Chapter 7: Infinite
How many grains of sand are there in the desert?
He watches Karma run and wonders what he has done wrong.
Do you know, Nasus?
Lux giggles and he rolls his shoulders, wincing as the motion pulls at the pinpricks in his arms. He is careful not to let the head of his staff touch her as he folds his hands around it.
"Ah'ke," he says, the words rumbling deep in his chest, and his staff is gone.
"Go?" she asks.
"It means return," he growls, but his teeth flash briefly in a smile. She is charming. He looks up at the sky and sighs as the sun's rays play on his face.
No one knows that, Keeper Toht.
"We should get back to the Institute," he suggests diplomatically, before the friendly growl he intends to follow his words with freezes in his chest. He forgot about the Measured Tread! He, the Curator of the Sands, left a book to the ravages of the elements. And worse, it was sacred to Demacia—and Lux. Registana's mercy, what would she think of him?
Unease curls in him as Lux cheerfully shoulders her baton. "Sounds good!" she chirps. "I think I'm due for a match right after noon."
"It looks about that time," he growls. Lux scrunches up her lips and he twitches, staring at them in fascination. Her whole face is pinched up. Her face is so mobile he worries she might have an injury before her skin relaxes back to its normal brows. One of the thin strips of fur above her eyes raises.
"Nasus?" she asks.
"Nothing," he mutters hastily.
Are you certain?
He has to get back to the pond, retrieve the book, restore it with his powers, and put it back in the library. Preferably without Lux knowing anything about it. They start walking back to the Institute and he assumes his most quietly thoughtful expression even as he frantically schemes.
"So," Lux says, "You've been here for awhile?"
"Months," he says. Was it years? So many champions had come, now…the fox woman, the cold, cruel warrior of the moon, the lion huntsmaster. The last made him piercingly, painfully nostalgic for his homeworld. He had even emerged from his seclusion to greet him, cautiously friendly.
"How fares the Endless Empire?" he had asked, and Rengar had snarled, angry and suspicious, his claws scratching at the air, that he had no idea what Nasus was talking about, and that he should leave before Rengar took his head for his wall.
And, well, that was that.
There was no point…no place beyond the library he had wished to be, the creatures of this place so alien and frustrating that his hunger for knowledge lay subsumed by loneliness and despair. After a time his summons became less frequent as newer champions gained the spotlight, and he had been left to himself in the library.
She had changed it all—and it made him wonder why no one had ever greeted him before. The humans were not like his own kind. Perhaps it was the champions that had influenced him so—there were few of the truly good and virtuous among their ranks, and those avoided him. He was, after all, a monster in their eyes.
Lux's tiny hand brushed the fur of his wrist and he looks down to see her face wrinkled with worry.
"Are you alright?" she asks, and suddenly he feels a great pity for her, for the black lines of the Measured Tread that had tormented her. She was a kind soul and she had no place here, among these people.
"I am better now," he says. "Tell me of the champions that were in our match."
She laughs and complies with delight.
They pass the clearing that contains the pond and Nasus cannot help but give it a panicked look. He does not dare stop, so he and Lux pass by without pause. The fox woman, draped in rich, rich blue like the midnight paint of the night sky, walks by them without a word, her strange eyes flickering over his face in a way that makes him deeply uncomfortable.
And she sees the look. He can tell. She twines one of her long tails around her hand and glances at him, and he looks at her stonily.
There is something about her…he would call her…appealing. Something in her face, or her scent, or her manner, draws him to her. He smell the magic around her, like dead, decaying flowers, and it puts him on his guard. Her attraction is false and repellent at its core, and he finds it easy to resist. On the battlefield…he has had the unpleasant experience of being afflicted by her charm, rendered speechless and helpless by his loneliness.
It brings a bad taste to his mouth and his look changes into a glare. She flinches and hurries past
"Ahri," Lux says softly.
"She's the last one on the enemy team, " he growls. "You told me about Morgana, Sion, and Nocturne already."
"They say she drinks souls," Lux says. He looks down to see her fingers brushing his fur again. Her face is paler than it was before. He reaches over to pat her shoulder, wincing as his clumsy fingers brush her armor.
"Do not be afraid," he says, and softly, in his own tongue and then in hers, "Nek'asha'mei, I am a protector from the unknown and my knowledge and the strength of my people will be your shield."
Behind her head appears a tiny, winking light, which he swiftly wills out of existence. He had put no magic in the words but it is eager to come around her.
Her eyes soften as she looks at the ground. "That's lovely," she says. "What does it mean?"
"I—" he growls, and a sudden sense of the mischievous overtakes him. "Figure it out, little sorceress."
She laughs and her shining hair sweeps out from her in a cloud. "Very well. She's not actually a bad person, just…scary, sometimes."
"I see," he says, with no truth whatsoever. They pass inside the garden gate and Lux's face lights up at the sight of a slender man, skin the color of hot chocolate, with short black hair. His eyes hold a glitter of intelligence that makes Nasus pause to examine him more thoroughly.
"That's Ilarin," Lux whispers, and his ears twitch to hear her.
Lux pats his gauntlet and leaves his side to join the summoner. Nasus gives him a warning look that the human answers with a sly smile.
The two leave together and he sighs softly at the loss of his company. It does give him a chance to go back and search the gardens, however.
As he turns to leave (having first made sure they are out of sight), he nearly runs over Ahri, who curls her tails about herself protectively.
"Forgive me," he says shortly, and makes to step around her. Quick as a snake, her hand flashes out to grip his wrist.
He bares his teeth at her and is about to wrench his arm away when she wordlessly presses a thoroughly wet and muddy book into his hand.
"What—" he says, startled, and she smiles at him and vanishes into the crowd.
He stands there for a moment, thoroughly bemused, before he starts walking quickly towards the library, spells already running down his hands.
Yes, I'm certain.
That is good, Nasus. There are certain things that we were never meant to know.