Chapter Four
The Sinister Blade
Riven had spent the rest of the day walking around the city and getting a feel for her new home. She walked around downtown a few times, always seeing something new. She never saw the same face either, except for one. A red haired woman with a scar on her left eye. She knew she was being followed and she was certain that the woman knew that she was aware of her presence. Riven intentionally walked around for longer than she needed, ducking underneath hanging clothes and passing into alleyways suddenly, not to lose her follow but to tire her out.
When night fell she made her way back to the Tavern, only moving by joining up with crowds of people. Finally she made it and entered, she looked around and saw that the woman was already here, sitting at the bar. Many patrons sat amongst the tables chatting and laughing. Riven nodded at John and sat directly to the left of the red haired woman. They both smiled faintly. "Oh my, two exceptional beauties? Y'all are going to give me a heart attack." he laughed and the red haired woman chuckled softly.
"Let us hope not, old man. Get me and my friend here a pint of your finest!" She threw down a few copper coins on the table and put her hand on Riven's thigh. Riven's face twitched in anger but the woman leaned in close. "Just go with it, or I'll slit his throat." she whispered and licked her earlobe. Riven shuttered at her touch but did not react, she did not want anyone innocent to die. The woman fondled her thigh while they sat and waited for John to bring the ale and when he did she rose her hand and Riven exhaled loudly.
"You alright Riven?" he said as he placed the two glasses in front of the girls.
"Yeah, just a little-" she took a long drink from the pint. "stressed." The woman next to her just took a small sip from her drink and licked her lips afterward.
"Fine brew, John." She held the glass up and took a longer drink from it. Riven finished her ale on the second drink and stood up but felt the woman's hand against her rear and sat back down. Riven looked at her in anger but she just smiled and tapped on her glass. It took her a few minutes for her to finish, they were the longest minutes of Riven's life. Finally she stood up and Riven stood too, Riven tossed some coins onto the table and walked behind the woman as they walked up the stairs. Her red hair swayed as she shook her firm rear intentionally trying to taunt Riven. It worked. Riven jammed the key into her lock and growled as it stuck, she yanked hard on it and the door flew open. She stormed in and slammed the door.
She sat on her bed a few moments. She heard footsteps in front of her door and slowly walked over to a bundle wrapped in sackcloth. She unwrapped it and revealed a broken sword, the hilt and first two feet of the blade. It was very thick and wide and the jaggedness of the rend was sharper than any razor. It was made of adamantine and was enchanted with a strong magical spell until she had sundered the blade. The runic inscription on its side was faded but still visible. She heard a knock and slowly went up to the door and answered it.
There was no one there a Riven was a little puzzled, she looked right and left and saw no one nearby. She closed it and saw the red haired woman leaning against the wall that was hidden behind her opened door.
"Oh Bianca, you always brought out my..." she removed her jacket and revealed a tight black leather corset that covered only her breasts, barely. "darker side." Riven scoffed.
"Katarina, what would I have that a Du Couteau did not?" She glared angrily at her. Katarina Du Couteau smiled.
"Everyone used to say you were so much prettier than me." she mocked.
"Please." Riven spat and drew a dagger from the table nearby. "What are you doing, following me around?"
"You are prettier than I remembered." she teased and Riven threw the dagger barely missing her. Katarina did not flinch. "Oh simmer down, you wouldn't hurt a poor messenger would you?" she said with guile. Riven turned to walk towards her bed to sit down.
"Messenger? Darius said he was a messenger, what is your message?" Riven feigned ignorance.
"It isn't important just-" she grunted aloud and Riven dropped to the ground barely dodging a trio of daggers that slammed home into the wall in front of her. She leaped back up and saw Katarina jumping at her with two long-bladed knives. She kicked her in the stomach and sent her flying back. Katarina hit the wall with a grunt. She growled and dashed forward, Riven side stepped her and grabbed her blade from the bed side table. Katarina moved forward and suddenly appeared behind Riven and almost back stabbed her but she turned to the side quickly. She tried to punch her but Katarina nimbly dodged and slid back to the other side of the room. She reached into a pocket in her pants and threw another volley of small daggers, one of them digging itself a few inches into Riven's shoulder.
She grunted as she ripped it free and took the offensive, slashing down on air and again slashing air as Katarina quickly avoided the swings. "You've got to try harder than that my love." she taunted and Riven roared and feigned a swing and bashed her head against Katarina's skull instead, sending them both recoiling back. Katarina put a finger to her lip and felt a trickle of blood. She again appeared behind Riven and got a good grip on her and brought a blade to her neck. Riven held it off with one hand while Katarina pressed down with two, for one of her legs had wrapped around her other hand. The blade edged closer and Riven felt cold steel touch her neck. Suddenly she screamed and Katarina was knocked back against the wall, she looked up and saw a green aura around her foe and saw her blade grow into its full size. Riven swung her reforged sword and cut both of Katarina's knives in half. Brought the blade against Katarina's throat.
Katarina submitted with a pout and Riven tied her up with some rope from one of her robe pockets. She tied her around the ankles and the wrists, placing them behind her back. Katarina sighed. "Looks like you bested me yet again... are you going to kill me?" Riven looked into her eyes and saw something that she had never seen before in her eyes, a look that she had seen in the eyes of many foes she had beaten on the battlefield. It was despair.
"No, I am going to turn you in and extract information from you." The look in her eyes faded and Katarina smiled wickedly.
"Extraction? That sounds fun." she taunted and Riven turned to her.
