Hello and welcome to another chapter of this thing.
I should probably get on with the chapter now. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.
Chapter 59: Negotiations
Ahri's POV:
11th February 10:40:
Was it a bad omen that the first conversation I had after waking up was with Shen about Zoh smashing up a hallway?
I doubted my luck could get any worse, so it couldn't have been anything too bad. Maybe it was just a case of all those jokes Zoh made about himself being mad being not-so-jokey.
While I would've loved to have confronted him about it, I couldn't find him. By the time I gave up on searching, people were asking me where they were supposed to get lunch. I didn't even think Zac needed to eat. Why would a green slime-man need food? Did he have a gooey stomach in there somewhere?
Wherever he was, Zoh didn't want me to find him. He'd have told me something otherwise. So, I went to the only other person who might have had some idea about what was going on: Nocturne.
After guessing correctly that he'd taken back his old room, I stepped through as he held the door for me. He had a pink apron on. I thought that was pretty historically important.
Unlike me and my infinitely stranger half, Nocturne had cleaned up his entire apartment and had actually personalised it. The viewing room in-between the two bedrooms had been turned into a kitchen, and one of the bedrooms was made an exercise room. Up until then, I didn't realise that he or Morgana even needed to exercise.
I took a seat on the armchair as he returned to making something in the kitchen. Whatever it was, it smelled… well, I guessed that Morgana did most of the cooking.
"Am I right to guess this is about that little incident last night?"
"Yeah. I can't find Zoh, so I thought I'd learn as much as I can before he eventually turns up."
"I doubt there's a lot I can tell you that Shen hasn't already, but if you've got any questions I'll answer as best I can."
"Thanks. So, what do you think actually happened?"
"It's hard to say. From what I saw, I'd tend to agree with Shen. Some sorta flashback or something. To a bad memory, you know?"
"I wish that narrowed it down, but he's not exactly lacking in the 'bad memories' department."
"My guess is, it's something recent. Considering how hard he was swinging that axe, I'd guess it's a nasty memory, not a sad one."
"Yeah, I've still got nothing. It's pretty hard to tell when he's actually angry under that helmet. Except when he's executing someone with most of the world watching. Then it's pretty easy... Anyway, back on topic, there is something else I gotta ask: did he seem genuinely concerned when he realised what was happening?"
"He was, but in the usual Zoh way where you can tell he was immediately trying to think of something to do to forget it ever happened."
"I'd bet the reason I've not seen him is cause he's still trying to forget about it."
"Almost certainly." He responded while floating back through and dropping himself onto the sofa, moments later asking: "Has he ever had flashbacks before?"
"Not that I remember. I did ask him about it at one point but he said he didn't know either."
"How did he not know? I feel like you'd remember that."
"The reason he didn't know was because the only time where he might have had one, he was out of his armour on a planet filled with hallucinogenic clouds."
He raised a spectral eyebrow while asking: "Do you happen to know if this planet is inhabited by a lot of people?"
"Uh, I think he mentioned there were a few tribes there."
"… Next time you see him, can you ask if he can get me there?"
"Why?"
"A planet of people who are constantly hallucinating? That's like, the dream of all nightmare monsters! It'll be like Snowdown come early!"
A while later (13:00):
When Zoh eventually fell back into my day, he did it literally. It was a good thing I was outside, or he might have destroyed something important on his way down.
He did stick the landing… if you counted falling onto his face, nearly breaking his neck, and crushing a bed of thorns as 'sticking the landing'.
In all fairness though, he didn't seem any more bothered by it than I was. I'd seen him coming since he passed through the upper atmosphere, so I wasn't at all surprised when he managed to crash right next to me.
Poking his head over the top of the crater he'd made, Zoh took off his helmet to reveal a stupid smile on his face.
"You gotta hand it to me, that was pretty damn accurate, all things considered."
"Let's just hope none of the armies hanging around somewhere in these woods decide that the asteroid that just landed might be a threat."
"I doubt it. When has anything from space ever posed a danger to things here on Runeterra?"
"…"
"Actually, don't answer that." He requested while removing the rest of his armour and clambering out of the crater.
