Savannah grabbed the iron handle on the heavy stone door and, with only one hand, pulled it open. At full strength, Quinn would have had trouble moving that door, but this woman pulled it open with ease. Something wasn't right about her.

Savannah motioned to enter.

The room was just as the hallway and stairs were: plain stone, illuminated by candles. It was the splash of blue that caught her attention before anything else. A splash of blue belonging to an Azurite eagle standing on a perch.

"Valor?" He waved at her with his wing. "What the hell are you doing here?" He pointed his wing at Savannah. "Did you kidnap him too?"

"After I explained the situation, he agreed to come."

"You make it sound like you had a conversation with him."

Savannah said nothing as she left the room. Quinn walked over to Valor and talked in hushed tones. "You okay? She didn't force you down here did she?" Valor shook his head before giving a thumbs up with his wing. "It's not fine Val, I couldn't refuse. I tried to kick her down the stairs and didn't even budge her."

Valor extended his right wing, moving it up and down twice. "Okay, what's the first thing?" He spread his wings and... roared? Tried to roar? It was rather high pitched and not intimidating in any way. Quinn gave him a confused look. Valor glanced around the room before flying near a candle. He spread his wings, trying to roar again, then inhaled the flame of the candle, causing him to cough.

"You're not a dragon, you can't breathe fire." He just pointed in the direction Savannah has left the room. "You're saying she's a dragon." Valor nodded. She gave her eagle friend a long look. "Right... what's the second thing?"

His left wing extended, pointing. In the centre of the room, there was a large stone table that looked like it was carved out of the floor. It was certainly old, but nothing seemed special about it. "This isn't some kind of sacrificial table, is it?"

Valor shook his head and pointed left again. Another look brought to attention the six wooden chairs surrounding the table. The chairs were polished and padded, completely out of place with the ancient feel of the stone in the room. "Yeah, the chairs are out of place, but I don't see what the fuss is-"

Talons gripped her shoulders as Valor landed on her, the weight forcing her into a chair.

"Dammit, settle down."

He took his wings and framed her face, moving her vision to the side of the room. Cut into the walls were two shelves, each a few feet high and around seven feet long. And each had the remains of a body there, nothing but bones, but adorned with rusted armour and weapons. As Valor jumped from her shoulders, she approached the remains, seeing that below each shelf a faded symbol was carved into the stone. The shape was unmistakable: an eagle spreading its wings.

Valor brought his wings together, as if he was praying. "Of course you would say they were worshipping you."

The sound of footsteps caught her attention as a man walked into the room. He wore simple pants and a blue t-shirt, not the spiky yellow armour she was accustomed to seeing. She actually had to do a double take to make sure it wasn't a hallucination.

The man bowed, then spoke, "Prince Jarvan Lightshield the Fourth, Exemplar of Demacia, son of King Jarvan the Third. I honour the fallen warriors of Ancient Demacia."

Quinn closed her eyes, shook her head, then looked again. Yeah, it was Prince Jarvan: same steely jaw, same short dark hair, same everything else. She was both confused at seeing him and relaxed knowing somebody that was down here.

More footsteps caught her attention. As Jarvan the Fourth before, so did this man bow. "Xin Zhao, Seneschal of Demacia, indebted to Prince Jarvan Lightshield the Fourth. I honour the fallen warriors of Ancient Demacia."

Another familiar face. It was definitely him, with the long black ponytail flowing behind as he walked. Just like Prince Jarvan, he was wearing civilian clothes, mostly black in colour. Why weren't they in uniform or armour? If this was some kind of meeting, shouldn't they appear as Demacian soldiers?

He took a seat as Quinn spoke, "What's going on here?"

The Prince put his hand up. "Please wait. Then we will explain."

More steps. This time, a woman entered into view. She was tall and muscular, but also looked lithe, like she was ready to pounce at any given second. Her straight black hair hung just below her chin, with two light purple bangs that framed her face. The black pants were casual, but her white form-fitting shirt almost looked like thin leather armour. A rapier hung from her hip as she stood at attention at the doorway.

