A/N: This chapter took a bit longer to come together. After the time-warped chapters, I've had to write and rewrite my outline with every new update as well as some unforeseen adjustments to the League of Legends wikia where I draw most of the lore from. Someone changed a particular detail on Demacia's page since the start of this fanfic and I've had to account for it to a certain extent. I'll still probably run with the idea.
They met again – two weeks later – when Lux sent word of a mission out to Terbisia.
Fiora quieted Lucette as she stamped her hooves, snorting her disapproval of waking early. The duelist had no desire either to be awake before the entire kingdom was, yet the urgency of the request filled her with mixed energies, equal parts anxious and hopeful.
She sensed something amiss in the depths of her slumber. Darkness weighed on her like the blanket covering her form, yet remained devoid of hostile intent. Fiora propped herself up in bed as she shook off some sleep to figure out what the source of it was.
When she opened her bedroom door leading into the office, a raven-haired woman sat on the couch looking worse for the wear. "Eyrin? How did you get in here?"
"Teleportation... of sorts. Nera and I found out along with my telepathy, I am also capable of walking in the shadows and covering great distances." Interesting. Fiora hadn't realized they made this much progress in mapping out the extent of the mage's power. "Only problem is I'm only good for about one round trip right now."
A useful ability no doubt, but she would have liked some kind of warning from Nera about said capabilities. Having someone suddenly appear in your house with no rhyme or reason could end up with someone getting stabbed – or worse, their heads cut off. "Why are you here?"
"Lux sent me." Fiora felt her heart flutter at the mention of the blonde, but kept her face as neutral as possible. After their arrangements with the Illuminators, Lux told her to lay low until they received further news. The duelist disliked being given orders, but trusted the blonde's intimacy with the organization and gave her the benefit of the doubt. The timing couldn't have been more perfect either; a surge of issues sprung up requiring her return to the main estate to sort out. Save Nera and Eyrin who operated at their own discretion, Fiora and Lux's training sessions were left on indefinite hold due to sheer necessity.
A part of her craved the welcome distractions Lux brought to her life, when in reality she simply missed the blonde. She had been such an enigmatic part of her day-to-day during the winter. Even Nera noticed a spike in her snappy behavior the last week or so as a result of Lux's absence.
Maybe she was right. Maybe the duelist did enjoy their routine a little more than she cared to admit.
But Eyrin arriving at this hour boded ill tidings. What came next sank her heart like a stone.
"An earthquake struck Terbisia. They're sending the Illuminators out there. Specifically Lux, but you might as well count yourself in." Eyrin sighed deeply and stretched her arms as she stood. "I wouldn't delay departure. I kind of got the gist from Lux what you guys will be doing."
Fiora nodded, her mind shaking off the vestiges of sleep. "Thank you for notifying me."
Eyrin smiled thinly, bowing shortly to the duelist. "No, thank you. And tell Nera I said good morning." The raven-haired woman vanished into a dark mist, seeping out of the windows before the weight finally lifted. Fiora scrambled to change and dress herself appropriately. Terbisia was a small town, but a proud one with a wholesome community. If tragedy struck its inhabitants as Eyrin said it did, then every second she wasted here meant one less for a doomed soul.
"Milady?" Fiora glanced up as she snapped her rapier's sheath at her side.
"Early departure. The Illuminators are moving. Lux requested I come with." There was no use in worrying her servant of terrible news at this hour – one person fretting in the Laurent household was enough.
Nera blinked. "Ah, safe travels then." Her sleep-logged voice and lethargic movements made Fiora smile fondly, when she went to rub her eyes. "I could've sworn Eyrin was around..."
"She bids you a good morning."
Nera's eyes shot open wide. "Wha- she was here?"
"Oui."
The snowy-haired woman stood there stupefied, one hand still on the knob and the other braced against the door frame. Nera let out an exasperated sigh, retreating while mumbling quietly under her breath. "I swear to god, if she does that without my approval again I'm going to hide her."
The baseless threat earned a chuckle from the duelist – she knew Nera was proud of her protégé.
Fiora spotted three figures at end of the road – Lux shone with the morning rays, but the other two she didn't recognize. Must be the Illuminators Kahina mentioned. When she finally got within earshot distance, she heard them idly discussing the events befalling Terbisia.
"...can get there in less than half the morning if we keep a solid pace." The blonde's voice was firm, commanding of their attention but laced with a string of hope that kept them optimistic. This was the first time she'd seen Lux in any sort of official capacity. "To save time, we can cross- ah!"
Fiora approached the three as they rounded on her. While the other two didn't seem all too enthused at being roused at the crack of dawn, Lux seemed to be filled with more energy than their lot combined. "Good morning Fiora."
