Chapter Five
The Hand of Noxus
Bookshelves crammed full of books lined all of the walls of the fairly well lit room. A lamp rested upon a desktop that was messy and unorganized with scrolls, books, scraps of parchment and pens scattered across its surface. An elbow was pressed firmly into the edge of it, an elbow that connected to the arm of a strong and muscular man who had the build of a warrior. His hand placed thoughtfully underneath his clean shaven chin. His dark brown eyes gleamed with cunning. Outside the window to his left a city shrouded in darkness and smog, the streets below could not be seen through the darkness and shroud of the fog.
Suddenly the man slammed his hand down on the desktop and crumbled up a piece of parchment. He had rings on all of his fingers, gold and silver adorned with gems. He shuffled around the desk for a while until he found a blank piece of parchment and brought his pen down on it.
'Grand General, I have planted the seeds but I have yet to see if they have grown into what you have said they would. Also, just like you predicted, our little red haired assassin-' he stopped writing as he heard a commotion at his door. A small framed but fit man with scars all across his arms and face with a long black mustache with slicked back raven hair kicked the door wide open, disturbing the bookshelves.
"Darius my brother!" he waved his hands high into the air, one of them held a large jug of ale. Two rather remarkable girls, dressed fashionably, stood behind him. The scarred man was dressed quite fashionably as well, he wore a brown leather coat with an aquamarine colored collar, that was lined with the fine fur of a minotaur's mane. His pants were similarly designed. The man at the desk sighed out of frustration.
"Draven how many times must I tell you?" he said as he turned to face him. "Do not interrupt me when I am at work." Draven smiled widely and took a drink from his jug.
"Oh big brother, writing to Swain again? I think you two make a perfect couple." he teased. Darius stood up and walked towards his brother with his hands in his pockets. Draven took another drink.
"I think you are envious that I have been chosen as his successor." he said softly. Draven spewed the liquor from his mouth all over the fine tiger carpet.
"Me? A politician?" he laughed and rudely scratched at his crotch. "I enjoy the finer things in life: booze, fine women and a good reputation." He fondled one of the women who, in return, giggled.
"A good reputation indeed," Darius began sarcastically "as a matter of fact I should be jealous of you." Draven took a step back and brought an arm over the shoulders of both of the women, resting his hands against their breasts.
"Oh brother don't be so spiteful!" He smiled and turned himself and the women around and began walking down the hallway. "I am going to make love to these women now while you sit and write letters to your husband. Come and join me if you want, I'm sure one of them would be happy to be with you." he shouted and Darius heard a distant door slam shut.
"Such an idiot." He groaned and looked into the mirror. He noticed that his belly had grown slightly in an unsatisfactory manner. "But he's a correct idiot. I have not enjoyed the finer things in life for a long time." he looked down at his unfinished letter. "Jericho can wait." Darius snatched up his cloak and walked to his door and left. A few moments later Draven came stumbling out of his room and ran into Darius's, he was fully nude and held large plush bear over himself.
"Darius did I leave my..." he trailed off as he saw Darius was gone. He glanced towards the cloak rack and smiled. "Ah!" he looked down at the table and saw his jug of ale. He picked it up and ran back to his room.
Darius had walked to the stable and picked his finest stallion, a fine horse with a brilliant chestnut coat and black mane. He threw his saddle atop it and mounted him. The horse felt the tightening of the reins and began to slowly trot out of the stabled and down the street. The down hill road led quickly to the most poverty stricken part of the city, houses marked with the white skull of plague upon their doors were scattered across the shantytown. The houses were built of whatever the occupants could get a hold of at the time, wagon wheels, bed frames, doors, blankets and anything else that was firm or wide. A sickly old man with a ghastly green mask over his face reached towards Darius begging for alms. He ignored him, instead making way for the nearest way out of the shantytown.