"Fiora Laurent, Matriarch of the House of Laurent, the Grand Duelist. Je rends hommage aux guerriers tombés au combat de l'Ancienne Demacia."

She sat down, and immediately, Quinn felt of air of arrogance around this woman. What were the words she'd said at the end? Quinn had never heard that language before.

More steps, this time sounding much heavier than any before. Looking to the door, Quinn expected a large man to appear. She was so very wrong.

A woman stood there, or at least, something appearing to be a woman. Her skin was blue and scaly, almost like a lizard's. Large horns protruded out the sides of her temples, curling to point forward. Plated red armour covered her head, shoulders, chest, and hips, which seemed odd, considering her blue skin looked like scales to begin with. Red eyes, almost burning eyes, looked directly at Quinn, with a grin that she had seen many times over the last few days.

"Savannah?"

The woman practically growled, "Shyvana. Dragon." Quinn waited for more out of the introduction, but the woman just took a seat.

Prince Jarvan the Fourth stood back up. "The Council of the Fallen comes to order."

Quinn looked at each of them. "I'm sorry, can we go over who the hell you people are again?"

Prince Jarvan cleared his throat. "I am Prince Jarvan Lightshield-"

"The short version."

"Prince Jarvan the Fourth."

Looked like him and sounded like him. Quinn nodded.

"Seneschal Xin Zhao."

Sench... sensei... "Know what, I'm just going to call you Sentinel." He, too, looked and sounded the same. She looked over at the normal-looking woman.

The glare directed at Quinn was not friendly. "Fiora Laurent. Petite fille."

Quinn glared right back. Those last two words made no sense, but they were not said with respect. "I only speak two languages: English and bad English. What did you say?"

"It is Ancient Demacian, peasant. I called you a little girl."

"We're going to get along great."

"Le sentiment est mutuel."

Ignoring what was probably an insult, Quinn looked over at the blue lady, then to Valor. "Okay, you were trying to tell me Savannah is Shyvana, and she's a dragon?" He nodded.

Shyvana laughed a very intimidating laugh before she brought her hand up and snapped her fingers. Fire sprouted from her hand.

Quinn just stared. "Holy shit, you're a dragon. Do you breathe fire too?"

Shyvana pursed her lips and blew, a small flame erupting from her mouth.

"So, do you, like, turn into a full-sized dragon? Can you fly around?"

Fiora scoffed. "What a child. This is the girl you want to be a part of this?"

Jarvan smiled. "I remember you asking questions like this when Shyvana was introduced as well."

"For strategic purposes. This purplette is awestruck."

Quinn glared. "What the hell is a purplette?"

"Your hair is purple. Idiot."

"At least you insulted me in English."

"Idiot is the same in English and Ancient Demacian."

Jarvan sighed. "Would you kindly let us explain what is going on to her?"

Fiora leaned back in her chair. "Very well."

Jarvan turned to Quinn. "I imagine you have some questions."

What the hell is going on? Why are you and the Sentinel here? What's the uptight woman's problem with me? Is Shyvana actually a dragon? Why is her skin blue? Are you going to kill me? "Let's start with where the hell are we?"

Jarvan motioned around him. "It's an ancient crypt, lost to history. We don't know who was laid to rest here, but their crypts are all adorned with the symbol of the Demacian eagle. They were important warriors, and we honour them every time we meet here."

"Honour them with secret underground meetings?"

Fiora laughed. "Do you honestly think all of our information should be available to everyone? Noxus, Piltover, Zaun, even Shurima has spies and assassins. They will not play fair. Neither will we."

"No one person can decide that."

"That's why we are here," Jarvan said, "That's why you are here. Demacia is a pillar of justice and righteousness. Spies and assassins try to undo that. Do you agree that they must be stopped?"

Quinn nodded.

"Would an army have caught Talon? Would an army have caught you?"

She thought back to when Garen and his men followed her. Quinn could have slipped by, or continued to outpace them. A single scout, or assassin, could fairly easily avoid them. "One person can stay much quieter than even a small group," she thought out loud.

Xin Zhao nodded. "The Prince cannot pursue assassins. Fiora is a duelist, not a tracker. I am the eyes and ears of the Prince, but it means I need to stay near him. Shyvana is a dragon. Subtlety is not her strong suit."