She returned the greeting with a curt nod of her head, not particularly inclined for idle chatter before her body caught up to her mind. "Introductions later. Terbisia, was it?"
"Yes," one of the other Illuminators spoke up. A handsome man, fairly young and possibly in his mid-twenties. Short black hair looked hastily combed, undoubtedly so from such an early rising. Warmth filled soft blue eyes – though she much preferred Lux's – and a ghost of a smile seemed to tug the corners of his lips. Tan skin was marred with jigsaw scars that outlined his face and cut through his right eye.
"Alright, now that we've gathered let's head out." Lux pulled her reins on Starfire and everyone followed suit.
The journey to South Demacia took upwards of a couple hours, most of it spent either in silence or brief conversations primarily between the man and Lux. Their banter kept the party's spirits high, but only just.
On the other hand, Fiora hung back a bit with the other Illuminator and shared a tense silence with her.
Tall and proud, yet surrounded by mystery. A shock of white hair sat messily above eyes reminding her of heliotropes. She dressed a little more provocatively than what one would deem appropriate for someone of a religious faith, though in the sense dark leggings hugged her curves instead of flowing robes hiding her figure. An ornate sword unfamiliar to the typical Demacian steel hung at the side of her saddle. It looked almost-
"If you have a question, just ask." Fiora pulled her lips into a thin frown at her rough tone. Had she been anyone else, she would have thrust her rapier right under their noses and demanded they try to use that kind of language with her again.
Instead, she straightened up and gripped the reins tighter. "Your weapon."
Purple eyes darted down to the sword at her side, then back up at Fiora. The weight of accusation pressed against her. "What of it?"
"I wasn't aware Demacians commonly used Ionian weaponry."
The Illuminator tugged hard on her reins in surprise, causing her horse to jerk and whinny in protest. It drew the attention of the other two in front of them, but Fiora waved them off.
No words passed between them for a few minutes.
"How do you know?" Tentative, cautious, and most importantly – impressed.
Fiora gestured to her rapier. "I've seen many weapons. I've slain their owners. Foolish bastards think because I am Demacian I only know Demacian arms. More specifically only the bluesteel rapier."
The Illuminator chuckled quietly at her answer. "A fool would be wiser to avoid crossing blades with you, I'm sure. Beasts of blind faith, the lot of them."
Mirth tugged at the duelist's lips. She liked this one. "Fiora Laurent, but since we will be working together, I will not be offended if you address me by my first name."
"An honor, I would not take for granted." The Illuminator hummed her amusement when Lux suddenly burst into laughter at something the man said. "Sayo On."
Sayo, huh... Definitely Ionian.
"And the idiot up there is Noah."
Curiosity filled her. "Related?"
"As related as you are to a crag beast." The analogy put that question to rest quickly. "He's harmless, for the most part."
Fiora expected more to come of it, but Sayo refrained from elaborating.
She didn't press.
The blonde spared a glance behind her and found the other half of their group plodding along a little slower than she liked. "Hey, what are you two talking about over there? We've got a town to save and you guys are discussing the weather over afternoon tea?"
"Says the one laughing."
Fiora and Sayo caught each other's eyes as they responded in tandem, synchronizing so perfectly even Lux stopped out of astonishment. She hunched her shoulders and kicked Starfire back into a trot when they caught up, and Fiora could help grinning when the blonde huffed quietly.
"Yeesh, you guys didn't have to call me out that hard..."
Tabisia wasn't in ruins – it lay in devastation. The four could only look on in horror as what remained of the town came into view. Fiora had been here once – a long time ago, but she remembered the towering buildings and structures erected by their very hands. All that stood in their place were broken timbers and crumbling stone, and it made her heart lurch into her throat. "Mon dieu..."
Lux furrowed her eyebrows in determination. "Sayo, Noah, fan out and help anyone you can. Fiora, come with me." She set course for the center of the city and Fiora followed close on her heels. Everything felt dreamy with the dust yet to settle from the aftermath of the quake. It distorted the light and dulled the sounds of chaos around her. Her eyes jumped from citizen to citizen, absorbing their abject terror and letting their emotions sink down to her bones. Trapped between the awe of such widespread destruction and the reality she walked through, the duelist snapped out of her stupor when Lucette reared up. Fiora nearly fell off her horse but caught herself in time to pull her back into control.
A disheveled man had an injured woman in his arms. Her leg bent in a direction it wasn't supposed to.
"Please, kind lady. Could you help me?" The duelist dismounted immediately and swept to the man's side as he struggled with the poor victim. She slung an arm over her shoulders without a second thought and glanced around herself. She lost sight of Lux.