"It gets as fun as you let it," Riven placed her hand on the side of her once again sundered sword. "it starts with questions and if you do not cooperate we'll bring in Vi, she has a way of beating information out of criminals." Riven did not smile or mock, she just spoke emotionlessly.
"But I am no criminal. You are the criminal, you traitor!" she spat "The consequence of treason is death." Riven grabbed a torn piece of cloth from the curtains of the windows. Riven got on her knees next to her and held out the cloth.
"Any last words before I bind your mouth?" Riven asked out of courtesy. Katarina looked up to her.
"Yeah I've got a few."she hopped to turn herself to have her body facing Riven's. Riven looked at her quizzically as Katarina just sat there looking at her but suddenly Katarina sprang forward and brought her lips against Riven's. Riven was caught completely off guard and was too shocked to react as she felt Katarina move her tongue into her mouth. Something triggered then, something strange. She felt Katarina, not physically but mentally. It was a feeling of disorder, loneliness and chaos. Riven tried to think harder but the feeling slowly faded away.
She felt her hands wrap around her and suddenly the rope she had used to tie up Katarina's hands was being used to tie up her own. Katarina slowly withdrew her tongue and pulled herself off of Riven who gasped aloud when her mouth was free. The two just looked into each others eyes for a moment without speaking. Katarina started to come in again, the anger gone in both of their eyes. Riven's heart stopped as she got close enough to feel the heat of her breath. Katarina closed her eyes.
"Katarina..." Riven whispered and she opened her eyes. Again they looked into each others eyes wordlessly and she slowly backed off. Riven saw something strange in her eyes again, that same despair.
"My mistake." Katarina said as she pulled a small blade from her pocket, she held it against her throat. Riven felt the blade shaking and Katarina threw it down. "Damn it." she swore and stood up, she had freed herself of her leg binds as well. She walked quickly to the window and pushed it open. She looked back at her.
"Wait, please." Riven said softly and Katarina listened. She closed the window and sat on the bed above Riven. She looked up and saw a tear running down her eye. "Katarina, I..." Riven did not know how to speak to her, she was an enemy but she felt a strong pang of sorrow for her.
"I see now why you have left Noxus," she said, sniveling "my father... he... he was taken. You know that. You and I were still young back then." Riven nodded. "I found out who took him while I was off on this task, to kill you." she paused and looked down at Riven, who made no gesture or grimace at all at the mentioning of the task. "But I found that Darius had been in the room just next door. I came in through the window and found some papers. Letters to Jericho Swain about '…..Marcus Du Couteau has been progressing well, the experiment has gone well so far...' I could not believe that he had been betrayed by the very man he fought for. I did not know whether I should feign ignorance or if I should confront him. But which ever path a chose you were an obstacle." she swore. "Traitors to their own people. How dare they!" she cried aloud and Riven just looked up at her.
"The day the Ionian assault had crumbled was the day the Noxian way was forever destroyed. Noxus had all of its plans for when it conquered the continent but it failed and had nothing to fall back on. The high command blamed the Darkwill's and Swain took advantage of it." Riven said. Katarina looked back down to her again.
"I will come back soon if you would help me, I know you'll be staying with Caitlyn so I will try to be discrete about it, just leave your window open at night if you want to help." Katarina said.
"Is Noxus planning another war?" Riven asked. Katarina shifted uneasily on the bed.
"It is in discussion. I will not fight for them henceforth, so it does not matter to me."
"It matters to me." Riven stated "And I will help you if you help me, for our goals may go hand in hand. I wish to bring back old glory to Noxus, but it requires a complete purge. If we purge the high command I am sure we can free your father." Katarina stood up and went back to the window.
"I'll think about it, in the meantime remember to leave your window open." She opened the window again.
"Wait," Riven pleaded "you forgot to untie me." Katarina smiled and walked over to her, she knelt down. "You forget I am not as dexterous as you." She leaned forward to untie her but suddenly Riven brought her arms from behind her back and wrapped them around Katarina and pulled her in and brought their lips together. Katarina reacted quickly and brought her arms down on Riven's waist and rubbed gently as she let Riven push her gently to the ground and climb atop her. Riven moved her hands to Katarina's face as she lowered her own hands down onto Riven's rear and groaned softly as Riven touched her tongue with her own.
Riven felt Katarina's hands go under her skirt to touch her upper thigh and moaned softly but pulled herself free, Katarina bit softly onto Riven's lip as she pulled away. "Oh god what is wrong with me?" Riven thought aloud. Katarina laughed.
"I wouldn't know." she said and beckoned her back down but Riven resisted.
"I can't." Riven whispered.
"Bianca..." Katarina reached her hand up to Riven's face. "What is wrong? You seemed so happy just now."
"I was... but it does not feel right. Why am I turning so quickly on you? I have hated you all my life until now."
"Hate is such a strong word," Katarina teased "maybe you realized that there are people in the world that you think are so different from you but are actually just the same." she brought her hand down. "maybe not exactly the same, but we both share a deep similarity, that Noxus has gone too far and needs to be changed." Riven brought her self back down but did not kiss her, instead she laid next to her and put her left hand on Katarina's cheek and just stared into her eyes.
"You really are beautiful Bianca." Katarina whispered. Riven blushed a little bit.
"I was never jealous of you, or any woman for that matter about such things, but I always knew you were the most beautiful woman in Noxus, it runs in your blood." Katarina brooded.
"I am talking about interior and exterior beauty."
"So am I." she brought herself in close again and Katarina's lips took her away to another world for the third time that night.