Eryn isn't sure how much time has gone by, it's hard to tell in the caverns. The two are awash in the golden glow of the lantern but it doesn't shine more than several meters in front of them. The white petricite walls have grown to look the same as the two march onward for possibly hours.
Eryn grows weary as they march, from the trek and from the anxiety of the day's prior events. Her heart feels heavy in her chest, like it's made of pure lead, as her mind swirls with memories of her brother. She's replaying their last confrontation over and over in her mind, regretful that possibly his final thoughts of her were her betraying him.
She doesn't notice that she's lagging behind Darius until he stops to turn to look back at her, standing at the edge of the lantern's light. "What's wrong?"
She shakes her head, embarrassed that she was slowing him down, and quickens her pace to catch up with him. "It's nothing." She forces a smile, but his brow furrows as he observes her face. He's not buying it.
"Let's stop here then. We've been walking for long enough."
She wants to argue that she can keep going, but her legs ache and her eyes are heavy, so instead of protesting she simply nods and slides the backpack off her shoulders onto the ground. She rummages in it for a bit, pulling out the filled waterskin and the wool blanket. She spreads the blanket on the ground so they wouldn't be sitting on pure stone and she sits down on it. Darius sits beside her, back resting against the cave walls, as Eryn takes a swig of water before passing it to him.
She can't help but watch him out of the corner of her eye as he takes a drink, acutely aware of their current close proximity, their shoulders nearly bumping together. Her gaze drifts down his large muscular arm to his hand resting gently atop the handle to his axe. She's acutely aware of his commandeering presence even when at rest. The pure bulk of his muscles, how even now leaning against a wall he nearly towers over her. How the axe feels like a natural extension of his arm. The man is a force to be feared, and she's screaming at herself that she should fear him. That there was nothing stopping this Noxian from doing what Noxians do best, kill.
However in their short time together she's seen him have those few moments of soft openness. She's been trying to dismiss those moments as manipulation, to gain her trust only as a means to escape with her guard down. But here he sits, a free man, with the power to kill her and enact revenge for his capture, and instead he shares a flask with her like they were friends, equals.
The sound of him capping the flask brings her out of her thoughts causing her eyes to snap up towards the sound where they lock eyes. She quickly averts her gaze to look across from her, feeling her face flush red as she realizes he caught her staring at him.
She can still feel his own eyes burning into her side, observing her, and feels the awkward silence building between them. She wants to say something, but is stumbling for topics now. Wondering how best to address their former dynamic as captor and prisoner, how to apologize for them even being in this messed up scenario as partially her fault.
"So... Was it my turn to ask a question?" Darius is the one to break the silence and the question causes Eryn to burst out laughing. Partially because of his awkward delivery and timing, but also because she had completely forgotten about their little game.
She glances over to see his mouth is curved upwards into a slight smile as he watches her laugh die down and she catches her breath. "I don't even know anymore honestly. I think we can just… talk and avoid the pseudo interrogations for now. And talk as… friends."
He chuckles, his low baritone voice reverberating off the cave walls, as he shakes his head with a growing smile. "I have been stationed in many places over the course of nearly two decades of service to Noxus, and I think this might have to be the one I will remember for being the most strange."
"Really? Noxian service must be boring if making a friend is the strangest thing to happen to you." She's smiling back at him now, a hint of teasing in her tone.
"It's more the 'getting captured only to be freed by said captor and then trapped in a cave with them' that takes the cake."
"That still sounds quite boring. My brother once told me of a time he was stationed at a military encampment not far from the farm we grew up on, and it was about to be attacked by a crag beast, much larger than the one we fought, and it was taken down by a single yordle who then promptly left declaring the hero she's looking for wasn't there." She's smiling widely, remembering the day he told her that story when he was visiting home for holiday. How he practically reenacted the tale for her. And then she remembers how she probably won't ever see him again and her smile falters, as pain splits through her chest.
Darius watches her intently, his own smile replaced with a more concerned gaze. They both fall quiet for a few seconds before he breaks it. "Tell me about him, and growing up here. What it was like."
She thinks for a few moments, as childhood memories flood back, and she begins to recount them to him. Her first memories were of her teaching him how to milk a goat, and him spooking the poor critter and nearly getting kicked in the face. He never had a knack for the farming bits. He was always more interested in tales of adventure their father told them before bed. Of heroic deeds their forefathers did as former knights of Demacia. Claudius and her would reenact those stories with sticks they'd find in the woods.
