(Swain - PoV)
Stepping through the city gates, I takes a deep, slow breath.
I don't like leaving Noxus, but sometimes it is necessary.
For the formal handover of Demacia? Absolutely necessary. Being able to drag Leblanc along with me helped reduce the potential complications my absence could bring but did not remove them. It is good to be back.
My first task is to check on the Immortal Bastion, where everything seems to be in order. The things inside of it remain contained.
Making my way down the list it seems, surprisingly, no disaster, setback, or unpleasantness has befallen us while I was away.
Suspicious.
I wonder exactly how far I will get in my day until a complication arises. Events have been going entirely too well lately.
The city wards are intact and have not been trifled with, the prison reports no issues. Hmm.
I contact the Trifarix. I do believe a meeting is in order.
Darius is easy, a simple mirror call away, but the Guile takes a bit more time. Not that I blame him for not trusting Leblanc's mirrors, I am certain she can see everything that occurs through them if she desires. Sadly, they are entirely too useful to the Empire to discard...much like her, so long as she remains in check. Which, alas, she has been.
I check in with a few more contacts, send out a few more orders, before moving on to our meeting room. The mirror is left outside, of course.
Stepping inside, I find Darius waiting for me in his chair, but Guile has yet to arrive.
I take my seat.
Unlike what one might expect, it is no great throne. No symbol of might or vision, power or Noxus. It is a simple, comfortable chair. Amongst the three of us, there is no need for such symbols.
Before either of us can speak, there is a shimmer of light in Guile's seat, and Leblanc appears, lounging with a smug smile on her face.
...
"Leblanc, what are you doing?" I ask quietly.
Is it time to kill her, then? I hope not, she has been surprisingly useful the past few years. Mostly.
"Why I am the new Guile, of course," she answers happily.
"I see. And what happened to the old Guile?"
"Does it matter?"
I don't have the patience for her games.
"Leblanc."
She rolls her eyes.
"Fiiine. Well, things have been getting sooo interesting here lately, I wanted to actually get back into things. I've been looking into Mr. Guile for some time and I admit, I hadn't had much luck. But I finally took a serious stab at it and while it wasn't easy, I did eventually manage to track him down."
She leans back, huffing.
"I couldn't believe it either. He was no Champion at all, just a man! No magic, no strength. Many of Darius's elites could take him in a fight. But somehow, he managed to evade me for so long through his sheer wits. Still, I caught him, and thus he offered me his chair. And so here. I. Am." She bites off the last couple of words, enunciating them peculiarly.
"I see. Tell me then, what is the password?"
She smiles. "There is no password. I admit, it is quite clever. To be expected of the Guile."
And there we are. There is, in fact, a password. Many of them, in fact, for various situations. That answer is one meant for those too clever for their own good, like her. He is leaving her in charge but wants us to contact him later. Keep him in the loop most likely.
"Hmmm...And if you cannot compete with the old Guile?"
"Then I give him back his chair, of course."
I frown.
"It is hard to believe you, of all people, suddenly being interested in the well-being of Noxus."
She shrugs.
"I have looked after Noxus since before there was a Noxus, Grand General. I merely do so in my own way."
I tap my fingers on the desk, considering.
"Really now, Swain. What is the holdup? You cannot doubt my capabilities, no?"
"It is not your skills that are in doubt, no. But our little group only works due to a level of trust between all parties, and I admit, I do not trust you."
"Oh? Trust, you say? Like how you trusted anyone with information about the apocalyptic abomination at the heart of the Bastion?"
...
I stop my tapping. Stop moving entirely.
She knows?
She smiles at me.
"Of course I know about it. Who do you think dealt with that monster in the first place? Who do you think trapped it there, oh so very long ago, when the Noxians were naught but a bunch of savage raider nomads?"
She tosses her hair back.
"But still, I see from the look on Darius's face hat you, in fact, have not told him about the doom in the middle of Noxus."
Said warrior shrugs casually.
"Swain doesn't tell me many things. I trust his Vision, he trusts my Might. It works."
"Your attempts to foster dissent between us will not work Leblanc. And such plays, not seconds after claiming a chair, hardly support your claims to be here in good faith."
She sighs.
"I am not "fostering dissent". Ugh, it is hard to believe your paranoia. Tell me, Swain, if you had been correct about being the only one with knowledge of the truth of the Bastion and had died, what exactly would have happened to Noxus in the future, when it inevitablely wakes, hmm?"
"I am no fool, Leblanc. I have notes prepared, and caches to be released in the event of my death. The information would not have died with me."
She blinks.
"Hahahahah!"
She reclines in her padded, high-backed chair as she laughs.
I glare until her laughter subsides.
"Oh, I apologize. It is just, it seems I did underestimate you. Truly, good job my man."
I give a slight nod of acknowledgment at the apology.
"That said, we will need to talk more about the abomination in the future. Not now, for it won't be a problem soon, but in the future, well..."
I nod more strongly in agreement.
"I have plans drawn up to deal with it. With Demacia dealt with, Noxus should be ready. We will crush it when the time comes."
She laughs once more but this time, I do not object. This time, it is a very different laugh. A hollow laugh. An empty laugh.
"Oh, dear Swain. Dear, dear Swain. Do you really think that old Mordekaiser is the only horror that will be coming for us? He is a true King of Death now. When he wakes, the entire Shadow Realm will come with him. The dead will return to Runeterra in full force. And I have been there, dear general. I have walked in that realm, and seen what awaits us on the other side. And Mordekaiser is far from the only nightmare that awaits us in that place. Possibly not even the worst."
She smiles at me, but her eyes are empty of their usual (false?) merriment.
"No, when the time comes? If we stand alone, we will all die. Horribly. As I said, I have seen the fates that await, and let me assure you, as someone who has seen and practiced the absolute darkest of magics, magics that even you turn your nose up at, for thousands of years. Even I do not envy such ends. When the time comes, we will beg for help, or Runeterra will be consumed by death."
The Deceiver. So notorious...and yet I do not doubt a word of it.
...
Darius and I share a look.
He nods.
We will give her a shot...for now.
"Very well then, Guile."
She smiles once more, her regular demeanor back in place.
"I am sure you will be quite interested in our first subject of the day. Namely, the activities of the Black Rose in our absence from Noxus."
She titters.
"Oh, quite interested indeed. Surely my little flowers did not misbehave? I did do some gardening before we left."
We spend the next hour going over various reports, confirming all is as it should be.
All the while, I try not to think about the dark revelations that Leblanc has poured onto us.
All this time, I thought we were finally ready. Finally prepared.
And it was a lie.
I have been preparing to fight a single knight, when an army lay just over the hill, out of my sight.
It actually makes our expansion even more important I suppose. I need to start moving production out of the city as soon as possible. Training areas, research centers, government buildings...
For too long, we have been centralized. If the cities fall is inevitable, we need to spread out. Noxus must truly become an empire.