The dragon lady extended her middle finger.

Xin Zhao ignored the gesture and continued, "We could use your skills, Quinn. You are a scout, and with Valor, you can track and pursue people we simply cannot."

"As much as it pains me," Fiora chimed in, "you were the best option to catch the tueur."

"The what?"

"Killer," Shyvana said. "She flows in and out of Ancient Demacian. You'll get used to it."

Quinn shook her head. "I don't want to get used to it. You're talking about spying and murdering for Demacia."

Jarvan looked her in the eye. "Did I tell you to go and murder Talon?"

"You told me to catch him so he could face justice. I killed him in self-defense."

"Exactly. We are not judge, jury, and executioner. We are here to stop Demacia's enemies, not eliminate them. That is for war time, and hopefully it won't escalate to that."

"Then why the secrecy? If you're helping Demacia, then tell them."

Fiora sighed. "You will not catch an assassin if he knows. Soldiers need to be briefed, armed, marched."

Shyvana pointed a claw at her. "But not you. Jarvan told you what happened. It took you five minutes to get the information and prepare. About a half an hour to leave by horse. No council, no arguing on what to do between old men."

"Also, think of information," Xin Zhao said. "An informant told me, I told Prince Jarvan the Fourth, he told you. Three trusted people. If it goes through the army, it goes through a commander, then a committee to decide the action, then a captain, who briefs the soldiers-"

Quinn put her hand up. "Okay, okay, it's more efficient. But Demacians deserve to know."

"Would you rather cause panique in the streets?" Fiora interrupted. "Let us just announce that an assassin snuck in and killed the Commander of Fort Janelle. Let us make sure every personne thinks anybody can die at any given moment. That we cannot keep them safe. Tell us how that would help."

Quinn had no answer to that.

Prince Jarvan looked at her with those grey eyes. "We do this to keep them safe. We fight and capture in the shadows so the average Demacian doesn't have to worry. So they can live normal lives."

"I'm a normal Demacian. Why me?"

"You are a skilled scout with an eagle as a partner."

"I'm a semi-normal Demacian?"

"That's why your voice will matter," Shyvana said. "I'm a dragon. We have the Prince, the Prince's right hand man, and a matriarch. We don't have the voice of the normal Demacian here."

Quinn looked at them all in the eye. Other than a glare from Fiora, they were serious. She could feel sweat start to form on her forehead. Words tumbled from her mouth, "You want me to be a part of this?"

"We need a scout. Plus, your partner says you can be trusted." Shyvana pointed to Valor. "He spoke very highly of you."

"I'm sorry?"

"Azurite eagles can understand Dragonspeak, to some degree. Valor told me about you. You may not agree with our methods, but you are skilled and loyal to Demacia. That is something that cannot be dismissed."

Quinn had a look of disbelief on her face. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I'm just some girl from Uwendale."

"Told you this was a mistake, prince."

"Fiora, please." Jarvan stood up. "We want you to be a part of protecting Demacia. You can do more for your country with us than you could ever do in the army. This is strictly voluntary. You will get an equal voice here, and you will not be forced on any mission you do not agree with."

Her head was swimming. She was being asked to join a secret group for Demacia that met in an underground crypt. That was not what she wanted to do. She had agreed to keep her eyes open for Prince Jarvan, but this was well beyond that. Her trust was in Valor, however, and he would voice a warning if he thought this was wrong. What if Prince Jarvan was telling the truth? If she joined and could protect Demacia better... god, her head hurt.

Silence was all that left her mouth for a long moment.

"Do you refuse?"

"No... " Did she want to? She wasn't in the right state of mind to accept or refuse. "I need time to think about this."

"Do not take long," Jarvan said. "You have until tomorrow."

Shyvana stood up, taking a deep breath before muttering words that were not human in origin. Quinn became a slack-jawed idiot as the scaly blue skin shifted to pale white, the horns shrunk into her head, the eyes became just regular red human eyes, bright red hair sprouted from her scalp. She was Savannah once more. Even the armour had evaporated into normal clothing. Quinn was aware that she was staring, but couldn't look away.

