Short Yuri soulmate snippet featuring our favorite PTSD protagonist.

"Yeah... No matter how much I keep staring at it, I just can't get used to this… this crazy witchcraft." Fang's Adam's apple bobs in anxiety as he and the other two Noxian soldiers standing beside him watch the land glide underneath their feet. The rooftops of medium-sized settlements down below seeming like a scattered collection of accumulated tiny pebbles as seen from the high walls of the floating temple where the Noxians are gathered at, solemnly observing the world unfold before them as Syndra's magical fortress flies through the sky.

"Aye," Sev nods in agreement, giving his commander a side glance, watching Riven observe the green forests below while she absentmindedly strokes the dark-purple sphere she is gently holding against her chest. The white-haired Noxian commander looking so preoccupied by her gloomy thoughts that Sev is sure that Riven herself doesn't even realize that she is stroking the freakish purple sphere -which seems happy... slightly leaning towards Riven's touch and vibrating in a sign of... contentment?

'Don't be ridiculous' Sev discards that last trail of thought, directing his gaze back to the foreign land underneath them. Even from such a great distance Sev can see the smoke of the Zaunite bombs on the horizon if he squints his eyes, just like he, occasionally, believes that he can hear the sounds of the bombs going off on top of both the Ionian and the Noxian army if he concentrates hard enough.

"You think General Swain ordered the barrage, Commander?" Fang asks suddenly as if he has been reading Sev's mind, "Why would he kill his own army to kill a bunch of Ionians, when our forces would have overpowered them anyway, given enough time?" Fang continues with the voice of someone who is desperately trying to understand something, but ultimately fails to.

He and Sev wait for a few moments for Riven's reply, but their commander remains silent, thoughtfully stroking the strange magic sphere while staring off in the distance. No-doubt imagining the Noxian soldiers burning alive from Singed's terrible chemical bombs, or perhaps recalling almost burning alive among the melting corpses herself, until suddenly, Syndra's flying fortress descended from the sky amidst the battlefield to spirit away Riven together with her company's two surviving soldiers.

Riven is as quiet as a statue. Lifeless and unmoving save for the hand that is stroking the strange sphere, and Sev grimaces at the sight of Riven looking so lost, cursing Swain's madness under his breath for all the death and pain it have wrought her.

For Riven... Their battle-sister has always been a person of few words and louder deeds, yet after their almost death and their unexpected rescue by the Ionian Sorceress, Riven had retreated into her shell and rarely spoke more than a few sparse words nowadays.

Sev knows better than to let his commander sulk inside her head for long, for he fears that then Riven may end up as insane as Swain. So he sends Fang a subtle look to lighten the mood, and the younger man nods at him with all the subtlety of a Demacian spy trying to sneak through a control point in full-plate armor.

"So... you and the sorceress… huh?" Fang suddenly starts, "How does it feel finally meeting your soulmate? Eh? Commander?" He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively at her as he talks, and all Sev can do is to grit his teeth and take a deep breath to stop himself from punching the moron.

Still as tactless as an attempt to change the subject as it is, Fang's words do succeed at least in drawing Riven's attention. The pale woman's face is utterly blank when she turns around to look at her grinning comrade with her dull crimson eyes nested within black crescents caused by a lack of sleep.

"My soulmate..." Riven repeats in a voice hoarse from disuse as if she wants to see how the words taste in her mouth.

"Yes, your soulmate!" Fang grins at her from ear to ear, "Commander, you've finally found your other half, and she is a little spitfire, Ionian witch, whose head comes up to your shoulder and starts hurling around Zaunite siege machines when she is throwing a tantrum."

"Don't call her a witch, Fang! And she is taller than she looks!" Sev rushes to admonish his foolish comrade, nervously glancing at the sphere that is within Riven's embrace. Sev doesn't trust that damn thing, and he really doubts the sorceress would give the peculiar magic orb to his commander for no reason. His fellow Noxians, however, ignore Sev's interruption.

"How do you know that she is my soulmate?" Riven asks quietly, sounding unconvinced, causing Fang to abruptly burst into laughter. For his part Sev isn't paying any attention to the conversation of his two comrades. Oh no, his eyes are locked on the dark-purple sphere which is resting against Riven's chest, and apparently, he is the only one that notices the magical orb start to darken at Riven's indirect refusal of Syndra's status.

"Why? You don't think the Ionian Witch is your soulmate? Then why would she come down there to save our asses from Singed's bombs, eh? Commander?" Fang ponders out loud, "Unless… Wait! You don't think that it's one of us that is her soulmate, do you?!" Fang, the damn murderer, has to ask -sounding intrigued, too. And to Sev's mounting horror the sphere resting in Riven's arms is now almost pitch black, black and ominous like a portal peering straight into the tar and fire of the abyss.

"I don't know." The Noxian woman admits, prompting Sev to take a swift step away from Riven.

"Then the witch's soulmate could be Sev!" Fang cries out, raising his volume so that he can be heard over the sound of the entire temple quaking like a clenched fist that is shaking in anger.

"I highly doubt it!" Sev speaks out in a shrill voice, his eyes darting around as if he is expecting a Zaunite siege machine to suddenly fall from the sky out of nowhere and turn him into red mush.

"Hmm…" Riven hums thoughtfully, lowering her gaze at the pulsing dark sphere in her arms as if she is contemplating whether she should give it to Sev.

"Or, it could be me, of course…" Fang smirks striking a pose with his foot propped on the parapet. Sev flinches when a potted plant a few steps away from them suddenly explodes, while Riven turns to stare at it in confusion.

"W-well, I for one, think," Sev coughs to clear his throat, fiddling with the sleeve of his military uniform, "I think that the 'powerful and beautiful Sorceress Syndra', would make a great couple with my Commander, for whom, if I might point out, I only harbor deep and sincere feelings of mutual respect towards, and I think of as my big sister."

Riven narrows her eyes at him suspiciously, "Sev, why do you speak as if you got caught gambling during your night watch shift by General Darius?"

"General Darius," Suddenly blurts Fang, snapping his fingers with a pleased head shake, "Now, that's someone I can believe that is meant to be Riven's soulmate."

Before the Noxian has the chance to finish his sentence, the Dark Sphere in Riven's arms jumps out of her hands and slams into Fang's face.