Chapter 10
You Can Never Have Too Many Kunai
Despite this already becoming a ridiculously long day for Akali, she knew she couldn't rest until getting some answers. Though this wasn't the healthiest habit, it did make her get missions done efficiently, and Akali supposed that was what counted. Shen would always say doing this messed with her internal balance. Akali would say that sometimes she liked throwing herself into her work.
Akali observed the stars overhead. The moon was full and round, like an Ionian flower right before it bloomed. It was just past midnight.
After making a quick stop to pick up the throwing knives she had let tumble down during the fight, Akali took the time to drink another potion. She felt her limbs gain a flurry of strength once more and the soreness in her muscles faded into the background.
Despite the kunai she retrieved being nothing particularly special, she was glad to have them back…it would be harder to gain new blades now that she was on her own. When dealing with Kayn, one of the Shadow Order's most promising members, she really didn't want to be down any weapons. She couldn't help but admit that feeling the familiar handles rest in her hand or twirl around her fingers made her relax. They comforted her through all this change.
Akali surveyed the town square, which was growing quieter as the night trudged on. It seemed to be free of any shadow wielding assassins, so she let her wary muscles trudge back to her room.
Please let him not come back for a while...I don't know if I could take an attack right now.
She rubbed her right shoulder, knowing it would be throbbing later. There better be a decent healer in this town.
One thing. Just one thing to check before I can rest.
Akali climbed out the window of her room and pulled herself up on the sill above her floor. She swung up onto the roof for a last glance at things, scanning particularly for any clues about Kayn's strange new magic.
She knew Zed's acolytes had many forms of dark magic they wielded, but the spells of Zed's supposed protegee were more powerful—and concerning—than usual. She still felt the tightness in her chest struggling to fade from his attacks, as well as soreness in her throat. Her top priority is to learn better counters for him; especially because she didn't have a quick yordle or the Eye of Twilight watching her back anymore. Talismans weren't particularly reliable either…
Akali felt around the shingles, trying to see if Kayn melting through them had caused any shifting. They seemed solid enough, even with some probing. She examined one of the looser ones, noticing there was a scrap of his clothing wedged clean through. There was not a crack around it, almost as if the cloth couldn't turn into mist with the rest of him.
He must still be learning how to control it. But how did he gain so much power this quickly?
Last time Kayn and Akali had clashed he had seemed talented, sure, but nothing like he was today. Now he had tricks she hadn't even heard of before, no matter seen.
She cut a wedge of the fabric off the strip, intending to figure out where it had come from. If she could get to an experienced enough tracker they may give her some kind of clue based on this seemingly meaningless evidence. A stretch, but she could use any leads at this point.
Akali continued retracing her steps during the fight, hopping down to where Kayn's scythe had fallen. The spot the scythe had clanged onto had a dark black outline, as though it had scorched the very place it rested. She swiped her index finger through the dark substance, eyes widening as it slipped right off and hurriedly swished back down onto the stones—going from sticky to smooth in a matter of seconds.
She took out one of her empty potion vials and scooped up some of the dark, murky liquid. In the bottle it grappled towards the stain below, desperate to reach its spot once more. Perhaps coming back up here wasn't a waste of time after all.
Only the most intense darkin weapons left residue like that.
Next time she would examine that blade a little more carefully.
The scribe watched through a square window as Shen and Kennen came back from sparring, golden leaves falling off the thick trees around them.
He pushed his thin spectacles to the top of his nose bridge.
It's good that I'm learning the masters' schedules better. I'll need to know things like that for my final evaluation.
There was also the matter of that odd exchange he had with the Eye of Twilight. The way he hesitated when asked about Akali had fallen on the scribe's ears the same way a secret does. It was something so minuscule, so slight that it may have just been a strange feeling he had. A silly thought from being in a new setting and not quite knowing the hierarchy of things. Some tone in Shen's voice that the scribe had maybe just made up.
Yet, there was one thing he had learned from all his years in the…investigative business: always follow a feeling.
Shen and Kennen parted ways, and the man craned to watch where Shen was going. He leaned off the chair he was sitting on, its wooden legs tilting a bit dangerously to the left.
Shen glanced about before walking between two particularly large trees and being obscured from his watcher's view.
Interesting…
He continued to watch intently, until realizing Shen had been out of view for a strange amount of time. Looking up and down the trees, he didn't see any clues as to where that large ninja had gone. The scribe would have attributed it to him zoning out if he hadn't been wearing his glasses, which were enchanted to keep him focused and, more importantly, sharp-eyed.
Perhaps the glasses worked a bit too well, because when a high pitched "excuse me?" sounded he was sent falling off his chair from surprise.
Hey all! SORRY IVE BEEN GONE IM SORRY. I'm going to try this new thing and it's called ACTUALLY WRITING EVERY DAY BECAUSE I NEED TO FINISH CHAPTERS LIKE A GOOD PERSON. So hopefully I'll do better in the future! I think I know a better outline for this story now though so it should be easier to write. Before, I just knew the beginning and ending for this fic, but now I have a more precise plan.
Anyways, to any of you who are an Akali main, I hope you can get through the nerfs and buffs cycle. For now, I would recommend finding a new main until she's a bit more stable.
3 Raven
Please leave feedback! It is the best motivator!
Cover made by cattythedoormat on Instagram. If you haven't checked her out by now I don't know what to do with you.