"Come on." The human Shyvana walked over, helping Quinn to her feet, and provided escort out of the room.

They slowly made their way down the hall to the stairs, all the while, Quinn kept on staring at her companion.

"Shyvana, right?"

"Savannah in this form, but yes."

"So you're actually a dragon?"

"That's what I told you."

"You're going to have to show me that one day. If it's true."

"That's not important right now. You need to make a decision."

Quinn chuckled. "I don't think I want to say no to a dragon."

"It would be smart, but don't make that the key factor. You make the choice."

She nodded, before lightheadedness hit her. Savannah kept her from collapsing.

"I will take you back to the Estate."

"I want to talk later," Quinn said with much effort, "after I lay down."

"I can do that."

Xin Zhao closed the door behind them, then rubbed his temples. "Fiora, you don't have to like Quinn, but we, as a group, voted to include her. Insulting her at every opportunity doesn't help."

"She has yet to earn my respect."

"You judged her before she even spoke."

"She was distracted by those grandiose introductions that Shyvana suggested," Fiora said, "which she herself ignored. Arrogant dragon."

"They kept her off-guard."

"Whatever. Until proven otherwise, I am not impressed."

"Then give her the chance," Xin Zhao said. "That's all we ask."

"At least watch your words," Jarvan said. "As far as she knows, we don't kill. We need to keep it that way until she is comfortable with it."

"And if the petite fille never gets comfortable?"

"Then we'll have to cut her loose. We've done it before, and we'll do it again. We do what we must for Demacia."

A hand was touching hers when Quinn began to rouse from slumber. She looked into red eyes as her vision cleared up. "Savannah, why are you holding my hand?"

"Yes, I see she also has red eyes."

Quinn waited for her blurry sight to clear and noticed the woman's hair was black, not red. "Lestara?"

Her face looked full of worry, but she did flash a smile. "Quinn. Guess this is the last time I leave the city."

"This isn't your fault."

"I should have been here with my Rangers. Though I am impressed that you survived and killed Talon."

Quinn stared at Lestara. Did she mumble something during her sleep? "What are you talking about?"

"It's my job to know these things. Talon struck while we were gone, and you were ordered to pursue him. Those men at Command probably never thought you would catch up to him, and you would just return after a pursuit. They underestimated you."

Quinn took a moment to go over her words. Lestara didn't think they were orders from Jarvan, but from normal military men. Time to see if she could keep a secret and do this spying stuff.

"He almost killed me. If not for Valor, I would be dead."

"You faced off against a master assassin, killed him, and lived yourself. I'd say you did pretty well. Some of my Rangers have died to that man."

Visions of what she did to Talon emerged as she blinked. "I probably should have died."

Lestara gave her a stern look. "If I thought that, I wouldn't have petitioned for you. You are skilled, and you will get better. Now that I'm back, we can help you improve. In a couple days, of course." She stood up and started towards the door. "Savannah is outside. I told her I needed a few minutes with you. I tried to send her home, but she was ordered to assist you, so it was for naught."

Lestara made a couple steps towards the door before she turned around and gave Quinn a soft smile. "Make sure you get well, okay? When you're healthy, I'll introduce you to my Rangers."

All Quinn could do was nod as the door was shut. The guilt of the murder was still weighing very heavily, and it felt like it was crushing her. It went against everything she wanted to fight for as a Demacian. His death was justice, that she had no qualms about. But even when murderers were sentenced to death in Demacia, they were ended quickly. A clean death. Not the savage death that Quinn dispensed. Far as she thought, she now deserved death.

She shook her head to try and rattle the thoughts from it. One kill, Quinn. It was only one kill.

Her head fell into her hands. "No, it wasn't one kill, it was one murder. But he would have killed me. Self-defense," she tried to tell herself, "it was in self-defense."

Valor had been in the room, somewhere, as Quinn started to collapse once more. He flew over to her side, grabbing her attention. He started to beat on her chest with his wing, imitating a heartbeat. "Well, yeah, it's beating." He looked straight at her. He lifted his wing, then fell over. He put his wing to his own chest, beating on it like he did hers. But his beating slowed, then stopped. He laid still for a moment before he looked at her. His wing pointed to her, then to himself.

