A/N: So I know I promised a longer chapter, but this one is the last of the brief ones. I'm also dealing with some health issues that are detracting a bit from my ability to write without distractions, but I'll do my best.
Lesson number one – Fiora rarely let mistakes slide.
Lux barely parried two successive jabs and retreated hastily when the duelist advanced on her. Running late to any training session meant Fiora doubled down on her regiments. In turn it left the blonde scrambling to catch up with her tempo.
It didn't help that her responsibilities with the Illuminators increased as the number of revolts spiked across the kingdom. The fighting affected more and more people than they could keep up with, and since her first tardy morning she hadn't recovered since.
Lesson number two – Lux would never surpass her teacher in terms of blade work.
The point of a foil connected with her chest, right where her heart would have been, and forced Lux to raised her practice weapon. "I yield."
Fiora retracted her weapon and pulled off her face guard in one sweeping motion. She refused to hide the disappointment in her eyes. "Are you even trying?"
The prod irked Lux. Of course she was putting forth her best efforts but clearly it wasn't enough to satisfy the duelist anymore. "Are you?"
A scowl lined angular lips and Fiora snapped her foil up at the blonde. "Your form is sloppy. You've lost your speed and you let me get through your guards. You are wasting my time."
The duelist pushed Lux to a level of frustration she didn't believe possible. "And you consider your time more valuable than those around you?"
Three months ago...
"Milady."
Fiora stilled her pen when the door to her office creaked open. "Nera."
"You might find this intriguing." The snowy-haired woman crossed the room and the duelist perked up when she spotted a folder in hand. Far be it from her to decline an opportunity to receive shared knowledge, especially if it warranted her servant's own curiosity. "It confirms a suspicion I have in regards to the two frequenting the estate."
Fiora pried open the folder. Most of the documents within remained unintelligible to her, however from the few times she dealt with Noxians, she recognized the harsh and jagged characters. A photograph of a young child, perhaps no older than four or five, was tacked to the front followed by some general information pertaining to her. "How did you come across this?"
"Carefully, milady." Nera took a seat across the desk and folded her hands across her stomach. "Sensitive records are difficult to obtain, and even harder to track. I was lucky they were available within Demacia, though why hers is here is something I feel may be answered in the near future."
The duelist nodded distractedly and continued to flip through the worn pages. A few symbols jumped out at her but none of them comprehensible enough for her to formulate proper conjectures. "So she is Noxian."
"By birth, yes." Nera sighed and let her head fall back, staring up at the ceiling. "But in her heart, she is Demacian through and through. This does not change the fact I feel something ominous emanating from her. Subtle, but present."
Fiora frowned, idly tapping her pen as she collected her thoughts. "Concerning?"
"Not exactly. Her energy signatures shifted drastically two months ago."
"..."
She surveyed the records a little more carefully. The few words she recognized skirted her grasp, but one symbol repeatedly popped up the more she scanned.
Fiora was no linguist but she knew exactly what that word meant.
'Magic.'
Housing persons of magic was dangerous enough in Demacia – thought Fiora never particularly cared about the threat of doing so. A Noxian begged a different story. "What do you think I should do then?"
Silence met her.
Teal eyes softened.
"You work too much..." Fiora long since left her desk to retrieve something from one of the cabinets. She spent one too many late nights at her desk, and many a morning stretched out on the couch with a heavy blanket draped over her.
It was rare to catch them in the opposite positions. The snowy-haired woman went about her business without a complaint, without so much as asking for a lighter load or an emptier schedule. She simply accomplished all that Fiora asked of her.
The duelist carefully tucked the blanket around Nera in an attempt not to disrupt her nap. She laughed quietly when the older woman shifted to get comfortable and held onto the blanket a little more tightly.
It was such a shame Nera didn't have anyone to call her own.
And Fiora felt guilty for taking that possibility from her.
Fiora snarled and glared at Lux. "Do you?"
If looks could kill...
"Don't you dare think for a second you understand me."
Some months prior...
"Eyrin, what's wrong?" One moment, they chatted about the mundane things going on in their lives – Illuminator work, gossip going around the capital, the such.
When Lux turned back around after shelving a book, the raven-haired woman was doubled over in her chair and grasping her head. In a heartbeat the blonde wrapped Eyrin up in a tight hug.
She shook violently as if she'd seen a ghost. "Eyrin?"
"Lux, I-" Wide, green eyes met hers. Green? "What's happening to me?"
Her voice sounded so small, so meek. Scared, uncertain. Lux cupped her cheek and tucked Eyrin's head under her chin. "It's alright. I'm here. Just breathe okay?"
