Chapter 4:

Riven hadn't really ever taken the opportunity to look around the Placidium since she settled into living with Irelia here despite the Captain's best efforts to suggest that Riven should have a look around and get to know the place better. Riven preferred to stay away from most people here in the Placidium, many had lost relatives who lived outside the Placidium and even a few lots family and friends in the attack on the Placidium by Noxus several months earlier and the sight of Riven was enough to turn the mood sour even if she did help bring the Noxian campaign to an end.

Normally Riven would only leave the safety of their home when she had to but today was an exception. For months she had the feeling that she was being followed but she let whoever it was continue without challenge because there was nothing to see. All Riven did was leave home, go to her training sessions and return home in the evening however today was different, the months of being treated with a continued cold shoulder at best and open aggression at worst by strangers had gotten to her and she knew it was time to draw her stalker out of the shadows to confront them.

Riven used her day off to leave before sunrise to travel to the gardens, Irelia had asked her where she was going but Riven kept her plans a secret from her at least for now. She took her stalker on an elaborate path through the gardens, using the confusion to catch the follower off guard, grasping the man by his throat. She removed his hood, hoping to find someone she recognised but all she found was a boy even younger than herself which explained his inability to keep her unaware of his watching.

"Is it the Deceiver that you work for?" The boy quivered in her grip, obviously having gotten complacent in the months he followed her without confrontation. "Answer me." She demanded, pressing him up against the tree.

"Y-Yes." The boy stammered, he looked as if he were about to piss his pants, Noxus was scraping the barrel for new recruits. Riven fished her hand into her back pocket, pulling out a letter and putting it in the boys hand.

"Take this to her, don't open it and don't let anyone other than LeBlanc read it and make sure she has you return with her response and no one else." The boy nodded his head as much as he could in Riven's death grip before she let him go. She figured, as she watched the boy run away, that LeBlanc had purposefully picked the most useless person for this mission so she would know that LeBlanc was watching and waiting for an answer to her offer. Riven returned home as quickly as she had arrived in the gardens.

"That was quick. Did you even look at anything when you were there?" The Captain called out when she heard the front door close, emerging from the living room.

"I said I would give it a go, I didn't say I would enjoy it or stay for a while." Irelia laughed slightly in response.

"One of these days I'll take you to something cultured and get you to at least try it." Before Riven could interject to say she had tried the gardens, Irelia continued. "Properly try it."

Riven continued her regular routine of waking up, training and returning home in the evening for the next few weeks before the boy returned. He showed up one night on her way home from training, catching her in an alleyway without any witnesses as LeBlanc most likely asked him to do. He handed Riven a letter before scurrying off, not wanting a repeat of last time with Riven's strong hands around his throat.

It took a few attempts for Riven to be able to be sure of what LeBlanc had written in the letter, the woman wrote in cursive which she still had significant trouble reading but eventually she understood that the Deceiver was asking her to make a trip to the Institute in order for them to speak in person, that letters were far too dangerous for such a matter. Riven wondered how she would spin this to Irelia, asking for an earlier than planned return to the institute without telling her the actual reason why. She knew if she told the Captain, Irelia would refuse to let her go because of who LeBlanc is.

Riven folded the letter into her back pocket while she made the rest of her trip home, attempting to come up with a good enough reason to drop everything and return to the Institute and do it alone.