Eryn is unaware of the passage of time as she sits enraptured by Darius's stories of his homeland. The rational part of her tries to argue that he is just embellishing his stories to try to manipulate her, to make her soften to him and his cause. But when he talks about Quiletta she can see his face soften. His eyes are wistful as he remembers this person he must have cared so much for. And she knows that at least the story is genuine, it's not an act, the emotions written across his face are too raw, too real.

She's so enamored in his tale she doesn't notice the soft thudding footsteps of her brother returning to camp. It's only when Darius's story about Quiletta is complete and the gentle quiet of the forest envelops them does she finally hear the crunching of leaves of her brother across the campsite. She turns to look over her shoulder at him. He's carrying several rabbits from his hunt, a much larger haul than last night's, and he's sending an icy glare towards the pair sitting together.

Eryn stands up, groaning as her joints ache and her muscles feel like they're made of molasses, and she slowly makes her way across the campsite to join her brother. The battle with the monster has left her drained, both physically and magically. Her eyes have been feeling heavy all night and it's been difficult to fend off the exhaustion. She silently sits across from her brother and helps skin his kills. She can feel the hair on her arms stand on end as every glance from her brother sends icy dread shooting through her veins.

"How are your injuries?" She asks, trying to break the ice. She won't look him in the eye when she speaks. He grunts in response, not giving an answer. "I have some energy left if you need more healing." No response.

She finishes skinning the rabbit and sets it up to roast over the fire before taking the next one. "It's unfortunate that cragbeast meat makes you sick, that could have fed us for weeks if we dried it out. We wouldn't go hungry through our entire trek, and then some!" She notes and forces a smile as she looks over at Claudius. He looks up to meet her gaze with, his eyes filled with intense malice. It makes Eryn's stomach churn and she glances away.

"Are you really going to pretend like nothing has happened?" Claudius asks through gritted teeth as he skins his rabbit with much more force.

"I didn't know if you wanted to talk about it." Eryn says. It's half true. But the full truth is she doesn't want to talk about it because she can already see the impending explosive argument.

"Are you willing to stop lying to me, to tell me everything like you said you would?" She falls quiet. "Then no, I don't want to talk."

The night goes by in uncomfortable silence. The sun sets and Claudius says he will take first watch, so Eryn heads off to sleep in the tent. She falls asleep quickly, the exhaustion from the days fight overtaking her.

She is surprised to not wake up to her brother swapping watches with her, but to sunlight fluttering through the tent. Assuming something must be wrong she tosses the fur blankets off of her and rushes out of the tent.

Her brother is sitting by the fire, snuffing out the last embers. He glances at her as she looks at him confused. "You never swapped watches with me." She states dumbfounded.

"I Thought maybe you needed a full night sleep to come to your senses. Away from…" He nods his head towards their captive, who is fast asleep with his head resting against a tree.

She feels anger causing the hair on her neck to bristle. "Claudius, you can just say you don't trust me anymore. Don't act like you did that out of kindness." He doesn't reply and she looks over to see they still have some leftover roasted rabbits left. "He didn't eat?"

"He won't even throw insults my way. He knows he can't manipulate me." Claudius responds bitterly, and Eryn bites back a retort. Half of her agrees with him, knowing that this is probably. He watches Eryn as she goes to pick up a rabbit and walk over to Darius's side. The sound of the two arguing had woken him up and he was sitting upright now.

Eryn kneels down to be at his eye level and offers the food to him. He turns his head away from the offering. "You know my conditions." He replies when he sees her annoyed look.

"Not with Claudius around." She responds quietly.

He scoffs. "Its funny how you're not afraid to defy me, but you let yourself be bossed around by your weakling brother."

Her cheeks burn red, and she wants to argue back, but she hears Claudius approaching. "Eryn, let him starve if he wants to. We need to pack up and move."