"Speaking of answers, I think you owe me some. Care to explain what that business last night was about?"
"That? It was nothing. Just a minor flashback to… something. It's not relevant anymore."
"So far you've only told me what I already know. What was it about?"
"Oh, you know… space stuff…"
It was lucky for me that Zoh was such an excessively terrible liar, or that conversation might have been a lot harder.
"Okay, so it wasn't anything to do with space. You're still going to have to be more specific."
"Can we please not talk about it?"
"I've been straight with you about all my problems so far, but you're not willing even talk about yours? That doesn't seem fair."
"It's not about being fair, it's…" He paused to cover his face with a hand before going on: "Megan and my mother. I've been having nightmares about them for the past few days and now… now I guess the dreams are following me while I'm awake too."
"Why didn't you tell me about this?" I asked, softening my tone.
"Because I knew you would do what you're doing right now; worrying. And it's just not necessary. I've felt worse than I do right now before, and it's never lasted long. But you're going to try to help with this and have even less time to deal with your own problems."
"How am I supposed to ignore this now that I know about it?"
"I don't expect you to. Just understand that I can deal with it myself just fine. I've had plenty of nightmares and flashbacks in my time; not about to let them get the better of me now."
I had to think about it for a second. I'd still be mulling it over for hours after that, but in that moment I decided that I trusted him to deal with it. It was hard to tell if I was just rationalising so that I could focus on myself more, but I didn't want to think about it at that point. So, I just nodded and gave him a hug.
When we broke apart, I smiled and asked: "Wanna join me on my walk?"
"It's better than what I was doing before this and what I've gotta do after, so yeah."
We started strolling through the woods, taking in the lovely scenery. The trees and mounds kept most of the scars from view, so it felt almost the same as it did before everything happened. Well over to our right was the League building, strangely pristine considering all that had happened. It seemed strangely out-of-place, being at the epicentre of the blast that did all that damage to Runeterra.
We were walking very close to the edge of the forest, but it wasn't obvious, looking at what we were going through. The ground couldn't stay flat for more than a couple metres, and streams ran past our feet, feeding into little ponds and flowing rivers. The flowers were growing out of control around there, most being at least as tall as my knees. Never before the war could they get that large, but they were clearly being affected by the outpouring of magic as much as the wildlife was. Speaking of which, words couldn't properly describe how strange some of the forest creatures had become. What I thought must have been a boar at some point had an extra pair of legs in the middle of the other pairs, along with tusks that protruded straight outwards for a few feet. Its spine was protruding out of its back, yet somehow the beast could still function just fine.
I was pretty sure I saw a deer with a neck and legs taller than my entire body.
When the Noxians stopped tailing us, probably realising that we were not about to kill anyone, I questioned: "So what were you doing all day?"
"Oh, a lot actually. First order of business was getting some materials for creating stuff that I can't buy around here. Then, I met up with some people in the Alliance who I haven't seen in a while. After that I just went sightseeing around Runeterra. Some real freaky animals hanging around these days..."
"Damn, you've definitely achieved more than I have today. I got so bored, I actually went to the library."
"That doesn't sound too bad."
"Because you don't know what's in the library. They don't have any interesting books or novels, just a bunch of shit about magic and history."
"Fair enough, Runeterra has a pretty dull history. It's just a series of world powers rising then getting killed by the next one."
"Exactly. Who really cares that a dude called Dak Shingly was in charge of the empire that crashed to make space for Demacia? He's got a dumb name and a dumb story."
"Most of the places below The Great Barrier are pretty cool. Except Bandle City... Obviously."
"Yeah, but the problem is: no-one remembers what's down there. There's nothing memorable about most of the regions there."
"How could you say that about such wonders as… Kumungu I guess… Icathia is down there. That's a pretty cool place."
"Icathia is only known for being utterly fucked-up in every conceivable way."
"Didn't a void invasion happen there or something?"
"I guess. No-one really knows though. Only Kassa and Malz have ever been there and neither gone mad or died."
"If only we knew both of those people…"
"Zoh, we're not doing that. There's enough to worry about without being told that the void is going to open up in a few days and hit us with a flood of stuff nastier than Kha."