"Thank you. There is a medical tent just over yonder."
Fiora spotted blonde vanishing behind the flutter of a tent flap, settling her worries. She followed the man's pacing, bracing herself for the worst.
With all her years of slaying men and women alike in duels, none of it prepared her for the present.
The sight greeting their entrance turned her stomach. Bodies stretched on an endless mass of makeshift bedding and everywhere she turned, voices of men and women filled her heart with despair. Parents grieved over lost children, wives threw themselves over their still spouses, and husbands begged to the heavens to bring back their light. The air reeked of death, but she steeled herself as best she could and pressed deeper into the tent.
She spotted Lux bent over a broken man, fingertips pressed to his eyes. A faint glow emerged from them but amid the rush, no one took notice of the young Crownguard.
Except for her.
"Here, put her over here." A masked man cut into her line of vision, directing the two to place the unconscious woman on an empty space. Fiora stepped back as a couple of other medics rushed in to care for her when their coordinator pulled his mask from his face.
"You are...?" Weariness wore lines on his face. Clearly he had been working non-stop since the start of the morning.
"Fiora Laurent, there are also two Illuminators outside assisting." He stiffened upon hearing her name and offered an awkward bow. "Forgive me, milady. I did not expect to see the matron of House Laurent here."
She brushed it off. "Save your breath. What needs to be done?"
He pointed out a few persons scattered through the tent. She made the connection between the shared symbol embroidered on the back of their tunics. "They need someone who can help stabilize the patients." Fiora rolled up her sleeves and dove headfirst into the fray. Most of the nurses simply needed someone to hold a patient still as they splinted broken arms and legs, others needed wounds to be kept closed for stitches. She ignored their surprise when she came around to help, offering no words but her hands. For every person they managed to get into stable condition, two more arrived in worse states than the ones before them.
Back and forth she went, answering calls for help as best she could.
Back and forth she went, trying to assuage those buried beneath a mountain of pain.
Back and forth she went, going as far as to shred her cape when supplies ran short and they needed bindings.
None of them weighed so heavily on her mind as the man Lux sat beside when she first entered the tent.
The diminutive blonde, surrounded by such despair and a multitude of eyewitnesses, risked her own secret to bring comfort to a soldier in his final moments.
Fiora was in the midst of helping a nurse transfer a patient over to a new bed when someone grabbed her arm. She jumped at the contact and found herself staring at an unfamiliar face. "Fiora, you can take a break now. They've got the situation under control."
The duelist blinked as the person came into full view. Lux... Another medic came and took over her present task.
"Fiora, stay with me, okay?"
She didn't even realize she was being led outside the tent.
Exhaustion crept into her as her muscles screamed from being used far beyond what she was used to.
"Fiora, are you alright?"
The duelist finally came to her senses and she stared down at her hands.
Sweat, dirt, and blood covered them.
Her own sweat from being near so many warm bodies, still fresh in their recent death.
The dirt of grueling, traumatizing work.
Blood, drawn not by her hands but the lands they lived in.
Dizziness hit her hard as everything finally sank in. She staggered, barely caught in time as the blonde struggled to support her weight. "You're not okay."
Fiora shook her head. "Non."
It was the first time she witnessed loss in overwhelming magnitude.
Lux brushed the damp cloth across a fair cheek, wiping away stains. She let her gaze linger a bit longer before turning back to the basin filled with water and soap.
Fiora hadn't uttered a word after they arrived at the sanitation area. It bothered her to see the duelist so quiet, but not nearly as much as when she allowed the blonde to invade her personal space.
The empty look in her eyes scared Lux more than the disaster around them. She cupped Fiora's face and turned it up slightly. "Fiora?"
"Mmm...?" The distracted response was a start, she suppose.
"Are you feeling okay?"
A slow blink. A deep breath.
"..."
Her stomach twisted at her unresponsiveness.
Slowly, a hand covered hers and teal eyes vanished behind eyelids as the duelist leaned into her touch.
"I see why they always call you, 'the Light.'" Lux strained to catch those words, soft enough for her to hear and her only.
Her heart raced when the duelist opened her eyes again. Reverence and awe burned strongly in them. "But you are more than that."
The duelist had a knack of seeing right past her barriers.
"Glad to see you're back." Lux breathed a sigh of relief, laughing nervously. "Can you move?"
Fiora nodded as life returned to her eyes. "Oui, but I can barely walk."
She expected as much. "You've been working for hours on end. Even Surgeon Alzar was surprised you kept pushing forward when things got a little overwhelming."