They pack up quickly and are marching again through the forests, this time Eryn is carrying the backpack filled with supplies and Claudius is holding onto Darius's lead rope.. It's around midday when she can see the towering cliffs that surround most of Demacia's borders. Insurmountable mountains that only can be ascended with the help of beasts like silverwings, white griffins that select Demacian soldiers are gifted. The only way through these mountains is by air or tunnel.

Which is exactly what they arrive at. An old Demacian mining tunnel nestled in these woods at the base of a cliff. According to Claudius it will take them to the opposite side of Fort Ironwood. The caves used to be guarded by Demacian soldiers, but with the fort overtaken by Noxians and the mines not on any map, the location was abandoned unbeknownst to their enemy.

Outside the entrance to the cave was a small mining hut where the foreman who formerly worked here would store supplies. It was made of rickety rotting wood with a patchwork roof, and it had been converted into a small guard hut by the Demacian soldiers, but it still had old mining supplies stashed around. Eryn and Claudius quickly ransack the hut and find a few old oil lanterns with hopefully enough oil for the hike through the caves. Darius watches them with mild boredom but stays silent.

Outside the hut, Eryn inspects the old mine carts that were rusting, tipped over on the grass, and notices the pure white dust that lines them. She swabs the dust with a finger and feels her skin tingling oddly and quickly shakes it off. "Claudius… what did they mine here?" She calls into the hut. He doesn't respond. "Claudius!"

"Petricite." He answers as he steps out of it, dusting off the lanterns with disinterest.

Eryn's blood runs cold. "Why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

"Not so fun having your allies keep secrets from you is it?" Claudius's tone was bitter.

"Claudius how could you?!" A petricite cave was her worst nightmare come alive.

"Would you have agreed to this if you knew? This was our best option to get back to safety!"

"I'm not going in there. Claudius this is a stupid plan!" Her voice was cracking from the terror of it.

"This is our only plan Eryn. It's time for you to wake up and do what you need to do as a Demacian. We do what we must for the safety of our people. We have a duty to bring this Noxian to justice to answer for his surely countless war crimes." Eryn sees Darius roll his eyes at that comment. "It is time for you to start doing your duty." Claudius tosses one lantern to Eryn before lighting his own and makes his way into the cave, forcing Darius to tag along with him.

She clutches the iron lantern, her hands shaking before breathing in and following the two of them. Instantly upon crossing the threshold into the cave she can feel her skin begin to tingle all over her body before being replaced by a pressing numbness in her core. She tries to summon her magic, but she feels nothing. Like she's been drained of it. She feels empty, cold, and scared as she trods after her brother. A part of her was missing.

Her brother leads the way holding his own lantern with Darius situated between them. She can see Darius glance back a few times at her, and everytime she tries to hide the anxiety plainly written on her face. Soon the light from the entrance fades completely and the only light comes from the glow of their oil lanterns. Their footsteps echo off the cave walls and the air turns cool and moist. There are several offshoots of the mines, which according to Claudius eventually loop back into the main cavern they're traveling in.

Once they've been walking for what must have been a few hours Claudius breaks the silence that had been forming. "I truly am sorry I didn't tell you about the cave sister. But I knew you'd be resistant and it was our only hope to get home unscathed."

"It's alright Claudius." She says, but her heart isn't in it. And it's obvious to her brother.

"This certainly has been a stressful few weeks. But if this Noxian is as high ranking as we believe, I am sure we will get knighted for our bravery. You and father can retire to a life of luxury and-"

"Demacians truly think of nothing but status." Darius interrupts.

"You wouldn't understand, Noxian. To watch your family toil away farming land that is owed to them by blood. We should be barons. If we had what we were owed Eryn would never have to fear the mageseekers and we would never go hungry."

"And how is that justice? Land should not be given to one just because of their name alone. That is not fairness. You are not owed luxury simply because your great grandfather slept with the baroness." Darius argues back. "What you do and what you preach are misaligned, Demacian." Claudius whips around on his heels and slams Darius into the cave wall. The Noxian laughs at the display of force and the cave walls shutter, dust falling from the ceiling. They're standing directly in a portion of the cave that had opened up and was much wider, with a few branching off shoots from the main corridor.