"Oh come on now, the Void on this planet isn't even that bad. There's one planet I visited where everything not in direct sunlight was a portal to the Void."
"That must've sucked."
"Slightly."
A very loud and angry roar came from behind us, sounding like it was a few metres away. I span around to see some sort of creature I couldn't recognise. It was like a rhino with only two legs and a massive amount of armour-like plates covering every inch of its body. We must have been in its territory or something, because that thing was squaring-up.
From the look he gave me, Zoh didn't want to kill the thing either.
"Okay big guy, we're getting outta here. Don't mind us."
We backed up, trying to not look intimidating. But, of course, we bumped into more of them that had snuck up behind us. How I hadn't heard them, I couldn't tell.
"Zoh, you might wanna put your armour on now."
He fumbled around in his pocket for a minute before sighing.
"It's not working."
I rubbed my temples out of frustration before ordering: "Stall the one in front."
Grabbing his arm, I dashed forward. After flinging Zoh in the direction of the beast ahead, I turned back to the other three. They were already charging at me, so I had to dash out of the way. The armour plates made it impossible to knock them out the conventional way, so I had to just kill them. We had plenty of rhinos before, so I was pretty confident I wasn't going to make that new species endangered.
In the split-second it took them to realise I wasn't in their way anymore, my Orb was already flying towards the left-most one. Despite holding it inside the thing for a few seconds, it didn't drop.
"The fuck…" I muttered before diving between them as they came at me again. Whatever magic made them that way, it hadn't improved their intelligence at all.
Before I could go for try two with the Orb, I had to take a second to enjoy how Zoh was dealing with the other one; he was riding it. That right there was why I loved him.
Ignoring that for a minute, I hurled my orb at the same one as last time. They were coming towards me, grinding up the ground beneath them, so I brought my Orb back to me so that it stayed in the creature. It took a few moments, but the beast slowed down until it fell face-first into the dirt. So the Orb worked, it just took its damn time.
With that knowledge in mind, I jumped at the last second. Grabbing onto a tree branch, I threw my Orb at another one of them. I was low enough for them to get my feet, so they came over to me. Before they got a chance to do anything, I threw myself under one of them. The whole time, my Orb had been working away, so the beast dropped to the floor immediately after I rolled out from under its legs.
The other one had reacted surprisingly fast, and was about to knock my sorry ass to the ground when a bunch of soldiers in golden armour bashed it away. Finally, someone had noticed all the commotion.
As a few other soldiers continuously speared it until the thing was a thousand different kinds of dead, Azir strode up next to me.
"I do not remember the wildlife here being quite so aggressive when I was last in the area. Not as ugly, either."
"Yeah, it's more of a recent thing. I hate to think what's happened to the ones that were already nasty."
"If only more creatures could be as enchanting as yourself."
I smiled at the compliment and was about to put him down lightly when Zoh shouted from atop his beast: "We're not doing that storyline!"
"That's his dumb way of saying I'm already dating someone. If you don't mind, I'm gonna go make sure that 'someone' doesn't get skewered by a fucked-up rhino."
I dashed over to Zoh and grabbed onto the thing's tail. It had no way of getting at me, so I brought it down with ease. As Zoh jumped off, Azir came up to us.
"My good man, it is a pleasure to finally be able to speak with you without those idiots from Demacia and Noxus around."
"Can't blame them. It's been months since they've been in a position to shout at each other; there is a lot of lost time to make up."
"Ha! Perhaps it is best they go at it extra hard for a while. I would be impressed if the planet survived another nine months like this."
"I wouldn't worry about that. I'll work on keeping it together if chunks start falling off."
"I would love to hear how you plan on achieving such a thing."
"It's long, complicated, and requires an extraordinary amount of tape."
"We shall discuss it later then; when we are not wasting the time of your friend here."
"Yeah, I'll grab a seat next to you at the meeting."
Later (17:50):
"What if it's an exhaust or something? You know, to get heat out."
"But the metal it's made of doesn't conduct heat at all and there's nothing inside to generate it."
"How do you know? You said it yourself, you can't scan it. Knowing the shit you make, there could be a miniature star in it."
