Warm bulbs flickered on overhead, illuminating the room.
At first glance there wasn't much to notice. There were sparse furnishings around, a table, a desk, some shelves and a bed off to the side. A door off to the left lead to a small kitchen and the bathroom would be the door further down – all the layouts were the same for everyone.
Nobody ever really used their rooms for anything much other than to sleep and while away time – the kitchen was basically a decoration piece. Morgana would be one of the only champions who actually used their kitchen on a frequent basis. Maybe Pantheon too. And why would they - meals were had at a communal hall nearby. Well, if the champions weren't off visiting back to their respective city states or hometowns – no one liked to stay here if they could and most would rather be back in a home they were familiar with.
If one had a home to return to that is.
"My place."
Varus gestured half-heartedly in a sweeping motion across the room.
Tentatively, Diana walked in, noticing the one the thing that seemed out of place – a glittering ornate picture frame sitting atop the desk beside his bed.
"Would you uh…" he ran his hand through his hair "like anything to eat?"
His slightly uncertain tone made it obvious he wasn't used to dealing with guests, especially unaccounted for ones.
"No, it's okay."
"Oh good, I don't think there's any food left."
They stood there in silence for a second in uncertain awkwardness before Varus undecidedly shuffled to his desk, pulling out a chair for her as he sat down on the bed.
Diana rested her blade on the chair instead, preferring to stay standing.
He coughed before looking up to regard her.
"I guess since you're here and you asked about this," he flexed his fingers "you want to know what it is." Diana ran her gaze over his body, looking at the strange coating again.
"Yea…yes..." Well it'll keep you occupied.
Varus sighed, running a hand across his arm, like he was calming it.
"It's a long story."
"If you ah… don't mind…" she added in afterthought when he didn't respond.
He was quiet, watching a tendril lick at his arm, feeling its way up. Gingerly he nudged it, the tip wrapping around his finger as he pushed it back. It was a while before he spoke again.
"This," he lifted his hand "this is corruption in its purest, vilest form."
At its mention, ripples flared along his arm, wrapping tendrils up as if trying to cling its way higher. He grimaced, clenching his fist around his bow before he flexed his fingers, adjusting his grip.
"I was a warden once, a time too long ago. Not of a prison, but of a temple – a place where this resided." He gestured in disdain at his body where the corruption coated his limbs.
"Only warriors of exceptional skill were chosen to guard the Pit of Pallas residing within the temple. Prevent this corruption spreading out from within. A lone guardian held the duty to protect the village and the temple."
His eyes grew dark and there was a thread of something deep and ancient seething into his voice.
"Except I… I failed both – when those cold-blooded Noxian dogs came." The edge in his voice sharpened.
Diana recalled that event, that war. She hadn't been there, hadn't been part of it. But stories of the gruesome and cruel deeds done and the decimation left in the wake of those Noxians travelled far. It was a dark part of Valoran's history, some of the things that happened... war never had a bright side. The invasion of Ionia and all that happened had been recorded down in Valoran archives – for better or for worse.
"I… I had no other way."
He closed his eyes, the shadows cast across his angular cheekbones accentuated even more as he clenched his jaw – the only sign of the anguish and strain within him.
"They had to pay. But… but I didn't have the power to…"
Diana stood there silently, understanding all too well the resonating tension in the air.
Varus looked at his hand, clenching the grip of the bow, jagged edges rippling across his arm. Light flickered off his shifting hand as the surface formed and reformed.
"I still wonder if it had been the right choice. This corruption, it's consuming my body, slowly. Lapping as it does at what pure flesh remains.^"
He gazed at his hands, slumping his shoulders.
The tone in his voice , the expression on his face, it reminded her too much of her own past. Of how there was nothing left for her either, everything taken away and nowhere to belong.
"It was the only choice though."
To turn to the only thing you have left, the one thing that was abhorred by everyone else.
"When the world turns its back on you, sometimes you have no choice but to answer with stone-cold revenge."
They took away everything from me, they had to pay.
"They took away everything from me, they had to pay."
