Chapter 12

The Lady in White

Riven awoke with a start, the bedsheets were damp with sweat and the air was humid. She glanced around and saw a completely unadorned white room furnished with only the bed she was resting in and a single plain wooden table. She sat up with great effort as a strong pain in her arm weighed heavily upon her. She pushed the sheets off of her and revealed a black rash along her upper arm leading all the way to the base of her breast. She heard shuffling at the door and quickly laid back down and pretended to be asleep. The door open and closed silently and Riven felt a presence standing next to her. It sat slowly on the bed and placed its cold hand against her wound. Riven held her breath for the pain was great but remained unflinching.

"You are indeed a strong woman, but there is no need to hide. No harm will come to you in my home." It whispered and after a few seconds of hesitation Riven opened her eyes. It was a small woman, with long light blue hair and a young, pretty face. She wore a simple white dress and her hair was tied back with a string of yarn. She smiled softly and began to stroke Riven's hair. "I have something for your wounds. It tastes bitter but the poison is strong and cannot be halted otherwise." She spoke softly and precise. She took a small cup of hot, black liquid from the table next to the bed and pressed it against Riven's mouth. After the first taste Riven gagged but kept drinking until it was empty. She coughed loudly.

"Oh dear..." she said as she felt dizzy. The woman smiled again and slowly pushed her head back into the pillow and walked out of the room. Riven gripped the sheets tightly as her head rang out in nausea and pain. She felt herself floating out of the bed and through the roof of the building. She rose and rose into the night sky until she was met face to face by a fallen Ionian soldier. His skin was pale and blood stained. Suddenly his eyes opened and Riven gasped loudly and fell fast down through the building and back into the bed.

She awoke in a shock and jumped out of the bed, reaching for her sword which she could not find. Her head rang out in pain again and she slowly sat back down on the bed. "Where am I?" she said aloud. She half expected some phantom voice to reply from the walls but it was pure silence. The sound of her blood flowing scratched at her ears. She stood back up slowly and approached the door. With a slow turn she silently opened it and slipped out.

The hallway was just as empty as the room she had been resting in. There was one more room across from her and what looked like a kitchen down one end of the hallway so she walked slowly towards the other. Sunlight flared into her eyes and she brought her arm up to shield herself. It was a small living space room. Only a few simple chairs and a crude wooden table with a pewter candle atop it adorned the room. There was no door covering the entrance and Riven walked out into the sunlight and gazed upon the hilly green landscape. She felt a similar presence behind her and saw the lady in white once again. But this time Riven remembered.

She felt tears well up in her eyes and her knees trembled but she stood strong. "I remember..." she said quietly and the woman walked forward and embraced Riven tightly.

"It has been quite a long time, and you have changed a great deal, Riven." She smiled. "I am aware your are looking for me." Riven hesitated for a moment as memories of her Ionian campaign bloodied her mind.

"I need your help." She gently pushed Irelia away and frowned. "The world needs your help. The war is starting all over again and they are much stronger than before." Irelia's smile faded.\

"We have no standing army here in Ionia. And we are a peace loving people." She said sternly. Riven stamped her foot on the ground impatiently.

"But everything is at risk! There is no safe town, city or island. The Noxian war machine will level Demacia and bring Ionia to the mainland in chains." Riven looked into Irelia's eyes, which were dull and sad.

"I cannot let my people face such horrors again. I..." She stopped for a moment and looked away. "I can gather a hand full of the finest martial artists in the land. They may not be in a large number but the lessons they can teach your soldiers will be invaluable." Riven looked towards the horizon.

"Any little bit helps." Riven sounded cold. Irelia turned and placed her arm on her shoulder.

"It is all I can do. I shall ride out to summon them, and return tomorrow." Irelia walked slowly to her horse, mounted up against a post near the doorway. "Your friend is resting in the room across from where you were. She's not hurt as bad as you but the paralysis is strong. She will make a full recovery." She said softly and spurred her horse onward. Riven watched her go as her white dress fluttered elegantly in the wind. She quickly turned and walked into the house.