"If I managed to make a miniature star without realising I was, I don't know if I'd be impressed or confused."
"Confused. Definitely confused."
He sighed and tossed the cylinder over his shoulder. It landed perfectly upright on a bedside table.
"That was a nice fucking throw."
"All planned." He lied, getting up to give me a hug.
"Try to get something done. I'm getting tired of seeing purple scars everywhere."
"I'll do my best."
He pulled away and left after saying: "I'll see you when I see you."
Suddenly being alone, I sat down on the edge of the bed. It dawned on me that I hadn't actually planned anything to do.
"I'm kinda bored already… good thing I know precisely who to pester!"
"And she knows precisely when you're going to pester her."
I turned to the door that was all-of-a-sudden inhabited by Akali.
"Please tell me you have an idea of what we can do!"
"Pfft. Course I do. When was the last time you explored a long-lost tomb?"
"I guess technically it was back when Zoh was living in Deathskull Mountain…"
"Not the answer I was looking for, but, well, I guess you're about to go explore your second."
I sat up and went over to her, happily exclaiming: "Cool! Where is it?"
"Ionia. And you won't believe who's meeting us there."
"Who?"
"Dude, spoilers. Just wait and see."
"Are you sure you can't give me a hint?"
"I refuse to put myself in the same category as the 'hold the door' spoiling assholes." She sternly concluded before walking back into the main room.
I smiled and nodded while thinking to myself: "I have no idea what she's talking about."
Later (18:40):
Apparently, I underestimated just how destructive the scars could be. The average one was a metre wide and a couple dozen deep.
But the one that had ripped through those Ionian mountains? That thing was a monster. It was like a vast river that cut through the landscape, easily wide and long enough to be seen from space.
From across the gap, we got a clear sight of the tomb we were there for. It was like an apple had been sliced in half and we were getting a look at the core. The scar had opened half-way through what appeared to be a main hall of some sort, though I couldn't really make out many details from that distance.
I would've normally been a bit worried about going into a place like that. What if there were ghosts or ancient guardians? How would I and Akali deal with anything like that?
Fortunately, Zed was around. Apparently he thought it would be a good place to visit on his sight-seeing vacation.
After he had taken plenty of photos of it from a distance, he dropped into a shadow and appeared in the tomb. Since neither I nor Akali could do that, Shen had to be there to teleport us.
Pretty much the second we appeared inside the tomb, Shen waved: "Goodbye."
He was gone as quickly as he had arrived, leaving the rest of us to get a good look at the place.
"Whoa…" I muttered while stepping up to one of the statues that lined the walls. They were all of warriors and mages in various battle poses, but I couldn't recognise any of the symbols that adorned their armour. Considering how far into the mountain the tomb was buried, it should have come as no surprise that everything there was from a civilisation far older than anything I would've remembered from history.
One statue that was in a particularly bad condition had a plaque on it but, when I went to wipe the dust from it, Akali shouted: "Don't!"
I froze solid while asking: "What?"
"Those are probably funeral statues. Supposedly, disturbing the statue can awaken the spirit of the person encased within."
"You don't think the mountain splitting into two slightly smaller mountains didn't count as 'disturbing' the statues?"
"There's a difference. If these guys woke up every time something shook the tomb they'd get disturbed every time Cho'Gath goes to the toilet."
"How can they tell the difference?"
"Magical bullshit, that's how."
I considered it for a moment before realising she was right and backing off.
"Fair enough. I'll treat it like a museum or a nice butt. Look, don't touch."
"Yeah, and if you break the rule, you might get sued."
"If one of the ghosts sues me, do they get a normal lawyer or a ghostly one?"
"I dunno man. We'll have to ask them if any wake up."
I strolled over to one of the tablets that hung from the ceiling. One of the chains suspending it had broken off, but it was still barely hanging on. Thankfully, it was low enough for me to see what it had on it.
Instead of writing or symbols, it had a sort of storyboard with images depicting past events. Most of it was the usual stuff. Battles, duels, victory parades. All the usual stuff.
