After losing consciousness for some time, Isen slowly came to his senses. He began opening his eyes. Where was he? His vision was blurry and his head hurt. He tried to touch the back of his head, but he couldn't. It was at that point he realized that his arms were restrained. More specifically, he was chained to the wall.

"Ugh… give me a break…" He said to himself, trying to wiggle his way out, but to no avail. He took a deep breath. "Okay… One step at a time." He had to clear his head. He went through one thing after another, and never got a chance to really process anything that happened. "I was home… Then, Dad rushed in, and…" He stopped. His father… what had even happened to him? He wanted-no, needed to know. "Figuring out what happened to Dad is all the more reason to get out of this dump. Speaking of, this dump is…" He stopped again. Where was he? He still had no idea where exactly he was, but from his surroundings… He was definitely in a prison cell. That much was made evident by the restraints on his arms and the cell door. As for what region of the world he was in… It could be anywhere, as far as he was aware.

Then, he remembered something that his father said. He said… to never come back to Demacia. "Never come back to Demacia… so I'm somewhere else?" After a brief moment of processing what he had just said, he came to a realization. "If this isn't Demacia, then these restraints… They're probably not made of petricite! Which means…!" He held one of his palms out and closed his eyes… and then, after just a brief moment of channeling, he was able to create a small cube made up of magical energy. "Yes! I can still cast my magic!" Petricite is something that Isen had heard about ever since his father brought him to Demacia. It has a special property unlike anything else in the world, the ability to nullify magic. At least, that's what Isen was told. He had never seen it first hand, so he has no idea exactly how it works. Regardless, he was sure that it was every Mage's worst nightmare.

"Okay, now for the fun part." His arms were angled incredibly awkwardly due to the uncomfortable placement of the chained restraints that were connected to the wall. Still, it would work. He lowered his head and concentrated his magic… This one took considerably more thinking than a tiny cube, but it would be worth the wait. Slowly but surely, he began to manifest a weapon into his hand. Starting with the handle right in the palm of his hand, and then a blade that extended from it. There was a unique benefit to being able to create his own weaponry: they were always whatever size he needed them to be.

Within moments, he had created a sword made purely of magic. He had made it large enough so he could hold it in one hand and reach the restraints in the other arm with it. "Alright… Don't fail me now…!" He gripped the sword tight, and with just a slight flick of his wrist… he was able to cut through the restraint like butter, freeing one of his arms. "Perfect!" He cheered to himself. With one arm free, it was considerably easier to get rid of the restraint on his other arm. He cut through the chains on the wall, then the ones on his wrists to fully free himself. There was nothing left on him now… And it was a massive relief. He stood up straight and stretched. How long was he out? Where was he? Two questions that he really didn't know how to answer.

Then, suddenly, he heard something. Marching… people were coming. It was impossible to tell how many were coming, but there were a lot. He quickly made the blade he was holding dissipate, acting like he never had one to begin with and pretending to be innocent. Moments later, the cell door was pushed in, and three people rushed into the room. They were all wearing the same getup that he saw when he first crash landed in this place: gray armor plating and helmet, with a red cloak around their waist. The one that seemed to be in charge was absent though.

"What the hell? How did you get he get his restraints off!? Didn't you search him!?" One of them yelled at the rest. As he did, two of the guards behind him ran behind Isen and started patting him down again.

"You're not gonna find anything, you know. You checked already, remember?" Despite Isen telling them this, they proceeded to continue patting him down, to which he just rolled his eyes in response to.

"Sir, he still has nothing!"

"The hell do you mean he has nothing!? He clearly used something to get his cuffs off!" He wasn't wrong about that, but they weren't going to find it like that. Isen had the option of showing them how he did it, but… He kinda wanted to keep it a secret, until he at least knew where he was.

"So not to interrupt this wonderful bonding time that we have going on, but… Where exactly are we? We're still on Valoran at least, right?" The guard in front that was yelling at the rest of them was not happy about hearing that.

"Do you take us for some kinds of idiots!?"

"Well, considering that you're still trying to search me for a weapon, I mean…" As he said that, the front guard shoved Isen against the wall.

"You think this is a game!? GUARDS! Tie him up this time, and DON'T screw it up! We'll let the Reckoners deal with his smart-ass!" He turned Isen around, pushing his chest against the wall while the other guards tied his hands behind his back.

"Ow-hey! Don't gotta be so rough… OW!" Without caring for what Isen had to say to them, the guards grabbed him and led him out of the cell, bringing him to… whoever the Reckoners were. Isen didn't have the faintest clue who they were, but they certainly couldn't be friendly with a name like that.