He clenched his fist, straining to rein the evoked fury. Gritting his teeth, he held his breath for a second before exhaling, his hand relaxing.
"You understand … don't you, Diana?"
She felt a thrum of something synonymous between them as his words settled in.
Those, all of those who wronged her. They will pay with their blood and screams.
Varus looked up at her. His eyes… it was almost like he was pleading for her understanding. Diana lowered her head, looking away. She didn't want to remember it all, didn't want him to bring back the past, her past.
"…Yes, I do."
He was silent, turning away to look out the window.
This… this wasn't what she wanted, this wasn't what she came here for – a trip down memory lane. Maybe she shouldn't have asked him to unlock the dam to his past. The memories flowing up mingled too similarly with hers. She… she should be leaving. Going back to her… place. There was no home for her left to return to. Either. She cursed him in her mind. Flimsy feelings from the past, she didn't want him making her feel this now. Diana tried to shut out the trickling of memories, forcing it to the back of her mind, trying to bury them again.
This wasn't what she came here for, she came here to… Diana glanced at his hand still clutching onto his bow. How was she going to be able to do this?
Silence reigned on as he stared out the window - there was nothing to see out in the night's blackness except for the pale moon. Even the spattering of stars barely flickered. Somewhere outside there was a shuffling and crunching of footsteps walking past and a distant thud of a door shutting, the doorknocker bouncing against metal with a clank before it was silent again.
He bowed his head, resting his hand against his leg. They were both still, the only movement coming from his corruption as it flickered and shifted across his skin. Light gleamed off the ever-changing surfaces, swirling and writhing across his body.
"And it had all been set, always been set. They knew what would happen to the chosen." He was the first to break the silence, his voice hoarse. He swallowed and cleared his throat a little. There was another long pause before he continued as Diana wondered for a second what he was talking about.
"We were all fated to fall to the very thing we were chosen to guard. Every one of us."
Varus picked up the picture propped up on his desk, something ancient in his weary voice, coming from the past.
"It… it was not the "implacable beast" I had been sworn to contain.^ They did not tell us that we would all face the same ending. That the chosen one was doomed to guard the pit until he succumbed to it, till the corruption eventually took them in, against their will." His fingers tightened around the frame, the gilded edge digging into his palm. He turned his head slightly, catching her eye, his gaze forlorn.
"I was chosen for sacrifice, as was the one before me and the others before him."
He looked down again to the picture he was holding and brushed his thumb over the surface of the glass, lost in his thoughts and memories again.
"We were expendable, mere tools at the disposal of the elders." He was talking almost to himself, directed at the picture in his hands. A hard tone crept into his voice.
"We were nothing more than sacrificial lambs with no choice in our fates, our method of demise chosen beforehand by the elders. Foolishly lead to believe what we were doing was to protect everyone when we were merely nurtured for sacrifice."
"And I, I had let my village - my family - suffer and burn under the feet of Noxian dogs." The anger grew in his voice. "Sworn to defend the temple and prevent this corruption from escaping when all along it was for a lost cause." He clenched his fist, his knuckles white on his shaking hand and the corruption reared and writhed across his body in echoing sentiment.
"You do not realise how much I hate them, the elders." His eyes darkened.
"The Noxians were the ones who took away my everything. But to think, if they had not come, my fate would have been no different." He closed his eyes.
"Tricked and fooled by those elders, every single one of us, every single innocent man who had to guard the temple. Sacrifices, all unknowing sacrifices. I am no different from the rest, except that I had allowed the corruption to reside in me and it seems to… like me."
Varus shook his head in disgust at the concept.
"I…" she didn't quite know what to say really.
"I'm… sorry…"
Varus gave a humph as he turned his head slightly.
"What do you have to be sorry for?" he closed his eyes and sighed. "It's in the past already… and it's not like it was your fault."
Varus sighed and relaxed as he stretched, leaning back on his arms as slid his hands along the bed.
"You should leave."
^ Quoted from Varus' Judgement/lore
Had the whole holidays to write but just couldn't squeeze out anything, inspiration has run dry so sorry if this chapter's a bit meh. I'll come back and edit it some day in the future maybe.