"And slaughtering the people who own that land is just?"

Eryn wants to reach out and stop the two, but suddenly she sees a shadow quickly move in her peripheral vision. She spins around searching for where it had come from, scanning the multiple entrances into this area of the cave. "Claudius..."

"We don't slaughter innocents."

Another shadow catches Eryn's attention, sending her attention upwards.

"Explain Ionia then?"

Eryn flashes her lantern towards the ceiling and hundreds of red glowing eyes peer back at her.

"Claudius!"

Before the two can react, there's a loud hissing noise and the spiders that had been hiding on the ceiling begin to descend upon them. The arachnids are huge, maybe the size of a large dog, and there are dozens of them all free falling from the ceiling.

Claudius pushes away from Darius and equips his warhammer with swift grace. He immediately squashes the first giant spider to land beside him, but then two more take its place.

Eryn unsheaths Darius's axe and swings at a spider, but it nimbly dodges before lunging at her. She stumbles backwards as it sinks its fangs into her forearm. She yelps as she flings it off her body sending it flying across the cave floor. She's panicking, without being able to buff herself with her magic she can't brute force her way through this fight. She feels useless.

A second spider lunges towards her and she brings the axe up to brace for impact when suddenly Darius sends it flying into the cavern wall with a powerful kick to its side. He sends a glance back at her, seeing if she's alright. He's defending her, Eryn realizes. His captor.

There's a scream from across the cave and Eryn glances over to see Claudius overwhelmed by spiders. Dozens of them are crawling over him,sinking their teeth into his skin, as he tries to smash them with his warhammer. Eryn turns back to Darius and her body moves on her own. She lifts the axe and uses the blade to cut Darius's bonds, freeing him, before placing the handle in his hands. Her heart is hammering in her chest, part of her brain is screaming at her for freeing him. But she pushes it to the back of her mind as suddenly the two are surrounded by spiders. Darius pulls Eryn tightly to his chest before spinning them both around in a tight pirouette, Darius's axe outstretched cleaves through the hoard of spiders with ease. The spiders that had surrounded them are now lifeless and limp, scattered around them in pools of their own blood.

Eryn glances up at him, his arm still around her tightly. He's standing tall, his shoulders square, the axe in one hand seemingly a natural extension of his body. Confidant, no fear. This is the Hand of Noxus. He looks down at her, giving her one brief glance over to make sure she's alright, before releasing her from his arms and turning his attention to Claudius. Her brother is covered in spiders, every arachnid he manages to get off of him is replaced by two more.

He then moves across the cave and lodges his axe into a spider that had its fangs buried into Claudius. Claudius looks at him confused, but doesn't have time to process what he's seeing as he has to shake off another spider biting into his leg. His hammer slams a second spider into the wall with a sickening thud and the walls of the cave shake again.

Darius cleaves wide, easily taking out the majority of the remaining hoard in one graceful move. He slams his axe into a particularly large spider with tremendous strength, killing it instantly, causing the remaining spiders to begin to skidder away in fear down deeper into the cave. The threat was gone for now, leaving the three of them breathing heavily, hearts pumping from the adreneline.

Darius returns to where he left Eryn. She hadn't realized her knees had given out during the fight and she was on the floor until she sees he's standing over her with his hand outstretched. She hesitantly takes it and she winces a bit as he helps her to her feet. "It bit you." He notes, inspecting her arm and the puncture wounds.

"I'm fine don't worry. Demacia isn't known for venomous creatures. It just stings." Eryn says with a small smile. His face softens, mostly looking relieved. Eryn is suddenly aware of the gravity of their positions. The Hand of Noxus was standing over her, his hand gently holding onto her, staring down at her with concern and relief. A man that was recently her captive, who is now free to exact his revenge, is concerned for her. Her heart is hammering in her chest as her mind swirls with anxiety and fear as she realizes she freed their prisoner, but for some bizarre reason the warm glow of affection bubbles in her chest as she meets his warm gaze.