But, right at the bottom, half of it worn away, there was a line showing what I guessed to be the end of that civilisation. The quality of the engraving worsened as it got nearer the end, but it clearly showed how something had fallen from the sky and obliterated some sort of city. My best guess was some sort of meteorite, explaining why someone had time to engrave the tablet. If they were far enough, they would only die once their food ran out and the blackened sky made crops useless.
It was kinda sad thinking that one of the last things that person ever did was to carve how everything they knew had been destroyed by a force they couldn't hope to stop, only for it to be lost and forgotten for so long.
"Ahri, come on, we're going further in."
I shook my head out of a daze and focused on Akali. Hurrying over to meet her by the collapsed door, we headed through into the next room. Despite the lack of light, I could tell that it was a large circular room with more of the statues, all facing in towards the centre of the room. The room was slightly sloped towards the centre, but all of the statues were on rings that were flat and held them straight upwards. Unlike in the other room, the statues there were all bowing.
What was strange was the thing they were all bowing to. It was like a normal coffin but standing upright.
Zed nudged me and asked: "Would you please light the lanterns? I do not wish to use the flash on my camera."
I wasn't sure what he was talking about until I looked up a bit. Dozens of lanterns were hanging from the ceiling at varying heights, held up by chains. Once I knew what I was aiming at, it was easy to light them all.
"Thank you."
Akali and Zed spread out through the room as I stared at all the details that were suddenly obvious. The walls and floor were covered in murals much like the ones on the tablet, but they were all preserved far better. The one that I followed around the room displayed how some guy rose up in a small tribe and went about conquering or something. Just as it was getting interesting, I reached a part where something had scratched the carvings up beyond recognition. All I knew was that, at the end of the story, the guy was dead and it definitely wasn't of natural causes.
"Akali, how old do you reckon this place is?"
"Uhh, let me think for a sec…"
She pulled out a calculator and did some maths before answering: "Super fucking old."
"Uh-huh. Informative."
"Dude, I didn't do any more history lessons than the dude you got your memories from. My guess is as good as yours when it comes to this place."
"I assumed you'd get taught a bit better in ninja school."
"You don't need to know much about history to stab someone."
"You've got a good point there."
I went down towards the centre of the room and examined the coffin. It was made of stone all over and slightly larger than a usual coffin. It was held a few feet above the ground by a stone platform with another engraving on it.
I had to kneel down to get a proper view of it, but it was well preserved, so I could see it very clearly once I was down there. I recognised the dude from the other mural I'd seen. The engraving was essentially a shortened version of the one that I'd read previously, except that the run-up to his death wasn't scratched as much. It was still hard to make out the full story, but I could tell that he met a girl and she killed him somehow. The way it was drawn made me guess she did it with a knife, based on the thrusting motion she did towards him.
From everything, I guessed that the dude in the coffin was the same one in the murals. Why he got a coffin and everyone else got a statue, I couldn't say for sure.
"I've found a door." Zed announced from across the room. I stood up and stared at him as he pressed a stone in, making a bit of wall go back and then to the side.
I looked over at Akali and we both shrugged in acceptance. If we'd gone that far in, we could go a bit further.
Zoh's POV:
"Please, both of you, shut up for a minute. We're not getting anything done right now and tensions are running high for you two. The rest of us are practically falling asleep but, anyway, I'm calling a break. We'll start this again in ten minutes."
"You don't have the authority to call a break." Jarvan announced, clearly wanting to continue his argument without interruption.
"I think the orbital laser hanging about above gives me plenty of fucking authority on the matter. Take the damn break." I sighed, getting up from my chair and heading to the closest wall to smash my head against. Before I could actually hit my head on anything, Azir came along.
"This is going as well as expected. I'm starting to believe I should have stayed in Shurima."
"You almost certainly should have, but you're here now. Might as well stick around until it's officially over."
"The sands have held onto Shurima for many centuries now. I doubt a few days longer will change much."
"You say that, but the planet has been a bit more stable up until recently. Speaking of which, how come Shurima doesn't have the scars like everywhere else?"
"I am not entirely sure, however I believe it has something to do with the kind of magic we use. Unlike elsewhere on Runeterra, the sands of Shurima do not retain magical energies very well. That is why we gain our power form the sun."