Almost immediately she felt a sinister air in the house, something dark and unfamiliar floated in the air. It was heavy and foul, and made her eyes water. She made her way to Katarina's room and opened it. She was still asleep, and in a bed next to her was Twisted Fate, bound in ropes and also sleeping. She looked at Katarina for a moment longer and closed the door. She felt the air shift almost like it was leading her on. She followed the stench to the kitchen, where her blade and its shards rested. She walked slowly towards it, feeling like she was being surrounded by the stiff air. When she touched the hilt, her head pinged out in memory.

Ionian children, hardly even teenagers had been sent to fight. Riven could not fight them. Her soldiers had no qualms about it but she could not even watch. She was not in the front lines and some of her men were suspicious. She noticed the glares and barked to her soldiers. "You may enjoy slaughtering children, but it is not the honorable way. This is truly awful." Riven was crying in her helmet but her men could not see.

It was not a major battle, there must have been some kind of Orphanage or martial arts school nearby and the children had rushed out to defend their land. There were a few adults among them. Crows were coming down on the dead now. Riven tried to shoo them away when she could but these were the murders of Swain, and were not easily frightened. Riven heard her men shout and Riven looked up and saw three figures standing atop the hillside. The tallest was a man in blue leather and cloth wrappings. His eyes gleamed bright even from a hundred meters out. Another was a woman dressed in green leather that hardly covered her breasts. Her boots were high and her gauntlets went all the way back to her elbows. Her long black hair blew gentle in the wind. The last, a yordle in a purple robe adorned with yellow streaks stood defiantly. Riven signaled to her men to stop and she spurred onward to meet them.

"Your countrymen are brave," Riven started as she neared them "but I could not find it in myself to send children onto the field of battle." She frowned and looked back to the battle.

"No Ionian is sent into battle, we are all free and choose to fight." The man said. His tone was incredibly impartial.

"But you allow mere children to fight? Not a single one of my men was harmed. You should not have sent them! A complete waist of lives." Riven was angry.

"Allow them to live so they can watch their mothers raped, fathers killed and have them sold into slavery like the rest of Ionia?" The woman retorted. She spoke fiercely. "No, they choose to fight knowing they will die. That is honor." Riven simmered down a little at that. She would not let such things happen under her watch but she only commanded a small group of soldiers. She was right.

"I see your point. Now why have you come? Are you here to challenge my forces or do you wish to talk some more before I go on my way?" Riven was a little frustrated now, she was already way behind her projected progress. The woman and the yordle glanced back at each other for a moment but the man only looked straight on. He looked in the direction of Riven but it was as if he saw right through her and saw some greater objective far off, over the curvature of the land.

"Akali, Kennen..." He spoke, not looking away. "go on, I will stop them. You must find and kill our true enemy." The two nodded and disappeared in a flash. He finally looked at Riven truly. "You die today, slayer of children." He reached back with both hands and unsheathed two large katanas from his back. "My order has guarded Valoran for countless years, and it will for countless more." He dashed forward at blinding speed and Riven hardly had enough time to parry the blow before another came ringing into her breastplate. It did not penetrate but it hurt. Riven feigned a swing but her opponent predicted it and kicked Riven in the gut before delivering a crushing blow to her helmet. Her head rung but she leveled herself. He dashed forward again and Riven swung low, almost cutting his legs but he jumped quickly and stuck down with his swords.

