Eryn is woken up from her sleep by a rough hand jostling her awake. She jolts up instinctively, terror gripping her as reality comes back to her. She feels the tension leave her body when she recognizes her surroundings. She's in her tent, and Draven is looking at her with a slightly bemused expression. "Alright Mooreheart it's your turn for watch. I need to catch up on my beauty sleep."
"Really?" Draven hadn't let Eryn take any watches in the past 5 days they've been together. He rotated with Katarina and made Eryn sleep the entire time, saying she was more likely to get them killed if she left her in charge of watching their backs. It had stung, but she was grateful to finally have a few full nights of sleep.
"Yeah. Just remember what I said about being alone with Kat. If she comes back from the infiltration, just don't talk to her until I get up." Draven replies with a yawn. "Now shoo, we got a big rescue mission comin up and I need to make sure my brother doesn't see me with bags under my eyes."
Eryn rolls her eyes as she exits the tent. She can feel the hot humid air rippling with energy as dark storm clouds above her roll in. Orange light from the setting sun filters through the forest canopy above, but it's quickly being snuffed out by the incoming weather and the encroaching night.
Eryn sits on a large rock in their little campsite, picking up a piece of dried jerky from their supplies and chewing on it as her eyes are trained on the foliage around her, alert for any sounds or movement. They're very close to Whitburn's keep, which means they've already had encounters with Demacian scouts. They're just a few hours below it, hiding in what remains of the forest. The terrain is getting rockier and the trees more sparse as they get close to the hillside stronghold.
Katarina had been sent ahead to infiltrate the keep ahead of them, look for secret entrances and any information about where Darius is being held. Draven had noted Katarina is an expert on infiltrating Demacian strongholds unseen, but she's never had to extract a prisoner from one before. Noxians typically don't care for their captured, if they were weak enough to get captured then they don't deserve rescuing.
Which is why Draven and Katarina are keeping this operation so small. No backup. It'd be seen as pathetic that they're even attempting this operation. Katarina seems to not even want to be here herself. Eryn's caught the two bickering in hushed whispers when they thought Eryn was still sleeping. She managed to make out Katarina seeming to ask if Draven will hold up "his end of the deal" when this is over. She couldn't make out Draven's response, but Katarina didn't seem entirely happy with whatever it was.
Eryn sighs, picking up a sword that Draven had looted from a Demacian corpse just yesterday. He had handed it to her saying she can use it to "make herself useful." The two while seeming to dislike each other, there seems to be some mutual respect for each other's abilities. But both of them look at her like she's a burden. Neither completely confident in her abilities. Eryn runs her fingers over the hilt of the sword, feeling the smooth metal beneath her skin. A part of her distantly misses the simpler times of being a goat farmer.
The soft sound of metal clinking against metal makes Eryn sit up. She whips around, sword at the ready, and scans the forest for the source of it. Eryn relaxes when she catches who it is. Katarina. She's still dressed in a Demacian uniform she had looted from a Demacian soldier. Her wild red hair is balled up into a bun tucked beneath a steel helmet; her lithe figure no longer accentuated by tight leather but instead hidden by bulky chainmail and a blue tabard. "Relax Mooreheart, it's me." Katarina says as she approaches the camp, rolling her eyes.
Eryn lowers the sword as she walks by. Katarina rips off the helmet, letting her red locks cascade down her back. Draven's words echo in her head. Don't tell her a single thing. Don't even talk to her. She's a Du Couteau, she'll look for any information she can use as a weapon against us. She's dangerous but she's all we have to work with right now. That's what he had told her on the first day, after Eryn had told Draven a summary of what Darius and her had been through together thus far. He had sent Katarina away for the retelling, much to her annoyance, and Eryn had to give him the story in hushed whispers in case she was listening from the shadows.
Eryn hates this game the two are playing. She hates keeping basic information from Katarina. They're supposed to be working together. She hates how Katarina looks at her with annoyance on a good day. So she ignores Draven's voice ringing in her head and takes a deep breath before speaking up. "How'd it go?"
"Fine." Katarina's tone is sharp. Already they're off to a great start.
"What did you find?" Eryn presses. Katarina unsheaths one of her daggers and twirls it through her fingers. A silent threat. Eryn ignores it and continues on. "We're allies right? Why are-"
The word allies sets her off and she gives Eryn a cold stare. "We're not allies."
"We're working together towards a mutual goal. That sounds like we're allies to me."