The peace is broken as a warhammer nearly collides with Darius's side, but his reflexes are fast and he let's go of Eryn and blocks the blow with his axe. "How did you get free?!" Claudius demands through gritted teeth as he tries to overpower Darius, pressing the warhammer harder into the axe.

Darius shrugs him off sending him stumbling back. Before he can answer Eryn steps between them. "I freed him-"

His eyes flash with rage "Eryn you traitor-"

"You were overwhelmed! I'm useless without my magic, we needed his help!"

"We were fine-"

"We would be dead without him!"

Claudius clenches his fist around the handle of his warhammer. He turns his attention to Darius standing behind his sister. "Surrender Noxian. You know how this ended last time."

Darius laughs and Eryn can suffice a guess why. The reason they captured him at all was from Eryn's magic putting Darius to sleep. Without access to that they don't stand a chance. And even with it, she wouldn't be able to surprise him with it a second time. He knows how her powers work. He wins this fight. "You're being foolish, Demacian. Your luck has run out. Maybe formal introductions are now in order… My name is Darius, the Hand of Noxus, and I will be leaving this cave a free man."

Claudius looks between Eryn and Darius, his jaw has gone slack with shock. "This is a bluff. You can't be..."

Eryn shakes her head. "He's not. Let him go, Claudius. Let's just go home with our lives, please. It's over."

Claudius suddenly charges forward towards the two of them "All the more reason we need to defeat him!" He shouts at the top of his lungs. He swings the hammer at the two of them, and Darius grabs Eryn by her waist and pulls her out of the way. Claudius collides with the wall and the entire cave shakes again. Except this time the shaking doesn't stop immediately.

Claudius doesn't notice this and swings again, "We can't let the leader of the Noxian Army leave here! No Demacian will ever have a chance like this again!" Darius blocks with his axe, throwing Claudius backwards into the wall.

"Claudius stop!" Eryn pleads as the rumbling doesn't stop and dust begins to fall from the ceiling. He ignores her and throws another swing only for it to be parried again.

The rumbling is getting louder and louder, and small rocks fall from the ceiling. Claudius swings again, missing and hitting the wall, accelerating the shaking of the cave. A large boulder falls from the ceiling just missing Claudius, causing him finally to stop his assault momentarily.

A second boulder falls, about to crash into Darius, but Eryn quickly grabs him and drags him backwards into one of the side corridors. The ceiling is caving in on the main cave corridor. "We need to move." Darius states and begins to run down the side corridor and Eryn follows him as they both are dodging falling rocks from the cave. She glances back over her shoulder, noticing Claudius hadn't followed them, and her heart sinks seeing only rubble behind her. She swallows the lump forming in her throat and turns to look ahead to follow Darius, pushing thoughts of what happened to her brother behind her, as they venture further into the caves.

When the rumbling finally stops behind them the two stop to catch their breath. The sounds of their heavy breathing echo through the tunnels. Eryn keeps glancing behind her, expecting to see her brother come jogging to catch up with them. Darius snaps her out of her thoughts with a question. "Is there a way out of these caves from here?"

"Claudius had mentioned all these side corridors do eventually loop back into the main corridors… but who knows how much has been caved in, and how long these corridors are...:" Eryn replies numbly.

He nods. "Then we should keep moving."

Eryn nods as well, readjusting her backpack and holding up the lantern as the two begin to walk deeper into the unknown. She pushes back the terror mounting inside her of being trapped in a petricite mine forever and the sorrow of not knowing what has happened to her brother. Darius walks in step beside her, resting his axe across his shoulders. She takes slight comfort in knowing at least she wasn't alone… Even if she was with someone that has every reason to want to gut her where she stands. She wonders why he hasn't yet…