"You don't understand. I know it was him or us. That's... that's not the problem. It's how. He was dead, Val. He was dead. But I just kept on stabbing him. There was no reason for it. None." Her body started to shake, her heartbeat beating faster and faster. "Murderers do that – kill for no reason. I became a murderer." Valor's wings took her hands, pressing them together, attempting to stop them from shaking.

Red eyes saw the emotional breakdown. Savannah closed the door as silently as possible.

At some point, which she could not remember, Quinn had passed out. She woke in bed, Valor still enveloping her hands in his wings.

"You toss and turn as you sleep."

A woman was sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. Once more, Quinn looked into red eyes, but this time, she had red hair. Savannah looked back.

"Been a rough week," Quinn said.

If Lestara radiated elegance, Savannah was the opposite, her legs spread out as she slouched in the chair. "Can you move?"

Shifting in the bed, Quinn didn't feel a lot of pain, and let Savannah know as much.

"Then let's go for a walk."

"What for?" Quinn asked as she roused Valor from his sleep.

"You need to move to help your healing," she said as she got up and moved towards the bed. When she was close enough, she whispered, "And we have things to discuss."

"Where to?"

"To my home."

An hour later, Quinn, with Valor walking behind her, stood in the threshold of Shyvana's home. Whatever Quinn was expecting, this was not it: a simple home. Lights, furniture, chairs, tables, rooms, nothing was out of the ordinary at all. She looked around, trying to find something out of place.

"Never seen a normal house before?" Savannah said.

"Of course I have."

"Then what are you looking for?"

"I wasn't expecting... well, I'm not sure what I was expecting. Like, a-"

"If you say nest or cave I'll punch you in the face."

"Uhh... not that, but... help me out Val." Quinn looked to see her feathered friend nonchalantly looking at the ceiling, his back turned to them. "Great team player."

Savannah chuckled and led them further into the house. Nothing showed this to be the home of a dragon – except for perhaps the abundance of red in the furniture and carpets – which made sense when she was Savannah, the human, and not Shyvana, the dragon. A normal house for a seemingly normal woman.

She led them past the kitchen into a well lit sitting room, and Quinn was grateful for the large comfy chairs. Even Valor got in the seat of a chair rather than perching on the back of one.

"Do you want something to drink?"

"Whatever you're having."

"I'm having beer. You probably want to avoid that until you heal."

"What do dragons have in their home?"

"Water, beer, tea, wine, lamb's blood. Nothing out of the ordinary."

Quinn stared at her. Savannah stared right back stone-faced.

"I'll just have water."

The redhead nodded and left the room. Quinn couldn't help herself. "You're kidding about the lamb's blood, right?" she yelled out afterwards.

"Only one way to find out," was the response from the other room.

Quinn and Valor looked at each other. "You do it, Val." He shook his head.

Savannah re-entered the room with a cup of water and two mugs of beer the size of Quinn's head. She sat down and took a large swig of it before slouching in the chair, same as at the Buvelle Estate.

"I said I didn't want any beer."

"I heard you." Shyvana said before she drained one mug. "I enjoy beer."

"Are we doing this while you get drunk?"

"Dragons can't get drunk. Now, start talking."

Quinn took a deep breath. "You've been lying to me ever since we met."

She took a drink from the second mug. "Yep."

"Why?"

"Are you fucking serious?"

Quinn was taken aback by the response. "Well, yeah."

"You awake in a hospital bed to have a blue-scaled woman say 'I'm a dragon and I'm here to watch over you so we can recruit you into a secret society.' Let me know how that would go."

"I would have taken it in stride."

Savannah drained her second mug. "Not likely. You would have freaked out, you would have thought I was there to kill you, or you would have thought I was there to kidnap you. Nobody reacts to a dragon at their bedside in stride, Quinn. But drop it. You know why I lied, even if you don't like it. That's not the problem here."

"So what's the problem?"

"You murdering Talon."

Quinn felt the blood drain from her face. "I killed him in self-defense."