Their farming town was located not far from the base of Fort Ironwood, and they always made a game of sneaking past the guards to go explore the woods beyond, and the guards always played along pretending not to notice them. When they got older and father would take Claudius on trips to the bigger Demacia cities to sell some of their wares to more wealthy buyers, it started to become a tradition that the two would go camping in the woods a few weeks before Claudius's big treks with their father. He always felt bad Eryn wasn't allowed to go with them for her own protection, there were far more mageseekers in the big cities, so he always made their camping trips a big outing. Just them two against the elements, forgetting about the threat of mageseekers even just for a small while.
As she recalls these tales of their childhood adventures Eryn can feel herself begin to lean against Darius's side, drawn to him like a magnet, seeking his touch for comfort. Her heart hurts as she realizes she won't be making anymore happy memories with him. As her head rests against Darius's shoulder she feels his arm wrap around her back to hold her waist firmly, his hand warmly resting on her hip.
She falls silent after finishing a tale about her brother bringing back souvenirs from the big city for her. "He was good to you. Looking out for you in a kingdom where few would have the guts to." Darius says.
She breathes in deeply, just now noticing her nose has stuffed up and her face was wet with tears. She had been crying. She wipes them away with her elbow. "Kind words from someone who I'm pretty sure hated him just a few hours ago."
Darius sighs and Eryn can feel his whole chest move with the motion. "I hate what he stood for. As I'm sure he hated what I stand for. But I don't hate him. He was fighting for his homeland, a homeland I believe to be ruled by unjust tyrants, but it's still his. Before my city was liberated by Noxus, Draven wanted to fight the invading legion as well, as foolish an idea it was. I take no joy in witnessing his untimely death, when he was just trying to carve a place for you and him in this backwards hell hole." Eryn flinches at the insult to Demacia, which doesn't go unnoticed by Darius. She feels his body stiffen. "Sorry I didn't mean it like-"
"No it's okay. I like that you're honest about your thoughts about Demacia. It's… it's helped me think about things differently. I appreciate it." She interrupts his apology and feels his muscles instantly relax. She wonders why he cares so much about what she, a nobody Demacian farmer, thinks about him.
They're both quiet for a while, Eryn comfortable with his warmth. His thumb resting on her hip runs circles over her skin absentmindedly, and Eryn enjoys the feeling. "When we get out of this… will you rejoin the Demacian army?" Darius asks.
She pauses to think. She had joined initially to protect her home from invaders. Her father had to abandon their home and move farther from the border, along with their friends and neighbors, in fear of the invading forces. The war will still be ongoing when she returns. But… the thought of killing Noxians indiscriminately, people who were just like Darius, not the monsters from horror stories, made her sick to her stomach. "I'm unsure." She answers finally. "I could go home and continue my farm life, but the mageseekers might find me eventually… Or I could try to pick up where my brother left off, attempting to do a heroic enough deed that the mageseekers would be willing to look the other way from our family… but killing people just to give myself a better life... I don't think would sit right with me."
Darius inhales deeply, Eryn's head resting on the side of his chest moves with the motion. "Those are not your only choices." He says and Eryn turns her head upwards to meet his gaze, her eyebrows furrowed questioning what he could mean. He's looking down at her, his face has a gentle expression as his dark brown eyes observe her. When she doesn't answer he continues. "You could leave Demacia. Go somewhere your talents would be appreciated."
"Where? Noxus? And fight in more wars, killing more innocents?"
"Work as a medic. Heal the wounded. Bolster the legion with stronger soldiers. Or... just as a magician in the city offering services to the common folk. There are many ways you would be welcome in Noxus. No more mageseekers or petricite to hold you back. You could be yourself freely." Eryn pauses as she considers it. She hadn't ever considered Noxus as an option for her. But Darius's tale about Quiletta flashes in her mind and she hesitates, jaw clenched. Noxus isn't some fairy tale place where you could be anything, it clearly has its flaws, it's own monsters in the dark. She'd be giving up the only home she knows, her only family, to make a leap of faith that maybe this new land would maybe be a better place.
While Eryn debates with herself, Darius begins to sit up straight, removing his arm from around Eryn's side, and she has to sit up as well to stop herself from falling to the floor.. "I don't expect an answer now. We need to get out of here first after all. Sleep on it, Eryn." He picks up the rusty oil lantern and puts out the light, and the two are awash in the pitch black darkness of the cave. She can hear him settle down onto the blanket beside her, his back facing her. She feels disappointed at the loss of his warm touch, but she shakes that thought away before lying down as well, her back facing him, and letting herself be taken away by sleep.