She scoffs. "You're such a Demacian."
"What do you mean by that?" Eryn feels annoyance bubbling in her chest and she has to remind herself to keep calm, especially when Katarina is looking at her with a cocky smirk.
"I mean that you're naive. Foolish. To think that I'm here helping because I have a choice. I'd be happy to see all of your heads on spikes, displayed upon the bannisters of Noxus Prime. I am not your ally."
"Then do it. I'm sure you have the talent and the resources to make that happen. What's stopping you?" Eryn pushes.
Katarina clicks her tongue. "Tsk. You really want to know so bad huh? Think you can handle your new best friends' dirty secrets?" Eryn holds her icy gaze, unflinching despite the taunts making her stomach churn.
"Fine. Maybe you'll get some sense and run back home to your cushy Demacian family where you belong. These boys aren't the heroes or liberators they want you to believe. When Jericho Swain came into power, Draven executed every single noble family who voiced dissent. When Darius returned from the Freljord, his duty was to kill the usurper, but instead he took his side and is now one of the three most powerful people in Noxus. He rejected his duty to his people, just for power. That's the kind of people you're so quick to betray your own people for. Murderers. Traitors. Men who will do anything, sacrifice anyone to attain power.
"And so here I am. Forced to serve the Trifarix or risk my family being culled by Draven and his Reckoners. And that's the least of the threats Draven is holding over head. You think you're escaping tyranny yet are so quick to brush elbows with the tyrants of Noxus."
The air is thick with the tension as Katarina falls silent. Her words cut deeper than her daggers. Eryn's fears about Noxus not only being brought to the forefront, but those fears being put to Darius's face. Part of her desperately wants to believe it's a lie. Eryn's nails dig into her palms as she mulls over the accusations. "You don't know him-"
"And you do? How can you be sure he isn't using you and your magic? You're just a tool for him. You mean nothing to him. You're such a Demacian. To believe that a Noxian actually cares about you." Katarina snaps, her tone is like a venomous snakebite. The words make their way to her heart and Eryn's jaw clenches as doubt clouds her mind. She really doesn't know Darius. She thinks she knows him, but she supposes she only knows the man he wants her to see. But… if he really only cared about her for personal gain, why would he save her? It doesn't add up...
"Can you stop projecting, Katarina? Or at least do it quieter. I was trying to sleep here." Draven scolds, yawning as he steps from the tent he was sleeping in. Katarina stiffens, her face turning a deep scarlet. Neither Eryn or Katarina had realized how loud they were talking.
"Draven-" Katarina sputters but Draven swiftly interrupts her.
"Maybe I should tell our new friend exactly why you're so cranky about being here-"
"You say one more word and I cut your tongue out."
"You and I both know you won't. You can't. At least until Darius and I get back to Noxus Prime." Draven stares down Katarina, a look of confidence painted on his face. Katarina grits her teeth but doesn't argue further. She merely sends icy glances at the both of them. "Good. Alright let's debrief since I'm up anyway. What did you find?" Eryn feels the tension leave her body and lets a breath out she didn't know she was holding.
"He's being held on the deepest level of their dungeon. High security guards the staircases down. He's refusing to give information, so there's some silver lining there."
"Any secret entryways into the keep? These old places are full of contingency escape routes to protect their nobles."
Katarina shrugs. "I didn't find them myself, but there are rumors about there being a deeper level to the keep below the dungeons. Some sort of catacomb belonging to the previous owner. But no entrances can be found in or out. Some kinda ghost story shit Demacians love to believe. Something about 'only the blood of the founders can find safe passage through' or something. Who knows if they even exist."
"Most ghost stories have kernels of truth." Draven muses.
"Well, if they do exist… I know where to find that blood." Eryn pipes up. Draven and Kat both turn to her with confused expressions, having been ignoring her most of the night. "My family built that keep. It's ours by blood. If those catacombs are real, my blood can grant the passage."
Draven grins wildly. "You just got a whole lot more interesting little mage. Why aren't you currently Queen of that castle then?"
"We were deemed traitors and were run out. My father told me not all of our family survived, most killed by the Whitburns."
"If I was a betting man, which I am by the way, I'd put good money on these catacombs being the reason any of your family escaped at all." Draven runs a hand through his moustache as he thinks. Suddenly darkness falls over the camp, as the storm clouds that have been lurking finally creep in and hide the remaining light. The wind picks up and distantly Eryn can hear claps of thunder. "Alright. I have a plan."