Lux stepped back when Fiora tested her first steps, but the moment her body sagged under a limp leg she rushed forward and caught her before she could so much as tip over. "Let me help you." The lack of resistance surprised the blonde, but she didn't let it stop her from supporting Fiora's weight as she took a few more shaky steps.
"Merci..." the duelist whispered. Lux understood the gratitude behind the word without needing to ask.
"That's something I thought I'd never see." Noah jogged up to them when Lux came over with a fatigued Fiora at her side. "The Grand Duelist relying on someone else for support."
Fiora would have snapped at the cheeky man, but Lux beat her to the punch. "I am Demacian. She is Demacian. Demacians help one another." Her sharp voice stung even Fiora, though in a way that showcased Lux defending her current state of exhaustion. Noah had the sensibility to retreated abashed, and Sayo stepped forward to offer additional assistance.
"Noah and I can go and check to see if any more relief is needed. You two should take a break in the mess area." Lux wasn't against trying to get a bit of sustenance. She could feel Fiora's strength slowly return, but the woman kept her arm secured around the blonde's shoulder.
Fiora was so warm, absurdly warm.
The 'mess hall' was more akin to a hastily-assembled amalgamation of residents lucky to escape the earthquake and local towns who rushed with supplies to aid the recovery efforts. They passed benches filled with volunteers and the quiet din set them on edge. Even away from the epicenter, dread sat on their shoulders like a persistent demon. "Ah, Lady Crownguard." A woman greeted her with a courteous bow, but she waved it off.
"Please, Lux is fine. Informality is acceptable in great times of crisis. I would prefer we speak as comrades facing a terrible tragedy."
The woman smiled. "Truly, you are a blessing my lady. How may I be of assistance?"
Lux gestured to Fiora, still glued to her side like the Demacian motto to a soldier. "We've naught to eat since we've arrived. She worked tirelessly with the medics."
"Mistress Laurent?" Lux canted her head curiously as the woman finally recognized the haggard duelist. "My apologies, I wasn't aware you were here in the relief efforts."
"Wasn't important. The well-beings of the citizens are." Fiora finally managed to find her voice, scratchy from disuse and thirst but she was finally coming back around.
"I'm merely glad the rumors weren't true after all." The cook scurried around and procured two bowls of warm soup for the two ladies.
"Rumors?" This was the first time Lux heard of such thing. Definitely not Fiora's first.
"Mhmm." She set the bowls down on a nearby table as Lux helped Fiora sit on one side of it. "Many people believed her refusal to contribute towards the construction of new buildings in the town stemmed from a lack of desire to part with her wealth and indifference for the general welfare of the residents."
Fiora didn't bother hiding her anger, though subdued from lack of energy. "I wanted my money invested in safer buildings, not of rigid mortar, stone, and wood. We even had the best Piltoverian architects vouch for me at the time."
"This region is known to sit on unstable land, though such disasters as this are rare and few in between. Many noble homes within the Great City laughed at her foresight, but a few others took to seeing the reasoning behind her decision." The cook passed them a couple of spoons and sighed. "As a compromise, her part went into building reinforcements for the older, deprecated structures. An ill-investment but those reinforcements are the reason why there aren't nearly as many casualties as there could have been. Now, if you'll excuse me..."
Lux thanked the woman before she left and for the first time since their meeting in her office, they were able to sit alone together with no one to bother them. They still shared a space with the other volunteers, but this time the two women weren't sitting there as Fiora Laurent and Luxanna Crownguard.
They sat there as two souls among the rest gathered in the same cause.
"I can't eat." Lux paused sipping at her own soup. It didn't escape her notice when Fiora hardly touched her food, and she knew exactly what ate at the duelist's conscience.
"Fiora, you need to eat something. Your body needs it."
"How can we sit here, cleaned and fed while they-" Lux cut her off before she could get much further.
"They will be fine. We will be fine." The blonde dared reach over and grasp Fiora's hand tightly in her own. Muscles in the duelist's arm flexed in response, and Lux knew she fought the urge to pull away. "This is the reality of the world we live in. This is what happens when the raiders to the north subject our people to their savagery, or when Noxus sends their armies to ravage the countryside. Yet we always rebound and grow from the ruins. This town will heal-" She paused to jab the spoon in her hand at Fiora's direction.
"-but you do nothing for yourself if you starve. Eat."
And just like that, the duelist obeyed and took her first bite.
"What was his name?"
Their band were stretched out on wool blankets under the stars. Bedding for everyone came scare and while the townsfolk offered better comforts for their contributions, the four of them agreed to take some spare blankets and pillows and sleep in the open fields outside of the town. It would have been a risky ordeal, but with how many guards stood watch that night, their safety was guaranteed.