The air crackled with energy and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She was lucky the room was made primarily of petricite, keeping anyone from being alerted of the the happenstances within her room. Seconds passed, minutes even, and eventually the atmosphere lifted.
Eyrin was back to normal, green eyes returning to their usual brown and her face no longer contorted with pain. "Apologies, milady."
"Don't fret." The blonde smiled reassuringly and held her hands. "I suspect your magic is beginning to emerge and you've not had practice to control it."
"How do you do it?"
Her smile faltered, recalling all the lessons with Sylas. "I had a mentor, a guide of sorts. Most of it now I'm figuring out on my own but it's not easy."
Eyrin stared down at their joined hands, squeezing Lux's lightly. "May I confess something?"
"What weighs on your mind?"
"When we practice, or rather when I spar with Nera, I feel...strangely." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Fear, confidence, anger, comfort. But on a level I don't know how to put in words. It scares me. I know for a fact it calls strongly on my magic."
A connection? Lux's propensity for magic never brought her close to experiencing such emotions but she understood the fear of the unknown. "Perhaps it would be best if we ceased your participation?"
"It would raise suspicions, would it not?"
"Yes, but I would not put you at risk of being discovered – both for magic and my mother discovering your disobedience. And I will not have you risk your own life for my desires." Lux met Eyrin's eyes. "I already bear enough guilt and shame for those around me I've lost."
The heartfelt sincerity shone in unusually shiny orbs. What did Lux have to endure to bear such pain?
Lux snapped. "All I see is a pretentious, stuck-up snob who spends her time locked up and oblivious to the people." Lux toiled day and night to try and bring light to the people she came in contact with. She dirtied her hands to pull injured people out of ruins and into safety. She spent sleepless nights tracking down rogue assailants with the other soldiers assigned in her unit, only to try and convince both sides to step down without a fight. She traveled beyond their borders to witness a world of possibilities, returning shame-faced and down-trodden at how closed off their kingdom was to the beauty that lay beyond their walls.
Fiora retorted simply. "And before me is a young, naive woman who doesn't know a thing about the world we live in." Fiora saw the uglier sides of Demacia, the ones that came in the form of men seeing power and money through marriages instead of merit and hard work. The ones who would stomp on others just to appear brighter than the rest. The ones who would stop at nothing to bring down an entire family and shame them utilizing the very methods that the laws frown upon.
The ones who would ruin themselves to save face.
Enough was enough.
"You-"
Lux threw down her practice weapon, stalking towards Fiora with deadly intent.
"-know-"
She raised a hand to her right, and the dim hum of metal reverberated through the room. Something whizzed through the air and landed squarely in the middle of her palm, the comforting weight giving Lux reassurance.
"-nothing."
With weapon raised and pointed straight at Fiora, magic filled the air as it gathered around the center of her wand. Teal eyes widened slightly when a singular beam began to grow on her chest.
She had only a moment to react.
The duelist brandished her flimsy foil as a violet, purple energy coated the surface. It spread along her arm, then around her torso and down her legs. Light brighter than the sun blinded her and she could feel heat licking at her skin from under the barrier as it struggled to hold up.
Riposte.
Faster than the eye could catch, a heavy, invisible force crashed into Lux and she staggered backwards.
Silence filled the room. No one dared breathe or move, save the two trying to catch their breaths.
Fiora stared at Lux, glancing at the wand that laid forgotten at her side.
Lux's gaze remained trained on Fiora's foil. She didn't have a sharp blade, but managed to cut her from that distance.
A singular thought ran through their minds, connecting them both in an instant.
She knows magic.
Red flags went off in Nera's mind. The exchange between Lux and Fiora stunned her, but it didn't concern her nearly as much as the raven-haired woman she sparred with.
Eyrin looked at Lux, eyes trained on the trail of blood trickling down her arm.
"You hurt her."
Nera watched brown eyes flicker to a sickly, glowing green.
"You. Hurt. HER."
The snowy-haired woman lunged at Eyrin before she could move and tackled her in a grapple. She wrapped her arm around her neck and locked her down. "Calm down Eyrin. It's only a scratch."
"Get off me!"
Nera didn't relent. Her voice steeled, hardened as she doubled her efforts in keeping the other woman under control. "Listen, focus your mind. You are letting your emotions get out of control."
And suddenly, the weight underneath her vanished.
Eyrin vanished-
Nera bolted for Fiora, magic pounding through her veins as she relinquished her own control. Please let me make it in time.
-only to reappear in front of the duelist, a wicked, black scythe raised high above her head.
Fiora had no time to prepare another Riposte.
"Die."