Riven jumped back as the blades sank into the turf. She kicked upwards into his jaw and sent him rearing back and charged forward. He rolled forward and tackled Riven to the ground and brought his fists down on her helmet. She grabbed him around the neck with one arm and reached for her dagger with the other, quickly bringing it between his ribs. He did not cry out in pain as a normal man would have, instead he kept fighting. And Riven stabbed into him multiple times before she felt his blows weakening and by that team her helmet was dented from the hard gauntlet hits and bruised from the impacts. She rolled him over and sat atop him for a moment and looked into his eyes. They were pure white and betrayed no emotion. She plunged her dagger once more into his flesh and he was still. She looked down on him and stood up, signaled for her men to come forward but she heard a quick rustle just in time as the two katanas had pierced through her breastplate and cut into her lungs. She felt no pain then and everything went slow. Her foe stood there and watched as her men over ran him and tore him to pieces. His eyes never averted from hers as he died. Riven dropped down to her knees and fondled the grass for a moment with her freshly bloodied hands. Her vision went black and she dropped lifelessly to the floor.

Riven took her hand away from her blade and she felt the wounds then. She screamed in agony as the tight air swirled about her. "What is this madness?" She shouted. She felt the air become thinner and she breathed deeply.

"It is your past as it once was." A voice echoed out. "But it was changed." Riven felt her wounds disappear and she looked around.

"I do not remember this ever happening. I never made it that far." Riven said aloud. The air felt dark again.

"Had your army not been destroyed this was your fate. Had your own weapon not been turned against your men, and that battle won. All of you still would have died. There was no escape for them, only for you."

"Why me?" Riven asked.

"Because you are different, you are not of lesser men. A lesser man would have given up all hope then, but you kept your ideals strong and marched on alone and sought what the true way of your people was. And now you have found it."

"Why did you show me this?" Riven asked once more but the voice did not reply for a few moments.

"I did not. I speak to you through your mind, but there is a darkness with you. It shows you this to fear you, to sway you from your objective." The air grew even tighter before now and she felt it pressuring her neck. Riven ran quick and grabbed her blade and made way for the door way as a blackness spread across the room. She turned quick once she stepped outside and there was great roar from the house as the skies darkened. Suddenly a blackness shot forward out of the door way and slammed hard against Riven, bringing her down to the ground. She was pinned and she looked up and saw a figure materializing from the blackness. It was a creature of nightmare, pitch black and almost man shaped except for its lower body, which was pure shadow. It's eyes were massive a white and its mouth was lined with razor sharp teeth.

It looked into Riven's eyes for a moment and placed one if its dark hands upon her face and Riven felt the darkness, she saw children being executed and women suffering even more gruesome fates as the beast pushed its evil into her. Then Katarina came. She was fully nude and Riven watched as the beast ripped into her with a giant wicked blade. Katarina looked at Riven and spat out blood.

"You failed me." She said.

"NO!" Riven screamed and she blasted the beast off of her with her energy. Her sword grew to full length and the air around her grew clear and thin. The beast snarled and swung its hands around as two massive wicked blades emerged from the darkness and joined with its arms. It charged forward but crashed against the massive energy Riven exerted. Her eyes grew green and she began to float. The beast snarled again and shot out a wave of darkness at Riven. It encased her energy shield and crashed upon it with great force and Riven felt it. She charged forward then, blasting the darkness away and colliding with the beast, she swung quick but it parried with both arms before it shot another blast at her but she dashed quickly to the side. She swung but her strike went straight through its shadowy form and it laughed.

Riven parried a strike and jumped to avoid a low sweep before another of her swings phased through the beast, again it laughed and began to relentlessly attack her, slashing swiftly and with great force. Riven kept up with the aggression but knew she could not for long. The beast swung wide and riven grabbed it by the blade and slammed it onto the ground in a thundering blow. The beast looked at her and laughed again as it licked its lips. Riven pinned it down, one foot on each blade as she stabbed down with her blade with both hands. It sank straight into the turf directly below the center of the beast.

"You cannot harm me, human!" It said, its voice was deep and metallic and irritated her ears. The runic inscription on her blade began to grow and emit a green light. Suddenly the monster screamed out as the light ate away at it's shadowy body. The blackness dissolved completely and all that remained were the two massive blades pinned beneath her feet. She she felt her energy leaving her as her hair sank back down and her sword slowly disassembled. She took a deep breath and walked back inside.