He made his way through the iron gate that separated the slum from the rest of the city and it quickly closed behind him. The two guards who stood in front of the gate nodded their helmeted heads at Darius, who simply saluted back to them. The rest of the city was quite bland, most of the buildings made of rather foul colored granite, green with algae caused by the perpetual mist that coated the city. The roofs were coated in slate colored like mail. Street signs, doors and windowsills were unpainted and rotting. The beautiful chestnut horse paced uneasily as two men in green masks carried a corpse wrapped in linen across the street. The bandages in front of the mouth of the body were damp and black. Darius averted his gaze.
A strange man passed through the town a few years ago, he was a hulking presence in a giant suit of plate-mail that was sharp at all edges and corners like a razor blade. It was wickedly spiked and he carried a massive morning star that was equally as wicked. He never took off the armor and seemed to have brought the pestilence along with him. He was seemingly attracted to the slums, almost as if drawn to it by some force other than his own. After he left the plague almost threatened to empty out the city until a cure was developed by the great scientist Singed Wagner. Singed never released his cure out to the public, reserving it for those who could afford it, thus resulting in the creation of the slum for the sick. Darius had not caught the plague, but his brother Draven had. Draven had caught it when he worked in the Prison of Noxus when he was younger, he was cured quickly but the plague left scars all across his body from wicked black growths and boils that sprouted from infected blood.
Once the body had been walked across Darius continued. He pressed on until he reached a massive steel gate. Three guards standing atop it were heavily armored, wielding massive crossbows and vicious halberds. Darius rose his hand and snapped his fingers and one of the guards ran into the adjacent gatehouse and the gate slowly began to open. The parting gate revealed a forest of dead and dieing trees, blackened by the smog of industry. All of them were completely absent of foliage even though it was the beginning of spring. Darius and his horse sped up to a gallop once they were clear of the city. He savored the touch of fresh night air against his tired and dry skin.
He rode for what felt like an hour before he suddenly realized he had ridden far enough from Noxus to see that the trees now bore massive coats of green upon their branches. He patted his steed on the neck softly and it slowed to a trot, hooves making a satisfying click against the road as it stepped. The road had faded from a finely paved street to merely a stone path which as he trotted on became more and more dirt until finally the road had completely disappeared, leaving only a few dirt trails going off in multiple directions. Darius directed his horse to the most remote looking of the trails and continued on for a few more minutes until something caught his eye.
A figure sat with its back against a tree, it was cloaked in a tattered brown coat with the hood drawn high over the head. Its hand was pressed against the hilt of a strange sword that was brought down tip first into the ground, it had a glowing runic inscription upon its side. Darius dismounted his horse and let it graze in the fresh forest grass, he approached the figure carefully.
"These forests are not safe at night, traveler. You should be more careful where you rest." he said, looking around to check his flanks. He was not a paranoid man but he knew all to well the danger these parts of the forests could hide and was on his guard.
"We have nothing to fear here, Darius." the voice was that of a woman and was very familiar to Darius. He stood and gazed at the figure for a moment.
"Riven, is that-" he began
"Bianca, please." she said as she took down the hood from her head, revealing her strong and beautiful face. Darius walked to her and sat down.
"What are you doing here?" he asked. Riven looked into his eyes.
"I am here for you," she said as she took her hand off the hilt of her sword and placed it upon his cheek, "for you and for Noxus." Darius placed his hand over hers.
"Why?" he asked simply. Riven sighed softly.
"Because if I want Noxus to return to its former glory it must win this war, there must be a Noxus left to be able to reform it." she smiled at him. "How it must please you to here such things, I have always known how you have felt towards me, ever since we first laid eyes on each other in the army." she pressed her hand against his heart. Darius shuffled uneasily.