After a while of walking and sight-seeing, the guards had finally brought Isen to… what could only be described as a gladiatorial arena. It was kind of stunning how obscenely huge it the coliseum was. Wherever he was, it was pretty evidently a place that loved its bloodshed… probably a bit too much for their own good. Isen was continuously pushed and shoved inside, until eventually he found himself in… another prison cell. Though this time, he wasn't alone, surprisingly enough. Someone else was here… albeit sitting in the corner and refusing to make eye contact. He could barely make them out because of how dark it was in there.

"Uh… Hi there." No response. "Soo… any idea what this place is?" No response. "Cuz it looked like a coliseum from the outside, but I mean… Surely these people aren't so bloodthirsty that they just have a massive coliseum as a part of their city for entertainment purposes, right?" Again, no response. "...Right. Good talk, stranger."

"So noisy…" Finally, the other person in the cell said something back to him. It was a woman's voice, and she sounded… like she really didn't care at all for anything that Isen had to say.

"Well… At least you're not attacking me. Pretty hospitable compared to… everyone else I've encountered since I got here." She scoffed. Isen tried to come up with something else to say, but it seemed pretty clear that she didn't really want to speak with him about anything. He held his tongue, and sat by the corner opposite of her, figuring she's appreciate the space. As the two of them sat in silence, Isen couldn't help but hear the exact opposite happening outside. People screaming and cheering, excited by all of the commotion that was happening outside… the combat, the thrill of the fight. It seemed so… barbaric to him.

"So, I know you don't really wanna talk, and I respect that, but if you could just answer a single question of mine…" She didn't respond, but at least it wasn't a flat-out no. "Where… is this? The people that took me here wouldn't even tell me if we were still on Valoran or not. We're not on another continent or something, right? And this isn't like… a parallel universe or something, right?"

"...Noxus."

"Huh?"

"Noxus. That's where we are."

"Noxus! That… Yeah, that actually explains literally everything. Huh." He was more surprised about the fact that he didn't think it was Noxus than the fact that he was actually in Noxus. Then, a few seconds later, the realization finally settled in. "Wait, isn't this the place where the death penalty is just… actively a thing people support!? And…" He paused. "…and I antagonized a guard to the point where he threw me into a coliseum… Shit!"

"You're not getting the death penalty."

"Huh?"

"Death is a sport to Noxus. If you die, it's because you were too weak in their eyes. Prove to them that you're strong, and you'll live."

"And how am I supposed to prove that I'm strong?"

"You're in a coliseum. How do you think?"

"Right. And if I lose… I die. No pressure." He looked out at the commotion in the arena. Warriors swinging around massive blades, the crowd cheering for more… It was chaos. "No pressure at all…" He took a deep breath and tried to calm down. He did his best not to panic too hard in front of the girl; there was a part of him that was even more afraid of her than whatever he was gonna face out there. She had that aura about her. Isen stood up and in the middle of the room, looking toward the woman who was still in the corner, and had never even turned to face him. "…My name is Isen. I'm a mage… from Demacia."

"A mage from Demacia in the Noxian death pit… Now I've really seen everything."

"Seen? You haven't turned your head once since I got here." He chuckled jokingly. But then, to his actual surprise, the woman stood up and walked out of the dark corner she had been in the entire time, letting Isen get a good look at her for the first time. Her getup was… interesting, to say the very least. She had a large shoulder pad on one arm, and a large gauntlet the size of Isen's head on the other. Apart from that she was wearing white robes around her body that went down to just above her knees, and she had white hair that covered up one of her eyes. She was… actually pretty, but Isen knew that he'd regret saying that to her face.

"Riven."

"Huh?"

"My name. Riven."

"Oh! Right." As he said that, he heard the sound of people coming toward the cell. He looked to his side and saw a number of guards making their way toward him, signaling him that it was time. "Hey… so if I'm fighting out there… I'm not gonna have to fight you, right?" He asked, turning his head back toward her. She turned away from him, and very faintly chuckled under her breath.

"You better hope not." She walked back into her corner after saying that. She said it in a playful tone… but Isen had a strange feeling that she was being serious, and that he should be counting his blessing that he doesn't have to fight her. He turned to face the guards that were approaching, and began stepping forward into the arena.

Wanted to get this out sooner, but Thanksgiving got in the way, sorry!

Let me know if you have any thoughts on the story so far. Would love to see what people think about it, albeit it things are still really early and the full plot hasn't shown itself yet.