"You killed him in self-defense after he ambushed you. That's what the Council was told. He injured Valor, and fearing for your life, you killed him."

"That's what I said-"

"And so, you burned the body." Savannah interrupted. "You wanted to eliminate the evidence so Noxus wouldn't have proof of his death. That's what the Council heard."

Quinn was still nervous, but also getting annoyed. "Yes, that's what I-"

"A trained ranger, somewhat skilled in combat, burned the body of a target that she doubted was the target she was ordered to hunt. That makes sense."

Frustration was building. "Are you going to just repeat-"

"No." Savannah stood up and spoke in whatever ancient language she knew. Her body shifted from the pale redhead Quinn knew to the blue-scaled woman she did not.

"You said I've been lying to you since we met. Now, I'm not." She sat down and pierced Quinn's gaze with her fiery eyes. "I am Shyvana, and I'm a dragon. Let's only speak truth when I look like this. And let's start with the truth about Talon."

"I did tell the truth to the Council."

"You did tell the truth, but not the whole truth. Why would a trained ranger kill her target, question his identity, then burn his body so it could never be proven?"

Again, Quinn was feeling frustrated, even borderline angry. "I told you, so Noxus-"

"Sounds like a decision based on fear, if you ask me. Almost like she couldn't stomach what she had done, but burying the body wasn't an option. If you just bury the body, it's still there. It can be dug up, and she would have to explain what had been done. A burnt corpse can't do that, now can it? She can make up any story she wants then."

Heat was returning to Quinn's face. "I don't make up stories!"

Shyvana lunged at her faster then she could have ever reacted. A scaly hand wrapped around her throat, squeezing enough to make breathing more difficult. Shyvana's face was inches from her own. Every breath on her face was inhumanly hot as the intense fire in the dragon's eyes pierced her own.

"Apparently frustration and anger doesn't make you tell the truth. Let's try fear."

Shyvana's other hand, wreathed in flame, approached Quinn's face.

"I can kill you a lot faster than Talon ever could. It wouldn't take much to incinerate your body, just like you did to his."

Quinn was still too weak to struggle. Why wasn't Valor helping? Where was he? "You wouldn't... they would know."

"I'll just make up a story. If you can do it, I can to."

"I didn't-"

The hand around her throat tightened. Shyvana leaned in closer and growled in her face, "Stop lying to me." The hand loosened so she could speak. "What did you do to Talon?"

Quinn was defeated. She had to admit the truth. "I murdered him."

Immediately, Shyvana released her grip and sat down in her chair. "Tell me about it."

Quinn took a few deep breaths and looked at Valor, sitting in another chair, calmly looking at her. "Thanks for the help, Val."

"This was his idea."

"I'm sorry?"

Valor looked over at Shyvana and made a few noises.

Shyvana grunted. "Okay, the getting you to talk to me was his idea. How to do that was up to me."

"And your first idea was to choke me and threaten to burn me to death?"

"A little torture as well, if needed. But Valor insisted I try talking to you first and getting you to open up. You wouldn't admit it, even after I tried to do some not-lying-to-me-in-dragon-form symbolism crap. So I went with option A: fear and threat of death."

"What's wrong with you?" Quinn asked with a shocked look on her face.

"I'm a dragon. We don't do a lot of emotional stuff. We are blunt and we are direct. We don't... oh, what's the word he used... "

"Caw?"

Shyvana nodded in Valor's direction. "Pussyfoot. Thanks. You humans sure pussyfoot around everything."

"You really can understand him."

"Pretty much, but let's burn down that bridge when we get to it."

"I think you mean cross that bridge."

"Not to a dragon. I tried to do things all 'human' and talky and emotionally and you were having none of it."

Quinn raised an eyebrow. "I am supposed to tell the person who revealed she is a dragon disguised as a human that I lied to the Prince of Demacia, his bodyguard, and some jerk of a woman who has a giant problem with me?"

Shyvana seemed to ponder her words for a moment. "Fine, you got me there. That is why I turned into this hybrid form. Try and show trust, or faith, or whatever it is. Like I said, I'm not very good with this emotional crap."