Fiora was the only one who put up some resistance initially, but only because she was concerned with the possibility there wouldn't be enough bedding for the people who needed them more.
"Dothan," Lux replied. Images of his broken body scarred her mind and brought tears back to her face. She kept her face away from Fiora, even when the woman turned towards her.
"The hero of Dawnhold?"
For a moment, the encroaching sadness halted. "You're familiar?"
A sly smirk crossed her slips as Fiora looked up to the skies. "I know it well. I didn't grow up with four brothers for nothing." To this day, Lux struggled to picture the duelist as being the youngest of five, or even comprehend the fact Fiora even had siblings in the first place. She was such a fierce and independent woman, she could have been willed into existence by the Gods alone and Lux would have an easier time believing that. "I always made them play the Freljordian corsairs while taking up the mantle of Dothan."
"You don't seem to be much the heroic type."
"Non, but it was better than being slain nameless."
"Your brothers spoiled their youngest sister," Lux teased. Fiora scowled, but the light chuckle following after took the bite out of her anger.
"Perhaps." Silence passed between them as they remained awake well after their companions fell asleep.
"He was so brave." Lux sighed as she let the memories come back to her. The hectic pace of the day helped keep her emotions in check, but when time afforded them a moment of peace, they flooded back like the first time she couldn't control her magic. "He disregarded his safety and saved a family, digging them out of the ruins of their own home. He didn't stop there and kept going back in when everyone else fled."
Bloodied bandages wrapped around his face brought tears back to her eyes and she let them fall easily.
"The second quake struck, and took down the building he was in atop him. His lungs were crushed by broken stone, his vision robbed with shattered glass."
A warm hand caressed her cheek. Lux only sobbed harder, her voice shaking as she continued.
"He was so young, so honorable. Yet the Gods took him away from a fulfilling life. Stole a true Demacian from us."
Fiora remained silent even as Lux clutched onto her front and cried into her chest. The commotion woke Sayo and Noah, but she drew a finger to her lips and they slowly laid back down. She ran a hand through blonde strands and wrapped the other arm around Lux's waist.
When Lux crushed her in a tight embrace, she kept her silence despite her protesting lungs.
"I couldn't heal him. I wanted to so badly."
No, she couldn't heal him. No one could save a dying man.
"But," Fiora began quietly when Lux's shaking subsided and her crying reduced to sniffles.
When her breathing evened out, she planted a feather-light kiss to her forehead.
"You gave him a final gift no one else can – Demacia's light."
And Fiora knew, without a doubt, she too would have marveled at such a beauty in her dying breath.
A/T: So a lot of you have been curious as to how I am able to crank out fast updates. A part of it is due to the fact I suffer heavily from insomnia and as a result my brain doesn't properly shut down when I go to sleep. Most of the time I'm able to dream up scenes and more often they end up being used in some shape or form. It also helps I type quickly enough to keep up with my brain dumping. I've also had this entire fanfic outlined and heavily discussed with the friend influencing this fanfic, and a lot of its core plot has been established already with me filling in the gaps. I usually don't sit down to write until I have the chapter set up in my head and once I write, it just flows out until I reach the end. That in itself takes me anywhere from 2-4 hours in one sitting, sometimes 5 or 6 if I'm struggling, which I do late at night and then edit in the mornings before work.
It also helps I work really weird hours, which allows for odd scheduling and free times.
With that being said, to address some points you lovely reviewers have brought up:
LumosNox/elmago02: I dropped Fiora's accent for readability purposes, especially for those whose first language isn't English. I have yet to go back to make changes in the previous chapters for consistency sake, but I will still include various phrases in French as small reminders throughout that Fiora speaks with an accent. Just imagine it, okay? D:
Gmp1000: K/DA has taken the LoL fanbase like a storm, though the hype has died down enough to where there isn't so much of a flood of that content as when it first came out. I could be speaking out of my ass though, seeing as I'm pretty oblivious to the main going-ons in that realm except through my Twitter feed and the occasional meme in my Discord servers. I have every intention to keep writing F/F (as it's the most comfortable for me), so I'll be delving into more pairings from this universe. Believe it or not, I was extremely hesitant on touching League because of my concern in expressing canon characters appropriately. You can thank a certain friend of mine for coaxing and cheering me on for this. Without her, I wouldn't have made it this far into something so wild and crazy, even I've had to sit back at times and ask myself if I've really written this or some otherworldly being possessed me to accomplish this!
Anyways, until next time! (which is probably gonna be in like three days)