"So, because there is no magic under the ground, there's nothing to burst up to the surface when someone overuses magic?"
"That is what I believe to be the case."
"Too bad that doesn't really help us fix it. Unless we plan on covering the entire planet in sand."
"I wouldn't hate that."
"Trust me, you don't want a sand planet. They essentially become glorified beaches after you discover efficient space-travel."
"It does not matter now. We have to find a solution that works for everyone, else we risk another war that could doom our planet permanently."
"I am not about to let this place die. I've been on a planet when it was dying and it fucking suuuuucked."
I noticed Swain was nearby and I decided it was a good a time as any to sort something out.
"Hey can you hang here for a sec? I'm gonna go try to get something, anything, done."
"Of course."
I headed over to Swain, who turned to face me as I approached. After dismissing his guards, he greeted: "Good to see you."
He was acting friendly enough but I was not there to be friendly. I was there for business.
"Hey. What can I do to get you to work towards achieving something here?"
"Oh, I'm sure there's a lot someone like you could do to help me out."
"Swain, please, don't fucking play games with me. Tell me something that I can realistically do to get your help."
He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back slightly, suggesting: "Well, we can't exactly be seen as weak in front of the Demacians. If we dedicate resources towards whatever it is you plan on doing to fix our planet, they might see that we are lacking quite heavily in key areas right now. However, if we were to miraculously invent something that could allow us to recover certain underground resources faster, we might be more willing to assist. Do we understand each other?"
"Perfectly."
We shook on it and I returned to Azir.
"That was a very long-winded way of saying he wants you to build a better pickaxe."
"I think it's gonna be a bit more complex than that, but I'll manage. Still, it's progress."
"However, that is just one face of the coin. What of the Demacians?"
"Oh I'm sure I'll have to sort their shit out too, but I'll get to that in a minute. I'm slightly worried about the rest of them."
"Fear not, all within reach of Shurima know where they stand. Those who do not see the obvious threat of the world crumbling to dust are well aware of the Shuriman legions staring them down from across the border."
"I'm guessing they don't have much to stand against you."
"The Voodoo Lands have a fair amount of sorcerers, but they are crude and ill-equipped to deal with an invasion force."
I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering if I could trust him as much as I needed to.
"Do not fear, I have no plans of taking lands outside the desert. A unified Shurima is my dream, not a baron hell-scape devastated by superweapons in orbit."
"Good to know I'm the main reason you're not killing everything and throwing sand everywhere."
"The secondary reason is that I don't want to become a desert version of Lissandra."
"… Now that you mention it, the two of you are kinda similar storyline-wise."
"Let's just not talk about her. She's been giving me dirty looks since these talks began."
"Do you mean 'dirty' in the mean way or in the 'dirty' way?"
"Both."
"Oh… huh. Right, well, I'm confused slightly. I'll go talk to the- uh, yeah."
I hurried in the direction of Jarvan, trying to cleanse my mind of the thoughts about that situation. No matter what those two were going to do if they got a chance, I didn't want to know about it.
Ahri's POV:
That tomb just got more interesting the further we went in. It was clearly dedicated to the man I had seen in so many of the murals and, from what I could tell, his most trusted allies. There was also a lot of references to the woman that killed him, but they were all very deliberately scratched beyond recognition. Someone didn't want anyone to find out who this girl was, which just made it all the more important that we did.
It was kinda hard to actually focus on unravelling the mysteries of that place though; there was just so much to do and look at. Each room was a unique shape and size, with the only consistent things being the statues and murals. Whatever this civilisation was, they really liked to carve important events into stone.
I was pretty sure we were nearing the end of the tomb as we searched for the exit to the upright, cylindrical room. I was in the middle of the spiral staircase when Zed appeared next to me.
"I have discovered something. It appears to require your unique talents."
"Okay then. Lead the way."
He headed down the stairs to the bottom and then to a pedestal in the centre. It was strangely blank when compared to everything else in the tomb. Just a simple spire of stone at just above waist-height.
"What do I need to do?"