Suddenly he seized her by the throat and slammed her hard against the tree she was leaning on. Riven did not wince, she simply kept smiling. "Who are you?" Darius shouted. Riven laughed aloud. She pushed Darius away from her and stood up. Her face began to fade, her tanned skin turned porcelain, her snow white hair turned into a deep royal blue, her cloak shifted and swung around to turn into a gold and black cape, her clothes turned into mere straps holding the cape into place while covering her most private areas. The sword that was placed into the ground stretched and thinned itself until it had changed to a simple wooden staff with a strange geometric pattern floating atop it. The new woman was quite beautiful and bore a face full of cunning and wit. Darius got to his feet.
"Evaine Le Blanc, what a pleasant surprise." he mumbled. Evaine smiled widely.
"I come with a gift!" she exclaimed and snapped her fingers. I huge rectangular box wrapped in white paper appeared out of a puff of smoke. Darius eyed it with curiosity. "Go on! Open it!" she smiled and clasped her hands together. Darius sighed and tore off the paper and opened the top of the box, he peered in and sighed again.
"This is no gift. This is my ax." he pointed out. Evaine laughed.
"Oh I know, I thought it would be nice if you cut me some firewood and start a fire, the forest is a cold place during the night." she smiled brightly. Darius scoffed.
"Could you not have done that with your magic?" he spoke with a hint of spite.
"Where is the fun in that?" Darius scoffed again.
"You remind me of my brother." he grumbled. Evaine laughed again. Darius grabbed his ax and disdainfully used it to cut down some large limbs from a nearby tree, he piled them together once he gathered a decent amount. He walked to his horse and took a flint and steel from his saddlebag and put it against the firewood. With a few flicks of his wrist the sparks ignited the drier parts of the wood and after a few seconds a hearty flame danced forth from the wood. Darius looked to Evaine who had conjured a large wooden log and sat on it, she beckoned him to sit next to her.
"Come my dear, let us enjoy the fire together." she said as Darius sat. She placed her arms around him and snatched the cloak off of his shoulders and tossed it next to the fire.
"Evaine, why are you here?" he asked. She turned to him and smiled.
"I am simply enjoying the more appealing part of our lovely city-state." she turned back to the fire. "And Jericho assigned me to keep track of you." Darius narrowed his eyes at her.
"He thinks I am going to run off on him?"
"No, he thinks someone may try to kill you." She prodded the fire with a twig. Darius balled his hands up.
"Who?" he scanned his flanks again. Evaine caught it out of the corner of her eye and laughed.
"You are not in danger now, Jericho is just concerned that our rouge assassin will come to you in search of her father." She frowned.
"So he already knew then?" Darius was a little overwhelmed "I was in the process of writing a letter to address such to him before I left for a ride."
"Of course he knew, he is just unsure how she will react. He has said that she has been seen in the shadows of the High Command building."
"She would not try anything without knowing where Marcus is." Darius affirmed and Evaine nodded.
"How is he doing?" She asked after a few moments of silence.
"The experiment is going much better than expected. He grows stronger everyday. Marvin Mundo is quite the genius despite his... problems." Evaine chuckled quietly at the last remark.
"Indeed, the Doctor has quite the brain." There was another silence.
"How are you doing, Evaine?" Darius broke in. Evaine did not reply for a few seconds. She slid her hand over onto Darius's and smiled.
"I am fine. It has been a while since we last met." She did not look at him when she spoke but Darius felt something in her voice.
"Indeed, it has been years." he spoke softly and turned his head towards her to see her blushing slightly.
"I-" she started "I got you a gift, a real one." she reached into her cape and grabbed a small box. It was unadorned and had a simple strand of yarn holding it shut. Darius reached out she dropped it into his hands. He pulled the string and opened it.
"It's empty." he said flatly but when he looked up Evaine had brought her face against his and kissed him. She quickly wrapped her thin arms around his muscular neck and pulled tightly to his chest. Darius in return brought his hands down to her lower back and leaned back until she was laying on top of him. He slid his hands down to her rear and she groaned. Darius began to pull down the straps of her clothes as the moon began to rise from the trees, being obscured for just a moment by a flash of red.