children of Shurima needs warriors to protect them, the Butcher of the Sands will always-

-return

A tug at the hem of my cloak turned my attention away from the ship. It was a child, one of the local children who spends their afternoons lounging on Senpai's back as he entertained them with fantastic tales.

"Miss Sivir? Lord Renekton said you'd tell us stories while he was gone?"

My first instinct was to curse that damnable reptile, but the words died in my throat as I looked around. A huge portion of the city came to the docks to see Senpai off. The adults were looking at me with expectant eyes, as though I held the answers now that Senpai wasn't here. The children were looking at me with innocent eyes, trusting that their favorite Storyteller, the massive reptilian figure that even their own parents trusted enough to leave them with, knew what he was doing when he left them in my care.

Will you protect our family while I'm gone, Sivir?

Damn it, I don't even know any of these children's names. And yet...

Will you protect our family while I'm gone, Sivir?

And yet, I knew, with all my heart, that when Senpai told me to protect our family, he didn't just mean our ragtag group. He meant Kalamanda, and the people in it. If I didn't know better, I'd say he even meant everyone in Shurima, but that's the emperor's job, not mine.

Will you protect our family while-

Shut up, you stupid reptile, I know already!

====
Nasus III

When Azir asked me to help him chase down Xerath, I refused. My redemption, the rebuilding of Verauka, comes before my vengeance. When he came to me again, telling me of how his scouts reported Xerath building up forces to raid nearby villages, I nearly jumped at the chance. But my mind flashed back to my failure, of burning homes and bloodied corpses, and I refused him once more.

When he told me that the targeted Noxus-held village - Urzeris - and the nearby Shuriman port city - Kalamanda - at the western borders of Shurima were the last known locations of not just my brother but also of the young heir, I faltered.

I expected the people of Vekaura to hate me, to judge me for my failure, to blame me, rightfully so, for the deaths of their kin. I didn't expect them to give Azir's army, and specifically me, a grand farewell.

"Thank you for everything Curator!"

"Please stab one of Xerath's raiders for me!"

"I want you to know Curator, it wasn't your axe that killed my wife. It was Xerath's foul magic."

I could feel the tears welling in my eyes. It almost made me want to refuse Azir again, to redouble my efforts in helping these kind and strong children of Shurima.

The march was long, and though Azir's army of sand was tireless, the humans, the people of Shurima who willingly raised their spears when Azir called for aid, whose eyes blazed with patriotic fury as more tales of villages being burned down in a rain of fire and lightning spread around, still had mortal limits.

"Emperor." I entered the dome of sand that he constructed with his magic as his abode tonight. He greeted me cheerfully, the stern gaze of his hawk-like visage a contrast with the tone of his voice.

"Nasus! Any reports from the scouts?" I shook my head.

"Nothing relevant, Emperor. They say we are three days march away from the coast of the Conqueror's Sea." Three days away from Kalamanda, where my brother was rumored to be staying. I felt a chill down my spine as Xerath's words echoed in my head.

He is nothing more than a mad dog and he blames you for it. The Butcher of the Sands will get his due Nasus, and I will watch him tear the flesh from your bones.

"Emperor..." I start off hesitantly. Sharp eyes gazed back at me, piercing me with an intensity I've only ever known from Renekton.

"My brother, I've heard rumors." I expected anger, perhaps regret and sympathy from him. What I didn't expect was boisterous laughter.

"Teacher has always been a surprising person, Curator." Teacher? Azir was never fond of the more martial practices, preferring to read in the library over training, so the way he spoke of my brother with such respect was surprising.

"What do you mean?"

Azir shook his head, as though he was reminiscing.

"Would you say that I've ruled well this past few months, Curator?"

A strange question, but now that I think of it, Azir's rule was different than what I expected of him. He has always been a firm believer in preserving Shurima's legacy, and I expected him to think that Shurima must be reborn as it once was, with the exception of the abolishment of slavery.

And yet, his rule was surprisingly novel. Instead of rapidly expanding from the Sun Disc and demanding that the cities within the continent swear fealty, he let them be, claiming that whether they bend the knee or not, he would embrace them as children of Shurima and protect them as a father would his own children.

"I would, Emperor." He nodded at me in thanks.

"That is good to hear, Curator. But everything I've achieved, from my resurrection to my ascension, is all thanks to your brother. I can honestly say that I would gladly give him half the empire if he only asks."

Then, he told me a story that rattled me to the core. That my brother, who I have believed all this time to be rabid madman, was the one who was responsible for Sivir's blood reaching the Sun Disc. That Renekton was the one who channeled Azir's anger not at the children of Shurima but at Xerath, where it rightfully belonged. That Renekton was the one who taught Azir what it meant to be a ruler, to be a proper leader to his people.

Wisdom was never something I attributed to my brother. He was strong and intelligent, loyal to a fault. But he was also reckless and violent, preferring to speak with his blades rather than his mouth. It was easy for me to believe Xerath's words regarding his mental state.

I doubted him. I doubted my brother. I doubted Renekton, the loyal man who was ready to sacrifice his body and soul to the Sun Dics just to give me a chance - a very small chance - at life. I clenched my fists. Xerath has shamed me enough.

"Emperor!"

My self flagellation was interrupted when a group of soldiers burst into the dome.

"The scouts have reported back! Xerath's raiders are besieging Kalamanda!" Azir rose to his full height, his regal aura dominating the room. Soldiers and guards knelt around us.

"We march immediately, the Emperor commands it!" A roar of affirmation echoed in the room as people rushed out to rally the men. The soldier who spoke earlier shuffled in place, catching our attention.

"Speak, child." Azir demanded. The soldier hesitated.

"More reports, my lord. Nothing but rumors, no proof..." Azir walked up to him and placed a taloned hand on one shoulder.

"Speak your concerns, child, your Emperor listens to his loyal people."

The soldier stood, pride straightening his back.

"Emperor! The scouts who have entered the city reported that Lord Renekton left the city a few days ago for an important mission, leaving... leaving..."

"Leaving the city unprotected?" I prompted the soldier. His hesitation over saying this was strange but I haven't been a lowly foot soldier in a long time so I might have forgotten how nerve-wracking it is to speak to an Emperor. He shook his head.

"Leaving his pregnant wife in the city, sir." he finished.

My mind was blank. My ears were filled with a buzzing noise. The Many Flames threatened to explode from my body, held in place by unbreakable will.

My brother's wife.

His pregnant wife.

Renekton's pregnant wife. My sister. My niece or nephew.

And Xerath is besieging the city they're in.

Resolve filled me. Resolve I thought long lost, laid low by the Fall of Shurima, picked apart by my brother's imprisonment, consumed by the Darkin War, returned in full.

I thought Verauka would be the fires of redemption that would burn away my guilt and self-doubt. I was wrong. This was the flame of love and loyalty, towards the man who would risk total incineration in body and soul for his brother.

When I next opened my eyes, it was filled with the light of the Many Flames. When I exited the dome, it was to the sight of the sands whipping around the army, leaving them untouched but protected from external threats. When I gripped my axe, it burned with familiar blue flames.

I am Nasus.

Curator of the Sands.

And the flames of my spirit will incinerate Xerath until he is but sand in the wind.

Rawr. Uwu. Boop.