"From the carvings, I believe it requires some sort of soul-magic ability to be placed at the top. However, I must warn you I do not know what happens once the ability is placed down. The carvings end without detailing it."
"I'm sure it'll be fine…" I thought for a moment before stating: "But I'd feel a bit safer if Akali was down here."
He was gone and back again in a heartbeat.
"She's on her way."
When I Akali came up beside me I decided it was pretty much as safe as I was going to get. Since Zed specified that it just had to be some sort of soul-magic, I tried out the spirit-fire, since it was right there in the name.
Unfortunately, nothing happened when I put the fire on it.
I was having doubts about Zed's interpretation of the carvings, but I decided to try something else before jumping to conclusions. Dispelling the flame and Summoning my Orb, I hesitated for a moment before placing it on the pedestal.
Right before my eyes, the entire room dropped away, taking Zed and Akali with it. I looked down in time to see it falling into utter darkness, gone from sight completely. Checking my surroundings only served to prove that the abyss wasn't just below me. Somehow though, it felt like my feet were still on solid ground.
"Is this what drugs are like?"
"Nowhere near as exciting as I thought they'd be."
Slowly, specks of dark-purple light appeared all around me. Their centres grew brighter until they were like the night stars, but so much closer. I could've sworn I could feel the heat radiating off them, the sensation being all-too-real for that to be a dream.
After a few moments of standing around in whatever that place was, some of the bright spots started to move. They all headed to the same point and started to coalesce. When they had all joined together, the huge bright spot started to shift into a different shape. It took a few seconds before limbs started to take shape and I realised what was witnessing.
I was stunned in awe as she headed towards me. A soft, almost maternal smile adorned her absolutely beautiful face. Her eyes were ocean blue, and her hair was just a darker shade of the same colour. Every detail of her face was petite, yet it had all been hardened slightly by time. She wore a flowing white dress, made of a thousand different layers. From her revealed arms and the occasional flash of leg, I could tell she hadn't lost any of her figure to time. The only other thing revealed by the dress were nine tails. She even had the ears too.
She got within arm's reach of me and stopped. Somehow, her smile told me to take all the time I needed to gather myself.
It took a bit of time, but eventually I managed to ask: "What's going on? Who are you?"
"My name is Nima. I brought your consciousness here so we may talk in private."
"But how are we talking? I thought I was the only one like us on Runeterra."
"You are, dear. The only one for thousands of years."
"But you're right there in front of me."
"I am, but we are not on your world. We are on an entirely different plane of existence, the only one where I still exist."
"Wait 'still exist'? So you used to live on Runeterra?"
"I did. The tomb your body is in was built for me."
"But if it was built for you, why are all the murals about a guy?"
"It was made in the way I wanted it to be. When you spend almost all of your life trying to guide a person to greatness, it's hard to not think about how you helped them. My greatest accomplishments were in the successes of the man I called my friend, and it was my wish that my final resting place be dedicated to him. In our culture, that was the ultimate honour I could bestow upon him."
"You designed your own tomb?"
"Yes I… I knew that I was near the end. So, I prepared."
"But you don't look that old. Was it a disease?"
"No. You may have noticed that some of the carvings depict my friend's death. They've no doubt scratched the details out but I guess you've seen that he was murdered… by a woman. Me."
"You and me have very different definitions of what a 'friend' is…"
"If you knew that you could save someone from seeing all they had suffered to build be destroyed in a moment, would you it? Even if it meant ending their life? I knew the meteor was coming. I knew that everything he had done would be wiped away in just long enough for him to comprehend it, and I couldn't bear the thought. I took his life and came here to await the world's end, spending my time finishing the murals of my friend and the doom of our civilisation. I expected to endure a death by starvation, believing that might be enough to atone for what I did. But… the soldiers came. The last act of a people that had been suspicious and bigoted towards our kind since the start was to send me to the grave quickly, before erasing all evidence I even existed."
"I'm sorry you had to go through all that but… I still don't understand how we're even talking. You just said it yourself, you were killed."
"I do not know how it works, but I know my purpose. Something, some unseen force, has kept me here so that I may pass on my knowledge to you. If you will have it, that is."