Quinn rubbed her sore neck. "You don't say."

"Your friend thought I would be the best to help. He told me about what happened with Talon and requested it."

Valor just shrugged his shoulders.

"It's not like he didn't say 'don't threaten to kill her.' But enough. You murdered Talon."

Quinn sunk in the chair. "How much did he tell you?"

"Doesn't matter. You tell me."

In a very uncomfortable setting, Quinn told Shyvana everything: the fear of Valor being dead, the rage-induced murder of Talon, the burning of the body, and her loss of consciousness. Quinn had got up and started pacing about half way through it, even though she was tired and sore. Surprisingly, Shyvana did not interrupt at any point, and even if she didn't look like the most caring individual, she was definitely listening.

After a few moments of silence, Shyvana spoke. Her words were surprising.

"I fail to see what your problem is."

"I murdered a man in cold blood."

"A man that tried to kill you and whom you thought had killed your partner. I don't see the problem."

Quinn continued pacing in front of her chair. "I didn't just kill him, I spent several minutes stabbing his body. I can still feel the spray of blood on my face. I knew he was dead, and I didn't stop."

"Again, a man that tried to kill you and Valor."

"That's not how Demacians work. There was no honour in what I did. Murderers do what I did. I didn't stop when he was dead. I was so blinded by rage that I couldn't stop. He had to pay for what he had done to Valor. This man needed to die." Tears were starting to well up in Quinn's eyes as her voice was getting more frantic, her anger surfacing. "I didn't want him dead, I needed him dead. I became a murderer then. We came to join the army to stop people like him, not become him. This was my brother's dream, our dream, to serve, to help, and I took Caleb's dream and became a murderer-"

Quinn had seen Shyvana stand up but her words kept tumbling out of her mouth. She seen the dragon lady exhale, but didn't acknowledge it. When she punched Quinn in the face and sent her falling into her chair, though, the shock of it stunned her into silence.

"You child," Shyvana said calmly, "pull your head out of your ass. You killed an assassin. He tried to take your life, and you thought he had taken the life of your friend. Your rage saved your life and Valor's from a murderer. You did what any person would be expected to do, no better or worse."

"Caleb would have wanted better."

"Is your name Caleb? Are you secretly your brother underneath that skin?"

Quinn was angry at the stupid question. "Of course not," she snapped back.

"Just a guess, but would Caleb be more angry that you rage-killed an assassin, or more joyous that you lived?"

"I... " Quinn stopped. She hadn't thought of the alternative, that Caleb would be more angry that she died with honour than fought without.

Shyvana sighed as she fell into her chair. "Demacia writes a beautiful storybook land where honour and loyalty will triumph over all. No kingdom could ever actually be like that. If you tried to defeat that assassin with honour, you and Valor would be dead, and Noxus would have won the day. Think about what's more important: being alive without honour, or being dead with honour. Demacia would have you die with honour. You don't get anything done when you're dead. Valor told me you came to Demacia City to make this country a better place, correct?"

"Yes."

"That's what the Council of the Fallen is. When we can, we will show honour in trial, judgement, what have you. If showing honour will just get you killed, however, sometimes you just have to throw it away. You can make more of a difference alive than you ever could in death, even if you die with honour. Now wait here."

Her words ran through Quinn's head. "You can make more of a difference alive." Was Shyvana right? If she had shown Talon honour, would she just have been dead, and Valor too?

Shyvana returned with a bag of ice. "Your face is swelling. I may have swung too hard."

Quinn held the cold bag to the side of her face.

"I condone what you did. You made Demacia a safer place, even if you didn't like the method. Sometimes we have to do actions we don't like to make the place we live better. And believe me, I know something about how fury and rage takes hold. You live, and Demacia lives more freely, because of your rage."

"But-"

"No more buts today. I have made my point, several times over probably to try and get it through your thick skull. We're not going to discuss it anymore today. I will prepare some kind of food for you so we can wait and let your face not look like a squirrel's. Just think about what I said while I make food." She left the room.

Quinn called out afterwards, "What kind of food does a dragon serve?"

"Something with lamb's blood, I think," came the reply.