"Knowledge of what?"
"Us. Our kind."
"Well, yeah, please tell me! There's so little information about people like us."
"It's, thankfully, quite simple. During times of great change on Runeterra where one person is at the epicentre, individuals like us appear. From there, what to do is entirely up to the individual. Some of us tie ourselves to the people causing the change and try to direct it, for better or worse. Others just spend their lives murdering indiscriminately, or hiding away. I think I know what kind you are. Tell me, what are they like?"
"He's sweet and gentle when we're along and a lovable asshole when we're with friends. He's super smart and strong… but he's got more than his share of personal problems and no ability to deal with them. He internalises too much and can be unbelievably cruel when his anger gets the better of him."
"He sounds like a good, but damaged, man. Be careful not to let his flaws get the better of him. It will be hard, but I believe that you can lead him down a path that forever changes Runeterra for the better."
"I try, but it seems like wherever we go, we're followed by disaster. Whatever we do… ends in disaster."
I stared down, sadness creeping onto my face. She stepped forward and hugged me.
"I understand. Just remember, not all bad things happen from mistakes. You can do everything right and still suffer for it, but that doesn't mean you should stop trying to do things. If something goes wrong the first time around, you can always try again."
"I just wish it wouldn't hurt so much."
"As much as I wish it were not so, humans need to go through suffering to truly experience the positive things in life. You have to spend a day out in the cold to properly appreciate the feeling of getting home to a warm house. You have to be thirsty to enjoy water to its fullest extent. You have to have your heart broken to remind you what it is like to have it become filled with love and happiness once more. There's no use sitting around and not doing anything because you were hurt. You're just about to get to the good bit."
I pulled away from her as my smile started to come back.
"Thank you."
"There's no need to thank me. You're a good person at heart, and you deserve to be happy. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Now, I think it's about time you got back to your friends."
"Will I ever be able to talk to you again?"
"Someday, maybe. Being here is quite tiring, so I would like to sleep for a while now. But, I do have one last question before I send you back."
"What?"
"Is your guy hot?"
I smiled and nodded, giving her a thumbs-up.
"Nice." She laughed as everything went black.
It took me a second to realise my eyes were closed. Blinding light poured in as I hesitantly took a peak. The room started to appear out of the white haze until my eyes were working again. I shook my head and looked around. Akali was still next to me, but Zed had left. I could still hear his camera clicking though.
"You back with me?"
Looking at her, I nodded and affirmed: "Yeah. I'm back."
"What did you see?"
"It's hard to explain, but something tells me you know."
"I had a hunch when Shen described this place to me."
"Who told him?"
"He said it was an 'anonymous tip' but…"
Zoh's POV:
A while later (21:10):
Despite actually managing to achieve a decent amount at that conference, I still couldn't wait to get home after it. Politics was boring as all-hell, and I had been looking forward to getting back since the talks started. From what I could tell, Ahri would be coming back in a very good mood.
After shoving the door open, I went over to the sofa and sat down. I yawned and got comfy, just in time for it to be ruined by a knock on the door.
"One second!"
I got up and went over to the door. Shaking my head to wake myself up, I grabbed the handle and opened it. I didn't have time to see who it was, cause they immediately threw themselves forward, knocking me to the floor and laying kisses all over my face. Unless Shen had gone through a tremendous change of heart, it was probably Ahri.
"So I take it you've had a good time without me?"
"Mhmm." She mumbled while kissing my cheek.
"What did you get up to?"
She stopped kissing and looked me straight in the eyes: "Don't play coy with me Mr. Anonymous Tip."
"Well, you had to find out eventually."
"I have to ask though, why bother trying to hide this?"
"I was kinda hoping you'd be happy now after getting back from it, then grateful whenever I decided to tell you I was the one who told Shen. You know, to lessen one of those bad days."
She leaned down and planted her lips on mine. She tasted of strawberries.
When Ahri finally pulled away, she smiled down at me: "How about I just show you as much gratitude as I can right away?"
"That could work."
Alright, done, now back to queuing for Poro King. Getting to choose my champ on the ARAM map? Gotta take advantage of that shit.
Goodbye.
